itics complain that, admitting
he could not do the latter, he ought, by frequent sorties, to have
endeavoured to prevent them sending troops to their covering armies. One
thing is certain, that all his sorties have failed not only in the
result, but in the conception. As a consequence of this, the French
soldiers, who more than any other troops in the world require, in order
to fight well, to have faith in their leader, have lost all confidence
in him.

We have had no pigeon for the last eighteen days, and the anxiety to
obtain news from without is very strong. A few days ago a messenger was
reported to have got through the Prussian lines with news of a French
victory. The next day a Saxon officer was said, with his last breath, to
have confided to his doctor that Frederick Charles had been defeated.
Yesterday Jules Favre told the mayor that there was a report that
Chanzy had gained a victory. Everything now depends upon what Chanzy is
doing, and, for all we know, he may have ceased to exist for the last
week.

A census which has just been made of the population within the lines,
makes the number, exclusive of the Line, Mobiles, and sailors,
2,000,500. No attempt has yet been made to ration the bread, but it is
to be mixed with oats and rice. The mayor of this quarter says that in
this arrondissement--the richest in Paris--he is certain that there is
food for two months. Should very good news come from the provinces, and
it appear that by holding out for two months more the necessity for a
capitulation would be avoided, I think that we should hold on until the
end of February, if we have to eat the soles of our boots. If bad news
comes, we shall not take to this food; but we shall give in when
everything except bread fails, and we shall then consider that our
honour is saved if nothing else is. M. Louis Blanc to-day publishes a
letter to Victor Hugo, in which he tells the Parisians that if they do
capitulate they will gain nothing by it, for the Prussians will neither
allow them to quit Paris, nor, if the war continues, allow food to enter
it.

As yet there are no signs of a real outbreak; and if a successful one
does occur, it will be owing to the weakness of the Government, which
has ample means to repress it. The Parisian press is always adjuring the
working men not to cut either each others' or their neighbours' throats,
and congratulating them on their noble conduct in not having done so.
This sort of praise se