ined generosity, firmness and foresight in statesmen
or soldiers which alone could lay the first stone of reconciliation? The
prospect is too black for France and for Europe for us to dare look
forward. We have no heart at present to balance the faults and crimes of
the two sides, or to assign the relative blame. We only see the worst
outburst ever yet displayed of human passions; we see it at the close of
fifteen centuries of Christian civilization; we see it in one of the
most gifted races of the world, and we know not where to look for hope
or consolation.

MAY 30th.

Paris is perfectly tranquil. Shops are opening. The streets are crowded
with people examining the amount of damage done. Prisoners in groups of
a hundred are being marched under escort down the Boulevards. Fighting
ceased about 3 yesterday afternoon. A few shots were fired from the
windows at Belleville, where frightful scenes are said to have been
enacted. The more desperate characters, felons and escaped _forcats_ of
the worst description, turned at the last moment on their own comrades
because they refused to continue the fight. Some women murdered with
knives two young men for the same reason. In consequence of the firing
from the windows, an immense number of executions occurred. The park of
the Buttes Chaumont was strewn with corpses. The soldiers were so
furious that the officers found it necessary to warn strangers of the
danger of incurring suspicion. A few of the inhabitants of Belleville
were declaring openly to passers by that the affair was not yet over,
and that terrible reprisals would be wreaked upon the soldiers. These
boasts have not yet been fulfilled, but general apprehensions are,
nevertheless, entertained that those of the insurgents who have escaped
justice will try to inaugurate a secret system of arson and
assassination. Constant discoveries of petroleum are still being made.
The danger is increased by the fact that women, who, on account of their
sex, are more likely lo escape notice, are really the most desperate.
Great precautions are taken at night. The streets are full of sentries
and all circulation is strictly forbidden. Any one who ventures out
without the password runs the risk of being locked up all night. There
are diversities of opinion relative to the Archbishop's fate even now.
Some people affirm that he has escaped; but the evidence is in favour of
his having been murdered at La Roquette.

Fears are entertain