The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-09 00:00:00

THE ELECTIONS AT BORDEAUX.

The correspondent of the Daily News telegraphs the
following from Bordeaux, February 8 :—There has been
an enormous number of voters here to-day. Two long
lines of voters, strangers to Bordeaux, are waiting at the
doors of the Mairie, and it seems very doubtful
whether the voting will be finished by the timo ap-
pointed for the close of the poll. Perfect tranquillity has
prevailed here throughout the day. The news published
by the Liberty that General Trochu has arrived in Bor-
deaux is incorrect. The statement of the same paper
that the Orleanists are eligible for election is also in-
correct. Emmanuel Arago has telegraphed to the pre-
fects :—" You know that persons belonging to the
families which have reigned over France are ineligible,
in virtue of the law of the 10th of April, 1832. A decree
of the 7th February, 1871, extends those dispositions to
the Bonaparte family. See that they are everywhere
executed." The Government has announced that it will
in no way interfere in the elections ; that it will not
favour or distribute any particular list ; and that
'it will disavow any functionary or citizen who
recommends a list in the name of the Government.
General Cremer has arrived here. The attempted mani-
festation of Colonel Milton, the Englishman, has led to
the issue of a proclamation, very sensible in tone, by the
Prefect Allain Targ4. lie says the Republic has need
of manifestations of the real opinions of the people.
They should not, therefore, allow themselves to be
compromised by men who are not known in Bordeaux,
who are not known to the Democracy, and who conse-
quently ought to be regarded with suspicion. They should
mistrust those who speak of an impossible Committee of
Public Safety in order to lead to abstentions from voting,
and thus allow the adversaries of the Republic to
obtain a majority in the Assembly. Instead of
losing time in tumultuous demonstrations and useless cries,
they should prepare to vote for men capable of directing,
without weakness, the destinies of the Republic, and of
saving the unfortunate country from the great peril in
which it has been placed by the official candidates—crea-
tures of the Second Empire—who are now the official
candidates of Count Bismarck.

WRECK OF A FRENCH PROVISION SHIP
AND LOSS OF FIFTY LIVES.
SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday Night.
The St. Malo steamer brings word that a French ship,
from St. Malo, with passengers and provisions on board,
has been wrecked at Cape la Hogue with the loss of fifty
lives.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

GOVERNMENT MISMANAGEMENT IN
PARIS,

Writing from Paris, rebruary 6, a correspondent of the
Dailil News says :—This Government has shewn itself to
be one of phrases, not acts; and even its phrases have not
always been of the happiest. Its primary elements were
politically contradictory, and the Ministry of
avocats overwhelmed the military section, already
paralysed by its old associations with the system
of the Empire, and with all its routine of tape,
wax, seals, and bureauism. The sole point upon
which there would appear to have existed a common un-
derstanding was as to the hopelessness of the defence.
At any rate, such is the conclusion forced upon
us by the light of facts. The prospect of
succour from without depended wholly upon the
extreme resistance of the metropolis, and upon a
continual harrassing of the Prussians. To enable Paris
to withstand the privations of a prolonged siege, the
whole of the breadstuffs and provisions of every kind
ought to have been from the outset laid under embargo,
and a committee of subsistence established for their dis-
tribution by a uniform system of rationing. This was one
of the measures demanded by the Commune play, but
it was not adopted. The consequence was a waste of
food which would have sustained the population
for at least three months longer. It is a fact that
the Mobiles used bread instead of wood to make
their pot boil ; and this was done in open day, whilst
they still held their encampments on the old exte•
rior boulevards. With regard to the sorties, these
could not be undertaken, we are told, so long as
the Mobiles and the National Guard were m►dis-
ciplined. This may be true ; but two months were lost
before the latter were properly armed, and the sorties,
clumsily conducted, were not likely to succeed when the
military chiefs had hot themselves the conviction of suc-
cess. The mismanagement of the Administrati m under-
lies the reduction of Paris by famine; the misdirection
of the admirable military resources at the command of
the Generals is responsible for the failure of every
operation which has been undertaken against the
Prussian lines. The two causes combined, involving loss
of tinie, and of military strength, afforded the enemy ab-
solute leisure to entrench and fortify himself ; and when
thus secured against assault from within, to detach masses
of his forces to baffle and defeat attacks from with-
out. At the meeting of all the Generals and chiefs of
the staff, convened by General Trochu and General
Leflo, for the purpose of announcing the armistice,
General. Trochu is reported to have stated that, but for
the number of women and children and of aged persons
in Paris, for whose subsistence it became imperative to
make provision, the resistance of the city would
assuredly have been prolonged, and that victory
was possible. But the general seems to have
left out of view that fire and sword had been more
merciful to this class of the population than his own
miserable inertia ; and this the people will remember. It
is said that Chanzy—some attribute the message to Gam-
betta—sent a telegram to Trochu to this effect "Be
accursed ! your inaction has killed us."