armies, tho capture of strong fortresses, the bombardment of the fairest towns, have failed to dishearten or daunt the French, and in the face of a victorious foe France has dared to raise and drill new armies and to lead afresh hundreds and thousands to war after the old army has been utterly annihilated. It is altogether an unprecedented phenomenon,—a sight as noble as it is sorrowful.
The winter has been unusually severe this year, and there was snow on the ground for three weeks together. The thermometer wont down some 12° below the freezing point, water was frozen up every where, and plenty of skating went on during the whole of the period. Winter of 1870-71.The water in our jugs, &c, were now and then covered by a layer of ice on which the Liliputians might well have a jolly skating. Now and then we had a heavy fall of snow, and even the streets of London were sometimes covered with snow 6 inches deep, to the great annoyance of traffic. There was a thaw after this long period of cold, and we had a few days of mild weather, but for the last three or four days the cold has set in again, skating is going on, and every where the ground is covered thick with snow. This afternoon I had a delightful walk up the Primrose Hill and through the Regent's Park. The sky was clear and cloudless to-day and the white sheet of snow looked beautiful indeed under the yellow rays of the setting sun. The Primrose Hill was a hill of uniform white, glittering under the sun, and standing out in bold relief against the greyish blue canvas of the sky. In the park you could see a wide and uniform sheet of snow dotted here and there
