without fear or favour.

The _Journal Officiel_ of this morning, and the Moderate papers, boast
that the Ultra manifestation of yesterday was a complete failure. As
usual, they cry before they are out of the wood. After I left the Place
it appears that there was a counter manifestation of bourgeois National
Guards, who arrived in military order with their arms. Jules Favre
addressed them. Now as far as I can make out, these battalions went to
the Hotel de Ville on their own initiative. No one, however, seems to
see any incongruity in the friends of the Government making an armed
demonstration as a protest against armed and unarmed demonstrations in
general. The question of the municipal elections will lie dormant for a
few days, but I see no evidence that those who were in favour of it have
altered their minds. As far as yesterday's proceedings were concerned,
they only go to prove the fact, which no one ever doubted, that the
bourgeoisie and their adherents are ready to support the Government, but
they have also proved to my mind conclusively that the working men as a
body have entirely lost all confidence in the men at the head of
affairs.

On the pure merits of the question, I think that the working men have
reason on their side. They know clearly what they want--to make sorties
and to endeavour to destroy the enemy's works; if this fails--to make
provisions last as long as possible by a system of rationing--and then
to destroy Paris rather than surrender it. The Government and their
adherents are waiters on Providence, and, except that they have some
vague idea that the Army of the Loire will perform impossibilities, they
are contented to live on from day to day, and to hope that something
will happen to avert the inevitable catastrophe. I can understand a
military dictatorship in a besieged capital, and I can understand a
small elected council acting with revolutionary energy; but what I
cannot understand is a military governor who fears to enforce military
discipline, and a dozen respectable lawyers and orators, whose sole idea
of Government is, as Blanqui truly says, to issue decrees and
proclamations, and to make speeches. The only practical man among them
is M. Dorian, the Minister of Public Works, M. Dorian is a hard-headed
manufacturer, and utterly ignoring red tape, clerks, and routine; he has
set all the private ateliers to work, to make cannon and muskets. I have
not yet heard of his making a single spee