The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-03 00:00:00

THE WAR.

PEACE FEELING AT VERSAILLES.
Herr Hans Wachenhusen writes from Versailles to the
Cologne Gazette that although Versailles with respect to
its military population has not changed its appearance,
the French residents are extremely excited, and scan eagerly
the faces of the Prussians to ascertain whether the rumours of
peace are true or false. The very persons who used to bid
us good morning after a fashion, which seemed to imply
" I wish you were all at the devil !" now come up with
amiable smiles, and ask, with a great deal of circumlocu-
tion, what truth there is in the rumours in the
town. " May God grant us peace," they say,
for the first glimpse of it has produced a
marvolleus effect, and the hope of emerging from
this appalling state of things has unloosed the
tongues of the most patriotic. As to the women,
their eyes fill with tears, and they echo softly, " May God
grant us peace." Notwithstanding- the severe discipline
of our soldiers, and although the inhabitants of Versailles
have personally no charges to make against them, the
town has suffered cruelly.

NOTES FROM LYONS.

LYONS, January 27th.

The losses of the Prussians during the three days before
Dijon were very severe, and amounted to more than
eight thousand men. On the French side there
was also heavy loss, especially among the chief
officers. Amongst them was a Pole, Bosak Hanke,
who joined Garibaldi, on his arrival in France. The
Mobiles of Savoy suffered considerably in the attack on
the village of Bethencourt, The day after his success at
Dijon Garibaldi addressed a proclamation to
his troops. and the day before he was attacked
by the Prussians he addressed another to the
Mobiles of the Army of the Vosges, in which he
said :—" Soldiers,—Every day our brave Francs-Tireurs
give new trophies to the Republic, and you young war-
riors of the holy cause of the Republic, will shew your
enemies the difference that exists between the slaves
of a des2ot, and the champions of liberty. The soldiers
of the King of Prussia have drawn back before your
prowess. The disasters of France have been a rude
lesson to teach what sybaritism kings would impose on
your noble country. Falsehood and corruption are their
symbols, but truth and justice are the oriflammes of
our young legions." Some representations have been
made to the authorities on the subject of parading
the Prulsian prisoners in the streets on account of the
Popular feeling which is so violently displayed against
them. The passing of a Prussian Ambulance which
was left on the field of Hauteville nearly caused
a disturbance, and the National Guard were com-
pelled to cross their bayonets in order to protect the
doctors and servants of the ambulance. A painful im-
pression has been produced at St, Etienne by the intelli-
gence that three inhabitants of the department who were
sent to Germany by a local eommittee to render
assistance, had been arrested at Hamburg on the charge of
encouraging disturbanoes among the prisoners. They are,
it is said to be sent before a council of war. These unfor-
tunate persons were greatly respected in their district, and
their threatened fate has caused the greatest consterna-
tion. The distress at Montbeliard has been so great that
General Treskow has made an appeal to the inhabitants
- of Mulhouse on their behalf.

PONDICHERRY.

The following account of the French settlement at Pon
dicherry, which Count Bismarck is said to have made 14
his mind to demand from the French Government,
is taken from M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary":—
" Pondicherry (Fr. Pondichery), a town of Hindostan,
and the principal French settlement on the Asiatic con-
tinent, on the Coromandal coast, 83m. S.S.W. Madras;
lat. 11 57 deg. N. long., 95 45 deg. E. Population 54,350 in
1861, of whom about 900 were Europeans. Standing on
a flat sandy plain, near the shore, it has a very imposing
appearance from the sea, and it is in reality a handsome
regularly laid out town. The streets in the European
quarter are of uniform breadth, built with remarkable
regularity, and intersecting each other at right angles.
The houses, which are of a good height, have flat terraced
roofs, the walls being struccoed white and yellow, and
not intermixed with native huts. Nearly in the centre is
a spacious square, laid out in walks, shaded by rows of
trees, with the Government house on the north side, and
open on the east to the sea. The black, or native town,
to the west of the former, and separated from it by a
canal, crossed by several bridges, is laid out with nearly
the same regularity as the Euporeau town, though the
houses are very inferior. Pondicherry was formely
strongly fortified, but the only portion of its works that
now remains is an old brick tower, on which the flag
is hoisted. The chief buildings are the Govern-
ment house, an edifice of a single storey, adorned with
columns, and surmounted by a balustrade ; the church,
built by the Jesuits ; and a good market place. It has a
college for Europeans, a school for the Indians, a botanic
garden, and a Government pawn-bank. The French pos-
sessions in India, comprising Pondicherry, Chandernagore.
Karical in the Carnatic, Mahe in Malabar, and Yanaon in
Orissa, with the territory attached to each, have a total
population of about 166,000, of whom 1,000 are whites. The
territory attached to Pondicherry is considerably larger
than the rest, and has 10,613 hectares under culture, pro-
ducing 6,488,640 kilogrammes rice, 6,734,000 kilogrammes
other grains, 6,900,000 cocoanuts, with some betel, and a
little indigo, tobacco, and cotton. The trade, by far the
greater part of which centres in Pondicherry, is chiefly
with the rest of the Coromandel coast, Sumatra, the Isle
de Bourbon, the Mauritius, and Senegal. The Governor
of the French settlements in India resides at Pondicherry,
where also is the chief court for these colonies, and a tri-
bunal of primary jurisdiction. This town was purchased
by the French from the Bejapore sovereign in 1672. It
was successively taken by the British in 1761, 1778, 1793,
and 1803 ; but was finally restored at the Treaty of Paris
in 1815.

The postal service with Paris is re-established for un
sealed letters.

A Lombard Telegram says that General Ducrot's death
Ls not confirmed.

The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine are not excluded
•om the elections for the National Assembly.—Lombard

Telegram.

- The Brussels correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette says
the rumour that the King of the Belgians may possibly be
elevated to the dignity of King of the French creates
there only merriment on account of its extreme absurdity.
The Belgians are certainly not inclined to share the benefit
of paying the French war-debt.
No guns were fired at Berlin in celebration of the fall of
Paris. The Cross Gazette explains that this omission was
by the express order of the Emperor William, who for-
s arded a telegram directing that the salute should be
deferred till the conclusion of peace. This, it remarks,
was an act quite characteristic of him.
In a letter to the Neue Freie Presse Karl Blind ex-
presses a fervent hope that the surrender of Paris will
induce the Republican authorities to conclude peace even
at the price of a sacrifice which the force of events has
henceforth rendered unavoidable. "It is the eleventh
hour," he says, " and the danger of a downfall of the
scarcely-formed Republic is horribly great."
The arrival of arms in the port of Bordeaux, chiefly
from America, are continual and enormous. The
American steamer Concordia, from ,New York, has just
arrived with the following warlike cargo :-1,250 cases of
muskets, 1,707 cases of cartridge, 3,495 cases of munitions
of war, 166 cases of artillery articles, 181 cases of cannon,
249 ammunition waggons, 79 gun carriages, 1,047 wheels,
542 cases of harness, 593 caissons, and sundry cases of

pickaxes.
The Procurer of the Lille Republic has arrested a mili-
tary shoemaker. This man, whose name is Caspar, is of
English origin ; he furnished the intendance of the third
division with more than fifteen thousand pairs of shoes
with cardboard soles. lie was stopped just as he was
getting into the express for Calais. He is still enga;ed in
some important transactions with the Bordeaux Govern-
ment respecting claussures. He is amenable to the law
under the Penal code.
Count Villers, the German civil commissioner for Lor-
raine, has denied the statement which recently called
forth serious remonstrances from the Cologne Gazette, that
in the district of Nancy entire plantations belonging to
the State had been brought to the hammer. The Cologne
Gazette, accepting this , denial as far as it goes, remarks
that it still remains uncertain whether, as has also been
alleged, Belgian speculators have purchased timber in those
woods. It is certain that companies of speculators have
been formed, and the question is, whether operations
other than those of the ordinary kind have beet
carried on.
" Azamat Battik " says in the Pall Mall Gazette

" Being at Tours in the end of November, when the Army
of the Loire had achieved its success at Coulmiers,
and when therefore the hopes of the French people
were at their climax, I heard from the mouth of one of the
most intimate friends of Gambetta and his nearest associ-
ate in the management of affairs, that no one of the mem-
bers composing the delegation of the Government of
National Defence at Tours had the slightest hope of a
victorious issue; that all of them, including M. Gambetta,