The cold is terrible, and the absence of firewood causes great suffering.

The Government is cutting down trees as fast as possible, and by the time it thaws there will be an abundance of fuel.

In the meantime it denounces in the _Official Journal_ the bands of marauders who issue forth and cut down trees, park benches, and garden palings.

I must say that I don't blame them.

When the thermometer is as low as it is now, and when there is no fire in the grate, the sanctity of property as regards fuel becomes a mere abstraction.