t on the Boulevards. The chief of General
Ducrot's staff has published a letter protesting against the assertions
of certain journals that the fight at Malmaison produced no results. On
the contrary, he says it gained us sixty square kilometres of ground in
the plain of Genevilliers.

CHAPTER IX.

_October 28th._

I see at a meeting of the mayors, the population of Paris is put down at
2,036,000. This does not include the regular army, or the Marines and
Mobiles outside and within the lines. The consumption of meat,
consequently, at the rate of 100 grammes per diem, must amount to
between 400,000 and 500,000lbs. per diem. Although mutton according to
the tariff is cheaper than beef, I rarely see any at the restaurants.
This tells its own tale, and I imagine that in three weeks from now at
the very latest fresh meat will have come to an end.

I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that there is no more fight in
the working men than in the bourgeois. The National Guard in Montmartre
and Batignolles have held an indignation meeting to protest against
their being employed in the forts. A law was passed on August 10 calling
under arms all unmarried men between 25 and 40. In Paris it has never
been acted on; it would, however, be far better to regularly enrol this
portion of the National Guard as soldiers than to ask for volunteers. As
long as these "sedentary" warriors can avoid regular service, or
subjecting themselves to the discipline and the hardships of real
soldiers, they will do so. Before the Pantheon, the mayor of an
arrondissement sits on a platform, writing down the names of volunteers.
Whenever one makes his appearance, a roll of drums announces to his
fellow-citizens that he has undertaken to risk his valuable life outside
the ramparts. It really does appear too monstrous that the able-bodied
men of this city should wear uniforms, learn the goose-step, and refuse
to take any part in the defence within shot of the enemy. That they
should object to be employed in a campaign away from their homes, is
hardly in accordance with their appeal to the provinces to rise _en
masse_ to defend France, but that they should decline to do anything but
go over every twelve days to the ramparts, is hardly fighting even for
their own homes. Surely as long as the siege lasts they ought to
consider that the Government has a right to use them anywhere within the
lines of investment They make now what they call military