NOTES OP THE WAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 160, 2 March 1871, Page 6

NOTES OF THE WAR.

The political programme of the Red Republicans in Paris is thus sketched by M. Blanqui's organ, the " Patrie en Danger " :—": — " All the churches should be closed against religious services, and should be converted into granaries, meeting places for clubs, and other revolutionary purposes. All the hospitals should be purged of priests. They should be arrested, armed, and placed under fire in front of the patients in the most perilous positions. We would confer upon them their noblest mission — that of becoming martyrs. They will go to Heaven, and that will be their reward. We, who do not believe in it, desire that they should die before us. Let them serve as breastworks to fathers of families, and that will be the only time when they have been good for anything. The first thing to be considered is the barricades. There is in existence a Barricade Commission, with a president and a credit of 600,000f, but nothing seems to be doing, and the Prussians are still advancing. No citizen should appear abroad without arras, revolvers, poniard, bayonet — all are useful — and they should arrest all the Bonapartist agents who are still to be found in Paris. Newspapers, clubs, and the constituted commune should demand that all articles of sustenance should be common property, and everyone should receive equal rations. Every one who is cognizant of any concealment or removal of gold or silver coin, or of valuable articles, must make an immediate declaration of the facts at the Mairie. At the door of every house should be placed a written statement of the names, ages, and calling of the inmates. The name of the proprietor, and his real and actual address, should be inscribed in large letters at the head of the list. The conciercje should be held responsible for this statement. These are a few of the measures which alone can save us."

There is, indeed, a marvellous change to be seen in the aspect of Paris. Its magnificent libraries and museums are closed, the more valuable volumes and works of art stowed away underground, and the lower windows of the palaces in which they lodged filled up with sand bags. The Grand Opera is turned into an observatory and a military store ; the Theatre Erancais is a hospital, and so also are the Italian Opera House and the Varieties ; the Gaite is devoted to the manufacture of clothes ; the Circus named after the Empress is busy with the preparation of cartridges ; the Palaces — the Luxembourg, the Elysees, the Tuileries, the Palais Royal, the Palais d'lndustric, the Palais do Justice — are all hospitals, with the red cross flag flying over them side by side with the tricolour; the vast workshops of the railways are turned into foundries for cannon ; artillery with horses and waggons bivouac in the Jardin des Plantes among the caged beasts ; in the pleasure gardens on the too of Montmartre, where the dwellers by the barrier went to dance, there are frowning batteries; in another famous ballroom at Montmartre, which took to itself the name of Elysium, M. Nadar is night and day fabricating his giant balloons ; in the gardens of the Tuileries, where old men dozed over the papers, where young men made their assignations, where children played among the orange trees with hoops and with balls, and bought the little cakes which are exclusively known as Pleasures — where the tame doves came to perch by your side upon the railiugs, and to peck the breadcrumbs from your hand — where the bands played under the tall limes in the cool of the day — these gardens are given up to the artillery, with all its appurtenances and with the litter of horses picketed under the trees. Of the crowds who used to frequent them, some, chiefly the nurses and the children, dLport themselves on the grass plots in the Champs Elsyees, close by the enclosures of open-air concerts ; others have gone to the high ground of the Trocadro, where they indulge in needlework, and in the intervals of the stitches take out their opera-glasses to try and see the firing in the distance. All down the southern side of the Champs Elysees there are folds for cattle and sheep, bellowing and bleating over their fodder ; under the trees on the side avenues the Dragoons are encamped ; their horses are tied to the saplings ; here the horses are being groomed ; there is a horse, being shod ; and there, again, on one of the green wooden seats, where, in the olden time, nurses found anchorage while their children disported around, a party of Dragoons are arranging their litte tins for breakfast. A letter from Versailles in the " Cologne Gazette," describing the temper of the population, says the Legitimists and Ultramontanes are the | only classes who are really sensible of the present position of affairs. This is attributable to their hatred of republicanism and their dismay at the fall of Rome. They believe in the German victories, laugh bitterly at the treachery to which those successes are ascribed, and sorrowfully admit the superiority of the German army, statesman, and nation. One of them remarked of Gambetta "He is as much like a statesman as seltzer water is like champagne ; the former froths up, but the flavour is wanting." The rich shopkeepers and retired military and

civil officials are Orleanist at heart, but not hostile to the Germans. All parties, however, co-operate with the German Government in putting an end to the shameful way in which certain tradesmen have profited by the difficulty of communication to raise the price of colonial and other products. There was general gratification when, partly at the instance of the Prefect, tobacco, chocolate, rum, sugar, and articles of clothing were sent from Germany, thus forcing the native usurers to lower their terms. Coffee, sugar, salt, beer, and coals are still wanting, but steps have been taken to supply them, and to oblige the inhabitants to bring to light their stores. 1050 safe conducts, at 2f. each, have been issued to persons desirous of travelling into the occupied departments in order to carry on business or procure provisions. Since the 9th inst., French postmen employed by the German, authorities have delivered le+ters to persons in the town. The one direct tax levied on the communes occupied by the troops has been paid with unmistakable willingness. Up to the Bth £14,400 had been collected for the month of October. For police purposes the town is divided into three districts, each with an inspector and gendarmes. Civil matters indeed are ordered almost as if the profoundest peace prevailed. The " North German Gazette," referring to the same subject, states that the Mayor and Town Council of Versailles tendered their resignation on the appointment of a German governor of the department, but on being shown the advantage to the community which would accrue from a friendly understanding and co-operation between the foreign and domestic authorities, they agreed to continue in office. The Mayors of numerous localities, influenced by their example, have announced their desire to retain their functions. The department, in consideration of its sufferings from the war, has been exempted, from war contributions, and ouly pays its ordiuary amount of tazes ; but the flight of wealthy citizens has, of course, aggravated the burden. At the request of persons who were in difficulties through the non-receipt of dividends from Paris, they have been authorised to contract loans Avith agents of German banks, the Prussian Government guaranteeing repayment. The Mayors have in the same way raised money for educational and other public purposes.

Balloon letters bring; us curious details of the ingenious devices by wln'ch. the Parisians vary and improve their daily fare. The lakes and ponds in the woods of Boulogne and Yincennes, some of which are likely sqon to get low, owing to the supply of water being cut off, are dragged for the fish that abounds in them. The produce is sold every morning by auction, fine carp and pike averaging barely a franc a pound, although the shops retail them at four or five times that price. From the 4th to the 10th of November the price of butchers' meat was fixed by the authorities at from 13d. to 2s. 6d. per kilogramme, according to the part, and mutton at lid. to Is. Gd. These moderate prices, of course, do not imply abundance. There are an immense number of ownerless dogs in Paris, abandoned by emigrants, which find it difficult to get a living. Some of them visit the camps and outposts outside the walls, begging the soldiers' hospitality, and may be heard howling piteously at night when they return to town and find the gates closed. One letter says that some people begin to eat dogs, which is not improbable, since French soldiers campaigning have been known to eat rats. Roast dog and goldfish would be curious items in a bill of fare. TLe object of preventing the shooting of game in France this year is said to have been to economise powder, besides which, sport of any kind might well be held unseemly in these disastrous times. But the snaring of game seems equally prohibited, and even its importation. Such a thing as a roast hare is never seen, and pigeons are substituted for partridges at Tours in the favourite French dish ofperdrix aux clioux.