The Portland daily press., 1871-05-15
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND
MONDAY, MAY Is, 1871.
The Condition of France.

Bismarck assumed an entirely new role at
Frankfort the other day when he consented 10
waive hundred millions of the indemnify
which France agreed to pay as Inc pm
pea e. Whether he did not gain III otnei vi
yectcns as much as he maShtpiino"''' 'N
scented. in tbe treaty finally agreed 10 on the
10th inst, to lorego, We are ye' u ram Du'
II must he a great source of qualification to
the Versailles government to get relieved of
even ten per cent. of the enormous debt which
France is every day, owing to its internal
dissensons, becoming less able TO pay. The
authority of the Ass emily seems now, since
the capture forts Issy and Vanvte, to be in
a fair way to be leestablished.at an early day,
but every hours delay is immensely costly,
and renders it more and more a oioan lie task
for poor p"Ostrate France to meet the de-
mands of her exultant adversary.
1t is wonderful how long the Communists
hold out. Persons who were shut up IN Parls
while that city was beseiged by the Russians
agree in stating that the National Guards
whether made up of the working men OF the
faubourgs or of the borgeoisie, manifested
marked ulSlECiiudAlOt- w hShes W bab ittiO
resistance was made by The beleaguered city
was made not by the three or four hundred
thousand Nationals who marched continually
up aud down, protesting that they were ready
"to die for their Country" and whose only
real martial exploit was preceding osten.a-
tiously to the statue of Strausbourg and pre-
senting that effigy with floral offerings, but
by the Mobile regiments, made up of peas
ants fresh from the country, the soldiers o.
the line and the sailors who manned the guns
in the forts. Though the Nationals were con-
stantly appealed to by Gen. Trocbu for and
in making sorties, not one in a hundred could
be induced to volunteer for service beyond
the ramparts of the city, Even when "march-
ing battalions" composed of unmarried men
were impressed for service in the field, they
were found to be Of but little use, and an in
telligent observer estimates that of the whole
100000 OF these Parisan soldiers not 800 were
hurt in the course of the five months seige
They contented themselves with vain camors
empty boastings about the Sublime attitude
of Paris and strutting about in their uniforms
in way peculiarly vain-glorious and Gallo
But it is forces made up chiefly of these
same useless regiments that drove out the
Theirs government from Paris in March and
have held the city ever since in spite of the
utmost efforts of the Assembly with the reg
ular troops and the Mobiles at its back
There can be no question that the Nationals
have now done some serious fighting and
that their willingness to shed their blood for
the principles they so noisily uphold has been
demonstrated. Their conduct, too, has been
better than at first appeared probable. The
apprehensions at first entertained that the
scenes of 1893 would be repeated and that
the guillotne would again claim its hundreds
of victims have proved uniounded. The bru-
tai murder of Generals Thomas and Lecompte
when the instruction first broke out seems
to have been the result of drunken row
such as might have occurred accidentally else
where, and was promptly repudiated by the
commune. There has not been any DISPOSE
ton to disregard the rights of property, either.
though the theoretical notions of the nsur.
gents caused a reasonable fear that they
would inaugurate reign of terror. But it is
to be hoped that the differences between
them and the rest of the French people will
soon be amicabIy settled. A worse basis OF
peace might be agreed upon than an
adoption by the Versailles government
of the Communist views in regard TO
stable republican government. Their other
theories must OF course be sternly rejected.