Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish
Sir: I shall send a dispatch-bag to London to-night, but shall have nothing of very great importance to communicate to you. Military movements under the walls of Paris have been more active for the past few days than at any time since the insurrection began, but I cannot see that the Versailles troops have made any great headway. After all the talk, the fort of Issy has not yet been taken, but I consider it impossible for it to hold out much longer. The bombardment of all of our portion of the city, from Mont Valerien and the fortifications at Courbevoie, was much heavier yesterday than it had been any day previous. Shells came down the Champs Elysées as far as the Palace of Industry. Of course I have no knowledge of the plans of the government troops, or what the expectation of the Versailles people is at the present moment, as to how soon they will be able to suppress the insurrection; but I must say now, as I have before said, that I see no immediate prospect of a speedy termination of this frightful contest. While the government, for six or seven weeks, has been concentrating its troops and gathering strength, the commune has been strengthening itself in a greater ratio. With an army of seventy or eighty thousand effective men, well armed and equipped, with an abundant supply of cannon of every caliber, and of mitrailleuses, with more ammunition than could be consumed in a year, with gun-boats upon the Seine, with the possession of all the forts on the south side of the city, it can well be imagined that it is no small job to take Paris at the present time, with its enceinte, and prepared, as it has now become, by its interior barricades and defenses, to resist at almost every step. And the pecuniary resources of the commune are unbounded, for it holds in its own grasp all the wealth of Paris. It only has to make its decrees, to be enforced by the national guard, to seize everything of value upon which hands can be laid. It not only lays under contribution every source of revenue, but it has now commenced an organized pillage. As I am writing, an Alsatian who has called upon me to ask my protection, as being a German subject, informs me that night before last some national guards, armed with the authority of the committee of public safety, invaded the magnificent hotel of Mr. Martin, (du Nord,) one of the richest manufacturers in Prance, in the rue de Paradis, and carried off everything they could find—furniture, plate, jewelry, decorations, &c., &c. The sole allegation against him was that having been a colonel in the national guards, he had left Paris and gone to Versailles. As time runs on, these outrages will increase in number, and without the warrant of any pretended authority whatever. Nothing can be more terrible than the present prospect in Paris, and the discouragement of all the better classes has become complete. I continue to have the greatest anxiety for the large interests of our countrymen here, as well as of those Germans who are under my protection, [Page 339] and I propose to remain to protect them as long as my services can be of any value. The little that is to be done at Versailles at the present time can be attended to by Mr. Hoffman as well as by myself, and, as the interests which I represent are still so much more important in Paris, I have deemed it my duty, disagreeable as it is, to remain here most of the time.
The subjects of Alsace and Lorraine continue to throng the legation from morning until night, seeking laissez-passers and protection. The number of persons to whom I have given passes now reaches twenty-five hundred. I wrote to Prince Bismarck of the action I had taken in this regard, and he has directed General Fabrice, in command of the German forces now stationed near Paris, to thank me for what I have already done, and to request me to continue to act in the same way.
I propose to go to Versailles to-morrow and to pass the Sabbath with my family near Rambouillet, and to return here again on Monday. Our last dates are, from Washington, April 21, and from New York, the day following.
I have, &c.,