The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-11 00:00:00

THE WAR.

THE " JOURNEL OFFICIEL" ON THE
SITUATION.
The Paris Journel Officiel of the 4th contains the follow-
ing article :—" We are unable, from reasons which every-
one will understand, to give here an explanation of the
negotiations which preceded the Treaty, but we may
state that from the evening of Monday, January 23rd, to
eight o'clock in the evening of Saturday, 2Sth,
we disputed the ground inch by inch, and that
the little which we gained was won at the price of great
efforts and bitter suffering. We would gladly have
achieved more, but we were compelled to submit to all we
could not alter by persuasion. Thus we were obliged to
consent to a reservation for the continuation of the siege
Belfort, and an adjournment of the demarcation of the
line separating the armies of the Doubs, the Jura, and
the Cote d'Or. At that very moment Bourbaki's army,
whose position was not known, was on the frontier, which
the next day it crossed. By these details the extent of
our disasters may be estimated. We were too much
broken to insist upon more. Only the feeling of
duty sustained us, and we did not yield until it was
at once useless and criminal too hold out.
In this shipwreck, which has engulphed so many
noble hopes and generous illusions, we sought for an
anchor of safety. We thought we had found it in the
respect for the national sovereignty, and to obtain its con-
secration seemed to us a great advantage. If we could
draw from our misfortunes the lesson it offered nothing
would be altogether lost. Our hearts are pierced by the sight
of our beloved country invaded, mutilated, ruined ; we all
wear mourning for loved ones who have died for her with-
out being able to save her, yet we are sustained by the
thought that we have done our duty. Whatever may be
the inertia of the European Cabinets, the world at large
will do us justice, the peoples will not refuse us their
sympathies. We knew this already, notwithstanding the
imperfection of the communications, which enabled us to
glance beyond the iron circle which has stifled us for five
months.We knew that a profound emotion agitated England.
Great meetings have been held in Lofidon. The workmen
have organised a subscription which in a fewldays
produced more than 250,000 francs, and which will, we
are assured, exceed two millions. A committee
was immediately formed to purchase provisions of
all kinds, which the population of London send
to the population of Paris. Touching expression of feeling
which ought to console us in the midst of our misery !
We accept it with gratitude as a proof of the doctrine of
fraternal so/idarite which ought to unite the nations, and
make them detest that horrible folly which is called war,
and those who urge the peoples to it. The . English
Cabinet has taken part in this impetuous move-
ment of public opinion. A delegate has come to, arrange
with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and his colleague of
Commerce, for the prompt arrival of these goods. The
Ministry has hastened to thank Lord Granville officially,
and to beg him to offer to the people of London the expres-
sion of the gratitude of the people of Paris. At all events
these honest workmen, these merchants, these artists,
all the citizens who people that great city, have
not, like others have done, forgotten the hospi-
tality we were so happy to shew them in bettei da34.
They have displayed their good will at the time of our
dire distress. We are glad to thank them publicly, and
to find in their generous eagerness a pledge of substantial
frienship, which the appreciation of our reciprocal interests
can only strengthen.

AFF kIRS AROUND PARIS.
From Margency, February 6, the special correspondem
of the Daily News at the Saxon headquarters sends the
following by special despatch :—Both in Paris and in the
surrounding country, now flooded by those who have
quitted Paris, the feeling in favour of the Orleans family
is very strong. There is, however—it would be wrong
not to state—a considerable proportion in favour of the
Emperor, chiefly of the bourgeois class, and those to whom
a gay court has advantages. Many who are indifferent
whether it is the Orleans people or the Napoleons
who are to reign, exclaim : " For God's sake, no
Republic." Equally emphatic are they against the pro-
longation of the war. Over and over again to-day have I
heard Gambetta abused as a maniac. There is a strong
belief among the Germans that the Imperialistic dynasty
will come to the front again. People do not seem at all
assured of the prospect of immediate peace. If Gambetta
succeeds in enforcing his restrictions as to the antecedents
of the representatives, further resistance is regarded as
inevitable. To-day I have ridden more than half
round Paris. Lagny is swarming with German
Jews, hungry for business when once they can get into
Paris, which is not yet allowed. Every road is thronged
with the inhabitants of the country surrounding Paris,
pouring out of the city in which they have so long been
immured. You see sad sights at every step. Families
gazing hopelessly at their shattered homes, or women
timidly asking permission of the Germans to be allowed a
corner in their own house wherein to shelter their chil-
dren. I have seen a French nobleman, visiting his own
chateau, asked as a truest by the German occupants to
drink a glass of his own wine, and proffered a shakedown
in one of his own bedrooms. I have seen delicate ladies,
with jewels on their fingers, grubbing in the fields for
frosted vegetables ; while the nursemaid stood in the rear
with the sobbing children, and the father mooned about
picking up scraps of firewood to warm the damp hearth in
the wrecked chateau. I have seen the stupefied farmer
gazing dreamily on the battery emplacements cumbering
his fields, and at the shell-craters behini them, as if the
solid works were spectral apparitions, and would melt
away and leave the easy furrows if he only looked
long enough. Faces have passed me not good
to look upon. Dark faces of French ladies inside
carriages, with tightened muscles, and eyes flashing full
of silent passion, as the German sentry stopped them in
the ruined village in the rough Teuton manner, and de-
manded their papers. There were lurid faces of men, too,
with knitted brows and suppressed angry despair working
in each feature. Yet the picture has its other. side,
thanks to French adaptability and light-heartedness. A
family finds its wineshop empty, and the roof off. In a
couple of hours thing are patched up somewhat ;
the buried bottles are unearthed ; and a brisk
over-the-counter trade is going on. Another
family turns up in an omnibus, with impediments, in.
chiding an assortment of babies and green umbrellas, only
to find its home tenanted by Saxon soldiers. Pack closer,
is the order with the Teutons. Room is made for the
new-comers. The corporal takes the baby while the
mother tries what Erbswurst soup is like ; and the old
household settles down into something marvellously like
content. The nondescript appearance of the French
emigres is almost ludicrous. Some come out
arrayed in the pink of sporting attire ; ethers in
dress coats. To-day, in the presence of Prince Augustus of
Wurtemberg, the Queen August a Regiment, stationed in
Fort Aubervilliers, took over from the French the
Chassepots of the garrison of Paris and the carriages of
the enceinte artillery. The Convention arrangement
was that these were to be delievered in Sevran ; but
this was modified by reason of the scarcity of
horses in Paris. Judging by the number of
vehicles of every kind which have come out to-day
the scarcity must have been but relative, not absolute.
Neither Fort Aubervilliers nor Romainville is in any
material degree injured. Baubigny and Drancy are
all but razed. On the other hand, the Crown Prince of
Saxony, who to-day has made an excursion through Gen-
nevilliers, Courbevoie, Asnibres, and the other peninsular
villages, tells me that these have sustained very liitle injury
indeed. Paris still continues closed to outsiders, but the
prohibition is probably more or less nominal. No great
amount of food has as yet entered from this side. I hear
that the Seine is open, and that steamers yesterday came
up into the town. If there is no more fighting the Ger-
mans will save Paris the nominal humiliation of occupa-
tion. Of course, in the other event, its occupation is a
matter of certainty and necessity.

I'ARIS AFTER THE SIEGE.
Five years had elapsed since I last stood under the Arc
de l'Etoile. Who could help moralizing under such cir-
cumstances ? It seemed now, as we drove at 4in the
afternoon down the Champs Elys4es almost the only
wheeled vehicle to be seen at that fashionable hour,
more like a dream than a reality. , The side pavements
were tolerably filled with a crowd cheery-look-
ing enough. The women were even in bright
colours, as dainty and coquettish as ever, but
they were not nearly so numerous as of old. The
great majority of men were in some uniform or other,
but there was no unusual earnestness or distress to be seen
in their hearing. Both sexes were evidently there to
itaner, and there was the ordinary crowd round the little
Marionette Theatre near the Rond Pont. There was
nothing in the way of military preparation or fortification
in the Champs Elysees. In fact, excepting that there
were not a dozen carriages from one end of the drive to
the other, and that there were far fewer well-dressed and
fashionable-looking women than formerly, and a very
much larger sprinkling of uniforms, this celebrated
drive presented its usual aspect. As we drove on we were
surprised at the absence of change. What exactly I ex-
pected to see it would be diffieult to defiine. I suppose
every one has formed in his mind a picture of Paris as it
is in contrast to Paris as it was, but the contrast is very
blight in reality, The statue of Strasbourg is still covered