The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-02 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS.

In France, in Germany, and in England alike, says the
Daily New; the great topic which engrosses men's minds
is the temper in which Paris finds herself at the beginning
of the new year. The fate of Paris is the fate of France.
Should Paris be taken, the Germans will in all proba-
bility compel a peace, should that not be granted
by the Provisional authorities in France, by merely
retiring upon the territory which they mean to occupy
permanently, and taking possession of material gua-
rantees for the payment of the war indemnity. The new
year finds Europe looking on at the spectacle of a great
capital closely menaced from without, and suffering great
wretchedness within, bearing up against fate and refusing
.to capitulate. But it is impossible to say how long that
attitude may be maintained, or how rapidly and
suddenly it may be abandoned. No one can place any
faith in the latest news from the city—that sent
to Bordeaux on the 31st—which says that there
are sufficient provisions to last till February.
All the statements which have hitherto appeared on the
subject seem to us but wild guesses. All that we do
know is that the number of people living on the Govern-
ment rations is growing larger ; and that, when the
families who laid in stores of provisions at the beginning
of the siege find these begin to fail them, the rate of con-
sumption of the general stock will become terribly rapid.
It must be remembered, also, that the authorities
dare not—in the face of the awful catastrophe which
such a proceeding would involve—run out the provisions
to the last day. If matters should come to
this extremity, they must capitulate while they
have yet sufficient food to feed the populace
and the army for several days, that time may be
allowed for the transference of victuals. Paris has al-
ready suffered four months' siege ; she has witnessed the
incoming of the new year, and still maintains her un-
daunted bearing ; but it is probable that the Government
rations will begin to tell upon the temper of the increasing
number of people thrown upon them long before the Ger-
mans have taken the forts and begun to bombard the
city.

We know, the Standard remarks, what Christmas
week has been in London ; what has it been like in
Paris? There have been, indeed, the same pitiless winds,
the same driving, penetrating snow, the same frosts at
night, the same black Heaven at day, in the French
metropolis as in the English. But the likeness
extends no further. Six short months since a
siege of Paris would have seemed as much of an
impossibility and an absurdity as a siege of London
does now. Whatever the end may be, the end is not yet.
True, the trial has not relaxed in hardship. Death and
disease are both busy in the beleaguered capital. The
bills of mortality are increasing at a fearful rate. Misery
enough, in truth, there is, but not despair. The hearts
of the inhabitants of Paris are true. Paris has made her
vow, and she keeps it nobly. Will France forget the fiery trial
to which her invaders have subjected her ? Would
Frenchmen be human if they forgave it ? With stout
heart and indomitable breast Paris and France are, we
may be quite sure, learning a lesson now which Germany
will some day have reason to regret her leaders ever taught
them. The discipline of suffering is the foundation of
strength. What Jena once did for Prussia, that
the siege of Paris may do for France. A feud
between two nations, a rivalry to the death,
between two races, a conflict rich in blood and in
terrors between two races—these are the fruits which
`` the weekly hetacombs of corpses " may be, we are
fearfully afraid, destined to bear. German unity may be
an accomplished fact, but what of the means by which
it has been accomplished ? what of the results which map
be destined to follow these means ? Great are the suffer-
ings and calamities of this Christmas. What if some
Christmas yet to come should witness others still greater,
and what will the verdict of history be ?

THE MURDER OF MARSHAL PRIM.
The Telegraph, in commenting on the atrocious act,
says :—Prince Amadeus of Savoy, King of Spain, com-
mences his reign under sad auspices. Funeral baked
meats must coldly furnish forth the marriage feast on
his accession to the Spanish throne ; and the eom-
mencement of the new era, which the whole family of
European nations is ready to hail as opening up a period
of peace and prosperity in a long distracted country,
has been signalised by a bloody and dastardly act of
assassination. The murder of Marshal Prim, just as
he had put the last touch to a work of hopeful progress
and conciliation, must awaken in all patriotic minds
throughout the Peninsula feelings of horror and dismay
akin to those which startled the American States when
the tidings of the death of Abraham Lincoln were
flashed from extremest North to farthest South,
The Spanish Kingmaker and the American Presi-
dent had not, perhaps, many qualities in com-
mon ; but they were alike in their death—in
its awful and violent suddenness, and in the
blamelessness of character which should have averted the
blow of all save raving madmen or utterly depraved
villains. Moderate and conscientious Republicans will
have to suffer, probably through no fault of their own,
for the revolting deed of the Calle de AlcalA ; just as in
America, six yam since, a sorrow's crown of sorrow
was added to the miseries of the Southerners
by the imputation that their leading politicians
were cognisant of the hideous tragedy at Ford's
Theatre. Yet the non-complicity of any Con.
federate statesmen of note has been triumphantly
proven ; and ere long it may be clearly shewn in Spain
when the assassin or assassins of Marshal Prim are
brought to justice, that the wretches who have done this
foul thing can no more be identified with the party in the
State which is honoured in such a leader as Castelar,

than the Southern-Americana were in any way kindred

to that monstrous amalgam of diseased sanity- and deli-

rium tremens, John Wilkes Booth.

The South London Press alleges that several unvac-
cinated persons have died during the past week at Nor-
wood and Battersea from small-pox.

Mr. Cardwell, Secretary at War, recently visited
Harwich, with the view of making arrangements for the
development of additional defences at that port. A con-
tract for the new works contemplated has already been let,
and operations have been commenced both at Landguard
Fort and the Redoubt.

Colonel James Fisk, jun., was asked to subscribe
for the erection of a fence around a graveyard in
Vermont. " No," said he, " what's the use ? Those
inside can't get out and I guess nobody outside wants to
get in."

The conzregation and parishioners of St. Mary's,
Whitechapel, London, have presented their late curate
and lecturer, the Rev. George Davenport, on his prefer-
ment to St. Mark's Vicarage. in the same parish, an ad-
dress, and a purse of £4O.

Mr. J. D. Beveridge, late of the Adelphi and
Princess's Theatres, has been engaged by the manager of
the " Caste " company, which he joins immediately, for
the purpose of sustaining the character so ably delineated
by the late Mr. Frederick Yonge.
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