r 31, the
Government of National Defence has met with no opposition since
September last. There are several reasons for this. Among the
bourgeoisie there was little of either love or confidence felt in Trochu
and his colleagues, but they represented the cause of order, and were
indeed the only barrier against absolute anarchy. Among the poorer
classes everyone who liked was clothed, was fed, and was paid by
Government for doing nothing, and consequently many who otherwise would
have been ready to join in a revolt, thought it well not to disturb a
state of things so eminently to their satisfaction. Among the Ultras,
there was a very strong distaste to face the fire either of Prussians or
of Frenchmen. They had, too, no leaders worthy of the name, and many of
them were determined not to justify Count Bismarck's taunt that the
"populace" would aid him by exciting civil discord. The Government of
September, consequently, is still the Government of to-day, although its
chief has shown himself a poor general, and its members, one and all,
have shown themselves wretched administrators. In unblushing mendacity
they have equalled, if not surpassed, their immediate predecessor, the
virtuous Palikao. The only two of them who would have had a chance of
figuring in England, even as vestrymen, are M. Jules Favre and M. Ernest
Picard. The former has all the brilliancy and all the faults of an able
lawyer--the latter, although a lawyer, is not without a certain modicum
of that plain practical common sense, which we are apt to regard as
peculiarly an English characteristic.

The sufferings caused by the dearth of provisions and of fuel have
fallen almost exclusively on the women and children. Among the
well-to-do classes, there has been an absence of many of those luxuries
which habit had made almost necessaries, but this is all. The men of the
poorer classes, as a rule, preferred to idle away their time on the 1fr.
50c. which they received from the Government, rather than gain 4 or 5fr.
a day by working at their trades; consequently if they drank more and
ate less than was good for them, they have had only themselves to thank
for it. Their wives and children have been very miserable. Scantily
clad, ill fed, without fuel, they have been obliged to pass half the day
before the bakers' doors, waiting for their pittance of bread. The
mortality and the suffering have been very great among them, and yet, it
must be said to their credit, they