The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-13 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS.

How will it end ? asks the Standard. That is the
question which all Europe is asking itself. It the
bombardment of Paris has been inaugurated with the
philosophical ferocity of cultivated Vandals, it will not
be terminated by a soulless and spiritless
surrender. It is an idle task to address any
appeal in the interests of humanity to a nation, an
army, and a Monarch, possessed by the fatal lust of
conquest and of blood whin, amidst their high
powers of military organisation and skill, are the
great distinguishing features at the present moment of
the Prussians, Slaughter, suffering, sorrow—these con-
stitute the foundations upon which the new German
Empire is based. Aforituri to salutant—the traditional
greeting of the dying gladiators to the classic
Cesar, might well be placed in the lips of thousands
of Frenchmen, whose death glance reveals to
them the onward progress of the Teuton Kaiser.
Empires founded on bloodshed perish in blood.
We see the beginning of the new German Empire ;
what is to be its end? To decline to be satisfied with
anything save the dismemberment of a nation and the
destruction of 'a capital, to create a carnival of annihila-
tion and a saturnalia of slaughter—this is what the bom-
bardment of Paris means. And the Germans are the
most enlightened, the most philosophical, the most
humane of mankind. • The Evangel of Teutonism is to
abolish the frivolity of the Celt. King William is the
most highly-religious Monarch in existence ; he is
also reported by his interviewers to be passionately at-
tached to 1 hakespeare. Was it not our great national
poet who said that it argued no Divine attributes to quote -
Scripture. King William can indeed quote Scripture:
for his purposes. And what is that purpose ? The de-
struction of the most brilliant and most cultivated city,'
in Europe; the ruthless massacre of thousands of:.
women, children—shall we add, patriots ? "As for
Zeus-born kings," says Homer, " this is the way'
of them." Europe will in future pray to be delivered
from beatific allegiance to divine monarchs. We have •
protested against the barbarity of this bombardment a:
bombardment by a sovereign who said that he made war,'
"not on French citizens, but on French soldier.;." It is
needless to protest against its impotence. A city may'
be destroyed, but it oan be restored. "The whirligig,
of time works its revenges." The unctuous piety of a,
Divinely-ordained Monarch cannot exempt him from the
operation of this common law, 'We know something of '
King Bomba I. Who will go down to history as King
Bomba 11. ? Truth is a Teutonic virtue; is hypocrisy a'
congenital Teutonic vice ?

Reviewing the late French defeats, and the progress of
r the bombardment of Paris, the Daily News remarks :—To
' famine, frost, and fever succeeds the ordeal of fire. The
bombardment of the city—so often speculated on, and so:
long postponed—has at last begun. Itis, however, rather to
the moral than to the military aspect of this bombardment
' that public attention will be directed. The world looks on
at the hideous spectacle of a great capital, containing
two millions of people, subjected to the horrors of war,
and once more asks for what purpose is this misery in-
flicted. Both sides are tired of it, yet the one will not,
offer peace and the other will not ask it. The Germans.
have shrunk from bombarding Paris till now, yet
now they prefer to fire upon the helpless and
starving crowd behind the walls rather than
make an offer of terms. Such an offer would
have come with peculiar grace from the conquering •
Power just at the present time. The Bordeaux Govern-
ment has unhappily once more stimulated Paris with
false statements and baseless hopes, but the real position
of affairs is well known all over the world to be as bad
as possible for the French. If such an offer had
been made, it is quite possible that it might have been
rejected ; but had the offer been a moderate one
it would have put Paris in the wrong, had i t been
a magnanimous one it would have reassured Europe,
and once snore rallied public opinion to the German side.
Such an offer would not only have well become the King
of Prussia, but would have been the simple dictate of a
high sense of honour. It is not usual to fight an antago-
nist when he is down. Paris lies stretched
out before the German armies, within reach
of their batteries, and practically defenceless
against their fire. From the German position a part of
the city can be laid in ruins, and that position will pro-
bably become more and more threatening as the bom-
bardment proceeds. Will the King accept the responsi-
bility of burning the city without offering some terms of
escape? Will he " cry havoc and let slip the dogs of
war," without one final effort to come to terms ? The
hellhounds are yet in the leash ; cannot some effort
at negotiation be made before the stern strategist who
holds theln lets them loose ? If no such effort is made,.
if punctilio is to be stronger than humanity, and the non-.
combatant population of the first city of the continent is
to be exposed to the horrors of bombardment, history and
humanity will hold all who have been parties to it guilty
of one of the greatest crimes in the dark annals of the
world.