Nothing was lost in the beginning of November. The army, the mobiles,
the marines numbered, according to the plebiscite, 246,000 men and 7,500
officers: 125,000 National Guards capable of serving a campaign might
easily have been picked out in Paris, and 129,000 left for the defence
of the interior.[21] The necessary armaments might have been furnished
in a few weeks, the cannon especially, every one depriving himself of
bread in order to endow his battalion with five pieces, the traditional
pride of the Parisians. "Where find 9,000 artillerists?" said Trochu.
Why, in every Parisian mechanic there is the stuff of a gunner, as the
Commune has sufficiently proved. In everything else there was the same
superabundance. Paris swarmed with engineers, overseers, foremen, who
might have been drilled into officers. There lying wasted were all the
materials for a victorious army.
The gouty martinets of the regular army saw here nothing but barbarism.
This Paris, for which Hoche, Marceau, Kleber would have been neither too
young, nor too faithful, nor too pure, had for generals the residue of
the Empire and Orleanism, Vinoy of December, Ducrot, Luzanne, Leflo, and
a fossil like Chabaud-Latour. In their pleasant intimacy they made much
fun of the defence.[22] Finding, however, that the joke was lasting a
little too long, the 31st October enraged them. They conceived an
implacable, rabid hatred to the National Guard, and up to the last hour
refused to utilise it.
Instead of amalgamating the forces of Paris, of giving to all the same
_cadres_, the same uniforms, the same flag, the proud name of National
Guard, Trochu had maintained the three divisions: the army, mobiles, and
civilians. This was the natural consequence of his opinion of the
Defence. The army, incited by the staff, shared its hatred of Paris, who
imposed on it, it was said, useless fatigues. The mobiles of the
provinces, prompted by their officers, the cream of the country squires,
became also embittered. All, seeing the National Guard despised,
despised it, calling them, "_Les a outrance! Les trente sous!_" (Since
the siege the Parisians received thirty sous--1s. 2-1/2d.--as indemnity.)
Collisions were to be feared every day.[23]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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