ces will
accustom themselves to independent action; if a Constituent Assembly be
elected whilst free communication between Paris and the rest of France
is interrupted, they fear that this Assembly will consist of local
candidates rather than those, as has heretofore been the case in all
French Legislative Chambers, who are imposed upon the departments by a
central organization in the capital.

The position of the Government is a singular one. They obtained last
Thursday a large majority on their plebiscite, because it was fully
understood that "oui" meant peace; indeed, on many bulletins, the words
"and peace" were added to the "oui." They have imprisoned the leaders of
those who revolted to the cry of "no armistice!" Their friends the
bourgeois trusted to them to put off the municipal elections until after
the war, and they rallied to their defence to the cry of "no Commune!"
In each arrondissement a mayor and two adjuncts have been elected, and
these mayors and adjuncts have only to meet together in order to assume
that right to interfere in public affairs which converts a municipality
into a commune. In Belleville the elected mayor is a prisoner, and his
two adjuncts, Flourens and Milliere, are in hiding. In the nineteenth
arrondissement M. Delescluze, by far the most able of the Ultras, is
mayor. Contrary to the wishes, consequently, of the voters of "oui," we
are to have no armistice, and we probably shall have a commune. The
Ultras are persecuted, but their programme is adopted.

There appears to be a tacit truce between all parties within the city
until Trochu has made some attempt to carry out his famous plan. For the
last fortnight the Government has not published any news which it may
have received from the Provinces. M. Thiers has either made no report
upon their condition, or it has been concealed. M. Jules Favre, in his
despatch to the envoys abroad, enters into no details, and confines
himself to the simple announcement, that the armistice was not concluded
because Count Bismarck would not allow Paris to be revictualled during
the twenty-five days which it was to last. Our anxiety for news
respecting what is passing outside has to be satisfied with the
following words, which fell from the lips of M. Thiers: "I have seen the
Army of the Loire and the Prussian Guard; man to man I prefer the
former." The _Debats_ and some other journals contain extracts from the
English newspapers up to the 22nd ult. I obser