The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-15 00:00:00

THE FRENCH ELECTIONS-THE ORLEANS PRINCES.

The Daily News remarks 3—The Twickenham Prince"
are in the ascendant. It is now twenty-three years since
the House of Orleans transferred itself to the banks of
the Thames. During that long interval its representa-
tives have abandoned all interference in the
public affairs of France. The. Prince de Join-
villle withdrew from the French navy ; - the
Due d'Aumale from the army ; and when their
nephews, the Comte de Paris and the Due de Chartres,
wished to have some practical experience of a military
life, it was with M'Clellan, in the United States,
and not under some Algerian general, they served
They have entered into no open antagonism
with the Empire ; although the refusal of
Prince Napoleon to accept the challenge of
the Due d'Aumale was looked upon by
France as a serious blow dealt. to the Bona-
partists by the literary Princes of Claremont. Now
France invites them to return ; and the Prince de
Joinville in the Department of La Manche, and the
Due d'Aumale in the Department of the Oise, find
themselves elected as national representatives by im-
mense majorities. The warm favour which has been
shewn in many places towards M. Thiers points to
him as a useful man to combine a return of the Orleans
Princes with a Republican form of Government, should
such a combination be deemed desirable. The veteran
advocate, journalist, author, and minister, has studied
France in all her moods of revolution and
reaction ; and his experience ought to be in-
valuable in such a crisis. He has in his
time played many parts, and may be regarded
as free from any pledge to a particular form of govern-
ment. In the meantime, negotiations for peace may put
in a prior claim for consideration. It were well if the
members of the Provisional Government were granted
the temporary power for which M. Jules Favre asks; so
that, having conducted the war since September last, and
having negotiated certain terms of peace with the Ger-
mans, they could hand over to the new Government
a clean page on which to write the coming chapter of the
history of France. In thus completing a task which
they undertook in the face of serious difficulties, and con-
ducted throughout .honourably and well, the Committee
of the National Defence may retire from their posts con-
fident that their countrymen, when the time comes for a
calm review of the history of 1870-71 campaign, will do
them justice.

THE GERMAN DEMANDS.
The Telegraph observes :—We believe that for the
moment the question of pecuniary indemnity ex-
cites comparatively little interest in France, and
that the real difficulty will arise on the point
of territorial cession. Disastrous as would be the
ultimate results of any immense increase of the na-
tional debt, those results are rather apparent to the
financier and political economist than to the ordinary
citizen. On the other hand, the idea of ceding national
territory, of surrendering fellow-countrymen whose an-
cestors have been Frenchmen for generations, appeals
most forcibly to popular sentiment ; and our belief is
that a comparatively insignificant concession in
the extent of land to be annexed by Prussia
would reconcile the French to pecuniary sacrifices
far beyond the value of the territory thus preserved.
Alsace and German Lorraine the conquerors .intend to
keep at all hazards. But the acquisition of French Lorraine
can only be defended by the harshest rights of conquest :
and the possession of districts, like that of Nancy,
in whose population there is no German element
whatever, must inevitably be a source of future
trouble and weakness to the Fatherland. So, too, though
we admit the force of the strategical arguments by which
the conversion of Metz into a German fortress can be
advocated, we believe that, looking at the question solely
from a Prussian point of view, the retrocession of this
stronghold to France would he an act of wise forbearance.
It is not, we still believe, either the interest
or the wish of the conquerors to maintain anything like
a permanent occupation of France, or to remain
upon a constant war footing as regards their Wes-
tern neighbours. Yet the occupation of Metz by
a German garrison precludes the possibility of any
stable peace or amity betwcien the two countries.
Metz commands the road to Paris ; and the capital of
France lies at the mercy of immediate invasion
so long as a German army is supported by the great
stronghold of Lorraine. The French would agree to the
dismantling of the fortifications ; and, if the Prussians
were to accept this compro:-. little difficulty would be
made about the other cortdiLik,..is of peace. The value of
Metz to Germany, whether historical, strategical, or
political, is insignificant in comparison with its value to
France, and thus the Prussians have it in their
power to sell the site at a price far above its cost to the
vendor. And, unless the acuteness of Count Bismarck
has been much underestimated, he is not likely to forego
the advantages offered by such a favourable condition
of affairs. We shall not be surprised to learn that the
dismantlement, rather than the possession, of Metz is one
of the conditions of peace.

THE UNITED STATES COMMISSION.
The Standard says :—The questions asked last night by
Lord Cairns, and the reply of the' Foreign Secretary,
throw some light upon the real character of the com-
mission appointed by the joint action of the Govern-
ments of Great Britain and of the United States. It
concerns us to know whether so grave a question as
that of our liability for the ravages of the Alabama is to
be reserved for discussion before a tribunal competent to
pronounce an authoritative decision, or is to be made the
subject of arrangement—and almost inevitably
fromthe two
countries complo
t•o-
-cmoiusne—tribeys acjoonicnetrncerm; aiSBiofgentlemen
commission charged also with
the consideration of other important topics, upon
which a good deal of excitement prevails on the
other side of the Atlantic, and which would be
almost certain in the end to adjust the conflicting views of
its members by a sacrifice of our strict rights in exchange
for a withdrawal of claims, none of which have been or
ought to be admitted by this country, except upon an
authoritative and impartial decision against her. It $
is, therefore, satisfactory to learn from the Secretary for
Foreign Affairs that the commission is charged not
to settle the issues themselves, but the mode of their
settlement, whether by arbitration or otherwise. The
duty of the commission being thus limited, it would
not, as Lord Granville observed, be necessary that they
should put any question to the. vote. Their func-
tions are those of diplomatists, not of judges ; their
task must be accomplished by agreement, not by counting
voices. The real character of the commission is thus ex-
plained ; and if some regret may be felt in some quarters
at finding that the negotiation is not so far advanced as
had been supposed, yet on the whole such delay as may
probably take place in the final adjustmept of the
questions in dispute is of less moment than the sufficient,
satisfactory, and authoritative character of the adjust-
ment, when reached—a character which, for the reasons
above given, could hardly have belonged to a settlement
effected by a commission like the present.