A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 15 October 1870—Count Bismarck is evidently restless under the defence of Paris. Should the defence be protracted to the last, there would be danger of a catastrophe which would overwhelm all Europe with horror, the death by starvation of two millions of human beings in a single week. Suppose Paris to fight till it had only one day's rations left. It would take a week to supply it, for the nearest point is Havre, the railways being cut, and the belt round the city stripped bare. The Germans could not supply it. for they have barely enough for themselves; and even if London were per- mitted to make the effort, it could not be accomplished under a week. Count Bismarck. foreseeing that so awful a catastrophe, produced by Germany in order to gain a province, would permanently alienate the' sympathies of man- kind, has accordingly embodied all the facts in a Circular to the foreign agents of Germany, which ends by declaring that the responsibility rests with the rulers of France,—an assertion which, true once, is not true now that France has offered peace on any terms except the cession of unwilling citizens. The despatch in no degree lightens the responsibility of the be- seigers, while it ought to stimulate the Govern- ment in Tours to frantic efforts for relief.
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