The Government is rapidly strengthening itself in Paris. The Mobiles,
who of course had succumbed to the strange fascina- tion of the great city, have been sent to their homes ; 40,000 troops from the Army of the Loire have been brought into Paris ; and General D'Aurelle des Paladines has been appointed Commandant of the National Guards, under the Ministry of War. He has declared his intention of repressing disorders sternly, has pledged himself to the chiefs of the National Guards that he is for the Republic, and has secured the adhesion of 100 battalions. His terrible sternness of character irritates the Ultras, who abuse him, not for retreating from before Orleans, —a disaster never yet explained, though Gambetta subsequently offered him another army,—but for the severity with which he restored discipline in the Army of the Loire. He actually shot officers, they say. Well, with a country in its last agony, when officers neglect duty, what is there to do but shoot them ? Or of what earthly use is a battalion of National Guards, if it is to plant cannon to defend itself against the orders of its own Government ? For the field, General des Paladines may be too old,—though he won Coulmiers—but to reorganize a citizen force which has lost its discipline he is the man.
