e members of the Government are divided in their views respecting
the great interests the direction of which has been confided to them.
The army has suffered great trials, and it required a short repose,
which the enemy endeavours to dispute by a bombardment more violent than
any troops were ever exposed to. The army is preparing for action with
the aid of the National Guards, and all together we shall do our duty. I
declare that there are no differences in the councils of the Government,
and that we are all closely united in the presence of the agonies and
the perils of the country, and in the thought and the hope of its
deliverance."

_La Patrie_, of Jan. 2, says:--

"Perhaps Bourbaki has gone to meet General von Werder. If he is
victorious, the road to Paris by the valley of the Seine will be open to
him, or the road to Southern Germany by Besancon and Belfort, and the
bridge of Bale, the neutrality of which we are not obliged to respect
any more than that of Belgium, since Europe has allowed Bismarck to
violate that of Luxemburg. Ah! if Bourbaki were a Tortensen, a Wrangel,
or a Turenne--perhaps he is--what a grand campaign we might have in a
few weeks on the Danube, the Lech, and the Saar."

The _Liberte_, of Jan. 2, says:--

"A great manifestation is being organised against the Government. The
object is to substitute in its place the college of Mayors of Paris and
their adjuncts. The manifestation, if it occurs, will not get further
than the Boulevards. General Trochu is in no fear from Mayor Mothe, but
he must understand that the moment for action has arrived. His
proclamation has only imperfectly replied to the apprehensions of Paris.
A capitulation, the very idea of which the Government recoils from, and
which would only become possible when cold, hunger, and a bombardment
have made further resistance impossible, besieges the minds of all, and
presses all the hearts which beat for a resistance _a outrance_ in a
vice of steel. Trochu should reply to these agonies no longer by
proclamations, but by acts."

_January 4th._

It is said, I know not with what truth, that there always are, on an
average, 5000 families who are in destitute circumstances, because their
chiefs never would play out their trumps at whist until it became too
late to use them effectively. If Trochu really was under the impression
that he had trumps in his hand good enough to enable him to win the game
he is playing against the Prussi