FRENCH INVASION OF LONDON.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 800, 11 April 1871, Page 3

FRENCH INVASION OF LONDON.

The following is from the ' Sydney MoruingHerald,'being written expressly for that Journal by " Peter Possum " : When I was in the city the other day the newsboys were going about with sheaves of second editions, waving their contents-bills and shouting, " News by carrier pigeon : a French victory." Tidings of a French victory would seem a matter of course at the beginning of the war, but they were startling at this time of day. The fact that they had been brought by a pigeon showed that the Prussians still held Paris in tbeir grasp, but nevertheless a French success of any kind was something. " What's that you're shouting, Bill 1 " inquired a ragged little urchin in Cannon-street of a ragged little friend who had invested all the capital he could scrape together in the " Daily Telegraph. " " The Frenchies have licked the Prooshians at last, Ratty," answered Bill. "Have they ? " exclaimed delighted Ratty : " I'm jolly glad to to 'ear it. Them Prooshians was-a-gettin' too cocky for my likin'. They're a bad lot them Prooshians. Why don't they fight fair, instid of a lot of 'em goin' in at one ? Hit one of your own size, says I, an' don't kick 'im when he's down."

These were Ratty's opinions, and even the staunchest advocates of Prussia in England begin to venture to hint under their breath that Bismarck is perhaps a leetle too grasping. German cant nauseates me. She says that Lorraine and Alsace in her possession would be guarantees of European peace, because she is so peaceful—if she had them, she would quickly prevent aggressive France from making mischief in Europe. Qais custodiet cvstodiem 1 We know little at present of what will be the national character of the German Empire, that, in all probability, will be the crystalised outcome of this war ; but if we may judge from the antecedents and the present temper of its informing nucleus, Prussia, a disposition to clutch with the strong hand whatever it wants, will certainly not be lacking in that new German Empire. If Germany dictates her own terms to an utterly humbled France. Europe may find that she has only swopped bogies, and not bettered herself by the bargain. The don't care a fig for anybody-who-cannot-drub - us-and - there's - nobody- that - can. tone of the German Press is not reassuring.

But when I began to write I meant to jot down not thoughts about the war, but notes of its effects on the look of London. In spite of the vastness of London's population—(the next census will show that the jumble of cities, boroughs, towns, villages, and* hamlets, in four counties, conventionally called " London," is peopled by far nearer four than three millions) —in spite of that vast sea of diluting matter, London, even where most thronged, has been perceptibly coloured of late by a French element.