The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-15 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1863.

There can be felt now but very little doubt that
Puebla has fallen. The intelligence, it is true, still
requires apparently another word of crowning con-
firmation. But that is all. The pasquinaders of
the Second Empire in France, of course, continue to
the very last to cling to the merest shadow of a
shade of a hope that the news may even yet be
falsified. Their spitefully reiterated predictions
of a disastrous failure, as the one inevitable result of
this same Mexican expedition, have been altogether
too loudly enunciated, and have been throughout
too frequently and too flagrantly brought under
public attention, to admit of their being so
very readily swept aside by the tidings
(the still not quite confirmed tidings) of the
fall of Puebla. Nevertheless that Puebla has fal-
len we ourselves feel perfectly convinced. Not so
much because of the confident manner in which the
statement of the fact is put forward by the French
Government in the columns of the Moniteur. But
necessarily, if not entirely, we are convinced that
the event has actually taken place as described—
because of the very manifest probability that it
is so ! Besides, the announcement comes to us
so very circumstantially. Twenty-five generals,
900 officers, and about 16,000 rank and
file have surrendered says—not Rumour—but—
a despatch from Queenstown, dated 12th June,
and received by the Imperial Minister of Marine.
From that despatch we learn, moreover, the very
date of the fall or capture of Puebla by the troops
of the Emperor NAPOLEON. The seventeenth day
of May is in the despatch declared to have been
that thenceforth memorable date—a date thence-
forth memorable alike in the annals of France and
Mexico. General FOREY—possibly a little while
hence to be Duc de PUEBLA—was, moreover,
stated by this very explicit and most satisfactory
official despatch to have thereupon already begun.
or was about very shortly to begin, his march
directly onwards, upon the capital of the invaded
State, upon the ancient City of Mexico, midway
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Con-
queror having been encouraged, doubtless, to perse-
vere promptly and without any further pause in this
onward movement, by the all-important circumstance
that the surrender of Puebla, on the 17th ult., was
—unconditional!

Remembering the mere opportuneness of the
time at which this surrender of Puebla comes to
light, w.: can hardly wonder, in reality we don't in
the least wonder, at the exultation manifested by
our contemporary, the Constitutionnel, imme-
diately upon receiving the announcement. "The
nations know," exclaims that organ, " that
our honour once satisfied, and reparation ob-
tained, our triumph changes into benefaction.
We are not enemies but liberators of the Mexican
people, who were deceived by an iniquitous Govern-
ment. They will learn that, under NAPOLEON 111.,
the French soldier is more than ever the soldier of
civilisation and humanity." Let the sequel justify
those rejoicing, and at the same time magnanimous,
predictions, and we too upon this side of the
Channel, as merely dispassionate spectators, will
participate, a little later on, in the intense satisfac-
tion articulated through the earnest words of Le
r • .
-onstztutumnel.

As we write—comes to us complete confirmation
of the truth of the entire success, so far as it has yet
gone, of the French Expedition into Mexico, The
Fall of Puebla, as our foregoing remarks—(the ink
of which is hardly yet dry when these later tele-
grams come to hand)—will have shewn that we at
once credited. The Fall of Puebla on the 17th

ultimo is an event now assured. Genera.
FoREY's report, written on the follow

ing day, and giving the full particulars
of the eecurfenee, shows only a certain discrepancy
in the estimated number of the prisoners taken at

the time of the city's surrender. It will
be seen
from the telegram that while there were less of the
rank and file who laid down their arms on the 17th
ult. at Puebla, there were more of the native
officers—from 1,000 to 1,200 officers, and about
12,000 privates. Together with these all the
materials of war came into the possession of the

French Commander-in-Chief. The first sentence o.

the report, breathes eloquently enough in a few simple
words the excitement of exultation in which it was
penned by General FOREY—within whose grasp
the pen he was then wielding felt doubtless almost

as though It were grovring into the hcztein of an im-
perial mareehll ! " The army"—these were General
Foßn's words on the 18th ult., at Puebla—" the

army is at the height of its joy, and will
march in a few days upon Mexico." Im-
mediately appended to General FUREY'S report,
among our telegrams of this forenoon will be found
the epitome of a heartstirring and noble letter
addressed by the Emperor NAPOLEON to his suc-
cessful General. " Our aim," says his MAJESTY in
this letter, '• is not to impose upon the Mexicans a
Government against their will, not to make our suc-
cess serve to the triumph of any party what-
ever. I desire," he adds, " that Mexico may be
born to a new life, and that shortly, regenerated
by a Government founded upon the national will,
the principles of order and progress, and respect for
international law, she may, by establishing friendly
relations with France, acknowledge that it is to
France that she owes her peace and prosperity."
Once let the EMPEROR make good this programme,
and " golden opinions from all sorts of men" are
there at Mexico also to be gathered at his own
goodwill and pleasure. As it is, the capture of
Puebla comes to his Imperial Majesty as more than
a counterpoise to his late Parisian disappointments.

The King of PRUSSIA cannot show any modera-

_
tion at all. It is now reported that he has refused
to receive the deputation from the Town-council of
Breslau, or to accept the address which they
adopted. This shows a most unconciliatory spirit,
and can only lead to further irritation. The mere
fact of receiving an address cannot compromise any
one ; but it is a want of common courtesy to refuse
to do so. Indeed, it is a sort of tacit avowal that
the KING has the worst of the argument, since he
will not even hear what the other side has to say.
It is said that the address was illegally voted, but
such arguments are really quite absurd. It is the
last resource of despotism to declare that anything
done to frustrate its purpose or check its assumption
is in contravention of the law. During the last few
months the laws of Prussia have undergone a strange
perversion to suit various purposes, and now they
are to prevent any allusion being made to the acts
that are convulsing the whole system of legislation,
and threatening finally to involve the country in a
revolution, or else to subvert the freedom of the
land. One of the papers states that " the addresses
and petitions of some meetings and Town-councils,
even without taking into consideration that they
have transgressed their privileges, are partly of
a nature to render their publication objectionable
in view of the law of the press. It does not appear
superfluous to state this in the interests of the
press." It will be seen from this how the strin-
gency of the new regime prevents an attempt to
make public the doings or sayings of those who
have spirit or energy to resist the innovations
recently made. What they say must not be re-
peated ;it is seditious. What they propose doing
must not be whispered of, for it is illegal. Surely
a people who have made so much progress in free-
dom and who have hitherto made it their boast that
they enjoy a constitutional form of government
cannot submit tamely to this pressure. Without
any just cause or valid reason being adduced, why
should their career as a free and independent
nation b,,, extinguished, and their position awaken
at once the contempt and the pity of Europe. It
has been truly said that " when nations fall it is
because a degenerate race intervened between the
class that created and the class that is doomed."
Let not the present race of Prussians, then, bequeath
this sad doom to their posterity. Lord DERBY, at
the banquet at MerchantTaylors' Hall, in describing
the past services of the civic institutions, observed that
now happily there existed no longer such emergen-
cies to call them forward." The time is past when
there was occasion for the guilds of London to re-
sist tn e encroachments of the Crown. Yet we now,

living in far-off times, are reaping the inestimable
advantages of the efforts they made and the changes
in the constitution that they so stedfastly re3isted.
It will be sad if Prussia in her hour of trial does not
find in her sons the spirit and the quiet determina-
tion which made our citizens in days of yore the
champions of the cause of freedom. There is no
need of revolution to gain the point. hi these days
kings have learned a wise lesson, and a stedfast re-
solution is generally sufficient to show the irate
monarch how far he may go and how much he may
attempt. It will be a mistaken policy if the influen-
tial members of the community now keep quiet,
and uae their influence over others to induce them
to follow their example. We know the futility of
crying peace where there is no peace, and the like
results attend the efforts of those who submit
tamely to injustice, and sanction oppression for the
time. It is hoping against hope to expect

that such conduct can be of any avail
against a man who, like King WILLIAM, will not
scruple to cite this grievance as establishing a pre-
cedent, and on some future occasion of litigation to
quote their own actions as witnesses against them.
There is much to depress and alarm the philoso-
phising politician in the atmosphere of many States
at present. The Amer:can War is a dreadful cala-
mity, and the insurrection in Poland is a cruel
wrong; but it is to be questioned if the state of affairs
in Prussia is not the most irritating of all the mis-
chances that are now so rife, because it is at once
so uncalled for and so detrimental. It was generally
supposed that improvements were to take place in
the country in several ways, and the alliance with
England seemed to promise great things, when sud-
denly the scene was changed and a general trans-
formation has taken place. All who feel any interest
in the cause of constitutional liberty will deeply
deplore the existing state of things, and trust that
there is yet extant sufficient national spirit to resist
these innovations which, if unchecked, will militate
so greatly against the welfare of the State, and
retard its progress for many generations to come.

A new and interesting experiment has been made
in London on behalf of a large and generally
friendless class. The claims of young pauper girls
on our sympathy and assistance, when they reach
the dangerous age—

"Where the brook and river meet,"

are most pressing and urgent. From no fault of
their own, often from that double loss which is
so terrible a deprivation to the helpless child, they
have been brought up in the workhouse school,
which is at best a dreary substitute for even the
poorest " home." When they reach the age to feel
their position more keenly, when they ara most sus-
ceptible to all surrounding influences, whether
good and kindly or evil and degrading, they are
suddenly thrown into close companionship with
Fibfooemereof
the
x
ee most vicious and worthless of their seer
hardened
ardened offenders, whose frequent appearance
magistrates for refractory conduct has
become too common an event to attract much notice.
The result of the " evil communications" is the same
as it ever has been and ever will be ; the "good
are speedily corrupted,
shef
aaen d
manners"
a promising
hardened re-
probates r la r soi:nkas
n oT
wen
ahieoNi
fatal
iaet
ai if
her.to t eElveevlif
' before much mischief is done,
she loses her place but to return t:cs)iitshe as
ward of the parish workhouse,
whose name is so well known and honoured for the
'
services she has rendered to those who cannot help
themselves, speaks very strongly on this point. She
says that the fact has never been disputed that it is
an impossibility under any circumstances to render
the adult wards of workhouses fit plats for the re-

ception of young women and girls. With a view
to mitigate in some degree the extent of the evil
against which no effort was made, some members
of the Workhouse Visiting Society have instituted
an Industrial Home for Girls in New Or-
mond-street, whose object is "to save and
receive the still decent and respectable girls
from the adult wards of the London work-
houses in the first place, and, until full from this
source, from the country unions as well. It is not
even attempted to provide a suitable refuge in
workhouses for this class of persons, who are indis-
criminately thrown amongst the worst and con-
demned to a degrading occupation. It is satisfac-
tory to find that boards of guardians are increasingly
impressed with this evil, and fourteen have now
gladly availed themselves of this home for all their
respectable'. girls."
We are quoting from the recently published
report of the Industrial Home, which tells of its
efforts and successes during the second year of its
existence. The number of girls that have passed
through the institution since its opening is no less
than a hundred and fifty-two, and of these very
fair accounts are given. Most of them have been
provided with places, generally with satisfactory
results; some have been sent to the colonies as
household servants, through the kind agency of
Miss BURDETT COUTTS. The sudden alteration in
the prcspects of these girls is singular enough.
One, whose last London situation was in Seven
Dials, was, immediately after she landed at Halifax,
taken into the service of the Attorney-General of
Nova Scotia. The number who have been absolute
failures is happily very small—especially when we
consider for how brief a time the beneficial influ-
ences of the Home are brought to bear upon them.
A gentleman who had on the opening of the insti-
tution anticipated an equal proportion of good,
bad, and indifferent cases, expressed himself as
agreeably surprised when the existing facts were
made known. It appears to us, however, that the
time of their residence in the Home might be judi-
ciously lengthened at least six months. The
longer stay would be little increased expense to the
guardians, since, after more efficient training, the
girls would get better places, and be more likely to
keep them. The report describes them as being
of the average character of their class, with no spe-
cially distinctive feature. They are frequently the
children of respectable parents, and have been
thrown on the world through orphanage. The
fathers of some had been clerks, of others book-
sellers, shipwrights, and bailiffs. The tone of the
report muse strike the most prejudiced reader as
being particularly moderate and sensible. There
is no exaggeration or enthusiasm about the scheme.
It is simple and rational in its objects, and is con-
ducted in most regular and businesslike fashion.
" It is but little change," says the report, " that we
can hope to effect in so short a time, but what we
propose to do, and what we have succeeded in doing
is to lift these girls out of the workhouse, and to
give them some other point of attraction and centre
for their thoughts and their affections. When we
find that out of one hundred and fifty-two girls
only thirteen have gone back to the workhouse, we
think it cannot be said that we have failed in this
object.'
The best proof of the great need that exists of
similar institutions is found in the number of appli-
cations. Two hundred applications in the year,
excluding those that were unsuitable, show that the
want of a respectable resting-place is deeply felt by
all connected with these poor and friendless young
girls. Their position is mournful enough in any
case, but at least it has some ameliorating influences,
if they can think of one door where they will be
received with a word of kindly welcome in the hour
of sickness or sorrow, one circle to whom their suc-
cess or failure in life is not a matter of total indif-
ference. We wish the institution all the success it
merits, and heartily commend it to the attention of
all those social reformers and philanthropists who
believe in the old adage, "Prevention is better than

cure."