punish its leaders? Professor Fustel de Coulanges
has written a reply to Professor Mommsen. He states the case of France
with respect to Alsace very clearly. "Let Prussia double the war-tax she
imposes on France, and give up this iniquitous scheme of annexation,"
ought to be the advice of every sincere friend of peace. In any case, if
Alsace and Lorraine are turned with the German Rhine Provinces into a
neutral State, I do hope that we shall have the common sense not to
guarantee either its independence or its neutrality. If we do so, within
ten years we shall infallibly be dragged into a Continental war. We have
a whim about Belgium, one day it will prove a costly one; we cannot,
however, afford to indulge in many of these whims.

CHAPTER X.

_November 3rd._

The vote is being taken to-day whether the population of Paris maintains
in power the Government of National Defence. On Saturday each of the
twenty arrondissements is to elect a Mayor and four adjuncts, who are to
replace those nominated by the Government. Of course the Government will
to-day have a large majority. Were it to be in the minority the
population would simply assert that it wishes to live under no
Government. This plebiscite is in itself an absurdity. The real object,
however, is to strengthen the hands of the depositories of power, and to
enable them to conclude an armistice, which would result in a
Constituent Assembly, and would free them from the responsibility of
concluding peace on terms rather than accept which they proudly asserted
a few weeks ago they would all die. The keynote of the situation is
given by the organs of public opinion, which until now have teemed with
articles calling upon the population of the capital to bury itself
beneath its ruins, and thus by a heroic sacrifice to serve as an example
to the whole of France. To-day they say, "It appears that the provinces
will not allow Paris to be heroic. They wish for peace; we have no right
to impose upon them our determination to fight without hope of victory."
The fact is that the great mass of the Parisians wish for peace at any
price. Under the circumstances I do not blame them. No town is obliged
to imitate the example of Moscow. If, however, it intends after
submitting to a blockade, to capitulate on terms which it scouted at
first, before any of its citizens have been even under fire, and before
its provisions are exhausted, it would have done well not to have called