The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-06 00:00:00

PROSPECT OF A. CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE

Some remarkable sentences appear in the Pall Mall
Gazette from a correspondent at Bordeaux. He says :
In case of peace being concluded, a civil war is considered
inevitable. It is evident that a disgraceful peace will
complete the ruin and dismemberment of France in the
opinion of many Frenchmen. Numbers will emigrate and
disown their country. The rest will scramble and fight
among themselves for the reins of government. It is painful
for an Englishman to hear the longings expressed by every
one for even the moral support of England. " How short-
sighted is your policy!" they say ; " when Prussia has our
fleet and has absorbed Holland into the Fatherland your
turn will come : and how will you resist her without the
French alliance? With you we could defy the world; without
us you stand alone, marked out for plunder by the raven-
ing eagles of Prussia, Russia, and perhaps America." It
is difficult to know what to reply to such adjurations.
The Pessimists and war party consider the result
of the elections to be inevitably reactionary, the
peasantry being profoundly Imperialist, and in fa-
vour of peace at any price. All officers with whom I have
conversed here who have been serving in the different
armies agree in this particular. They describe the
peasantry as absolutely unfriendly to the French armies
and the Republic, favourable to peace at any price, and
ready to acknowledge any constituted authority prepared
to guarantee it. Their vote is expected to carry the
elections, and, as said before, in this event civil war Is
inevitable.

The Berlin Provincial Correspondence of the Ist says :
" Our Emperor and King will remain at Versailles during
the present Armistice, his presence being necessary with
regard both to further operations in the South and to the
impending negotiations."

Some misapprehension seems (a correspondent writes)
to exist as to the way in which the elections will be held
in France. On the 6th of September the Government of
the National Defence issued a decree that the elections
should be held as in 1848, by departments, one member to
every 50,000 electors. The objection which has been
made, for example, that in starting three candidates in
the Pas de Calais the Republic are attempting too much,
falls to the ground when the fact is taken into account
that that electoral district will have at least half-a-dozen
members.—Daily News.

The fine Cathedral of St. Denis has suffered but little
from the bombardment. Every precaution had been
taken to protect it with sandbags. The stained glass is
intact, or all but intact. Only four shells have pene-
trated to the interior of the building. One of the elabo-
rately carved crosses on the top of a buttress has been
splintered off, and a coping stone has been shattered : this
sums up the evil done to the Cathedral by the shells of
the enemy. The splendid carving on the arches around the
great door has not been harmed in the least, although there
have been some verry narrow escapes. The aspect of the
Cathedral inside is very strange; the tombs of the Kings
have all been protected by sand bags ; the interior may be
called one great sand bag.
FRENCH PRISONERS AT MAYENCE.—AR account
from Mayence throws some light on the subject of the
conspiracy which was said to have taken place there. It
is the custom among the French to celebrate Christmas
Eve wfth festivities, which are called reveillon. The
French prisoners were, naturally enough, constantly
talking of this fête, and their guards, after hearing them
incessantly repeat the word reveillon, supposed they were
thinking of rebellion. An inquiry was made, which
shewed that there was no foundation whatever for the
belief that an escape was meditated ; but, notwithstand-
ing, more strict measures were adopted. It was settled
that the officers should be arranged in groupa of six, and
that if any one of the number escaped, the rest should be
imprisoned.
PROVISIONING OF PARIS.—A. letter to the Etoile
Beige, dated from Calais on the second of February, says :
Whatever may be thought the trains of provisions still
come very slowly to Paris, for the only roads opened by
the Prussians are very impracticable, because the
chief bridges are destroyed, and the rails taken
lip in several places to a considerable length. The
first train of flour can only be sent direct from Amiens to
Paris-to-morrow, and then the train will have to pass over
a bridge of boats constructed by the Prussians at Railly,
which can only sustain the weight of three
carriages at, a time. The route indicated by the
Prussian authorities is the most inconvenient possible
for the transport of cattle, which always suffer greatly
from a sea voyage. A head employd of the Northern Com-
any, who was able to leave Paris, has assured me that
Paris is perishing with hunger, and shewed me a piece of
bread, similar to that which is eaten in Paris. It was a
horrible mixture, of a repulsive charade", and a disagree-
able taste."

BOURBAKffi RETREAT. —The Band puhlishes
letter from the Franco-Swiss frontier, dated the 28th, which
gives some particulars of the retreat of Bourbaki's army.
The retreat," says the writer, " was carried on along a
single road, which was covered with sheet ice, so that the
horses could na keep their footing. One may easily
imagine thsn confusion which resulted. Men and horses
suffered tffribly from the cold. A third of the troops
had frost-bitten feet. Owing to incomprehensible negli-
gence, the Prussians were allowed to restore the bridges
at Hole, Clerval, and Beaume-les-Dames. The con-
sequence was that the array was intercepted in the