upon the world to witness its sublimity. My impression is that on one
point alone the Parisians will prove obstinate, and that is if the
Prussians insist upon occupying their town; upon every other they will
only roar like "sucking doves." Rather than allow the German armies to
defile along the Boulevards, they would give up Alsace, Lorraine, and
half a dozen other provinces. As regards the working-men, they have far
more go in them than the bourgeois, and if the Prussians would oblige
them by assaulting the town, they would fight well in the streets; but
with all their shouts for a sortie, I estimate their real feelings on
the matter by the fact that they almost unanimously, on one pretext or
another, decline to volunteer for active service outside the ramparts.

The elections on Saturday, says M. Jules Favre, will be a "negation of
the Commune." By this I presume he means that the elected Mayors and
their adjuncts will only exercise power in their respective
arrondissements, but that their collective action will not be
recognised. As, however, they will be the only legally elected body in
Paris, and as, undoubtedly, they will frequently meet together, it is
very probable that they will be able to hold their own against the
Government. The word "Commune" is taken from the vocabulary of the first
Revolution. During the Reign of Terror the Municipality was all
powerful, and it styled itself a "Commune." By "Commune," consequently,
is simply meant a municipality which is strong enough to absorb tacitly
a portion of the power legally belonging to the Executive.

The Government now meets at one or other of the ministries. At the
Hotel de Ville Etienne Arago still reigns. Being a member of the
Government himself, he cannot well be turned out by his own colleagues,
but they distrust him, and do not clearly know whether he is with them
or against them. Yesterday, several battalions were stationed round the
hotel. Arago came out to review them. He was badly received, and the
officers let him understand that they were not there to be reviewed by
him. Soon afterwards General Tamisier passed along the line, and was
greeted with shouts of "A bas la Commune!"

I am sorry for Trochu; he is a good, honourable, high-minded man;
somewhat obstinate, and somewhat vain; but actuated by the best
intentions. He has thrust himself into a hornet's nest. In vain he now
plaintively complains that he has made Paris impregnable, that he cannot