The Sun. — London, England, 1870-08-29 00:00:00

THE WAR. DANGEROUS SITUATION AT PARIS. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) FRIDAY. The position here is becoming too critical to admit of much further tension. So great are the evils caused by the want of a defined Government, that some attempt to supply the deficiency will surely be made if the news of another reverse comes. The Emperor has not abdicated ; he does not reign ; the Empress receives not the slightest attention from any quarter ; and the Ministry, composed entirely of Imperalist adherents, is embarrassed with its double task of providing efficiently for the defence of the country, and of giving heed to the requirements of dynastic interests. The nation has no guides to whom it can look for adequate aid in this crisis. A good Parlia ment might supply the want, it might exercise authority and command respect ; but it has never been the policy of Cxsarism to have a good Parliament. The dummies elected by administrative influence did the work of Imperialism better than any independent intellects could have done it ; but a Chamber whose members were selected chiefly on account . %capacity _ is not equal to the present crisis. Called to exercise paramour. t influence the affair Ugialatif find thelnselvc ightene,d at the 1. ,t are a, Pal LI lAA um.- ..........-- i''rance, the majority in the Corps tteri aequal to the tfi.k. r which iicts itieurrt k.y itomed to imply al the to devise of able intellects is the Republican section, which is in a great minority. Yet it is from this handful of deputies that vigorous action is to be expected. It makes up for lack of numbers by the vigour and persistency of its movements. Incessant disputes occupy the sittings of the Chamber. Continual are the attacks of the Left ; and after each fresh onslaught, the Right seem less capable of making head against the storm, and more afraid of using their superior force to defeat and silence their enter prising, though perhaps not very statesmanlike, oppo nents. These disputes turn on a variety of hinges. Now it is the lack of information communicated from the Ministry of the Interior, now the Emperor and his dynasty, the arming of the people, and the repressive measures of the Government that cause in their turn these violent quarrels. A pretext is never wanting. Not a day passes without a contest. Yesterday there was a variety of skirmishes. M. Girault asked why the departments of the Cher and the Nievre had been put in a state of siege when other surrounding districts had escaped all interference of the kind. He used scant moderation in putting the question. The Minister of the Interior on rising was met by loud entreaties from the Right to give no answer. M. Girault said he should demand an answer by force. Amid tremendous uproar, the President called him to order. He answered that he would not leave the tribune till he was dragged away. Next followed some angry talk about the conduct of the Maire of Chalons and the Prefect of the Meurthe in recommending the citizens of their districts to make no attempt at resistance to the Germans, He of the Meurthe has been dismissed for his too prudent behaviour ; the Maire of Chalons is "under considera tion." Then M. Jules Ferry headed a debate on the propriety of facilitating the supply of arms by, in the first place, importing them, and, in the second place, by allowing private firms to furnish a quantity. A commis sion to which this suggestion had been referred reported against it. But M. Ferry resolved to have a field fight on the subject. Of course the fear of the Government and the wish of the Opposition are palpable enough. Let the Republicans only secure free trade in weapons, and they will be quite prepared to support the Republic when the time comes for dec:arh.g it. But naturally the Government kept this essence of the question carefully out of sight. They urged various weak objections to the proposal, all of which M. Ferry met by the one answer that the Fiafety of the State demanded a i.pid supply of arms, that 0, 'ernraent workshop were not able to manufacture them with sufficient speod, awl r.:..c1 of the changes. The administration had already behaved recklessly in this matter. One gun makc,r haul offered MOM Chassepots, and had been refused Such proceed;n:4, sail M. Ferry, paralysed the defence of the country for the profit of the dynastic interest. This is one of the neat sentences by which the Left continue to bring about these explosions in the Chamber. The Right murmured at these words; the Left vehemently applauded them. Violent interruption followed when M. Picard declared that to talk of formality and old laws (such a one as pro hibited the free manufacture of arms) at such a crisis was to make France the laughing stock of the world. The uproar became frightful when M. Picard declared that if the law prohibiting the pur chase of arms were not repealed, he would take by violence the weapons he needed to de fend his country. M. Ferry was beaten by 235 to GI. The Right, however, dared not repeat this triumph. A demand by Count Kdratry for a secret committee met with very little opposition. Of news there is again none worth the slightest notice. Such items as " The siege of Strasbourg continues," to gether with some vague and untrustworthy details about army movements make up the whole of the bulletin. The Agence Savas goes so far as to say, as its latest telegram, that Bazaine won the battle of the 18th, and that he pre vented Prince Frederick's army from joining the Crown Prince ; when it is admitted on all hands that a portion of the former's army has departed to strengthen the latter. Such " news "is sufficient to make France ridiculous before Europe. M. 011ivier is about to publish a pamphlet entitled "Ma Justification." It unfortunately happens that no body wants to hear either of M. 011ivier or his justifica tion at present. Scant benefit will he reap by bringing himself befere the public. He may justify his attempt to found a Liberal Empire, but how can he excuse his being duped by the Emperor when all hope of liberality in the Empire had departed ? General Trochu has reviewed 22,000 of the Garde Mobile on the plain of Saint-Maur. They were armed with Chassepots, and looked very well. The general had an excellent reception, and, indeed, is very popular. So he ought to be, for besides him the crisis has brought out no man capable of grappling with its difficulties. The Germans are digging deep trenches round Nancy, and they are laying up in that city a great quantity of provisions and ammunition. The Germans have ceased throwing bombs into Stras• bourg. Their losses have been considerable from the sorties made by the garrison and the bombs which have fallen into their trenches. Several German spies have been arrested to-day in Paris. Three others were arrested yesterday at Brest. The last were men whose audacity and courage have never been surpassed in the annals of the spying trade. One of them, dressed as an admiral, called himself the Minister of the Marine and Colonies, The other two, in the uniform of gendarmes escorted him. The would-be Minister ex . . . amined minutely every part of the arsenal, and took copious notes, the inferior officers giving him every ex planation. On leaving the port, the soldiers turned out and presented arms. The three spies were walkingquietly away, when for their misfortune the deputy for the city made his appearance. A gentleman present asked the deputy why he did not speak to the Minister. Which Minister ? The admiral was pointed out. The deputy went up to him, seized the would-be admiral by the throat, and called for assistance. The spies were arrested and shot the same night. The Figaro gives an account of two thousand arrests which it says have been made in Paris. They belong for the most part to the lowest classes of society, who prowl about the barriers and support themselves by carrying on the meanest trades. Some important dis- coveries have however been made by this seizure. Compromising papers were found upon four individuals who appear to be German spies. A fifth, a Pole, from the Grand Duchy of Baden, was the bearer of £4OO in English and German gold. Among the prisoners are two hundred women. They were taken to the Conciergerie amid the shouts of the spectators. They make a great disturbance in their calls, but the gaolers turn a deaf ear to their remon strances and threats. The orders which have been issued by the military authorities are of a formal character, and their object is to rid Paris of men and women without regular employment, who conceal many traitors among their ranks. Prussia seeks her agents in the lowest haunts, saaci it Is well, therefore, to turn out these haunts SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 29, 1870. as quickly as possible, for the meanest spies are likely to prove the most dangerous ones. The arrests still continue and in one police-station there are as many as forty new prisoners. LOUIS BLANC ON ENGLISH FEELING. Louis Blanc, in his London letter to the Temps, says : " In the critical circumstances in which we are placed it is necessary, before all things, to face the situation boldly. To repose in indifference would be criminal. To fail would be contemptible. But to nurse ourselves in illusions would be madness. The first step to wards repulsing the danger ~is to know its extent. The French people would be strangely trans formed if they had lost the heroic habit of extending their courage with their danger. When, therefore, we examine the situation and compare the accounts given in the French journals, official and nonofficial, with the ac counts published in England we are driven to fear that France is ignorant of the full extent of her peril. The English do not understand—though history might tell them—of how much France is capable, and they are inclined to think her condition desperate. In fact nothing French that is official obtains the least credence here. Any telegram signed by the King of Prussia is received in England as an article of faith. Any telegram announcing an advantage gained by our arms is received as if it did not exist. When the contra dictory news of the murderous battle of the 16th was received, all the placards ran :—" Great Victory of the Prussians. The French Claim the Victory." In other " the Prissiars have conquered, since they say so ; the Frunch, th.ey are telling us falsehoods*" This a Frenchman living in England. that it is a matter of life spoleon to conceal the reverses words ,able consequences of his own incapa city, ox ms usulu and foolish precipitation. Every one says that each defeat experienced by the heroic soldiers of France is a formal accusation against the Empire. He is obliged, therefore, to hide the dark side of things as much as possible. This, perhaps, is partly the reason of the in credulity with which French official accounts are received, but the English have another reason for being doubtful of our successes. If I could ever have doubted the existence of the old national jealousy which centuries of war and rivalry have fomented between Eng land and France, what I hear, what I read, what I see now would undeceive me. There is some degree of sym pathy for us no doubt, and it manifests itself in some of the English journals, but the general current of English opinion in this war is Prussian. That is the truth. I know that the Liberal press justifies itself by saying that we provoked the war, but have they forgotten that they themselves gave the blame to the Imperial Government alone, and declared it to be a dynastic war, a duel between two men ? Why, then, do they to-day throw all the responsibility of the ills on France as a nation ? Their partiality is evident and no doubt exaggerates our danger ; but that danger is pressing enough, and should rouse us all to heroic effort. Let us recall the cry which brought victory to our fathers, and proved the most powerful which has ever sounded in history. ' The country is in danger.' " MOVEMENTS AT RHEIMS AND CHALONS. The correspondent of the Temps ; Captain Jeannerod, con tinues his letters. The last is dated from Rheims, August 24th :—" The passenger trains have been stopped in all directions, and most of the correspondents of the Parisian press have been warned to leave this morning for Soissons. MacMahon is carrying on his movement ; the Emperor follows him. The Uhlans are at the camp of Chalons to the number of 12. They have carried off a letter box, and were dispersed by a few shots from a reconnaissance. As for the town, lam told that twenty four of them entered and went direct to the hotel of the division, without needing to ask their way. I told you in my last letter of the unworthy plunder of which the railway station bore traces. The same thing seems to have happened at Chalons. It is shameful. Here guards have been put over the barrels of bacon and casks of wine broken open and have been selling them to their comrades. A ham sold for 50 centimes, a loaf for 10 centimes, &c. The American ambulance was at Rheims this morning, and the members of the International are also to be found there. I fear, however, that in the general confusion spies and intriguers may avail themselves of the red cross on white ground. The last news concerning spies was that a Prussian colonel had been seized in the suburbs. He was very speedily released, in consequence of a message from the Empress to MacMahon. What has the Empress to do with the matter ? GEORGES JEANNEROD, M. Valnay-Desroches, war correspondent of the Univers Illustre, is missing. The Austro-Hungarian Government has notified its concurrence in the declaration of neutrality which has has been proposed by England, and already accepted by Italy and Russia.—Eastern Budget. The Jonrnal des Debats says that the Belgian and Dutch Governments would undoubtedly have permitted the conveyance of the Prussian wounded through their terri tories without consulting France but for the representa tions of England. The South London Press states that Mr. Robert Apple garth, secretary to the Society of the Amalgamated Carpenters, has gone to the Prussian frontier with a quantity of lint, &c., for the benefit of the wounded soldiers. The special object of Mr. Applegarth's visit is to follow in the track of the army with a view to ascer taining the effects of war upon the homes and families of working men. The Paris correspondent of the Daily News writes : "There is now no doubt that three very great ladies— Mdme. de Pourtales, Mdme. de Baheque, and the Duchess Tascher de la Pagerie—have been arrested as Prussian spies. The first two are in Vincennes, and everybody says they will be shot, as courts-martial know of no ex ception for the fair sex. I hear, but am not quite sure, that the Empress has interfered to get the Duchess Tascher de la Pagerie out of harm's way. There is a ferocious appetite for blood just now, which would rejoice greatly at the military execution of some ladies who but yesterday were the most brilliant ornaments of the Court of the Tuileries." Colonel Loyd-Lindsay sends to the papers a letter he has received from an English friend at Pont-h-Mousson, in which the writer says :—" The German officers tell me that their first want is money in Berlin ; next, ex perienced surgeons who speak German fluently, none others are of any use; third, and in some respects the most important of all, stores of chloroform (very scarce here), _ . _ . _ of bandages, lint, and surgicul instruments. All the French wounded have fallen into the hands of the Ger mans, and they have been treated like their own people, without the slightest distinction of nationality, Some of them have told me, 'Nous avons ete soignes comme si nous dtions des freres par ces autres.'" The writer adds in a postcript :—" Don't send any more ladies; the work is too heavy for any but strong men." At St. Avoid the Prussian general levied, says a French paper, a contribution altogether out of proportion to the resources of the place. As he could not get what he wanted, he threatened St. Avoid with an hour's pil lage ; and in fact as the amount required was not paid, the Prussian soldiers ransacked the town for an hour, and made all sorts of exactions. The battle of Gravelotte, says the Berliner Boersen• zeitung, seems to have been one of the most sanguinary that has ever been fought. Two of our regiments of dragoons who approached a village which they were n',t aware was occupied by French foot soldiers and artillery, were annihilated by the mitrailleuse. The Prussian Guard suffered greatly in this fight, and among the Prussian officers killed was the only son of Count Itzenplitz, the Minister of Commerce. The Liberte states positively, without giving any details. that the Government has taken measures on a large scale to hinder the march of the Prussians on Paris. It is a mistake to suppose the road from the Haute Marne to the capital is clear of obstacles and of troops. The Police Commiss'oners have been inspecting the bakers' shops of Paris to ensure that they have sufficient supply of flour or grain. They are required to have a supply for 40 days, calculated on the basis of their ordi nary sale. It is reported that 4,500 guns have arrived at Chartres and been distributed to the Garde Mobile. The Garde Mobile of Eure-et-Soir may be cited as a model for the progress it has made by the instruction of a few days. General Boyer, who superintends their labours, d ec l ares that they already march and carry on manoeuvres like old troops. As signs of the patriotism that has been dis played, it is said that not one of the old soldiers called back to .the .service in the department : 'of,4riegq . has failed tp obey the summons, and that the young men who have been exempted from joining the service have ex pressed their desire to be with the army coniplished, and with great advantage. France, however, as has been already said, might in consequence have pushed hew troops beyond the frontier, and lived at our expense, and this was attended with a yet greater evil. In view of the French corps, not destined to great operations, but ready for short and rapid blows, our railway trans port could not be brought right up to the frontier, as the successively arriving divisions were in the highest degree endangered by the enemy's advance, and at best must have begun with retreating fight's. It was proposed, therefore, so to bring back the focus point of the army that, as soon as that point could be reached by the advancing enemy, sufficient force would be assembled to' oppose him with a prospect of success. Every hour, of course, altered the situation ; every day was a gain. When the announcement came that the enemy was not pressing for ward, we were able to carry on a stage further the divi sions which were immediately following. This difficult task of railway transport had been foreseen, and carefully pro vided for, so that by dint of restless activity, after the issue of the order of mobilization, on the part of all concerned, a work hitherto inconceivable was brilliantly accomplished. In this way every check or backward movement wa s guarded against. The army collected at Treves advanced to Mayence, and then by both sides of the Rhine to Mannheim; the heads pressed forwards in proportion as the reinforcements arrived. All the advailablerailways being called into activity, troops of separate corps, as their mobilization was completed, were conveyed on one line, and the corps arriving later were brought into the first line of those which.were marching. This was being con tinued when the heads were already in collision with the enemy, so that it was almost impossible for the enemy to inform himself of the dispositions of our troops. We, on the contrary, had a perfectly satisfactory account of the French army, as their corps formed on the frontier, and thre remainedquietly for weeks. The result was, therefore, that the main force of the enemy developed itself opposite the Prussian Star, while Marshal MacMahon's corps was in some measure isolated in Alsace, and on the Upper Rhine a corps still in course of formation was projected. AB long as the mustering up of the German army was not completed, the authorities were obliged to keep on the defensive; but they by no means intended, notwithstand ing the initiative of France in this respect, to remain waitin g as soon as they were able to attack the enemy in his own territory. There could not be a more tempting invitation to an attack by part of our force than Mac- Mahon's proximity to the Crown Prince's army. The task of the latter during the period of defensive waiting had been to protect South Germany, a task which could not have been better fulfilled than by assuming the offensive on the left bank of the Rhine, and seeking the enemies threatening South Germany on their own territory. The Crown Prince accordingly broke up his encampment, crossed the Lauter on the 3rd of August, destroyed on the 4th Douay's Division at Wissembourg, and on the 6th, in the bloody battle of Woerth defeated MacMahon's corps, though strengthened by troops from the south, in such a manner that with its enormous losses it was almost dis solved. The remainder of the review recapitulates events that are of recent occurrence. the inhabitants of which town have been warmly wel corned in the neighbourhood, has been already commenced. mid we hope that shortly the losses of these sufferers wit be amply repaid them.— Carlsruhe Gazetb3 of the 22nd. • VICTUALLING ARRANGEMENTS.—An important help in victualling the troops is afforded by a novel description of food, imitated from no less distant a quarter than China. It consists of the pease pudding, for centuries employed in keeping body and soul together among the Celestials, a cheap article that does not deteriorate for a length of time, and contains a large quantity of nutri tious matter in a small compass. To make it even more palatable the Germans have improved upon the Chinese pattern by mixing smoked meat, chopped up small, with the peas. If boiled it forms a complete meal of joint and vegetable ; if eaten cold it is equally good, and a small quantity will last a man for a day. Near my house is a manufactory where about a thousand persons are said to be employed in the production of this useful comestible. lam also told that a peculiar kind of fodder is being made of beans for the horses of the army, though I cannot say to what extent it has been adopted. As valuable for the quadruped as the pease pudding is for the biped, a fiva days' supply is easily carried by any horse.—Times Correspondent. POSITIONS OF THE FRENCH.—As far as I can learn the following is the state of things as stated by the Ministers to their friends. Marshal Canrobert with a division has been heard of at Spincinet, to which village he managed to get after the battle of the 18th; Marshal MacMahon, with 160,000 men, is somewhere north of Rheims, and hopes to be able to effect a junction with Canrobert, if not with Bazaine. At St. Maur there are 20,000 Mobiles. An army Is ,being formed behind the Loire and another at Bourges. So much for official whisperings. All I know is that MacMahou is beyond Rheims, and that several regiments of the line and several battalions of Garde Mobile have been sent off from the Station du Nord. A friend of mine, too, tells me that there are a large number of regiments near Bourges. General Trochu 1:: - .....3 issued a proclamation ordering all persons who are unable to provide for themselves to leave Paris, on the ground that a foreign army is within a march of three days from the capital. The Mayor of Chalons has followed the example of his colleague in Nancy, and has surrendered the town to five Uhlans, much to the indig nation of the fire-eaters.—Daily News Correspondent. THE LOSSES IN THE CAMPAIGN.—The German Government has not as yet published any estimate of it actual losses, though it has given lists of officers killed • , but the Berlin correspondents estimate them at about 50,000 men for the battles alone, that is, not counting sick. The King is almost apolo getic about them, and a deep and sad gravity has settled down on Germany. Them is grave reason to be lieve that this estimate is far within the truth, and that at least seventy-five thousand Germans have been placed hors de combat. The French loss is probably not so great, they having at Woerth, Forbach,. and Metz had great advantages of position ; but it is to be noted that while the French have no prisoners, the Prussians have taken so many, 25,000 in all, as to burden their fortresses. The difference is explained on both sides partly by the way in which French cavalry charge the needle-gun, and are captured when dismounted, but mainly by the French foible of wasting cartridges. Of course a regiment without cartridges could be captured en mass'—and this, in one instance at least, has happened.—Spectator. THE SICK AND WOUNDED OF THE WAR I With the view of shewing a practical sympathy for the sufferers in the terrible war now raging on the continent, Messrs. Montague, James, and Thorne, the lessees, gave a performance on Saturday afternoon, at the Vaudeville Theatre,- Strand, in aid of the fund now being raised for the sick and wounded soldiers of the French and German armies. As might naturally have been expected from the wide-spread interest that is being evinced in the movement for alleviating the sufferings of the combatants, independently of nationality, there was a large attendance at the theatre ; and, although the gallery was nearly vacant—a circum stance which can be readily accounted for—every other portion of the neat little theatre was well filled. The piece selected for the occasion was the comedy which has been having, and deservedly so, so successful a run—" The Two Roses." Our object is not so much to criticise as to direct attention to the cause of the perfor mance ; and it will therefore suffice to say that the sustentation of the various characters was unexception ally good, all the performers acting in a manner to shew that they had a keen perception of the peculiarities of their parts, with a corresponding ability for their por trayal. The Misses Amy Fawsitt, A. Newton, T. Lavis, and Phillip, and Messrs. H. J. Montague, T. Thorne, H. Irving, G. Honey, and W. H. Stephens, were the ladies and gentlemen who performed in the comedy, and all of whom, in conjunction with the members of the hand and every person engaged on the establishment with a kindness which does them credit, gave their services gratuitously. The acting was well received throughout by an appreciative audience, and at the conclusion of the (entertainment Mr. Montague announced that the receipts 'were £65 125., and that the only expense to be deducted ! was for advertising,' which, though rather heavy, was in dispensable on such occasions, amounting to £26155., leaving a net profit of the not unhandsome sum of I£3B 175., a cheque for which would be immediately handed 'over to the Lord Mayor for transmission to the continent. The announcement was received with great applause. MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMIES. We believe the Prussians will march on. There are strong reasons, inherent to the constitution of such an "armed nation" as is now invading France, which must reduce a campaign to a great and rapid effort. Prussia must either conquer within three months or change the tactics that have been hitherto uniformly successful. That army, that formidable " battering ram," as it has been called, consisting of one phalanx of half a million combatants, which is hurled at an enemy as against a wall and must either break it or be broken, must do its work speedily. It has forced the passes of -the Vosges, it has stormed the plateaux around Metz; no matter at what cost, no matter with what amount of bruising and shat tering to the catapult itself. It must breach the detached forte'ef the enemy's capital, or compel it to submission. Thereis no amount of blood and gold the Prussians will not sacrifice. Time alone they cannot spare ; for, during the struggle, their country is in a state of " suspended animation," and the French boast, not without a certain reason, that every day which passes is a clay gained for themselves. —Times. We have on a former occasion given reasons for think ing that, after its recent losses, Bazaine's army does not exceed 60,000 men, but several of our contemporaries who have also gone into the question carefully compute its strength at 80,000 ; it may possibly reach that figure. What force, then, should the King of Prussia leave to observe and retain au army of this magnitude which, by the bridges and gates of the fortress,, may appear on either side of the river? It will probably be thought that 160,000, or twice the number of the French army should be sufficient for the duty. Let us see, then, whether this number could be spared, after sending a large corps away from the fortress to supp )rt the Crown Prince. 'We know from the composition of the armies of General Steinmetz and Prince Frederick Charles that when they first took part in the war at Forbach on the 6th of August their two armies had a united strength of 353,000 men. Let us sup pose that their losses at Forbach, at Pange, at Mars la Tour, and at RezonVille amounted to seventy thousand ; this leaves them with a strength of 283,000. Here, then, are men enough to allow of the assignment of 160,000 to watch Bazaine at Metz, of 100,000 to join the Crown Prince on his march to Paris, and of a reserve of 23,000 to remain with the King at Bar-le-Duc, or wherever else he may appoint. But this estimate, which has been constructed in the ordinary manner, is far from representing the real strength of the German armies. We ought not to have deducted the 70,000 for loss, because under the German system loss is, at any rate in the early stages of a war, immediately repaired. The places of the men lost in the recent battles are already filled, as our correspondent at Frankfort has informed us, and thus the reserves which we have supposed to be retained with the King should be reckoned not at 23,000 but at 93,000. Supposing, then, MacMahon to unite with Bazaine, their collective strength, amounting to 160,000 old troops, we see that they would have to contend with 253,000 German troops, even if not one of the 250,000 men new with the Crown Prince took any part in the struggle.—Daily News. If the new G , ...rman army is really, as we believe, com posed of corps drawn away from the environs of Metz, it is easy to understand the despatches which inform us that the Prussians are moving in the direction of Varen nes ; that the French population near Stenay is vigor ously defending itself against the Prussians; and that there has been a collision at Stenay, from which many wounded has been carried into Montmedy. Troops detached from the west of Metz, to co-operate with the Crown Prince against an army defending Paris on the north bank of the Marne, would not unnaturally seek to throw themselves upon one flank of the enemy's force, while the Crown Prince from the south eastward pressed against the othea. Thus the army of MacMahon might find itself between two bodies of strength equal to its own, and might be obliged either to fight at a dis advantage, or to withdraw beyond Paris leaving the plain of Champagne clear for the invader's advanoe. Stenay and Varennes, both in the Forest of Argonne, on the very borders of Lorraine and Champagne, lie on the path of a Prussian force crossing directly westward from the Moselle to the Meuse and the plain of Chalons. The direct road to Varennes—the place where the luckless Louis XVI. was arrested in his attempt to quit France is, indeed, blocked by the fortress of Verdun ; but it is not very difficult to turn the fortress; and since the road of Varennes leads on the pass of Grandpr4, the principal debouche from Northern Lorraine into Cham pagne, the appearance of Prussians in that quarter is easily enough explained. By Stenay, on the Meuse, twenty miles north of Varennes, and ten miles south west of Montmedy, passes the highway from Etain ; and thence it returns south-westward on the -other slope of the hills, by La Cheve or Vouziers to Rethel and Rheims. We knew the other day that the Prussians were present everywhere be tween the Moselle and the Meuse ; and it now appears that Marshal MacMahon's break up from Rheims on the morning of the 23rd betokened eomething more than a further escape from the Crown Prince—even an attempt to reach and liberats Bazaine, now, as his very friends admit, beleaguered in Metz. MacMahon was described by eye-witnesses of his new and sud den start on Tuesday as taking the roads north-east towards Rethel and Montmedy; and as the distance to the latter place from Rheims is about sixty miles, his advanced guard might well be in the neighbourhood of Stenay on Thursday night, when a telegram sent from a generally trustworthy source to an evening contemporary states that an engagement took place there. If the new army of the Crown Prince of Saxony was making its way round the north of the Argonne Forest, avoiding the fortress of Verdun, and seeking to take the army of Chalons in flank, Stenay is just about the point at which it might be expected to make its presence known. And if IVlacMahon has really rushed off on the boldest but maddest enterprise of the war—the attempt extricate Bazaine—we may expect important tidings ere long from the totally novel direction of the Ardennb Forest. Mac Mahon's movement to the north-east makes one thing perfectly clear—that Bazaine, despite every affirmation to the contrary, is and was closely shut up in Metz.— Telegraph. With the march of the King to Bar-le-Duc a possibility of relieving Metz opened itself before MacMahon, and may have seemed far more flattering than it is. He pro bably does not believe that Paris is defensible ; he has no means of knowing the extent of the German reinforcements ; and he probably hopes that if by possibility he can reach Monttn6dy, so as to make from thence a furious attack upo the Prussians, whilst lia,zaine breaks out towards him from his entrenchments, he may save the Army of the Rhine. The attempt is nearly hopeless, for the game has to be played against a player who forgets nothing— the terrible Baron who, it is said, explained to the Crown Prince before the frontier was crossed every event that has yet occurred—that is, of course, who has resolved to carry out his fixed plans, be the losses what they may. The Marshal must move at his highest speed, or the Crown Prince may strike him down, and speed means loss of means loss of men and means ; he has to pass right through Prussian outposts announced on Friday to extend from Stenay to Varennes, and able even if they are only cavalry, to inform Prince Frederick Charles of the approaching foe ; and even if he reaches his object in time, he may well find his enemy too strong for both himself and Bazaine. His own men are evidently in bad order ; the Commissariat, as usual, has gone wrong--else why the scene reported by M. Jeannerod, the men plundering their own officers ? and his first enemy may be a most dangerous one, General von Falkenstein, the stern offices who crushed Hanover, who till recently commanded an ih) coast, but who, when the Baltin expedition was abandoned, was ordered to the front with two oorp3, and was seen by a earrespondent of the geotarman moving forward " upon Thionville," . that is, as we presume, towards "Verdun. Nevertheless, the attempt, though al mos t ras h amidst so many difficulties, has about it a certain grandeur of audacity with which it is as impossible not to sympathise as it isnot to admire the "Cavalry officer" who at Phals burg, with his town in flames, his communications cut off, and surroundered by German troops, coolly declares that he shall surrender when he cannot fire, and not one moment before. If MacMahon succeeds he will rouse France to a frenzy of enthusiasm, and make peace lighter ; and if he fails—well, a marshal of France w ill h ave di e d _ _ _ _ in the saddle instead of capitulating. Marshals of France should die so, and the terms of peace will not he the heavier for that.—Spectator. GERMAN OFFICIAL REVIEW OF TII WAR. The Prussian Staatsanzeiger publishes an official survey of the campaign, so far as it has proceeded. It says : " Our army authorities preferred, when France in breath less haste pushed its local troops to the frontier, to c3rry out completely the difficult and complicated task of mobilisation. The Ministerial order directed this to be done systematically, as it bad been elabo rated'in the smallest and most intricate details after mature consideration in time of peace. This was ac- NUMBERS AND GENERALSHIP. In the absence of commanding military genius, it ,'may be safely assumed that numbers are almost certain, in any given contest, to carry the day. It is asserted that the Prussian forces in the present campaign have outnum bered the French on every important occasion when they have come into collision. To direct matters so that such a preponderance in critical moments and places should exist, may, of course, be declared to be a proof of the possession of high military ability ; and so, no doubt, it is. But apart from skill in logistics or strategy, and assuming each combatant to bring into the field his utmost available • force, experience justifies the saying imputed to Napoleon 1., that Providence fights on the side having the strongest battalions. That great captain certainly tested the truth of his maxim to his cost at Leipsic, where, according to the best authority—that of C a th car t—th e Allies had 230,000 men and the French 160,000. At Koniggratz,again, the Prussians had 250,000 troops, the Austrians but 185,000. In the immediate neighbourhood of the scene of the existing conflict, the same results have been repeatedly witnessed. At Lutzen the Prussians had but 80,000 soldiers, while Bonaparte opposed them with 120,000, and at Bautzen there was a similar disparity. It seems ex traordinary that, after having been the first to declare war, the Emperor Napoleon should have been at fault in this supremely important particular. The French army, as enumerated by the official and un - contradicted documents, is, or was, greater than that of Prussia, including all the various contingents. Paris is n e ar er th e f ron ti er th an B er li n , an d the system of railway connections is in France, if any thing, superior to that of Germany. In spite of all this, and in spite of the tremendous character of the stake for which he fights, the Emperor actually appears to have been thus far overwhelmed by superior numbers. The fact, it must be admitted, gives strong colour to the statement, lately made, that in reality he did not wish to bring about this war, and that the people had, indeed, slipped out of his hands. If that representation is true, it is easy to see how, after th e fi rs t bitter pang of mortified pride over their disappointment, the French should feel more kindly towards the Emperor than they did immediately after their late defeat. The theory that better generalship is to be credited to king William and his officers than to their opponents, may render partially need less the hypothesis of unequal numbers. It may be that with equal numbers in each action the Prussians would still have been victorious. Be that as it may, the further they advance into France, and the longer they wait before striking • afresh at the Em peror's army, the less likely they are to retain, if they have possessed it, the advantage of a superior numerical force. A delay which could give all France time to concentrate, might make the Prussian campaign, so aus piciously begun, result as disastrously as that of Napoleon in Russia. There is a scarcely a doubt, then, that another battle on a (Treat scale is imminent • that the forces en gaged on the French side will be relatively greater than they have hitherto been, and that the event will be likely, consequently, to shew beyond dispute how far the pre vious victories have depended on superior generalship, and how far on greater numbers.—New York Times. TII E FENIANS IN MOTION.—It appears that the war in Europe has inspired the Fenians of this city with renewed zeal and activity in the cause of Ireland's libera tion, and that they are holding more than their usual weekly number of meetings for purposes of military orga, nization. Holilibg fast to the idea that "England's diffi culty will be Ireland's opportunity," they are expecting that English neutrality will come to an end as this war goes on, and that in this event there will be a fine oppor tunity for waking up the Canadians once more, by way of a flank movement on Ireland. We are sorry for the poor Canadians, for it may be that their period of rest from the Fenians will be short.—New Y ork Herald. PREVALENCE OF SUICIDE.—The rather remarkable mania for suicide which the newspaper reader must have observed as prevalent in all parts of the 'country .is to be Attiibuted partly, we presume, to the unfortunate case 40 ILL-Prevost-Paradol at Washington, but mainly, we suN pose, to the exceptionally high temperature of the present Summer. It is very difficult to suggest any remedy"for an . epidemic of this peculiar character, infinitely to be desired as a mitigation of it must be allowed to be ; but in several cases which have come under our knowledge there had been preceding unsuccessful attempt s . W e must again urge the most cautious vigilance on the part of the, friends of those who have shewn symptoms of this unnatural propensity. Proper restraint of those w h o h ave attempted felo de se is the only safeguard.—New York Tribune THE BATTLE OF THE SIXTEENTH. About two miles from the town. of Gorze a sort of undulating plateau extends to the villages of Rez onville and Gravelotte, close to which passes the high road from Metz to Verdun. This plateau was the scene of the fearful carnage of the 16th, and on the outskirts in the direction of Metz the drop ping fire of the outposts still tells that the morrow's sun may rise upon another bloody field. The intention of the French, it would appear, was to force their way to Chalons, and in this movement they were checked by the rapid advance of the 3d Corps d'Arrnee, under Prince Frederick Charles. As the French troops marched across the plateau of Rezonville their ad vanced guard gave them intelligence of the vicinity of the Prussian army. The 11th Regiment (Prussian) deployed in front of the wood, having marched up the read from Gorze to Metz; whilst the 35th .Regiment, the "fighting. 40th," and the 72nd advauced through the wood to the left. The French batterie* iratnediatoly opened with allele, and in a few moments the woods which covered -the advance of the Prussian troops seemed to be in a perfect hurricaine of bursting shells, inflicting fearful loss upon the advancing Prussians. No sooner did the right battalion of the 11th emerge and deploy than the French opened fire at 100 yards, and fearfully effective was the discharge—so much so that they lost their colonel and five officers, besides a considerable number of men. They then retired into the wood until the whole line could advance together, the French shells meanwhile inflicting fearful loss upon the troops advancing, although under a screen of foliage. Whenever the Prussian advance appeared the French troops opened a fearful fire, the assailants falling literally in heaps ; but Immer vorwlirts ! was the cry, and under a storm of shot and shell, the gallant 3rd Division, led by the troops I have above mentioned, advanced to meet the foe. For full an hour they fired at one another from a distance of fifty paces; the French, who had not until now suffered much, losing many men. The first line of the French troops then gra dually retired, and three regiments of the Garde Imp6riale stood the brunt' of the Prussian advance almost, for the moment, alone in their glory. Here the Prussian line was strengthened, and at twenty to thirty paces the fire was something fearful ; but the Guard had to give way, and fell back to the village of Rezon ville. . The action had now lasted some six hours ; the dead,, the dying, and the wounded encumbered the field in every direction, while the blazing rays of a hot autumnal sun fell with fearful force upon the unpro tected wounded. The Prussians now disentangled some batteries of artillery, and plied the retreating but still stubborn French forces , with shells, inflicting the most frightful wounds. Up to nine at night the French guns still sullenly rolled forth their fearful music, until darkness wrapt the scene of carnage in obscurity. Then rose the moon, and the plain awakened to the awful cries of the wounded—so piteous, especially to the soldier. The Prussian.loss and that of the French is something too awful to contemplate in so small a space, for in an area o: one and a half Bg-tare miles quite 10,000 men have beet . put hors de combat. At night I returned to Gorze. Whai a scene ! Every house a hospital, the streets lined witl wounded, the gutters positively running with blood. — Correspondent of Telegraph with Steinmetz's Army. THE BOMBARDMENT OF STR 4SBURG. When we informed our readers the other day of the bombardment of Strasburg, and of the damage done by the fire of the garrison to the open town of Kehl, we imagined it was caused by one of those unfortunate mis• takes which often occur during time of war. We must, however, to-day, • after having made searching inquiries, admit that we were labouring under a serious error, and state that the enemy has again openly violated the under standing upon which war is carried on amongst civilised nations, by firing upon the open town of Kehl. The German batteries are so planted on this side of the bank that the town of Kehl lies at some distance from the line of fire. The unfortified and open town was purposely, intentionally, and contrary to every civilised precedent, set on fire by the enemy's shells. The following are the details of the affair as they have happened :—On the Bth August Lieutenant-General von Berger sent one of his staff, Major von Amerongen, to the commandant of Strasburg to demand the surrender of that pled°. The major drew the attention of the commandant to the fact that the French army had been defeated, that the occu pation of Strasburg had been rendered impossible, and that any defence that might be made would be utterly devoid of any chance of success. The commandant re fused to render himself to the summons. Major von Amerongen replied that the bombardment of Strasburg would commence forthwith. On the 16th and 19th of this month, the days on which our advanced posts took possession of Schiltigheim and Konigshoften, shells were thrown into the town of Strasburg to engage 'and dis tract the attention of the enemy ; some of these shells set fire to some btsildings, which, however, wi soon extinguished. The commandant of Strasburg therefore thought himself warranted hi openly affirming that its a rep►►sal for the bombardment of Strasburg he would burn the town of Kehl, a fact which woo not made. know to the inhabitants ; and this was carried out on the 19th. The glorious successes of the German arms, however, offer us an opportunity of re quiting the helpless victims of this barbaric mode of warfare that the French have chosen. The commander in-chief of the beleaguering army, Lieutenant-General von Werder wrote the' following letter to the comman dant of Strasburg on the 19th : "Your excellency has, contrary to the understanding existing beeween civilised nations, and without due and proper warning, bombarded, and set fire to the open and unfortified town of Kehl. Such a mode of warfare. unheard of by civilised nations, obliges me to hold you personally responsible for the consequences of such pro ceedings. Further, I shall cause an estimate of the damage to be made, which will be recuperated by forced contributions made in Alsatia. Utilising the present oc casion, I have to beg that your excellency will cause the military hospital, situated to the north of the citadel, to be vacated, as it lies within our line of fire, and cannot be sufficiently distinguished. If the same be installed in the neighbburhood of the civil hospital, and distinguished by a large flag, our best endeavours will be used to prevent any damage being done to it." The valuation of the damage done to the town of Kehl, THE BEGINNING OF THE END. It has hardly an exaggeration to say that for the present . the French Empire has ceased to exist.. Napoleon's attempt to appease an angry and threatening populace by sacrificing an unlucky General and a subservient Ministry is not successful. The people look upon him as the cause of all their humiliation. 'They de nounce him openly. They have no hesitation in asking his abdication. He has no longer the direction of the country. No reference to him is found in the debates on the situation except a request that he will return to Paris and await the people's pleasure. The Corps Legislatif threatens to resolve itself into a .National Conven tion, assumes the entire responsibility of the national defence, and- already contemplates the idea of taking the sovereign power away from an incompetent ruler, and intrusting it to a military dictator who shall be charged, as the Roman consuls were of old in hours of extraordinary peril, to see that no evil happen to the commonwealth. The Prince Imperial has fled to London, and Napoleon, sick as he dares not leave the camp. Practically his authority is at an end, and it is not easy to see how he can recover it, for a victory which might quell the dangerous excite ment of the Paris populace would redound not to his honour, but to his generals. The Emperor has proved conclusively his capacity as a soldier, and upon what, except military renown, can g Bonaparte dynasty rest ? If fortune should once more smile upon him, he may hold yet a while longer the sceptre which he stole in 1851; but even the army must have lost faith in him now, and he has no hold whatever upon power except in the dissensions of parties and the difficulty of finding his successor. If France had one great general, approved great by success, Napoleon would have to abdicate to day. —New York. Tribune. BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR. Let us transfer ourselves for a moment to the extreme frontier of France, on the little river Saar, and close to the main line of operations selected by the French and Prussian armies. "We will put the date at the 16th of July, or less than one brief month'ago. We are at the inn door of the small town of Sarragttemines, looking out beyond the slender stream that separates us from Prussian soil. The Saar winds placidly between its low, flat banks, and " disappears gracefully," sa ys the French correspondent,whose eyes we borrow for the occa sion, "behind a screen of poplars." On the other side is a neat little cottage home, with white curtains and yellow blinds at the windows, and in the tiny garden that slopes down to the river side a peasant saunters quietly, pipe in mouth, caressing his dog, who gambols beside him. Peeping over the green top of a gentle acclivity is the sharp spire of a small village church. Near by is a wide field of waving grain, and on the rustic road that descends to the edge of the Saar is a hay waggon of quaint construction, drawn lazily by four sleek oxen. The driver, in a blouse and pantaloons of coarse linen, his brows screened with a straw hat, lazily swings his ax goad and hums a country song of the ,Fatherland. Sud denly the scene is enlivened by a group of chubby, flaxen haired children, who emerge from the cottage and clatter down the garden walk, the youngest clinging to the hand of an elder sister, herself not six years old. A grim Zouave who is near us on the French bank leans against the vine-covered doorpost of the inn where we are standing, and involuntarily smiles as lie looks out upon this pastoral little piotuie in an enemy's country. An enemy? Poor little home•on the verdant slope on the farther bank - does it shelter enemies? And those humble peasants, all uncon' scions of the wrong that even now holds murder and ruin over their heads ; those playful children, laughing in the sunshine, are they also to be 010 victims of the infernal orgie which madmen call "glorious war?" Even so. Beind yon green meadows and poplars and waving grain fields lies the gathering might of an indignant nation, while here are concentrating the mar tial terrors of an empire famous for its fearful energy in warfare. A few days more and all this peaceful scene will have disappeared ; these banks will be stained with human blood ; fire and havoc will have scattered for ever that humble home and its help less occupants—the peasant and his little ones—and all that makes the domestic groupt at which we now gaze so charming, even in their unpretending humbleness, to the true heart. Yet this is no mere fancy sketch. Such is an accurate portrayal; although feebly given, of just . the scenes that were witnessed, only the other day, along the streams and in the' smiling- valleys that unite, not separate, the " fair land of France and thrifty, hard working Rhenish Prussia and Bavaria.—New York Herald of August the 13th. THE LADIES' RELIEF . COMNIITTEES SOFT ENING THE HORRORS OF WAR. Dreary indeed would be the record of the moment in Europe to our boasted civilization were it not for the blessed inspirations which impel the gentle bands of woman to those deeds that, in their way, are infinitely more glorious than the proudest martial achievements. It is questionable whether the pen of the future historian will linger with more effect among the narratives that describe the gallantry of the heroes who stormed the Malakoff and the Medan at Sebastopol, or those that glow with the still loftier devotion and more enduring courage of the Sisters of Charity, who braved danger and death in every form—the shot of the enemy, the bitter inclemen cies of a Crimean winter, the, pestilential infection of crowded camps and fetid hospitals--simply that they might alleviate the sufferin . ;s of the poor soldier fighting and dying there to further the purposes of kings and courts. The cold annals of mere war may accord to the commanders who won the fray the chaplet of military fame ; but the brightest lines on even their pages glow with heavenly warmth and light as they men tion the name of Florence Nightingale and the noble women who had preceded and who accompanied her. In our own terrible civil war the female relief committees who toiled in the towns and exposed their own health and lives close to the battle-field performed a work which was blessed to the objects of their tender kindness at the moment, and which gradually became a golden link of revived sympathy and friendship between the warring sections. The horrors of a conflict which often found father arrayed against son and brother against brother were made greatly less by these angelic ministra tions, and the fury of resentment against the hand that inflicted the wound melted away in tears and gratitude at the touch of the gentle hand that tended it. We are recalled to these reflections, in the midst of the mournful feeling that the new outbreak of war in Europe awakens, by reading of the preparations in progress in many of the French and German cities to form active and efficient female relief associations for the succour of the wounded. The Sisterhood of Mercy in all its branches is already in the field, and Miss Nightingale from her own bed of illness has transmitted to Paris such written hints and instructions as her arduous experience has qualified her to give for the benefit of such societies` as may there be formed by ladies volunteering, but unused to the service. The wife of Marshal Canrobert has organised an association " to help the wounded on the field of battle," and in a heartfelt appeal reminds her countrywomen of what was done by 'their American sisters during the civil war, when, as she says, " they collected more than sixty-five millions of francs and obtained the magnificent result that out of a hundred wounded they were able to save ninety-five." Let every French heart," adds this noble lady, "listen to our voices ; we hold out the hand for those who are about to suffer." And our own kind countrymen in Paris have not been slow to answer the common call to humanity- They have formed a Ladies' Branch of the American In ternational Sanitary Committee, with Mrs. Anson G. Burlingame at its head, and many of the wealthiest, m ost active, and most distinguished American names a broad are on the list of members. They are even now vigor ously at work with high succes This good example is imitated in all the leading French and German cities, and promises the most gratifying results. At the sight the nations thus ruthlessly dragged into collision are partly consoled ; the warrior advancing to the field of carnage is cheered ; the pained heart of humanity is touched with an emotion which is the beginning of an enduring hope that these divine influences will yet prevail even in our time, and that the hour foretold by the whispered encou ragement and prayer which the mangled soldier hears beside his pillow may no longer be distant when theC rose shall forever put aside the sword.--New York Herald. During the greater part of Friday a fire was raging on the farm premises of Mr. Original Mackness, Coning ton Huntingdonshire, near to Sawtrey. A strong north wind was blowing at the time, and a great quantity of farm produce was destroyed, the yard being full of this year's crops. FEARFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—A telegram from Hagenau to. Le Gaulois states that a deplorable railwaY accident happened on the 21st. A train full of troops came in collision with a van loaded with provisions. There were many killed and wounded. Among the dead was a Prince whose name was unknown. BIRTHS. On the 24th inst., at Thurland C as tl e , L ancas hi re, th e Hon. Mrs. Marton, of a daughter. On the 25th inst., at Old Town House, Croydon, the wife of James Allen, jun., Esq., of a son. 11A RRIAGES. On the 25th inst., at St. George the Martyr, Howard Marsh, Esq., of 4, Furnival's-inn, to Jane, daughter of the late Spencer Perceval, Esq. On the 24th inst., at St. Barthloinew's, St. Pancras, Lou don, John Chester, Esq., of 5, Old-squar e , Lincoln's inn, ba rr i s t er - a t-l aw , t o Lilly Lawrence, elder daughter of the late William Sanger, Esq., of .Essex-court, Tem ple. PE,: 1713 On the 25th inst., at Loiterton, Linsted, Kent, Thomas Eley, Esq., aged 68. On the 25th inst., at Hill House, Dulwich, Mr. Thomas Middleton, aged 69. London : Printed by GIDBON ACLAND BOYCE, of No. 112, Strand, Printer, and Published by hi m at THE SUN Office, No. 112, Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of Middlesex. Monday, August 29, 1870, C any Cth, whi A C Rol T z.,0 ~ T Stra ,