it as a useless waste of life. General Clement
Thomas, who succeeded Tamisier about a month ago in the command of the
National Guards, seems to be the right man in the right place. He is
making great efforts to convert these citizens into soldiers, and stands
no nonsense. Not a day passes without some patriotic captain being tried
by court-martial for drunkenness or disobedience. If a battalion
misbehaves itself, it is immediately gibbeted in the order of the day.
The newspapers cry out against this. They say that Clement Thomas
forgets that the National Guards are his children, and that dirty linen
ought to be washed at home. "If this goes on, posterity," they complain,
"will say that we were little more than a mob of undisciplined
drunkards." I am afraid that Clement Thomas will not have time to carry
out his reforms; had they been commenced earlier, there is no reason why
Paris should not have had on foot 100,000 good troops.

Mr. Herbert tells me that there are now above 1,000 persons on the
English fund, and that every week there are about 30 new applications.
Unknown and mysterious English emerge from holes and corners every day.
Mr. Herbert thinks that there cannot be less than 3,000 of them still in
Paris, almost all destitute. The French Government sold him a short time
ago 30,000 lbs. of rice, and this, with the chocolate and Liebig which
he has in hand will last him for about three weeks. If the siege goes on
longer it is difficult to know how all these poor people will live.
Funds are not absolutely wanting, but it is doubtful whether even with
money it will be possible to buy anything beyond bread, if that. Mr.
Herbert thinks that it would be most desirable to send, if possible, a
provision of portable food, such as Liebig's extract of meat, as near to
Paris as possible; so that, whenever the siege ceases, it may at once be
brought into the town, as otherwise it is very probable that many of
these English will die of starvation before food can reach them. It does
seem to me perfectly monstrous that for years we should have, in
addition to an Embassy, kept a Consul here, and that he should have been
allowed to go off on leave to some watering place at the very moment at
which his services were most required. When the Embassy left, a sort of
deputy-consul remained here; but with a perfect ingenuity of stupidity,
the Foreign-office officials ordered this gentleman to withdraw with Mr.
Wodehouse, the secretary.