SKETCHES OF THE SIEGE OF PARIS.* Tins second portfolio of
MM. Lawn and Veron's bulky work contains a good deal that most people would care to see, and much that must be interesting to Parisians, and persons inti- mately acquainted with the localities so frequently represented under such divers aspects. Of course, a good many scenes and views very similar in character were familiar to all of us in the periodical literature of the time, but those have probably perished, and these have been preserved and carefully enshrined in a mighty volume. The letter-press continues the general history of the war, but the sketches this time are all taken in Paris or its environs during the months of the siege, and
are characterised by much the same variations in quality as those of the first series. Both in respect to matter and manner, some of them, therefore, are quite uninterest- ing to foreigners ; but on the former account alone, they will naturally possess a melancholy value in the eyes of all those who passed through those terrible months of trial in Paris, or who, having left the doomed city before it was invested, returned to it after the peace, to find, perhaps, their favourite spots, their most familiar walks, or even, it may be, their own homes, re- duced to the desolate condition to which some of these drawings bear mournful witness. A series of sketches like this certainly brings home to the mind a sense of what may be called the domestic side of war, not the stirring, heroic incidents and great events,—the Generals, the soldiers, the kings, cannon, and death ; but the ruined house, the desolated garden, the queues at the provision-shop, the omnibus horses pulling up at the bursting of a shell, which has thrown down the market-woman and her basket; the solitary vidette amongst the ruins of a mill, or the soldiers' game of cards at the night bivouac. So rapid has been the restoration, that we have almost forgotten that six years ago Paris was half in ruins, and when we pass through its radiant streets there are few traces of the siege to recall to our minds that this city was for months a centre of fearful interest to nearly all Europe. Can we imagine London with shells bursting in front of the Strand omnibuses, the trees in Piccadilly cut down for firewood, Oxford Circus converted into a slaughtering-place for oxen and horses, and soldiers quartered in the villas cif Wimbledon, Sydenham, and Richmond? Yet all that this implies, and more, was the fate of Paris :- " Es ist eine alto Geschichte, Doch bliebt the immer nen, Und wem sie jusst passioret, Dem bricht.das Herz entzwei ;" —only the heart of Paris was anything but broken, no more, in fact, than that of the poet himself ; he could write many more verses, and Paris may stand many more sieges, and recover. But the possibility of recovery does not diminish the suffering while it is being endured, and it is as well that we should be reminded of those results of war that so soon slip out of mind when out of sight. Not that the horrors of war are at all a suitable subject for art ; we expressed our feeling on that subject in a former notice. But sketches like these are, like special correspondents' letters, done with an object,—to give some idea of the facts, not carefully wrought-out works of art, intended to display the cleverness of the artist in realising a frightful scene. And indeed actual horrors do not predominate in this volume, where many of the incidents are civil, and most of the military ones, so to speak, passive in character,—sentries on guard, troops marching, foraging, or bivouacking. There is no actual fighting ; the nearest approach to it is a scene in the ruins of the Villa Palizzi, where several men are waiting, revolver and sword in hand, for the enemy, who are dimly seen cautiously advancing through a shattered and dis- tant doorway. In another plate a night attack is being made near Bagneu, and dark figures creep across a field of snow ; the distance of trees and buildings is especially good in this sketch, indeed M. Lancon rather shines in distances, when he takes pains, which he does not always do. Another excellent wide view of ; country is, " entre la Courneuve et le Bourget," where soldiers are gathering cabbages between the lines, with a background of fields, I trees, houses, and low hills indicated with very light and graceful work and an unexceptionable sky, which latter is not always to be found in M. Lawn's landscape-work. We do not know whether it is a necessary consequence of war that your sky should be black- ened with wildly crossing and waving lines, so that you can hardly distinguish day from night, or the clouds of heaven from the smoke-clouds and sometimes even from the hills of earth. To our mind, M. Lancon has far too strong a liking for black- • La Troisieme Invasion. Par bi. Eugene V5ron. Eaux-Fortes par M. Auguste • Colonial E.rperiences; or, Incidents and Reminiscences of Thirty Years in Irmo Down. Paris: Llbrairie de l'Art. Deuxibme Partici. . Zealand. By an Old Colonist. London : Chapman and Hall. ness, not only in his skies, but in vehement contrast with white, as in the " Eglise de Is Courneuve," where the pulpit and some of the men might be gigantic lumps of coal en silhouette against the white walls ; and in several others, where horses and men have " bitten " to such an extent that they almost make holes in the paper. That he can do more moderate work is amply shown on the dark side by several night interiors, sometimes very cleverly lighted from the centre of the picture, as where a group of large figures lie at full-length and throw their heels up, playing cards round an impromptu bottle-candlestick. Though the whole scene is dark, variety of tone is sufficiently preserved to distinguish the objects, while the mass-effect is retained. But on the whole, the day- light views are most pleasing, and executed with better workman- ship, at least as regards the scene ; the figures are often very characteristic, and sometimes well drawn. Proportion seems to be M. Lancon's weakest point, both in the relations of different parts of single figures to each other—heads often being small and feet unconscionably big, with a great length of limb between— and also between different groups at slight distances, or even members of the same group. II orses are another 'weak point,—but we need not dwell upon that. On the whole, this work is not better than most of the good illustrated-paper sketches, and not so good as the best of them, and therefore, as we have said, it is chiefly interesting for its subject-matter. In this volume there are excellent maps, not of Paris only, but of Orleans, Amiens, and their surroundings and other principal scenes of the war. M. Veron, like other people, finds great fault with the defence of Paris and the general conduct of the war, a thing probably not difficult to do when you are dealing with the losing side in any campaign. He still believes that if the French people had possessed " un sentiment vrai de la situation," and had " risen " all over the country, they could have made it too hot for the Germans to remain. M. V4ron has spoken, "but whether wisely or not, let the forest judge," as Touchstone says. His narrative ends with the peace, not entering on the second siege and the terrible fighting between Frenchman and Frenchman, more painful than a contest, however unsuccess- ful, with a foreign foe.
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