New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-07-01

could do nothing with the army. Gen.
Trochu was then sent to Paris to prepare,
in O military as well as moral sense
the Emperor's reception in the CITY,
MacMahon was to march on Paris with
relieving force But when TrOchu arrived at
the Tuieries, all these sensible plans were
shipwrecked on the indOmitable Will ana
unreasoning suspicious of the Empress. She
had for some time but half concealed her
contempt for the vacilatiOn and weakness OF
her husband Her letters from Egypt showed
only too plainly her distrust Of him and her
incapacity to supply his defects by any quail
ties of her own. If he was too vague, she
was too decided. The more he was informed,
the more impossible was it for him to take a
resolution, and the less she knew of subject
the surer she was of her plans. The affair of
Saarbruck had filed her with a shOrt-lived
elation followed by fit of disgust in which
she asked the Emperor to place their
boy where at least he might be
sprinkled by the baptism of fire, and
the subsequent disasters had com
pleted her scOrn of her husband and her
distrust of his cOunselOrs. When Trochu laid
open to her the only plan by which the ruin
of the dynasty could be averted, she fatty re-
fused to entertain it. The Emperor should
not come to Paris, she said. He could never
reach the Tuileries alive. The depth of her
contempt for the head of the State, and her
instructive appreciation Of the popular opinion
of him, was shown in her refusal to allow
Gen. TrOchu to mention the EmperOr's name
in his proclamation assuming command OF
Paris.
The scheme of the Emperor's return was
thus bafed by the mpress-Regents furious
opposition, and the plan for the concentration
of troops about Paris was frustrated by fail-
kao's meddling hostility. Reenforcements were
sent to be frittered away in detail, TO DC smut
up with Bazaine in Metz, and to be captureu
in Sedan with MacMahOn. In this CONFUSION
of councils France drifted helplessly to rum
and on the days after the ignomlnlous deieaC
and capture of the Emperor, the very principle
of authority had ceased to exist in Paris. Inc
account which Gen. TTochu gives OF his
well .intentioned but feeble efforts III
the midst of that whirlwind of popu-
lar passion is of great interest and
not without certain pathOs iii its entire I'M
consciousness of the figure he makes. There
is something startling in the unabashed con-
cet with which, when the Provisional Gov
eminent asks him to take charge Of the mil
itary arm, he runs first to ask PalikaO If he
may, and then goes jauntily back to the Hotel
de Vile, and says, IF you want me to be OF
any use | 'must be at the head of affairs.
an. Jules Favre is President-I must be Pres-
"dentinhis place. There has never been made
a more naive exhibition of vanity and igno-
rance.
In his speech on the second day he was less
absurd, because he dealt mostly with military
matters which he understands. He laid great
stress on the fact that he had prepared
sortie in the direction of ROuen, which would
have been successfully accomplished had 1t
not been for the accidental victory of Coul-
miers. which spoiled everything, and made
it impossible to resist the pressure for
a sortie toward Orleans. He paid generous
commitment to DucrOt for his conduct in
+hat disastrous affair, and went on to justify
his own conduct until the close of the siege.
He stopped there, and, fortunately, did not re-
fer to that crazy appeal which he made when
the Prussans entered the city. for resistance TO
the DEATH On the whole, the speech is valua-
BILE rather as a contribution to history than as
justification of NJ. Trochu's management Of the
trust cOnfided to him, and is an additional
proof of the fact that giving the defendant the
right to testify on his own behalf does not
materially damage the case of the prosecution.