The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-24 00:00:00

TH

(FROM THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE " CENTRAL
PRESS.")

soldiers.

PARIS, February 21.

The weather is splendid, and the boulevards crowded.
Already the German troops are practising the parade
movements in anticipation of marching past their Em-
peror in Paris. Peace is considered as certain, and General
Trochu's letter is looked upon as most untimely and ill-
advised, appearing as it did at the very moment when
Jules Favre, Ernest Picard, and fifteen deputies are
negotiating with a view to peace. Last night several
people slept in the streets waiting for a share in the Lord
Mayor's gift. Trains are arriving daily with provisions.
The restrictions concerning the sale of butcher's meat
have been removed, and butchers can now sell to whom-
soever they please, without their customers being com-
pelled to produce their ration cards.
Of course the elections still afford us plenty of conversa-
tional topics. Ledru Rollin has resigned the honour of
being deputy in the Bouches du RhOne, the Seine, or the
Var, he feels that he has not been elected under sufficiently
independent conditions. The name of M. Picard, as
Minister of the Interior, has been received with some ob-
jections, but as his appointment may be considered as
I essentially transitory, these will carry no great weight.

A number of the Liberal-Conservative papers, are pre-
paring to join in a kind of convocation, in view of the
new elections. Upon the list I find the na.mes of La Patrie, La
Presse, La France, Le Constitutionnel, Le Pays, La Gazette
de France, Le Gaulois, La Liberte, Le Figaro, Le Soir,
Paris Journal, Le Francais, Le National, and Le Temps.
I may have forgotten the names of some, but I am
certain - that L'Opinion Nationale, though it has
nothing dangerous in its republicanism, does not
figure among them. I believe the chief design
of this convention is, at the moment when the Republic

is declared by M. Thiers, to endeavour to exclude all
Republicans from office. La Patrie, for instance, in its
list, had declared MM. Victor Hugo, Louis Blanc, and
Quinet as "non eligibles." Here, of course, they
would fall out, not only with such Red papers as
Le Vengeur and Le Ma d'Ordre, but with the fair and
honestly Liberal section of the press represented by
L'Avenir Nationale and the Siecle. Indeed, it is difficult
to imagine that the papers I have named first
can ehtablish a common agreement and concord among
themselves. Allthe papers; however, are unanimous enough '
in the opinions they express as to the entry of the Prussians
into Paris, but the sale of certain caricatures, of a very
melancholy kind of humour, less allowable, perhaps, now
than ever, is extremely to be regretted. Of course
accusations and recriminations are heaped upon the late
Government now that it has fallen, and the members
of the International have forwarded to the English papers,
especially to the Weekly Despatch, all manner of charges
against M. Jules Ferry. It is before the Chamber that
charges of this nature should be made, if—which I do
not believe—they have any foundation, not insidiously in
the columns of a foreign journal.
On the Bourse to-day the Three per Cent. rose 35
centimes, and all securities were in much better demand.

THE EFFECTS OF WAR.

All accounts speak of 'the misery in and around Paris
as something terrible, and not to be concealed by the at-
tempted levity of part of the population. It is to be hoped,
says a military correspondent of the Times, when peace has
beensigned, and Paris is once more opened to the world that
many Englishmen will go thither with open heart and
hand, for France has suffered terribly in her expiation of
her thoughtless plunge into war. • Round the environs
you may see such desolation as could hardly
be produced by a great conflagration, and the money
which should go to repair the damage will be required
to pay the exactions of the conquerors. A drive round by
Clamart and Meudon, by Sevres and St. Cloud, preaches
a powerful sermon on the effects of war. The hill above
Clamart was covered at the top with rich fields, and the
slopes towards the city were fringed with trees. An earthwork
was built at the top, but the French could not hold it. If
long-ranged guns had been known in the days when
Paris was fortified a fort would most likely have been
constructed on the top of Clamart. Before the bombard-
ment the Bavarians constructed batteries behind the fringe
of trees. When the day came for the bombardment the trees
in front were cut down and the firing began. It was in-
tended that each piece should fire 50 rounds daily, and
1,000 rounds were to have been provided, so that the fear-
ful storm of iron missies might be driven down on Paris
and her forts, chiefly Forts Vanves and Issy, for 20 days if
necessary. But the excellence of the position tempted the
Germans to crowd their batteries too closely together on
this spot. Fort Montrouge was able to spare some
shells, though itself attacked by batteries more to the east
above Bagneaux, and the Germans suffered heavy losses.
In front of the batteries and on each side are trenches
cut in the ground (which, it must be remembered, was be-.
fore the war richly cultivated) with parapets in front which
were intended to enable the men to work safely. Some of
the trenches were meant to hold infantry soldiers who
were to be in readiness to repel a French attack on the
guns. The ditches are now full of water, nor could
they be kept dry even during the bombardment
though pumps were freely used. The same is
to be said of the wooden huts in the fields behind. The
floors were sunk below the level, and though the heavy
roofs covered over with. earth kept the wearied men from
the rain, the water soaked in from the ploughed fields,
and life was dreary for the Bavarian soldiers. No road
was made over the fields to the batteries, and when the
weather broke up the track became a slough of despond.
By the side of the road from Clamart to Meudon is a hill
on which stands a pretty Swiss chalet in the midst of lawns
and flowersheds. Here there is a Prussian battery which
was intended to shell Issy and the Pont du Jour, where the
circular railway crosses the Seine. The lodge is a mere
wreck, and when you enter the grounds through a gap in
the fence you will imagine yourself in a field ploughed by
a huge plough into irregular furrows and gaping
hollows ; but the furrows have been made by ter-
rible projectiles and the hollows by bursting shells.
The front of the chalet looks as if it had received little
damage, for the hole made by a shell through wood is
small and round. Floors torn up, smashed mirrors, fur-
niture dashed to pieces, huge gaping holes in the walls.
There are other traces of the war, however, and here and
there, in hastily dug pits, or sometimes under separate
mounds of earth, lie French and German dead
together, surmounted with single crosses, and
just the number below. Almost always the
number of French is greater than the number of German.
Where the carnage was not so thick the graves are single
and fenced round with stone, telling the name and regi-
ment of the dead. The sights in the environs are curious
and suggestive. On the road to Sevres the first object
which strikes the eye is Prince Napoleon's travelling
carriage upset to serve as a barricade, so that it may be
impossible for a Frenchman to pass along his own road.
It is time of Armistice, so all may pass now. But the
Moniteur Officiel talks of French preparations for wz.r,
and, therefore, the occupation of Paris becomes necessary.
The only necessity cif the case is that German public
opinion, and especially the feeling of the army, demands
absolutely that France be made to feel she has been
beaten. This is the saddest of all the many proofs that
the breach between France and Germany has no chance
of becoming healed in our days.

The Gironde announces that it is the intention of M.
Thiers to offer the Ministry of Public Worship to Bishop
Dupanloup.
The. Emperor Napoleon will shortly take his departure
from Wilhelmshohe for England.

The regular railway service between Paris and Brussels
is re-established, and the journey is now accomplished in
eleven hours.
General Trochu has resigned his functions atthe request
of M. Thiers. He has retired into private life, and is
now residing at his hotel in the Rue Lille. The buildings
which were used as the offices of the Provisional GoVern-
ment have now been given up.
The surrender of Belfort took place on the morning of
the 18th. After the Germans had hoisted the flag of the
Northern Confederation they fired' with the French
artillery a salvo of 100 guns. General Treskaw has re-
ceived the Cross of Military Merit. In granting him this
honour the Emperor of Germany declared that he highly
appreciated the valour of the troops. •
The Commandant Baroche, who fell at Bourget last
October, has just been buried at. Pbre-Lachaise. After
three mouths of fruitless inquiries at the Prussian out-
posts, his friends at last discovered where he had been
placed, and the last honours were paid to his memory in
the presence of numerous friends and the officers of his
battalion.

The Parisian military authorities made a mistake in
reckoning up the number of their cannon, and conse-
quently were unable to deliver to the Prussians the pre-
cise quantity which was indicated in the list agreed upon.
It has been settled that four new cannons shall be cast at
the foundry of Caillox, in order that the Prussians may
receive as many pieces of artillery as they were promised.
The Geneva Journal says that on the 19th of January,
out of five hundred thousand men on the French territory,
there were fifty-five thousand ill, which was at the rate of
11 per cent. In the German hospitals of France there
were nineteen thousand young men who had started in

. perfect health struck down by wounds or typhus, At the
CE.
same date in Germany there were thirty-six thousand sick
and wounded. In Berlin, no one can take ten steps in a
street without coming across cripples and mutilated

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS AT VERSAILLES.—The
special correspondent of the Daily News with the
headquarters of the Crown Prince of Prussia thus writes
from Paris, February 21 :—You will have heard of the
arrival in Paris of the fifteen Peace Commissioners from
Bordeaux, and you will soon have news of them as " in-
terviewing " the terrible Count himself in Versailles.
Things have at last reached the point of solid,
practical negotiation. There is a French Govern-
ment which Germany has agreed to recognise as
properly representing France, and the victor may
now state his full demands. I find that most well
informed Frenchmen are convinced of the necessity of
peace. They seem to me to be still blind to the fact of
their position face to face with Germany, and to reckon
over much on neutral support, even at the eleventh hour.
But many illusions have vanished, many bitter
lessons have been taken to heart, and the French are
prepared to yield land as well as money rather
than see their southern provinces laid waste. It
would be an evil day for the country south of
the Loire when hostilities were recommenced. • The
Germans are in no mood to trifle with those who should
keep them any lonner away from home, and would be
ready to repress all irregular warfare with an iron hand.
What but irregular warfare could, in most places, be
opposed to the German troops ?, We may rejoice that a
struggle, of such a kind is little likely to occur. The Peace
Commissioners go to Versailles with some inkling of
the victor's demands. They will not turn back
in disgust because he drives a hard bargain, but will
try to make the best of it. M. Thiers, the veteran
Chief of the State, has declared that his one policy
is "to put an end as soon as possible to the foreign occu-
pation by means of a peace courageusement clibattue,
and which peace will only be accepted if it be honour-
able." It is clear that. the Commissioners at Versailles
will not shrink from a tough discussion. Their peace
courageusement debattue will be resolutely bargained for.
Alas for them that they are so down in the world as to
make bargaining difficult !