rets it,
and throws the blame of it on one of his generals, who acted without
orders. A lady who was to-day at St. Cloud tells me that she found
Germans eating in every room of her house. Both officers and men were
very civil to her. They told her that she might take away anything that
belonged to her, and helped to carry to her carriage some valuable
china; which, by good luck, had not been smashed. With respect to the
charge of looting private property, which is brought by the French
against their invaders, no unprejudiced person can, after looking into
the evidence, doubt that whilst in the German Army there are many
officers, and even privates, who have done their best to prevent
pillage, many articles of value have disappeared from houses which have
been occupied by the German troops, and much wanton damage has been
committed in them. I assert the fact, without raising the question
whether or not these are the necessary consequences of war. It is absurd
for the Germans to pretend that the French Francs-tireurs are the
culprits and not they. Francs-tireurs were never in the Boulevard de la
Reine at Versailles, and yet the houses in this street have been gutted
of everything available.

I venture to repeat a question which I have already frequently
asked--Where is the gentleman who enjoys an annual salary as British
Consul at Paris? Why was he absent during the siege? Why is he absent
now? Why is a banker, who has other matters to attend to, discharging
his duties? I am a taxpayer and an elector; if "my member" does not
obtain a reply to these queries from the official representative of the
Foreign Office in the House of Commons, I give him fair notice that he
will shake me by the hand, ask after my health, and affect a deep
interest in my reply, in vain at the next general election; he will not
have my vote.

The _Electeur Libre_, the journal of M. Picard, has put forth a species
of political programme, or rather a political defence of the wing of the
Government of National Defence to which that gentleman belongs. For a
French politician to praise himself in his own organ, and to say under
the editorial "we" that he intends to vote for himself, and that he has
the greatest confidence in his own wisdom, is regarded here as nothing
but natural.

PARIS, _February 9th._

"We have been conquered in the field, but we have gained a moral
victory." What this phrase means I have not the remotest idea; but as it
conso