The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-02 00:00:00

to £l,OOO.

A. GiimmaN SCHEME.—The Siecle gives some de-
tails of the results of a family council and council of war
held at Versailles, not guaranteeing their authenticity.
According to this account, it has been decided that the
Prussians, laving taken the whole lint of the Loire and
Paris, are to stop their ravages, and take up their quarters
behind Atgone, where they are to entrench themselves
strongly. King William and his Ministers will employ
themselves in definitely organising those French provinces
which thy wish to keep and annex to Germany. Alsace
will be annexed to the Grand Duchy of Baden,
whose Grand Duke, son-in-law of the King of Prussia,
will take the tile of King, Lorraine, erected into
a German Grand Duchy will be allotted to Prince
Frederick Charles, who wanted to have Champagne as
well, but Bismarck opposed this, and would only have
let Frederic Charles have the departments of La Meurthe,
the Vosges, La Moselle, and La Meuse. The remark
attributed by the Journal de Paris to General Trochu gives
some colour to this scheme. " The war," said the General,
" will not really begin until the month of March."
RELIEF 0? THE FRENCH PEASANTRY.—The
Daily News ptblishes some letters from M. Drouyen
de Lhuys, respecting the assistance which is offered to the
French agricuhurists who have been ruined by the war.
The first is adlressed to Lord Vernon, President of the
Royal Society of Agriculture, who is to preside at the
meeting of the Farmer's Club, for the purpose of delibe-
rating upon tlo best means ofassisting the French. M.
Drouyen de Lhuys expresses his gratitude for the
sympathy whbh has been shewn, and says that when, in
more " forturate days," lie was ambassador in England,
he had many opportunities of appreciating the kindness
and generoitty of Englishmen. In the second
letter, addroised to the President of the Com-
mittee for tie Relief of the French Agriculturists,
M. Drouyn 4 Lhuys thinks that it would be desirable
to establish committees in France for the purpose of as-
certaining the wants of the various localities desolated by
the war ; and the most practical way of carrying out this
plan would be to form a commission in each commune.
This commission might draw up an inventory of the nature
and quantity of seed and other necessaries required for
sowing the land. Such reports could be forwarded to a
committee in the chief town of the arrondissement who
would centralise the inventories and arrange the amount
of distributicn to be sent to the London committee.
Whenever they thought it desirable, the English consuls
and the delegates of the English committee could take
part in the ddiberations of the commissions. The places
where the objects contributed are to be sent in France

must be detetrnined by the position of the enemy's troops
and the stato of communication. M. Drouyn de Lhuys
adds that hehas sent these suggestions to France by the
last mail.

BREAKFAST.—EPPS'S COCOA.- -GRATEFUL AND COM-
FORTING.—TIe very agreeable character of this preparation has
rendered it ageneral favourite. The Civil Service Gazette re
marks :—" Br a thorough knowledge of the natural laws which
govern' the operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a
careful application of the fine
,preperties of well-selected cocoa.
Mr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately
flavoured beverage which may save us many heavy doctors'
bills." Each packet is labelled—JAMES EPPS & CO., Ilomceo-
pathic Chemists, London. Also, makers of Epps's CacaOine,
very thin evening beverage. —Advt.

THE WAR.

THE SIEGE OF PARIS.

BY BALLOON MAIL-FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF

CENTRAL PRESS.)
Puns, December 19.
For some days the forces inside Paris have remained
quiet, but we expect to be hard at work again immediately.
The rest of above a fortnight was absolutely necessary
to reorganise and recruit the army after the terrible
losses in the sorties which began on November 29th. A
thorough reconstitution was, in fact, required. First of
all some serious differences between the generals
had to be reconciled. The corps commanded by
General Blanchard has been dissolved, and that under
General de Malroy has been partly sent to the 3rd army.
Both generals have important commands under General
Vinoy. Thus the officers who could not live
in harmony with Ducrot are now under the orders of a
general who is a great favourite with the troops,
The ultimate effect of thus settling these most disastrous

disputes is that the importance of Ducrot remains unques-
tionably diminished. The artillery required much
resuscitation, and this has at length been effected. The
gaps, too, in the various battalions are now filled up.
The Parisian military authorities are resolved to main-
tain discipline, and with reason, for the senseless panics to
which individuals and companies alike are in the habit of

yielding, are often productive of most mischievous
results. The general commanding the National Guards
of the Seine has issued an order respecting a section of the
4th company of the 214th battalion. This company was

on outpost duty at Creteil, and allowed itself to be carried
away by a false alarm, which nearly degenerated into a
panic. After a few shots they retreated precipitately,
and had to be brought back by their captain. An in-
quiry has been ordered Into the conduct of the lieutenant.
A Franc-tireur, by birth an Alsatian, has been con-
demned to death for communicating with the enemy.

Another battalion, the 147th, has got into trouble. The
volunteers were ordered to Rosny, but only 109 men

appeared on parade, and most of these were unarmed

- -
The battalion refused to march, because during their pre
vious absence the wives of the married
men had not received the Government allow-
ance of seventy.five centimes per day. The Government
has now ordered that the volunteers of the 147th batta-
lion should be dissolved, and the men composing it incor-
porated in the battalions from which they came, the heads of
such battalions having the right to admit them or refuso
them. The rejected men will be disarmed, and definitively
struck off the roll.
The following proclamation, which has been issued by
the Government, is important, as referring to food :
" The notice published by the Government two days since
appears to have appeased the uneasiness of the popula-
tion relative to the bread. It is important that no trace
should remain. It is clear that if there are four loaves for
four consumers, and that one of them ,purchases three,
he condemned all the others to be content with one-third
ration. This isthe effect of fear. We repeat that there is no
ground for preoccupation, and that the bread will not be
rationed. Assuredly, if it should be necessary to resizn
herself to privations at a moment like the present, Paris
would not hesitate. There is no sacrifice she would not be
ready to made for honour and for the country. But the
existing provisions permit her to be spared this
necessity. The quantity of bread sold daily has
not varied since the commencement of the siege ,
and nothing predicts that it should be diminished.
There will be no difference but in the quality.
The greatest interest of the nation.being to prolong as
much as possible the defence of Paris, the Government,
sure of responding in that respect to the desire of all the
citizens, has resolved that so soon as the delay necessary
for the use of the existing quantities shall expire, there
shall be no longer sold nor distributed in the town
any but pain bis" (brown bread ; but not under-
stood as in England) ; it is bread of an inferior
quality. This bread is nourishing, agreeable to the taste,
and without inconvenience to the health. Our peasants
eat no other, even in the most favoured departments. It
is unnecessary to say that the bread will be of uniform
qualty for all consumers, and that no exception
will be tolerated. Meat does not fail us. It will
be distributed every day in the municipal butcheries,
without any sort of reduction in the quantities at present
distributed. At first there was some difficulty in organis-
ing the service , now all is in order. Bread and meat,
that is to say, the double basis of alimentation, are
assured. After three months of siege, one may say
that it is unexpected. These results are chiefly
due to the wisdom and patriotism of the population, as
resigned before privations, as it is heroic in the face of
peril. We have all sworn that nothing would cost us
dear to save our country, and we shall succeed by force
of calmness, watchfulness and courage."
Many startling revelations have been made by the
papers discovered at the Tuileries, but none perhaps more
striking than the facts elicited from a pamphlet lately
found there, which was printed at the Imperial Printing-
office in May, 1870, but not published. The Emperor him-
self is supposed to be the author, but the remark ble
feature of the case is that it proves that two mo hs
before the declaration of war Napoleon was fully aware of
the superiority of the Prussian army. The pamphlet
begins by censuring those economists who desired to
reduce the military strength of France, and then proceeds
to institute a comparison between the organisation of the
armies of France and Prussia. At that time the army of
the North German Confederation was stronger' than the
French by four regiments of infantry, fifteen regiments of
cavalry, and six regiments of artillery. Besides
this the army of Southern Germany had to be
reckoned, since the States were compelled by treaty
to make common cause with Prussia. This added six
divisions of infantry, two divisions of cavalry, and three
and a half brigades of artillery. In addition to the active
army, the North German Confederation possesses as many
regiments of landwehr as there are regiments of the line.
Each regiment of the line having three battalions has a
corresponding regiment of Landwehr with two battalions,
of the same number and bearing the same provincial title
as the line regiment. There are also three regiments of
Fusiliers, of three battalions, with corresponding
regiments of Landwehr in reserve. The total of
the Landwehr, including the reserve, is 198 battalions,
without reckoning the Landwehr of the Guard, or
that of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The Landwehr
is not composed of raw recruits, but of old soldiers, who
have served three years under the colours, and four years
in the reserve. The army of Northern Germany consists
of 12 contingents, at an effective strength of 900,000. It
may well be asked why the Emperor did not carry his
researches a little further, and ascertain the state 'of his
own army as accurately as he had learned that of the Ger-
mans.

many bloody engagements before any of the forts can be
taken, and the possibility of Paris being subjected to the
full force of the bombardment can be ensured.

A correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, in the Ger-
man lines, who writes ou the 27th, gives some important
information : "Yesterday, being at the outposts at
Ville d'Avray, I saw two large trains of waggons heavily
laden with shot and shell pass by. They went through
Ville d'Avray into the Park of S. Cloud, into which it
is not a little difficult for ordinary mortals to obtain access.
The fact is that nearly the whole of that part of the park
facing Paris has been converted into batteries ;
hence the unwillingness of the Prussians to allow strangers
to visit its precincts. A more favourable spot from which
to begin the bombardment of Paris could hardly be ima-
gined. The plateau in the Park of St. Cloud commands
the greater part of Paris, but it offers an easy mark for
Mont Val6rien. To this latter danger the Prussians
profess themselves fully alive, but they affirm
hat they have amply provided against it. The
programme of the bombardment of Paris is probably m
follows. First, the batteries on the north will open.
That will be merely a demonstration intended to draw
the best French gunners from their guns in order to reply
to the attack. 'While the French are busily employed
in defending one side they will suddenly find themselves
attacked from another, and when St. Cloud, Meudon, and
Clamart have opened, the great artillery duel will have
fairly begun.