Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen; perhaps they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of soup and bread. Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the events of the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of the 117th Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather reciting, for he knows it all by heart, the proclamation of M. Picard, the official poster of the afternoon. “The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your children, and your property. “Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians. “They oppose force to the National Guard and the army. “Will you suffer it? “Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our discord, abandon Paris to sedition? “If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France will be ruined for ever. “Their destiny is in your hands. “The Government desires that you should hold your arms energetically to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from anarchy. Gather round your leaders; it is the only means of escaping ruin and the domination of the foreigner. “The Minister of the Interior, “ERNEST PICARD.” The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times “To arms!” and then dispersed—I thought for an instant, to arm themselves, though in reality it was only to reinforce another group forming on the other side of the way. This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so much so that Paris is divided between two parties: the one active and the other passive. To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris could have done to resist the insurrection. “Gather round your chiefs,” says the proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by the Coup d’Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause of order? It is true they sounded the “rappel”[11] and beat the “générale”;[12] but who commanded it? Was it the regular Government or the revolutionary Committee? More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but, after having put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt very puzzled, afraid of aiding the entente instead of strengthening the defenders of the law. Therefore the peaceful citizen soldiers regarded not the call of the trumpet and the drum.