The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-16 00:00:00

very slender hope. Paris has given time to the provinces,

but the provinces have apparently failed to make such use
of it as would be neccessary to overpower these hordes of
hardy and disciplined Prussians. We fear it will turn out
that the harvest is past, the reaping is ended, and that
Paris is not saved. Of course, if France will fight on
steadily, France must win in the end ; of that there is no
doubt. But the symptoms in General Chanzy's army are
hardly favourable to fighting on. Yet even so, the
struggle will not have been in vain. France has gained
self-respect, and knows whom to trust in her adversity.
The country is not betrayed, helpless, and leaderless as it
would have been had peace been made on the arrogant
terms demanded by Germany after the surrender of Sedan.
France will have shewn what vast sacrifices she is ready
to make to prevent the conquest of even part of her terri-
tory. Alsace and Lorraine will no longer have it to say
that they have been deserted by France without any sin-
cere struggle to save them from their fate.
GENERAL SCHENCK'S MISSION.

The Economist thinks if it be possible to settle the moot
points between us and America, it is scarcely feasible to
exaggerate the importance of doing so. It would make us
far safer at home, if safety is what we want. It would
make us far stronger abroad, if strength is what we want.
It would establish a heartier feeling between two great
branches of the same race. And it would prevent, or
greatly postpone, the most inconceivably mischievous,
hopeless, and murderous of all wars—a war very nearly a
civil war in character, but yet stimulated by all the
jealousies of national rivalry. And now, in General
Schenck's mission, it would seem likely that we really are
going to obtain a good opportunity of healing the old sore,
and obtaining once more a cordial understanding with the
United States. At least if we may trust all the reports
which reach tie from the other side of the Atlantic,
General Schenck is instructed to abandon all the more
grotesque and absurd of the American positions on the
Alabama question, and to ask, if not precisely for what
we can give, yet for what at least there is a reasonable
pretext for asking. And if only England can be persuaded
to concede as much as, in our opinion, might be frankly
conceded at once, we do not see why General Schenck
should not solve the problem which has so long threatened
to throw the two countries into war. Of course, we cannot
and must not concede anything of tee real justice of
which we are not convinced. The practice of buying off
an enemy is the most dangerous and fatal, as well as
immoral, which can be proposed ; and assuredly it will
have no friends in this country. But we feel so sure that
had we been at war—and had an Alabama escaped from
New York under the sort of circumstances under which
this Alabama escaped from Liverpool—England would
never have ceased to denounce the gross negligence of
America in the case, nor to believe it wilful, that there
can be no real sacrifice of dignity in admitting at once the
fault of which our administration was guilty. And as for
the other cruisers, though no case of this ldnd has yet been
produced, or as far as we know, can be produced, it is only
fair that where two countries differ so widely as to the
evidence, it should be submitted to the judgment of an
impartial umpire. At all events, unless the accounts
from many quarters as to General Schenck's instructions
are utterly belied, the new American Ambassador will
bring us quite reasonable, though not perhaps wholly
admissible demands—demands which we certainly ought
to consider most gravely, and of which we should do well
to yield frankly and freely all that we should ourselves
feel called upon, in the same circumstances. to press. If
we do so, General Schenck's mission may make England
safer and stronger than she has ever been since the close
of the Civil War in 1865, and will give her a reputation for
moderation and candour as well.

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE STAGE.
The Athenamm says :—A curious disco very has been
made among Lord Palmerston's papers, namely, his manu-

ript diary of two visits to Paris, in the eventful years
1314 and 1815. As the diary was found only after the
publication of the Life by Sir H. Bulwer, the Hon.
Cowper Temple will give it to the public through the
Temple Bar magazine.—Miss. Austen, at her death, left a
novel in manuscript, which has been held a sort of sacred
treasure by her heirs. It is at length to be pub-
lished, under the title which the popular author
assigned to it, " Lady Susan." It is in one volume, but
the book will contain some sketches, also by Miss Austen.
—Mr. Charles Cowden Clarke is preparing for the Gentle-
man's Magazine a series of papers on " The Comic
Writers of England."—Real poetry seems to find readers
a second edition of Mr. O'Shauglmessy's " Epic of
Women " will appear next week ; and• the second edition
of the fourth part of " The Earthly Paradise " is already
nearly exhausted.—The director of the Alhambra Com-
pany is to be again summoned by the associated London
managers for his performance of stage plays. The new
entertainment called " Superba " is the snbject of com-
plaint. It is obvious that the whole system of theatrical
licensing needs revision.
The current number of the Graphic contains a sketch
of the solar eclipse of December 22nd, as seen from
Gibraltar.

The funeral of the late Dean Alford will take place
on Tuesday next. The early portion of the service will
be performed in the Cathedral.
Two nail manufacturers at Belper were on Wed-
nesday fined—one of them in the sum of £l7, including
costs—for having unjust weights and measures in their
possession, complaints on the subject having been made
by their own workmen.

The Homeward Mail gives reports of the earth-
quake that was felt in Scinde in October last. On October
28 two shocks are reported from various places. One
report says " the earth quaked for fifteen minutes from
east to west, and the people felt sea-sick while the pitch-
ing continued," and another ascribes it to the fact that
the dwellers in Upper Scinde must have specially incurred
the displeasure of the gods.

Mu. Hours, M.P.—Mr. John Holms, writes a
correspondent, in intends to overhaul the Consular depart-
dent. The theory is, that great reforms and a large
.saving of public money might be effected in the depart•
meat of the biplomatic Service.