all the Parisian journalists, and
keep them there until they are able to pass an elementary examination in
the literature, the politics, the geography, and the domestic economy of
Germany. A little foreign travel would do these blind leaders of the
blind a world of good, and on their return they would perhaps have
cleared their minds of their favourite delusion that civilization is
co-terminous with the frontiers of France.

How M. Picard provides for the financial requirements of his colleagues
is a mystery. The cost of the siege amounts in hard cash to about
L20,000,000. To meet the daily draw on the exchequer no public loan has
been negotiated, and nothing is raised by taxation. The monthly
instalments which have been paid on the September loan cannot altogether
amount to very much, consequently the greater portion of this large sum
can only have been obtained by a loan from the bank and by _bons de
tresor_ (exchequer bills). What the proportion between the bank loan and
the _bons de tresor_ in circulation is I am unable to ascertain. M.
Picard, like all finance ministers, groans daily over the cost of the
prolongation of the siege, and it certainly appears a very doubtful
question whether France will really benefit by Paris living at its
expense for another month.

Military matters remain _in statu quo_. The army is camped in the wood
of Vincennes. The forts occasionally fire. The Prussians seem to be of
opinion that our next sortie will be in the plain of Genevilliers, as
they are working hard on their fortifications along their lines between
St. Denis and St. Cloud, and they have replaced the levies of the
smaller States by what we call here "real" Prussians. Our engineer
officers consider that the Prussians have three lines of investment, the
first comparatively weak, the second composed of strategical lines, by
which a force of 40,000 men can be brought on any point within two
hours; the third consisting of redoubts, which would prevent artillery
getting by them. To invest a large town, say our officers, is not so
difficult a task as it would appear at first sight. Artillery can only
move along roads, and consequently all that is necessary is to occupy
the roads solidly. General Blanchard has been removed from his command,
and is to be employed in the Third Army under Vinoy. His dispute with
Ducrot arose from a remark which the latter made respecting officers who
did not remain with their men after a battle; a