TIE WAR IN EUROPE.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 812, 4 March 1871, Page 3

TIE WAR IN EUROPE.

NOTES AND INCIDENTS.

The following tribute to the courage and fortitude of the Parisians is from the London Times, of 13th December:— ' • Why is not Paris taken ? Is it that the Germans have neglected to use their strength, or that Paris has discovered Borne new and strange strength of its own ? We all of us thought we knew something of the character of this city, the haunt of the idlers, the curious, and the spoilt children of the world— a city of pleasure, ■whose inhabitants -were given up more even than the Athenians of old to the pur- 1 suit of some new thing— a city where the craving for novelty was so insatiable that when a new thing did appear it was listlessly dropped almost before it was tasted that something else might be seized and enjoyed. All that could minister to the sight, to the ear, to the sense of taste, was brought together there to give entertainment to a people who delighted to let their imagination rove through all ages and in all lands. A spirit of sceptical mockery was the necessary characteristic of men who flattered themselves they had exhausted all the experience of the world, and were still unsatiffied. It is not astonishing all should predict that a city thus inhabited would be found to yield at the first touch of privation. For a short time the novelty of an unprecedented position might uphold its resolution ; but this feeling would, it was thought, quickly give place to the convenient reflections that the charm of living in a besieged city was soon exhausted, and that it was unpleasant to miss the customary stimulants of life. If it be added that the price uf freedom and the return of old pleasures was something to be paid not by Paris, but by a Boeotian district which knew nothing of Paris and its charms, how great must be the temptation to surrender ! Yet Paris has resigned almost everything that gave it its distinctive character rather than capitulate. The whole world was laid under contribution to furnish its tables. The epicure who now wanders along the boulevards, or enters the galleries of the Palais Royal, sees in the windows, where once were ranged all that was tempting to the appetite, nothing but objects that would then have filled him with disgust ; the mcmi at his Cercle or his restaurant is a strange concoction of things unclean. Instead of the perpetual gaiety of the streets, there are shops unopened, cafes closed almost as soon as night falls, and an anxious people sadly attired and absorbed in painful thought. No theatre charms ita habitues with the play of wit or the representation of passion. The journals have dwindled in size and diminished in number. The Galleries of Art and of Science are closed. The gardens, beautiful as those of Babylon, are converted into the drill-grounds of citizen soldiers, or are filled with artillery and all the machinery of war. A dreadful colorless monotony has befallen Paris. Where has the strength been found to endure it without a murmur ? It is all owing, some say, to Trochu and Gambetta ; without them Paris had long bince collapsed. This may be true, but does not explain the mystery. How is it that Gambetta can command generals more imperiously than- the Centurion in the Gospel commanded his soldiers, and all France obeys him 1 Powerless to coerce, he is yet omnipotent to command. How is it that Tmchu, a man of sad and severe self-restraint, has such a mastery over Paris that, in a city where nothing is sacred, no breath of detraction has soiled his stainless character F