The German authorities put into the Staatsanzeiger last week a
very candid official account of the difficulties to be overcome in the siege of Paris,—possibly even slightly exaggerating them,—in order to make the German people more patient and the glory of success the greater. "The moral and material resources remaining to the enemy are," says the report, "of no contemptible kind, and having been placed at the disposal of an energetic commander, render the task of our armies one of the most difficult recorded in the military history of the world." The report describes Paris as "a fortified battlefield covering every point of access." Some of the detached fortified forte, Mont Valerien and St. Denis, "exceed the strength of many a fortress." A line connecting the forts would be 12 Stunden (say, 36 English miles) in length, while they command a circumference of at least 54 miles. The billy country renders the duty of the blockading troops very arduous, and to bring up more would greatly increase the diffi- culty of feeding them. To get the heavy siege guns into position is a work of tremendous labour. It often takes a whole oorapany to move a single gun. Where the ground is soft and very uneven, horses cannot be used. The ground whence the city itself can be bombarded is the most hilly and difficult of all. The bombardment will hardly be proceeded with till the fire of more than one of the forts is silenced. The report evidently contemplates the siege lasting far into the winter, and looks for the reduction of Paris as much by starvation and the discontent it will excite as by force. 'We may be sure that this report embodies Von Moltke's own views.
