At Lausanne They Have
Sincere And Solid Republican Principles And They Do Not Pay That Servile
Court To The English That The Genevese Do; Nor Have They As Yet Adopted The
Phrase "Dieu Me Damne."
PARIS, Dec.
5th.
I returned to Paris by Geneva and crossing the Jura chain of mountains
passed thro' Dole, Auxonne and Dijon. At Geneva, where I stopped three
days, I met, at a musical party given by M. Picot the banker, the
celebrated cantatrice Grassini, who looked as beautiful as ever, and sung
in the most fascinating style several airs, particularly "Quelle pupille
tenere" in the opera of the Orazj e Curiazi. To my taste her style of
singing is far preferable to that of Catalani; there is much more pathos
and feeling in the singing of Grassini; it is completely and truly the
"cantar che nell'anima si sente." Catalani is very powerful, wonderful,
if you will, in execution; but she does not touch my heart as Grassini
does.
On my return to Paris from Geneva I found that the conditions of peace had
been made public. They are certainly hard, not so much on account of the
cession of territory, which is trifling, as on account of the vast sums of
money that Prance is obliged to pay, and the still more galling condition
of having to pay and feed at her expense an army of occupation of 150,000
men, of the Allied troops, for a term of three or five years, and to cede
during that period several important fortresses. The inhabitants of Paris
look very gloomy and nobody seems to think that the peace will last half as
long. Prussia and Austria strove hard to wrest Alsace and German Lorraine
from France; hosts of German publicists had accompanied their armies into
France and had written pamphlet upon pamphlet to prove that mountains and
not rivers were the proper boundaries of nations and that wherever the
German language prevails, the country ought to belong to the Germanic body.
Ergo, the Vosges mountains were the natural boundaries of France, and
Alsace and German Lorraine should revert to Germany. Russia and England,
however, opposed this, and insisted that these two provinces should remain
with France; but I have no doubt that the first movements that may occur in
France (and they will perhaps be secretly encouraged) will serve as a
pretext for the Allies to separate these countries definitively from
France.
The Louvre has been stripped of the principal statues and pictures which
have been sent back to the places from whence they were taken, to the great
mortification of the Parisians, most of whom would have consented to the
cession of Alsace and Lorraine and half of France to boot on condition of
keeping the statues and pictures. The English Bureaux are preparing to
leave Paris and the troops will soon follow; a new French army is
organizing and several Swiss battalions are raised. It is generally
supposed that by the end of December France, with the exception of the
fortresses and districts to be occupied by the Allied Powers, will be freed
from the pressure of foreign troops.
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