The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-06 00:00:00

THE IMPENDING CAPITVLATION OF PARIS.

Will Paris fall ? the Daily News asks. All the recent
indications of the way in which events have been tending,
both in and around the city, foreshadow a capitula-
tion' which can be staved off only by ,da miracle ;
end that miracle has not as yet been" Fought.
The meeting of the Mayors of Paris, Nyvhich
was obviously held to consider the chancei\of
the place holding out after the retreat froth'
Mont Avron ; the petition that a Pruisian officer
should enter the city as parlementcare ; and the rapid and'
effective movements of the Germans stationed on the
eastern side of the city,i point to but enreonclusion.
The bitterest drop in the cup of agony which France has
had to drink remains to be drunk out. No doubt the end of
the heroic resistance has not yet arrived. Paris is not France;
but France, and Paris as the head of France, have delivered
their joint ultimatum ; and if this or that section of her soil,
is to be wrested from her, it must be taken by main force,
end held under a continuous threat. Paris has held out
week after week, month after month, waiting for the'
provinces , to rise and arm, and thrust back the
invaders. The provinces have attempted the work,
and, up to this point, have failed. Paris herself has
made two desperate efforts to free herself from
the toils surrounding her, and has likewise hitherto
failed. At present the consumptip of food and the
military operations of the Germans seem running a race.
France herself, at this moment, has probably accepted
the fall of Paris as an inevitable catastrophe,
and is asking herself what she will then do.
There seems to be but one opinion in Europe as to
the desirability of the war coming to an end-
What is the use of continuing a strife under those
adverse conditions? is the question asked by many,
who are assured that sooner or later France will seek her
revenge. The difficulties of compelling a peace,, according
to the scheme to which we have already adverted, are
numerous ; but on the other hand, the demands of Ger-
many for the return of her soldiers are growing more
urgent. It does not 'perhaps occur to a Power in-
flamed bythe lust of territorial spoil that the return of her
soldiers would be most speedily gained by moderating the
terms on which she insists. Her own security has long
since ceased to be the object for which Germany is fight-
ing. She endangers it by every additional motive of
hatred and impulse of revenge with which she supplies
the French people. But the arrogance of victory and the
despair of suffering and humiliation are equally heedless
of counsel.

SYMPATHY WITH FRANCE.

The Telegraph, in commenting on the proceeding at the
Cannon-street Hotel meeting, says :—With regard to the
" pressure " put upon her Majesty's Government, we
observe that a resolutionwas carried yesterday, apparently
against the wish of those who provoked the meeting, in
favour of an official rocognition of the de facto
Government •of France. The claim thus put
forward is either exorbitant or it is unmeaning.
Our Ministers cannot recognise the Republic, for
the plain reason that their nation has not yet
selected that form of government, while the official re-
cognition of the existing Government has already been
virtually given. M. Gambetta's Dictatorship, in con-
junction with his colleagues shut up in Paris, is a
provisional fact which Lord Granville has re-
gistered and accepted as France accepts it ; nor
could he do more until the country finds a voice to estab-
lish or to depose the " Committee of Defence." In the
interests of peace our .Government has gone as far as it
could possibly go, by repeated endeavours to bring the
Prussian and French statesmen together, and recently by
using every effort to secure for M. Jules Favre a safe-
conduct to the seat reserved for him at the Conference.
So that, whereas the meeting called on her
Majesty's Government ." to take an active and
earnest initiative in the work of peace," the
answer is, that her Majesty's Government has
been doing nothing else. It has not neglected the
faintest opportunity, the slightest opening, for efforts
directed to that most desirable (Ind; and the presence of
Mr. Odo Russell at Versailles has for its chief object to
retain at the head-quarters of the belligerent a practised
and able representative, ready at any moment to
give !.expression to the fervent wish of England fot
peace. But, 'most • assuredly!, those who labour
for so beneficent a result by friendly and logical
means must not employ the one-sided language of the
gathering in Cannon-street; nor would it work aught but
bitter mischief if that language were mistaken for thg
voice of. the "citizens of London." Lord Mayor Dakin
is to be tVanked,' we repeat, in the interests of peace,
arid of,...4bapless t France herself, for the prudence
which taught him that London and the country
are satisfied with the anxious watch which the Govern-
merit keeps over the progress of the painful struggle, and
thit no civic meeting is required to bid the Ministry do
all it'can with the view of terminating the war as soon as
eyentscallow, and Germany will listen to counsels of
modefatiOn.