The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-22 00:00:00

MORNING EDITION:

BOMBARDMENT OF PARIS.

(From the (:ommerce.)
The vesion whether Park cv.ri be destroyed by a bom-
bardment depends entirely on its distance from the da-
tached forts, and the actual distance projectiles can be
thrown from them. We quote first M. Arago'a calcula-
tions rs to the impulsion of artillery as drawn up in 1833,
When M. niers, then Minister of Commerce ; M. Guizot,
Minister of Public Instruction ; and Marshal Soult, Pre-
sident of the Council, proceeded by an ordonnance to
execute General Bernard's system of the erection of 15
detached forts or bastiles to burn Paris. The Committee
f the Chamber of Deputies at that time, in its report,
declared that the forts being at 2,000 metres from the
octroi wall, the capital was safe. M. Arago combatted
that opinion by the following figures :
In 1740, projectiles could be thrown 4,500 metres. In
1771, Bezont, with 24-pounders, reached 4,442 metres (a
metre is about three feet thiee and a half-inches.) In
1811, at Antwerp, 4,950 metres were attained.
M. Arago adds, that the range is considerably increased
In proportion to the height of the hills or elevated spots
where the batteries are placed.
The range of 4 000 metres is obtained with every de-
scription of metal attached to an army, with 8-inch Spanish
howitzers, and with Russian licornes.
In 1610 Seville was fired upon, and, in 1811, Cadiz,
from a battery placed at 6,000 metres from the city.
The English Congrevc rockets, called carcass rockets,
which carry 171bs. of combustible materials, may ba thrown
at :1,400 metres.
General Tirlet adds that there arc war-rockets of a
lanse 0f.4,000 metres, and which may be thrown from any
Point without any other instrument then a trcvit.
But cannon used for bombarding has a considerably
greater range. Official experiments have been made on
this subject. M. Arago has published a statement, which
Is as follows :

EXPERIMENTAL RANGE FROM GREAT ANGLES.
Calibre. Weight. Range.
Antw--
7rp 1811 43-inch - 5,144 metres.
Brest .....,1811 36-inch - 5,350 metres.
Seville -1810 10-inch Z 1751b5. 5,574 metres.
10-inch 8 1601bs. More than 6,000 metres.
La Feu lBll 11-inch 1751b5. 6,000 metres.
Indret 1512 11-inch 1801 bs. 5,900 metres.
The Viloutrey mortars range from 6,000 to 6,600 metres.
We must observe that the latest experiment was made
twenty-eight years ago, and that since that period great
discoveries and important improvements have taken place
in the artillery branch of the service. Therefore we are
within the most moderate bounds in stating that, since
those experiments, the range has not increased, and in
stopping at 6,000 metres. Let us add, however, that, in
military circles, a new process is much spoken of, which
throw projectiles at much greater distances.
Those points being mathematically established, there
remeins but one simple thing to be done, and which is
slot above the comprehension of a child ; it is to take a corn-
'pass, in short the plan which has been distributed to the
Chamber, and to measure the distances which separate the
different forts from the outskirts (faubourgs) of the city,
and then from its very centre.
According to the plan which we have just alluded to,
the following is an account of the fortresses to be built:-
To the north, St. Denis and the Eastern Fort.; to the
south, on all the line from the south-east to the south-
west, the forts of Ivry, Bicetre, Montrouge,
.Vanves, and
hay ; to the cast, on the line from the north-east to the
south-east, the forts of Romainville, Noisy, Rosny, No-
gent, Vincennes, and Charenton ; to the west, Mount
Valerien. Total, fourteen fortrcs,:es.
The fort of Romainville is at 1,500 metres from
the enceinte continue (or union line of defence), at 3,700
metres from the city walk, and at 4,900 from the in-
terior Boulevards, (in the quarters of St. Denis and
St. Martin.)
Tho fort of Vincennes is at 1,200 metres from the en-
ceinte continue. (It hats since been brought closer by
several hundred metres. ) It is at 2,000 metres from the
city walls, end at 4,500 metres from the Place de la
Bastille.
The fort of Charenton is at 3,500 metres from the en-
teinte continue, at 3,900 from the city walls, and at 5,300
from the wine market.
The fort of Ivry is at 2,500 metres from the enceinte
continue, at 3,900 from the city walls, and at 5,306 from
the wine market.
The fort of Bicetre is at 1,200 metres from the enceinte
continue, at 2 500 from the city walls, at 5,100 fi am the
Cathedral of Notre Dame, at 4,400 from the Pantheon, and
at 4,500 from the nine market, and frcm storehouses in
abundance.
The fort of Montrouge is at 1,600 metres from the en-
ceinte continue, at 3,000 from the city walls, at 4,300 from
The Luxemburg, and at 5,590 from the Pont Neuf.
The fort of Vanves is at 1,900 metres from the enceinte
continue, at 3 500 from the city walls, and at 5,800 from
the Hotel des Invalides.
Mount Valerien is at 3,800 metres from the enceinte
continue, at 4,600 from Passy, at 5,700 from the city walls,
and at less than 6,000 metres from the Faubourg du Route.
The eastern fort is at 5,400 metres from the city walls.
From this summary, which we guarantee to be correct,
for it has been carefully drawn out and verified on the
Ministerial plan, it results that only three fortresses out
of the fourteen that are to be erected do not threaten
some point or other point of the capital. Eleven of the
forts can bombard it. Amongst them eight are at 4,000
metres, or even at much less, from the faubourgs of the
capital ; they are-Romainville Vincennes, Charenton,
Ivry, Bicetre, Montrouge, V...nves, and Issy. All that
will be requisite for them is the usual range of heavy
metal. For the three others, the greatest, range allielsd
to by M. Arago, and of which he has made several ex-
periments, will admit also of havoc being committed
:within the very walls of the city. But if it be recol-
lected that the greatest range at which projectiles are
tiirown exceeds 6,000 metres and more ; that Bicetre
is but at 5,100 metres from Notre Dame, and at
4,400 from the Pantheon ; that Montrouge is at 4,300
-metres from the Luxemburg, and at 5,500 from the Pont
Neuf, is it not evident that those forts can spread death
and conflagration in the very heart of the capital ? That
Vincennes, at 4 500 metres from the Bastile, can send its
shot to the very bottom of the Rue saint Antoine, and
that Romainville, not being far from it, at 4,900 metres
from the Portes Saint Denis and Saint Martin, can extend
its devastation even beyond those very populous quarters ?
Therefore the southern forts, Bicetre, Montrouge, Van.
Yes, anti Issy, command and can set fire to the whole of the
left bank of the Seine, and even shower red-hot shot into
the very heart of the city. They keep the Faubourg
Saint Marceau within their grasp, whilst Vincennes has
also all that of Saint Antoine, and uniting with Ivry to the
loft. and Romainville to the right, commands all that im-
mense population of inhabitants from the Faubourg Saint
Denis to the Pont d'Austerlitz, and from the city walls to
the interior of the rues Saint Denis, Saint Antoine, and
of the Temple.
But this is not all. If from the fort of Vanves at the
south-west to the fort of Romainville, at the north-east, a
straight line is drawn across the whole breadth of Paris,
and, taken in the direction of the Pont Neuf, an extent of
12,500 metres will be found in that line comprised between
*.hose opposite forts. Whence it results, that from the
greatest range of the two forts, combined one with the
"her, amounting to 12,000 me tres, Peris can be entirely
kombarded on all sides, with the exception of an interme-
diate space of only 500 metres. But if mortars a la
Viloutrey were planted on the two forts, which, according
to M. Arago's calculation, can ensure a range of 6,500
metres, it would result therefrom that the bombs would
war the whole breadth of the city, and that their shot
would cross each other in the very centre of the capital.
Let us add, however, that from the fort of Romainville to
the fort of Montrouge, which is but at 2,000 metres from
Vanves, that said line in ail its lengths has but 11,500
metres in extent.
We have yet many observations, but we must limit our
Vete. We think we have said enough to prove that M
Thiera's plans, in IS4I, arc concocted in the same view, and
13iiplay the same danger as M. Thiets's plans in 1533.
The detached forts of the man of the Ist of March will
cannonade aroi burn the Parisians with not less certainty
Led efficacy than the detached forts of the man of the 11th
of October. M. Thiers then denied that the forts could
Iseach Paris. He now admits that he was deceiving the
country. M. Thiers, in 1841, renews the same protesta-
tions. We have just prosed that he wishes again to de-
ceive it.

THE FLOODS IN WORCESTERSHIRE.—The
flux of water into the Severn, from the melting of the
'new in 'Wales, has now overflowed its banks. Nor is
the Severn the only river in our locality thus affected, the
Avon being so swollen that the road between Pershore
and Evesham is impassable, the Sovereign coach and the
Oxford mail, on Monday night and yesterday being obliged
to go round by the upper road, through Fladbury and
Wyra Piddle to Pershore, thus losing a good deal of time.
The Ludlow mail has also been delayed in consequence of
tnebvight of the Tone, at Newnharn Bridge, being many
feet above its ordinary level The London mail to this
City. ty " railway " through Birmingham, and the Oxford
Thail by road, did not reach our post-office until consider-
ably after time on Friday morning, namely, the former at
balf-past eight instead of twenty minutes before seven, and
the latter at half-past one o'clock P ax,, instead of eight
"4. The delay was in both instances the same, viz., the
interruption of snow which the train bringing the Lon-
d°ll Mail encountered at Rugby, and the Oxford mail
at Woodstock. The latter mail was brought on in a post-
chase and four by the guard, who states that he left the
coach behind him embedded in snow to the depth of nine
feet; he raft) states that he met the guard of the up-mail
00 Thursday night between Woodstock and Chipping Nor-
on hcr.eback, laden with the bags, which ho bad
brought on from Chipping Norton, beyond which the coach
could not advance, from the blockaded state of the roads.
On Saturday the Oxford mail succeeded in coming the
whole way, but did not arrive here till two o'clock in the
afternoon, while the London mail was an hour and a half
beyond its time. The following day the rapid thaw had
blare
d the roads of Snow, and the mails arrived as usual.
In some parts of Wales the floods have been much more
serious than in our locality-. At Newtown, early on Sun-
day morning, the inha'oiLants were aroused from their
slumbers, and were compelled to make the most strenuous
some
exertions t: preserve tkir property from damage, the
loner part cf their dwellings being under water, and
orne sheets being completely ibodec.--- Worcestershire
Chronicle.
LAMBETH I.NIPROVENIENTS.—The inhabitants
of the extensive and populous borough of Lambeth are be-
stirring themselves to obtain a portion of the large sum
granted by Parliament for the improvement of various
Parts of the metropolis. Several meetings, at which Mr.
flawEB, M. P., the Rev. Dr. D'Oyley, the rect:o, and
Other influential residents, take an active part, are beine-
to consider in what way that desirable object may be
host speedily accomplished.
AN ATTRACTIVE PLACE OF AMUSEMENT.--
A Morning Parer, noticing the attractive quality of the
osements at the Garrick Theatre, says, " Con nest
has made reveral happy hits in his career ; but, in this in-
stance, it would appear that the author has taken his mea-
sure.to. a nicety, for be keeps the house screaminy all the
lie be is on the stage."

C
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