The New York herald., 1871-01-15
TAc Impcudins Fall Of Paris-The Pros
pcct OF Peace In Europe.

MOI III many ychrr-Wc uV nVt iorBcs R'Vh
mond-not, perhaps, since the battle of Water
loo, has any prospective event created SO
| much expectation as does the impending fall
| Of Paris. fit ever was true II Ia true to-day
that expectation stands on tiptoe. We have
not forgotten the Abyssinian war, when the
enterprise of the New York HERALD startled
and amazed the world. We have as little for
| gotten the inauguration Of the Suez Canal,
when democratic America, represented by
the NEW YORK HERALD, chronicled the glorl-
Gus movements Of the hour-movements
which, in their splendid surroundings recalled
the memories of Sultan Saladin and the daz-
zling days of Cleopatra and her magnificent
| Caesar or peerless Anthony. Grand as was
the Waterloo sensation, out Of the way as was
the Abyssinian affair, full Of world-wisdom as
was the Suez Canal business, we must still
claim the right to say that the impending fall
Of Paris is the greatest event which modern
civilization has had to consider.
| Our theme is large one-so large that we
cannot hope to do it justice Even in her
sore agony France has the unenviable right to
boast that Paris is not only the centre of the
empire, but the centre of the world. To-day,
wherever men look for news and newspapers,
know French, or German or English, or any
civilized tongue, the thoughts of the thinking
are directed to Paris, so long the centre of
thought, of taste, of beauty, Of valor and of
art; and by all who think of Paris the ques-
tion is put-How is it, and what Is the
prospect?
We have no desire to say painful things, to
| utter painful truths; but we have no choice
| but say that the last hope of France Is gone,
| and that Paris must succumb to the inevi-
| table, or force or fate. or what the reader
| will. When this war began there were few
who were not willing to bet on France. 1t
was known that the Emperor and his
| Ministers had been preparing for the
struggle which they saw must come
between France and Germany. II was known
that money had been voted and that money
had been spent in huge preparations for the
| conflict. Sadowa had frightened the empire
and made Bonapartism tremble in its boots.
The Luxembourg affair had revealed French
ambition, Napoleonio caution and Napoleonic
weakness. But Geaeral Niel-who, unfortu-
nately, as some people say, died too soon-had
informed France and the W world that at last he
was prepared, and that Sadowa could not be
repeated as against France It is net our
business to 60 into details. How this war
was begun, and for what reason, all the world
knows Who has forgotten the baptism of
Rro Wc;o al
and Strasbourg and Metz all speak for them
selves Most men who love France and the
French people are of the opinion that Sedan
ought to have ended the war. The deubters
doubted no longer when fell, first, Strasbourg
and then Metz. But for class Of men who
than they loved their country the war which
has been SO absurdly and ruinously protracted
would long since have ceased. With the
Emperor, four times the elect of the
French people, Prussian prisoner; with
some three hundred and fifty thousand of the
picked men of France safely locked up in the
enemy's country with all the best generals of
France swordless, imprisoned or paroled, it
was not unnatural to think that further fight
ing on the part of France was useless As
the men who constituted themselves the
masters Of France would not yield, we have,
after four months, to look upon the sad spec
tacle of to-day.
What is that spectacle? 1t is a spectacle of
hopeless despair. We have been asked to
wait. Balloons, ballasted with lies, have
come out of Paris and falsely taught willing
believers to hope; armies, improvised north,
south, east and west and led by unknown
men, have made shows of power and pluck
which inspired many of the hopeful but army
after army, on the Loire, in the north and in
the east, have melted away before the German
hosts. Paladines and Ducrot and Chanzy-
where are they now? Faidherbe and
Bourbaki-what have they done? The
| grand Army of the East, under
!! CaribaIdi and the others, has it stopped
single train or prevented single recruit
whose purpose was to swell the ranks of the
| invading foe. The failure of Chanzy after the
| failure Of De Paladines the success of Man
| teuffel in the North and the incompetence of
| the French forces in the East leave us to-day
no choice but to think of Trochu. That
| Trochu has done we'll all will heartily admit;
but that Trochu has been more useful in main
tanning order in Paris than in driving the
enemy from its walls no sensible man will
deny. 1t is now notorious to all the world
that Trochu has been waiting fer help. Pala-
dimes gave him hope, Ducrot gave him hope,
Chanzy almost gave him confidence. Now the
last hope is gone-gone at the very moment
that the German forces have found themselves
able to fling shot and shell into the long
doomed city and among the impatient and
famshing citizens. When Paris falls Trochu