ng. The demand
for a sortie _en masse_ is not so strong. Every one is anxious not to
surrender, and no one precisely knows how a surrender is to be avoided.
Successes on paper have so long done duty for successes in the field,
that no one, even yet, can believe that this paper currency has been so
depreciated that bankruptcy must ensue. Is it possible, each man asks,
that 500,000 armed Frenchmen will have to surrender to half the number
of Germans? And as they reply that it is impossible, they come to the
conclusion that treason must be at work, and look round for the traitor.
Trochu, who is as honest and upright as a man as he is incompetent as a
general, will probably share the fate of the "Man of Sedan" and the "Man
of Metz," as they are called. "He is a Laocoon," says M. Felix Pyat in
his newspaper, with some confusion of metaphor, "who will strangle the
Republic."

We hear now that Government is undertaking an inquiry to discover
precisely how long our stock of provisions will last. Matters are
managed so carelessly, that I doubt whether the Minister of Commerce
himself knows to within ten days the precise date when we shall be
starved out. The rations of meat now amount to 1-27th of a pound per
diem for each adult. At the fashionable restaurants the supply is
unlimited, and the price as unlimited. Two cutlets of donkey cost 18
francs, and everything else in the way of animal food is in proportion.
The real vital question, however, is how long the bread will last. In
some arrondissements the supply fails after 8 o'clock in the morning;
at others, each resident receives 1 lb. upon production of a _carte de
subsistance_. The distribution has been thrown into disorder by the
people from the bombarded quarters flocking into the central ones, and
wanting to be fed. The bread itself is poor stuff. Only one kind is
allowed to be manufactured; it is dark in colour, heavy, pasty, and
gritty. There is as little corn in it as there is malt in London beer
when barley is dear. The misery among the poorer classes is every day on
the increase. Most of the men manage to get on with their 1fr. 50c. a
day. In the morning they go to exercise, and afterwards loll about until
night in cafes and pothouses, making up with liquids for the absence of
solids. As for doing regular work, they scoff at the idea. Master
tailors and others tell me that it is almost impossible to get hands to
do the few orders which are now given. They are warmly