The French, though scarcely as enthusiastic, are as united and
willing as the Germans. Paris is distinctly warlike, the Army is eager to measure swords with the Prussians, and the people are prepared for almost any sacrifices. There appears to be energy everywhere, though up to Friday the Emperor had not left his palace, personal government has been silently reinstated, and the Chamber votes supplies without a division. M. Thiers has protested against the opportuneness of the war, and the extreme Reds denounce it ;— but their voices are drowned in the general clamour, and in France also the war must be pronounced national. It should be noted, however, that while in Germany every man, from the King downwards, declares the war most formidable, •M. 011ivier affirms in the Chamber that he accepts it "with a light heart" (tiger cceur), and that all France outside a limited circle of observers believes victory certain. Self-confi- dence is a strength to Frenchmen as sadness is to Germans, but the revulsion, should defeat arrive, will be greater and more dangerous in France than in Germany. Nothing, moreover, hangs in Germany on the King's life ; everything in France hangs upon Napoleon's.
