The Sun. — London, England, 1871-02-09 00:00:00

a Of 1(300 ;n St. J °l ' li tIO cto g ► respe i co it whie° 01 11 30 of ob questioll tbl ra ereY ° f Oli o llf n t to ;Jai; itsee, late olt w a rti ci o u „b od c eue l lo ii rs an vog re ct to 8 , t and, if t ;t10 1 ,;1 e a's°, -, o er In its caused e ss Lich is c3- yro c seist tlit;i7ier t t r y . to re i T ot tr It e , s to s o l e jo to ” S i e ' o oo,o tsar Wif•S Dioa 1 0 -, lo ve t oe e ile 9 • o r r°lll thrl o .s l t oot ra • 30' lo t COil t %e" Grea ti° e t f fot o 1 , 3eS 0 If itit ru e in 1111° ent n iik• 1 rec ble at sev eri :o g l°1 0 " os t fs- c u t '. o f tit 1 Afife t; reas t I , iP t f r O i 17 0 t her o. en coo° poo#oo,l , 0 pa ,OO • rally ,1 ‘ boe licit sac LATEST INTELLIGENCE. SUN OFFICE, 8 A.M. THE WAR. THE ELECTIONS IN FRANCE. EXCLUSION OF MONARCHIST CANDIDATES. BORDEAUX, Februiry 8. By a decree of the Government, made yester day, the members of the Orleanist and Legitimist Royal families, and those of the Bonaparte family, are declared to be disqualified for election as members of the National Assembly : the two former in virtue of the laws of ineligibility of 1832 and 1848, the latter in virtue of the present decree. Republican meetings, preparatory to the elections, are held here every evening. No disturbance has taken place. HEAD-QUARTERS FIRST AR➢IY, AMIENS, February 8. Yesterday a messenger arrived here to say that General Faidherbe was so ill as to be unable to go to Paris. General von Goben was requested to give a pass to General Farr for Paris an 1 Bordeaux. Count Bismarck, to whom the matter was re ferred, telegraphed back that a pass could only be granted as far as Paris, as the Bordeaux people did not recognise the Paris Government. Hopes are entertained of peace, but the war party are very strong. The British National Society for the Sick and Wounded gave relief to 5,540 French and 3,741 Prussians during the month of January. Cap tain Uniacke has received the thanks of the general in command. The elections are quiet.—Telegraph Telegram. The following telegrams come through Router's agency : -- THE FRENCH TREATY OF COMMERCE. The Paris Rappel announces that the Government has refused to accept the proposal of M. Dorian relative to the notice for terminating the Treaty of Commerce, and the treaty will continue in force by law until February 2, 1871 PROCLAMATION OF THE PARIS MINISTERS. The following is the substance of the proclamation which has been issued by the Ministers in Paris, ex plaining their reasons for the capitulation, and annul ling M. Gambetta's decree of proscription : "Frenchmen,—Paris has laid down its arms when on the verge of starvation. It resisted for five months, but the provinces have not been able to relieve it. It resigned itself to the most cruel privations Let France judge us. When we made terms we had flour for only ten days, and we knew the devastation of the country rendered the revictualling very uncertain. Those who blame us will never know the anguish we endured, but it was necessary to conceal our anxieties under an appearance of readiness to fight and ample supplies, and though every passing day rendered more terrible the catastrophe of famine, we main tained the position, contesting the ground inch by inch for six days, while the inhabitants of Paris, ignorant of their real situation and influenced only by a generous ardour, de manded to be led on to fight. The Convention of Jan. 28 has, therefore, compromised no interest, and Paris alone has been sacrificed. It does not murmur• We have summoned France to elect freely an Assembly which at this supreme crisis will make known, its will. We recognise 111 no one a right to impose a decision upon it either for peace or for war. We do not admit that arbitrary restrictions can be imposed upon that suffrage. We have fought against the Empire and its practices, and we do not intend to revive them by instituting a system of official candidates by means of elimination. The Government of National Defence annuls, if it should be necessary, the decree illegally issued by the Delegation at Bordeaux, and it calls upon all Frenchmen to vote without ostracism for the repre sentatives who may appear to them to be the Worthiest of France. " Vive la R6publique ! Vive la France ! " Paris, February 4, 1871. The Members of the Government, — General TROCHU EUGENE PELLETAN JULES FAVISE EUNEST PICARD JULES FERRY EMMANUEL MUG°. GARNIER PAGES The Ministers— DORIAN General LE FLO J. MAGNIN F. HEROLD." NEWS FROM PARIS. PARIS, February 7. The city is quiet, but the distress continues great. The Journal Officiel of to-day says that a simple ecinparison of dates shows how unfounded are the a ccusations of the armistice having been disastrous for the Army of the East. It. Picard and M. Jules Fave have accepted their candidatures. The Presse repeats the news published by the ""appal, of France giving notice of withdrawal from the treaty of commerce with England. The Francais says the Prussians were no sooner m asters of the positions which they obtained th rough the armistice, than they hastened to con struct defensive works. A certain number of letters from the Depart !lents have been received in Paris. On the 4th ' 1 . 141 sth, 227 waggon loads of provisions entered the city. VERSAILLES, February 5. Scarcely any Paris newspapers reach here. 80 many Parisians arrive in Versailles that greater restrictions on the right of entry will have to be established. T he amount of provision in the capital is ex t"ely limited. The supply of flour will only su ffi ce 1 tile Bth inst. R ECOVERY OF GENERAL BOURBAKI. BORDEAUX, February 8, 4.45 p.m. Cieneral B our b a ki i s qu it e ou t o f d anger . Th e wound in his head is healing slowly. I)I SBANDMENT OF FRANCS-TIREURS. LILLE, Feb. 7. Oeneral Faidherbe has issued the following pro claination : of :The General of Division commanding the Army h. "" Forth, in virtue of the orders forwarded to f 0 1 , 1 , 11 , b y the Government, and dated January 30th, 'n'e execution of the Convention of Versailles, eere ea " 11 , 4 b. 1. All compan i es o f F rancs - t i reurs i n any s o l ved et:114 180 8d with the Army of the North are die of ; 1 4 rt. 2. The Francs-tireurs, forming a portion Al o b. e ar my, either as so ldiers, Mobile G u ard s , o r aye id sed Guards, are to report themselves within b et (1 ,8 at the recruiting depot at Life, if they A ; r ng to the Department of the North ; and at p e4 48 1 if they belong to the Department of the depots, de-as ;or to one or the other of these :; if they belong to the invaded Departments. 14. ti a. By whatever name these men are called, 611inz. isdain art, brages r has aders, s, and Laden. " The I," we ►em as .xpeli- ;re not Lady's rank ;ance," John " and tier of ed to %les of stories to our beyond " Lady unbar." n those• n rank !se it is in she se three releome, xee new 3 other obar,"of ," when xamina- Quest,', ne pages Le way— roiue of remem a jilt, a cresting, jilted, •ather a ng friend intimate t was to I though :,ealment. eked am " When moat of lets were time in due fly' A shrieks refrain that " he 7." It is costume. —certainly 6rded for a ler for the ter. Two 3 and two e through een most One is hold in Wardottr lonely, ,ioned, the pecimen of welist ever Le, money mptible or her good despises er out of athbed by arefully-de uously dia . munificent .uded room t of whom and almost ktures—is at r unnatural if possible , her, and the old farm, and lose of the se of which Lad it bees usly by the non's Quest t fairly sus whose works their pubh.- BORN. THE SUN LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1871.1 presided. Mr. Walter Platt, of Barton Bendish, pro posed, and Mr. William Tyson. Amhurst, of Didlington Hall, seconded the nomination of Mr. George William Pierrepoint Bentinck. There being no other candidate, Mr. Bentinck was declared duly elected. In returning thanks he dwelt upon the urgent need of the defences of the country being kept in the highest state of efficiency; and the unfairness of the taxation upon the rural districts. HORRORS OF THE BOMBARDMENT. An occassional correspondent of the Daisy News, writ from Paris February 6, thus describes some of the scenes during the bombardment :—They who have not wit nessed the numerous phases in the life of a large city besieged, whose assailants depend more upon famine for its reduction than upon the assault, can form but the most slender conception of the scenes of misery which this metropolis presented after the bombard ment began. One of the most heartrending was the immense number of children's burials; a lh,rge proportion quite infants. We have not been favoured by our reticent authorities with any official data relating to the " infant mortality ;" but our own eyes have convinced us of the sad fact of its having reached an excessive point. The majority of these poor little victims literally perished of starvation ; of disease engendered by the want of milk. They simply dwindled away, day by day, until life went out of them. It was a piteous sight to watch the long piles of tiny coffins being conducted to the cemeteries. Most of them were mere shells, made of deal, and roughly nailed together. As a rule, these burials were not followed by the parents. A man called a croquemort—gobble-corpse is the nearest translation-- a sort of hybrid between a gravedigger and a mute, sometimes might be seen trotting along with two of these little coffins for his load, one under each arm, in company with another or more of his class, similarly laden, and making for the graveyard. Usually, four or more of these shells were placed upon a hand-bier, carried by two eroquentorts, and were thus conveyed to the same last resting-place. The people, who pay great out ward respect to the dead, uncovered, looked sadly at the mournful spectacle, and passed on. I have heard many mutter, " Pauvres petits I" Although no class was exempt from privation and suffering, the poorest neighbourhoods were necessarily most tried, and some of these were just the ones which were so cruelly bombarded. Entire families were huddled together in cellars, to escape from death. To sleep here was bad enough ; but to inhabit these holes the day through, and day after day, required a heroic power of endurance. Then the daily pittance of bread had to be sought, and the infinitesimal portion of meat. For hours, standing in the mud, in the rain, in the snow, in the frost, had the poor women to wait their turn at the butcher's or the baker's, in actual peril of their lives ; for the Prussian shells fell everywhere, and numbers of women were killed and wounded whose immediate errand was to procure food for their children. Then, the food obtained, it must be dressed. To accomplish this all sorts of contrivances had to be resorted to ; first, to rig up a cooking-place within the four walls of the cellar ; not so easy a task when the avoidance of smoke had to be taken into account as an elementary principle of the arrangement. Those whose cellars had an opening into the street or the courtyard of the house managed pretty well, by carrying the smoke stack of a stove throughthe aperture, but the occupants of cellars un provided with the means of obtaining air and light were obliged to submit to the alternative of dispensing with fire, or incurring the risk of asphyxia. Maladies of various kinds, fever and smallpox especially, also aggravated the miseries of this horrible position, and literally decimated this unfortunate class of the population. Upon the women the chief burden of all these trials fell ; and I believe they would have continued to bear them for a greatly prolonged period, with the hope of ultimate deliverance to sustain them. I feel it a duty to speak of the female population of Paris in the highest terms, as deserving well of their country, and quite as much as the soldiers and citizens who have died or exposed their lives on the field of battle. they are ordered to report themselves to tho nearest infantry depot. (Signed) "FAIDHERBE, General-in-Chief." THE COMING FRENCH ELECTIONS. M. Emmanuel Arago has sent from Bordeaux the following circular to the prefects You are aware that persons belonging to families who have reigned over France are ineligible in virtue of the laws of April 10, 1832, and of June 9, 1848. A decree issued to-day extends - these proxisions to the Bonapartist family. Be careful that these laws and decrees are vigorously adhered to.— Signed, EMMANUEL ARAGO." The prefect of the Gironde, in publishing this circular, observes, in re ference to the foregoing, that of all the disqualifica tions laid down by the decree of the 31st ult the above mentioned alone will be maintained. M. GAMBETTA'S RESIGNATION. In consequence of M. Gambetta having resigned, the Commissioner Extraordinary in Normandy, M. Carnot, has also sent in his resignation. At Lyons, M. Gambetta's resignation has spread consternation amongst the Beds, but no disorders have taken place. February 8 (4.55 p.m.) The Moniteur of this. evening says that M. Gam betta, on his retirement, recommended all the Pre fects and Sub-Prefects to aid in having the elections carried out, adding, " We shall thus devote our last efforts to the Republic." GERMAN MOVEMENTS IN THE NORTH. A. telegram from Imperial headquarters at Ver sailles says :—The whole department of the Cole d'Or, Nuits, Beaume, Arnay-le-Duo, Saulieu, Pouilly, Sombernon, exclusive of the Seine, have been occupied by the troops under the command of General von Hann. Lons-le-Saulnier was evacuated on the 6th by General Pelissier. FAIDHERBE'S ARMY. PARIS, February 0. The Government has despatched orders to Generals Chanzy and Faidherbe and the Com mander of the Army of the East, instructing each of them to send a competent officer to Bordeaux to make a full report, and explain, before the National Assembly, the precise situation of their different armies. General Farm, Divisional Com mander in General Faidherbe's army, has already reached Bardeaux. THE RELIEF OF PARIS. Pants, February 7. M. Jules Favre, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has received Colonel Stuart Wortley and Mr. George Moore, who are charged with the distribution of the Mansion House Relief Fund. The Minister expressed his grateful thanks to them, in the name of the people of Paris, for the efibrts made by England to relieve the distress in the French capital. 31. Favre has also replied to the Lord Mayor's letter, presenting to his Lordship the homage of his personal respect and of deeply-felt gratitude on behalf of the City of Paris NEWS FROM BORDEAUX. BORDEAUX, February 8. M. Crdmieux, Minister of Justice, and Admiral Fourichon, who had tendered their resignation, have been induced to withdraw it by the other members of the Goverment of National Defence now in Bordeaux. The war a outrance party are losing ground, and it is confidently anticipated that a strong majority of the National Assembly about to meet will vote for an honourable peace. Colonel Milton, the ultra-Republican leader, has left the city. CESSION OF THE ALSACE AND LORRAINE RAILWAYS. VERSAILLES, February 7. Count Itzenplitz is expected here to arrange the stipulations for the cession of the railways of Alsace and Lorraine, which will become Prussian property. The Eastern Company will receive an indemnity, which will be paid by the French Go vernment, and the sum will be deducted from the pecuniary indemnity to be paid by France to Ger many.—Lombard Telegrams. ITALY AND IUNIS. FLORENCE, February 7. In the Chamber of Deputies, Signor Visconti- Venosta, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, answered the interpellation of Signor Macchi in reference to the difficulty at Tunis. The Minister declared that the interruption of diplomatic relations between Italy and Tunis still continued, the first arrangement which had been arrived at having raised new difficulties. Italy is well-disposed towards the Government of the Bey, but will exact the strict observance of the treaty. The interpretation of several articles in that treaty has caused misunderstanding. The aim of the present negotiations is to determine the precise signification of these articles. Italy's claims are quite legitimate, and it is the inten tion of the Government to persist energetically in them. Signor Macchi proposed no formal motion, but merely recommended the Ministry to send an Italian squadron to Tunisian waters.—Telegraph Telegram. THE AUSTRIAN MINISTRY. The Vienna Gazette has published the nomination of the new Cis-Leithan Ministry, under the presi sidency of Count Hohenwart. The Ministerial pro gra'mme promises energetic action and important constitutional reform. The nomination of this Ministry has caused general surprise, several of its members being politically altogether unknown, and not one is a n►ember of the Parliament. THE EA.STER,N QUESTION. ST. PETERSBURG, February 8. Sir Andrew Buchanan, the British Ambassador, quits St. Petersburg on Saturday, on a long leave of absence. This fact is viewed as a symptom of the peaceful turn affairs have taken. FRIGHTFUL R kIL WAY ACCIDENT. SEVERAL LIVES LOST. A telegram from Philadelphia on February 7th says :—" frightful accident' occurred last night on the Hudson River Railway. A petroleum train having caught fire, a passenger train passing by be came ignited, and rushing on, set fire to and broke down a bridge. Thirty persons are supposed to have been burnt or drowned, and many injured." (CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAMS.) MR. GLADSTONE AND THE POPE. At a public meeting held at Landport Hall, Portsmouth, on Tuesday night, to consider Mr. Gladstone's letter n reference to the temporal and spiritual dignity of the Pope, the following resolution was carried with a few dissen tients :—" That while admitting the right of Roman Catho lics to enjoy civil and religious liberty, we protest against any action being taken by Government which would imply that it fell within the scope of their duty to care for the adequate support of the dignity of the Pope, and his per sonal freedom and independence in the discharge of his spiritual functions. And further, that as any English intervention, with a view to secure to the Pope an adequate income, would commit this nation to a direct suport of the Papacy, this intervention called for the most uncompromising opposition of all true Protes tants." A memorial, embodying these views, was adopted, for presentation to Parliament. Mr. Harper, chairman of the Protestant Institution, was among the speakers. THE *EST NORFOLK ELECTION. The election of a member for the western division of Norfolk took place on Wednesday morning, at Swaffham. Sir Robert Jacob Buxton : Bait, IDA Sheriff v Norfolk, RELIEF FOR THE FRENCH. A communication was received in Liverpool on Wed nesday to the effect that the traffic between Rouen and the sea had been resumed, and cargoes of provisions ar riving at Dieppe could be sent direct to Paris. The steamer Shark has been despatched by Searle and Co., of Liverpool, with 230 tons of provisions to Havre. EXTENSIVE FIRE AT GLASGOW. £BO,OOO DAMAGES. A fire broke out at six o'clock on Wednesday morning, in the oil works of Messrs. Dick and Co., York-street, Glasgow. The building in which the fire originated is four storeys high, and 100 feet long, and being filled with oil, it was burned to the ground. Another building of a similar size, filled with grain, and facing the above street, occupied by Robert Angus, was also burned to the ground. The front wall of the latter building fell into the street, which is now blocked thirty feet high with burned grain. Fortunately, the fire brigade escaped injury from the falling wall. The total damage is esti mated at £BO,OOO. The fire originated in the boiler-house of the oil works. Glasgow is filled with stench from the fire. COURT-MARTIAL ON A SHIP'S STEWARD. The court-martial for the trial of Charles Townsend, a ship's steward, of the Inconstant, on twelve charges of fraud and conspiracy, was resumed on Wednesday morn ing, on board the Duke of Wellington. The prisoner, in defence, submitted that it had not been proved that he had made any verbal representations to the paymaster on the days in question. The appearance and condition of the book kept by the contractor's foreman was severely criticised, and it was urged that the court could not place reliance on it. The foreman admitted that he kept another book, in which were false entries ; and that he had sold meat on shore for stewards, which it was urged might have belonged to his master. Stress was laid on the circumstance that the foreman had burnt a letter his master had written him in reference to these matters. There was no proof of conspiracy, as Curtis said he had never made any arrangements with the prisoner to pay him. Attention was directed to the contradictory entries under the same date in the prisoner's book, to the discrepancy between it and the rough statements of meat served on a parti cular day, and to other points. Other evidence having been given, the Court deliberated for two hours, found the charges not proven, an d acquitted the prisoner. A BARONET SENT TO PRISON. Yesterday Sir Morgan Crofton, Bart., Box, Wilts, was sentenced by the Bath magistrates to seven days' imprint sonment, without the option of a fine, for being drunk and disorderly. THE CONFESSIONAL UNMASKED. George Mackie, the lecturer engaged by the Protestant Electoral Union, who was sentenced to three months' imprisonment at the last nampshire Quarter Sessions for selling " The Confessional Unmasked," applied to the Secretary of State for the Home Department for a reversion of the sentence on the ground of the informality of the proceedings and the misdirection of the court. Yesterday a reply was received from the Home Office, upholding the judgment, and declining to recommend any relaxation of the sentence. THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT SHEFFIELD. An inquest was held yesterday, at the Lambpool Inn, Attercliffe, near Sheffield, on the body of Henry Long, which was found in the river Don under very suspicious circumstances. An open verdict of " Found Drowned'' was returned. The police are investigating the case. DEPARTURE OF AN IRISH POLITICAL PRISONER. Yesterday " General" Halpin, one of the Irish political prisoners released from Chatham, left Queenstown for New York in the Cunard steamer Siberia. In the case of Poynter v. Porter, in the Court of Com mon Pleas, Dublin, the jury, who retired at two o'clock, returned into Court at ten o'clock last night, unable to agree to a verdict. They were consequently discharged. A public meeting, called by the Mayor, was held at the Town Hall, Manchester, at twelve o'clock on Wednesday, to raise a fund for the relief of the distressed residents in France. The Mayor presided. A committee was ap pointed to collect subscriptions, and the sum of £l2O 10s. was subscribed at the meeting. The directors of the Waterford and Limerick Railway Company, at a meeting on Tuesday, resolved on a dividend of three per cent. on ordinary shares. Transfer £465 to reserve, and £1,155 to next account. LONDON SCHOOL BOARD. The weekly meeting of the London School Board was held at the Guildhall on Wednesday, Lord Lawrence in the chair. The first question for discussion on the agenda paper of importance, was a notice of motion, given by Mr. Lucraft—" That the parents of children, under the ages of 5 and 13, be compelled to cause such children to attend school, unless a reasonable excuse be given for not doing so as provided by the Act." — The Rev. J. Rogers said that there were many instances where the sending a child compulsorily to school would be to rob perhaps a widowed parent of her child's pecuniary services ; therefore he would not ask for a sweeping mea sure, because he felt that great judgment and great discretion were necessary from the board. He hoped that the matter would be discussed in a judicious manner, so that no injustice might be done ; and it was therefore he moved for a committee to consider the question.—Mr. Buxton hoped that the matter would be referred to a special, and not to one of the standing committees. — Miss Davies concurred iu the motion, and suggested whether it would not be advisable to leave alone th children that were bona fide at work, and touch only the idle children.—After some further discussion, the motion was agreed to. RELIEF FOR THE DISTRESSED FRENCH. (CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAMS.) An influential meeting was held in Exeter last night, for the purpose of co-operating with the London Mansion House Committee in providing means to relieve the dis tress in France. The Bishop of Exeter, in an eloquent speech, pointed out the urgent need there was for imme diate action. The whole North of France, he said, was utterly helpless and destitute, having had to maintain its own armies and those of the invaders. Capitulated Paris could not be fed from the surrounding districts, and unless foreigners assisted she must endure all the horrors of a most terrible famine. Whatever side Englishmen had taken, no one could watch the steady and pitiless course the conquerors pursued, and see the very life gradually crushed out of the French people,without desiring to have a stop put to the fearful sufferings which the war en tailed. A resolution, expressing sympathy with the dis tressed French, and pledging the meeting to contribute to the Mansion House Relief Fund was carried unani mously. The mayor of Warrington convened a meeting yester day (Wednesday), to raise subscriptions in aid of the Parisians. Upwards of £6O was subscribed in the room. The clergy and ministers were invited to make collections in their places of worship for this object next Sunday. A discussion followed as to dividing the fund between Paris and the provinces ; but ultimately it was decided to leave the matter in the hands of the Mansion House Com mittee. Two steamers, the Knapton Hall and Sweden, chartered by Mr. Thomas H. Frean, of Liverpool, on behalf of Peek, Frean, a n d Co., of London, sail this (Thursday) evening from Liverpool for Havre, with 1,200 tons of biscuit on board. They only commenced loading at mid day yesterday ; but special facilities were afforded by the dock officials to e x p e dite their dispatch. CRYSTAL PALACE.—One Shilling Day, Wednes day, February Bth, 1871.—Admission by season tickets, 2,058; ditto on payment, 772 ; total visitors, 2,830. PRINCESS'S THEATRE.—His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and suite honoured the performances at the above theatre with their presence last evening to witness Mr. Phelp's celebrated impersonations of King James and Old Trapbois, the miser, in " King o' Scots." MR. LOCKE, M.P., AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.— Mr. Locke, M. P. for Southwark, addressed his consti tuents last evening. After reviewing the proceedings of last session, he advocated the adoption of the Ballot and a thorough reorganisation of the army. He was in favour of maintaining strict neutrality in foreign affairs, and of making the attendance of children at school compulsory. In answer to questions, he expressed himself in favour of the equalisation of the poor-rates, and he would vote for the disestablishment of they Church of England whenever it was found that the Dissenters predominated. He should also vote for the dowry to the Princess Louise—an announcement which was received with marks of dissent, several persons going so far as to hoot at the mention of the Queen. Considerable disorder followed, but ulti mately a vole of confidence in the hon. member was carried by a large majority. THE ELECTIONS AT BORDEAUX. The correspondent of the Daily News telegraphs the following from Bordeaux, February 8 :—There has been an enormous number of voters here to-day. Two long lines of voters, strangers to Bordeaux, are waiting at the doors of the Mairie, and it seems very doubtful whether the voting will be finished by the timo ap pointed for the close of the poll. Perfect tranquillity has prevailed here throughout the day. The news published by the Liberty that General Trochu has arrived in Bor deaux is incorrect. The statement of the same paper that the Orleanists are eligible for election is also in correct. Emmanuel Arago has telegraphed to the pre fects :—" You know that persons belonging to the families which have reigned over France are ineligible, in virtue of the law of the 10th of April, 1832. A decree of the 7th February, 1871, extends those dispositions to the Bonaparte family. See that they are everywhere executed." The Government has announced that it will in no way interfere in the elections ; that it will not favour or distribute any particular list ; and that 'it will disavow any functionary or citizen who recommends a list in the name of the Government. General Cremer has arrived here. The attempted mani festation of Colonel Milton, the Englishman, has led to the issue of a proclamation, very sensible in tone, by the Prefect Allain Targ4. lie says the Republic has need of manifestations of the real opinions of the people. They should not, therefore, allow themselves to be compromised by men who are not known in Bordeaux, who are not known to the Democracy, and who conse quently ought to be regarded with suspicion. They should mistrust those who speak of an impossible Committee of Public Safety in order to lead to abstentions from voting, and thus allow the adversaries of the Republic to obtain a majority in the Assembly. Instead of losing time in tumultuous demonstrations and useless cries, they should prepare to vote for men capable of directing, without weakness, the destinies of the Republic, and of saving the unfortunate country from the great peril in which it has been placed by the official candidates—crea tures of the Second Empire—who are now the official candidates of Count Bismarck. WRECK OF A FRENCH PROVISION SHIP AND LOSS OF FIFTY LIVES. SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday Night. The St. Malo steamer brings word that a French ship, from St. Malo, with passengers and provisions on board, has been wrecked at Cape la Hogue with the loss of fifty lives. SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT IN PARIS, Writing from Paris, rebruary 6, a correspondent of the Dailil News says :—This Government has shewn itself to be one of phrases, not acts; and even its phrases have not always been of the happiest. Its primary elements were politically contradictory, and the Ministry of avocats overwhelmed the military section, already paralysed by its old associations with the system of the Empire, and with all its routine of tape, wax, seals, and bureauism. The sole point upon which there would appear to have existed a common un derstanding was as to the hopelessness of the defence. At any rate, such is the conclusion forced upon us by the light of facts. The prospect of succour from without depended wholly upon the extreme resistance of the metropolis, and upon a continual harrassing of the Prussians. To enable Paris to withstand the privations of a prolonged siege, the whole of the breadstuffs and provisions of every kind ought to have been from the outset laid under embargo, and a committee of subsistence established for their dis tribution by a uniform system of rationing. This was one of the measures demanded by the Commune play, but it was not adopted. The consequence was a waste of food which would have sustained the population for at least three months longer. It is a fact that the Mobiles used bread instead of wood to make their pot boil ; and this was done in open day, whilst they still held their encampments on the old exte• rior boulevards. With regard to the sorties, these could not be undertaken, we are told, so long as the Mobiles and the National Guard were m►dis ciplined. This may be true ; but two months were lost before the latter were properly armed, and the sorties, clumsily conducted, were not likely to succeed when the military chiefs had hot themselves the conviction of suc cess. The mismanagement of the Administrati m under lies the reduction of Paris by famine; the misdirection of the admirable military resources at the command of the Generals is responsible for the failure of every operation which has been undertaken against the Prussian lines. The two causes combined, involving loss of tinie, and of military strength, afforded the enemy ab solute leisure to entrench and fortify himself ; and when thus secured against assault from within, to detach masses of his forces to baffle and defeat attacks from with out. At the meeting of all the Generals and chiefs of the staff, convened by General Trochu and General Leflo, for the purpose of announcing the armistice, General. Trochu is reported to have stated that, but for the number of women and children and of aged persons in Paris, for whose subsistence it became imperative to make provision, the resistance of the city would assuredly have been prolonged, and that victory was possible. But the general seems to have left out of view that fire and sword had been more merciful to this class of the population than his own miserable inertia ; and this the people will remember. It is said that Chanzy—some attribute the message to Gam betta—sent a telegram to Trochu to this effect "Be accursed ! your inaction has killed us." LONDON BETTING.-WEDNESDAY. WATERLOO CUE-1000 to 80 against Mr. Swinburne's nomination (offered-14 to 1 taken), 33 to 1 against Colonel Coodlake's nomination (taken), 33 to 1 against Mr. Bland's nomination (taken), 33 to 1 against Mr. Black stone's nomination (taken). LINCOLNSHIRE HANDICAP. —2O to 1 against Lord Glasgow (taken), 25 to 1 against Lady Superior (taken), 200 to 7 against Valuer (offered, 30 to 1 taken), 100 to 3 against Syrian (offered). LIVERPOOL GRAND NATIONAL STEEPLECHASE.-13 to 1 against the Doctor (taken and offered), 13 to 1 against St. Valentine (offered), 100 to 7 against Surney (taken and offered), 100 to 7 against the Colonel (offered), 25 to 1 against Primrose (offered, taken 28 to 1), 1,000 to 30 against Little Rogue (offered, 40 to 1 taken andwanted), 1,000 to 30 against the Lamb (offered, taken 40 to 1), 1,000 to 30 against Purlbrook (offered) 1,000 to 30 against Bogue Homa (offered, 50 to 1 taken and wanted), 1,000 to 25 against Uhlan (offered), 1,000 to 15 against Miss Banks (offered, 1,000 to 10 taken), 500 to 200 against The Doctor, St. Valentine, the Colonel, and Surney mixed (offered, 550 to 200 taken). CHESTER CUP.-1,000 to 80 on the field (offered). DERBY.-8 to 1 against King of the Forest (taken and offered). The Marquis of Hartiiigton has not made a long stay in Ireland. On Monday he left Dublin to return to London, to " resume his parliamentary duties," says an Irish journal. At a meeting of the Uiiion Society of London on Tuesday evening the following subject was submitted to discussion and negatived ;—" That this house regrets the election of women on school boards." The Empress Eugenie was present incognita at a dramatic entertainment given at Drury-lane Theatre, London, for the benefit of the suffering French people. Her Majesty is said to haVe contributed a sum equal to half the proceeds of the entertainment. At the meeting of the Cambridge University Union on Tuesday night, Mr. D. L. Boys, of St. John's College, proposed : "That this house views with disappro bation the policy of non-intervention pursued by this country in the present war." On a division, the motion was negatived, the ayes being 32, the noes 44. It was reported on 'Change at Liverpool on Tues day that the purchases of provisions in Liverpool this week, amounted in value to upwards of £36,000, in addi tion to purchases of breadstuffs to the amount of 13,000 sacks, and 4,000 barrels of flour, all for export to France. It was also stated that the splendid new steamer Knapton Hall, of Dublin, had been chartered to carry about 700 tons of biscuit from Liverpool to either Havre or Dieppe. On Tuesday night Colonel Goodlake and the officers of the Ist Battalion Coldstream Guards gave a ball to about 250 of the principal residents of the Windsor district at the Victoria-street infantry barracks. The ball took place in the mess-room of the officers' quarters, which was tastefully decorated with trophies of arms, banners, drums, and flowers. Mr. Fred. Godfrey, with the quad rille band of the regiment, was in attendance. Supper was served in the billiard-room. THE RE-VICTUALLING OF PARIS. From Paris, February 6, the special correspondent of the Telegraph writes : The more people I hear talk, es pecially among the poor, the more do I incline towards the impression that real starvation has been very rare, if, indeed, it has ever occurred at all. Almost the entire body of the lower class of labourers has been paid or nourished by the State throughout the siege ; none of them were ashamed of being fed at the public expense ; most, indeed, were no doubt highly satisfied at being able to eat without working. They have often not had enough to satisfy their appetites—that is certain ; but still they all got sufficient to keep life well in them. It is in the two or three tiers above the lowest rank that the trial has been most felt ; among the higher class of workmen's families, the employ6s of every kind, and the small rcnticrs. All these people hesitated to accept charity, and their material needs have certainly been increased by their unwillingness to beg, and their moral anguish. Still, even there—pain ful as the trial has been—it does not appear to me that there has been thus far any actual dying for want of the strict necessaries of life. I think it will be found that the misery resulting from the in vestment lies outside the walls. Now that the siege is over, the refugees from the circle of investment are try ing to go home. What are they to do when they find no home? Paris is receiving food each hour; Paris, for the moment, wants nothing else; but those people out side want everything. Food is but one of their necessities; even should they get that, where are they to find the rest? I fully understand that the idea of Paris starving should move all hearts, and that earnest efforts should be made to aid her ; but do not forget the villages in the ring outside. I will not take upon myself to say that they need help more than Paris does—but I think I am not far wrong in suggesting that they want it every whit as much. Food continues to arrive, though in comparatively small quantities ; 227 waggons of flour got in yesterday by the Northern line, and several trucks of coal reached the Paris Station for the locomotive fires. About 280 oxen came in during the day, part of them for speculative sale, the rest upon Government account. Another small supply of sea fish has also appeared at the Halles ; there was fierce competition for it—small whiting sold for two francs, and each herring fetched a franc. Ready-made loaves are forwarded by thousands from the country towns, but, hitherto, none of them seem to have penetrated into Paris—they appear to be absorbed outside, particularly at St. Denis. The markets which arose at the outposts the day after the capitulation are slowly drifting backwards. The first day, it was to Courbevoie that the peasants and German speculators brought their stores for sale ; by degrees the demand has so much increased that the Paris buyers have gone further and further out to find all they want ; and now it is at St. Germain and at Versailles itself that the majority of the restaurants purchase their supplies. This is in contravention of that condition of the Convention which forbids the sale of food for Paris within the districts occupied by the Prussian army; but, in fact, that stipulation has never been enforced. The ration bread is still obviously bad, but the Govern ment is right to delay the issue of white bread until cer tain that it can maintain a regular supply. The quantity of wheat flour that has arrived is said to reach a total of 2,000 tons —enough for about four days' consumption ; if so, we may hope to see the oaten bread disappear to-morrow. Fish comes up from Dieppe by a regular posting service ; the distance is covered in twenty-four hours, and the fish comes here very fresh. Butter still sells at six shillings a pound, and each egg fetches fivepence. Two thousand Cheshire cheeses arrived yesterday from St. Nazaire. These details will suffice to show you that we are getting in not only necessaries, but luxuries ; and that the pro spect of starvation, which was very real a week ago, is rapidly disappearing. I fancy that, when the com plete truth is known, it will appear that Paris gave in just at the right moment—that down to the day of capitu lation no one had absolutely been in want of food sufficient to keep life going—and that stores have since arrived at a rate which has already furnished a small stock in hand. The cab question has not advanced with the same satisfactory speed. Not a conveyance is to be got, and all visits and excursions must be made on foot, unless —as luckily happened to me yesterday—a friend's carriage can be discovered and utilised. This state of things causes a loss of time beyond belief, and makes it more difficult to see anybody, especially people who live in the outlying quarters. As we are still eating horse, though to a diminished extent, it cannot be expected that the diffi culty will be go over speedily—especially as, even if horses could be procured, there is nothing on which to feed them. I suppose that some weeks will pass before a sufficient number of cabs can be available ; the whole service must be re-organised. Paris certainly needs 20,000 horses, and a quantity of hay and oats sufficient to nourish them. Cows, too, are urgently wanted, particu larly as the Prussians have been eating up all those out side for the last five months. Milk will long remain scarce and dear. The article in the last number of the Edinburgh Review, on military organisation, is said to be the joint production of Mr. H. Reeve and Sir William Mansfield. The first gentleman to arrive in London from Paris is the special correspondent Of the Morning Post, who reached town on Tuesday. We have to announce the death on Sunday last of the Hon. Mrs. H. Montagu Villiers, widow of the Right Rev. Dr. Villiers, Bishop of Durham. youngest brother of George William 4th Earl of Clarendon. The deceased lady was eldest daughter of the late Mr. William Hulton, of Hulton Park, Lancashire, and was married in January, 1837, to the Hon. d an Rev. Mr. Villiers, by whom, who died in August, 1861, she leaves a numerous family. The Right Hon. Mr. Bruce was summoned to Bristol on Tuesday on account of the dangerous illness of Mrs. Bruce. That lady, whilst on a visit to her sister, Mrs. Philip W. Miles, at King,sweston-park, was seized with an illness which on Monday assumed a very alarming character. Mrs. Bruce's medical attendants, Dr. Marshall and Mr. Swayne, considered on Tuesday afternoon, that although the condition of their patient was not free from danger, it had somewhat unproved from that of the previous day. OUR COTEMPORARIES—This Itorning THE DAWN OF THE SESSION. The Mica considers that the events of the last six months have so completely driven into the background the history of the session of 1870 that its debates and its struggles, and, of course, in a still greater degree, the circumstances under which it began, seem far removed from our present experience. There is some difficulty in recalling the hopes and fears of twelve months since. How many remember that the Queen had then promised herself the satisfaction of opening Par liament in person, but was prevented from fulfilling her intention at the last moment by sudden indisposition? It is as much forgotten as the fact that twelve months before a similar disappointment occurred, when it was proposed by way of compensation that the Address from the Houses should be . received by the Queen on her Throne at an audience granted for the pur• pose. Better fortune befalls us this year. But the presence of the Queen at Westminster to-day, though peculiarly welcome under the circumstances prevailing at home and abroad, must not be looked upon as an abnormal event. Her Majesty will be hfr place as she had planned to be last February, and as she planned to be in February, 1869, and as we may hope she will be in the future, unless prevented by personal weakness or domestic sorrow. The events of a session often falsify the best opinions that may be hazarded at its beginning, and there are few indeed who will be bold enough to say what 1871 may not bring forth. The weakness of the Opposition is a source of strength to the Government, and, perhaps, furnishes its best reliance; but the fact that this can be even suggested proves the inse curity of the present position. Much must depend upon the papers which will be immediately submitted to Parlia ment, and which, we are told, will shew that the Ministers of the Crown have been more active and more zealous than has been anticipated. But the speech of her Majesty to-day can throw out little light on these things. It is rather analogous to the opening of a contest on the chess board, where the first few moves are the same whether the players be good or bad, and it does not appear until the order of battle is definitely arranged upon which side the balance of skill and the prospect of vic tory lie. The Queen's Ministers meet Parliament to-day, remarks the Daily News, amidst circumstances which it is scarcely possible to contemplate without mingled feelings of hope and fear. The session of 1869 was a brilliant triumph for Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues. That of 1870 saw them still successful. During the recess, how ever, we have seen many and great changes. Substantially, we believe it will be found that Ministers have done their duty to the utmost. It is a fact not to be ignored that in two several respects the Government enters upon the coming session at a de cided disadvantage. Some recent personal appointments have made it more than doubtful whether Mr. Gladstone comprehends the kind of value which the great body of his supporters attached to the presence of Mr. Bright in the Cabinet, and have sug gested to the sincerest friends of the Government the fear that it is in danger of relying for success rather upon trained officialism than upon the maintenance of living contact with the people. This is one source of danger to the Government. A second is that it has not unfolded a full programme of measures so decisively Liberal as to be certain to restore and confirm the confidence that is ready to waver. It is not too late to avert whatever danger is threatened from either of these sources. The personal regard of the Liberal party for Mr. Gladstone remains undiminished, and by one word he could efface every troublesome re collection, and restore the heartiness and enthusiasm which carried him from victory to victory in the memor able session of 1869. The nation will need the services of the Liberal party during the next four months, for it is too evident that advantage will be taken of recent military events in France to entail upon the country many of the evils from which economists and Reformers have laboured through many years to deliver us. But the Liberalparty should never wage a de fensive warfare, and two years ago no one would have been so Quixotic as to attack it. There is no such security for a safe and prosperous session as an unreserved and open commitment to measures of reform sufficient to unite the sympathies and employ the energies of the whole Liberal party. THE ELECTIONS IN FRANCE. The Standard says : Yesterday France elected a National Assembly whose business and duty it will be to perform a task far exceeding in importance and in diffi culty any ever before imposed upon a representative body. The Assembly is especially convoked to determine the question of peace or war—to decide, in other words, whether it will be wiser for France to accept a peace inflicting upon her a moral humiliation and material losses, from which she cannot hope at the best to recover in less than a quarter of a cen tury, or renew a war from which, according to the gene ral opinion, very little can be hoped, and in which much will probably he lost. The German negotiations will be carried on with the Assembly, and not with the present Provisional Government, and with the Assembly will rest the responsibility of the decision which puts France upon her knees before the conqueror, or condemns her to the continuance of a struggle to which it is now apparent a very considerable proportion of Frenchmen have, for reasons which we do not care to appreciate, the strongest objections. The vote upon this question may decide the destinies of France for generations, and the members of the National Assembly who appear at Bordeaux next Sunday will have accepted a responsi bility which their sense of patriotism may indeed call upon them to assume, but which they will not be justified in assuming unless they are resolved to subordi nate all personal feelings and political views to the one object of the promotion of the true interests of France. It is hardly possible, therefore, to exaggerate the importance of the resolution the National Assembly may take. They may save, they may destroy France, so far as such words may be used in the present condition of that country; and the composi tion of the new National Representation is therefore a subject of the greatest interest. The Telegraph observes i —Paris elected its represen tatives to the National Assembly yesterday, and the provinces are about to follow its example. Yet, on the eve of the most important elections which France has witnessed since the great Revolution, the country seems to be strangely listless. We hear of o mass meetings, although the right of assembling is free to all. The journals do not put forth fiery philippics, although the freedo)n of the press is practically mitless. The Legitimists are dumb, the Orleanists have s, oken only through the Due d'Aumale, the Bonapartists have slunk into a corner, even the Reds do not shriek with their wonted shrillness, and the only party which makes itself heard is that of the moderate Republi cans. What is the reason of so notable a change ? The secret of such a deviation into virtue is to be found in the tremendous realities of the struggle— the great Prussian army which lay outside ; the inability of the world-renowned cnnital to link itself with the world save by the agency of 1, ;loons ; the hunger which grew day by day like the tide which rose inch by inch upon the martyrs who were exposed by fanaticism to the billows of the unpitying sea ; the shells which dropped into the crowded streets and crashed through the roofs of quiet homes, smiting down the innocence of childhood and the beauty of women. Such realities stunted the conventionalities of life. They reared up a new set of miseries which could not be soothed by the solace of suicide, and which annulled the temptations to commit vulgar crime. The complete ness with which the Germans have put to nought the gigantic appliances for the defence seems to have crushed the Parisians as an earthquake shakes the latent feeling that the earth is stable. So the greatest political issue which has affected the capital for generations seems to have been debated with such listlessness as we English discuss the fitness of Poor-law guardians. And that is likewise the case throughout the provinces. There is no agitation. All politial parties seem to take it for granted that the victory must lie with the moderate Republicans, as the party which holds the reins of power. Everybody, also, seems to assume that it is hopeless for France to prolong the fight, and that she must make terms with Prussia at whatever cost. Even the leaders of the nation seem to be rushing away into holes and corners. Some will not accept a seat in the National Assembly. General Ducrot declines, because his heart is too full of rage and despair, to fulfil the mis sion of Deputy with wisdom or moderation. He is " too much a soldier to become suddenly a politician." General Trochu refuses because, on assuming the Governorship of Paris, he announced that his functions should cease when the siege should end. The fact is that both Ducrot and Trochu are para lysed by the sense of despair. They see that the misfor tunes of France are irreparable ; that she must submit to . the decrees of Count Bismarck ; and that the men who take part in the final negotiations can bear only the odium of ignominious surrender. So they hold aloof. The spectacle is not very edifying ; but it is French, and it is excusable. We are officially informed that Captain ltobert Hall, C. 8., will succeed Vice-Admiral Sir Spencer Robinson as Comptroller of the Navy and third Larof the Board of Admiralty.—Daily News. iley's Drths ) who s ex very n has And after It the