The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-16 00:00:00

TIT F, WAIL

BOURBAKI'S ARMY.

GENEVA, February 9.

The amount of military precautions which for some
reason or another it is thought desirable to take here is
extraordinary. The roads are patrolled, there are cruisers
on the lakes, and the perpetual beating of drums makes us
fancy we are in a besieged town. The Prussians, how-
ever, are no where in sight, the report of their visit to Gex
being incorrect. Gex, which is in the Department of Ain
is therefore included in the armistice, so the Swiss send
their gifts for the sick and wounded thither without
let or hindrance. Switzerland, however, regards her
obligations as neutral very seriously, and the
deserters and stragglers are brought in constantly. They
come with a very bad grace, and it was thought at one
time that force would have to be employed. Swiss patience
carried the day, but it is severely tried in many ways.
First there are the dilettantes who followed the army,
wearing the Red Cross, but who were determined to ren-
der no active service as soon as they had crossed the Swiss
frontier. Then there is the troop of emigrants who, chased
by the Prussians from the Doubs and the Jura, take
shelter on Swiss territory with all their luggage. They
have such a dread of even passing their villages,
which the Prussians hold, that they go round
by Geneva to get into France, and form
picturesque groups, with their goods in caravans.
It is necessary to keep a strict watch over the stragglers,
lest they should join these fugitives who have not taken
up arms. It is only such that have the right to re-enter
France. There are about 65,000 men interned in Switzer-
land, as a good many were saved by Generals Cremer and
Billot, who went round by Gex. General Billot escaped
by disguising himself as a cattle driver. The plain of
Plainpalais, the Swiss Champ de Mars, looks like an en-
campment. It is covered with horses and chariots which
brought the French troops into Switzerland, and are daily
sent back into France. The accounts which the
peasants give of the sights they saw on the road,
are most harrowing. Every five minutes they passed dead
horses, and vehicles overthrown and abandoned in the snow,
for the number of horses lost was extraordinary. Worse
still, there were men who could not rise, and refused even
to make the effort, saying, " Let us die," and they were
forced to leave them unaided. Never did cold and hunger
make more victims. A correspondent of the- Lausanne
Gazette relates that he was following a host of soldiers
and officers toiling on to Switzerland, when he
saw a man stretched helpless on an abandoned
waggon, but no one turned his head to see
whether he was dead or alive. At last the narrator
could bear it no longer, and said to a Mobile that perhaps
the man was not dead. " Ah, bah !" he replied, "he is
dead, no doubt. All the better for him ;he will have no
more cold or hunger. Plenty more are dead besides."' A,
drop of brandy poured down the man's throat soon revived
him, however, but there was nothing else to give him.
There were thousands of fainting men on the frontier
whose lives would have been saved by a basin of hot
bouillon at the right time. Among the other wayfarers in
Switzerland is a troop of Bonapartists. They meet every
day and settle the details of the Restoration. However,
they are just now very much discouraged, for Wilhelm-
shohe has abandoned all hope, and declared itself betrayed
by Bismarck.

ELECTIONS AT MARSEILLES.
MARSEILLES, February 9th

Couriers from Paris- have at length reached Marseilles.
The strangest rumours have been circulated during the
interval that has elapsed since the capitulation, when in-
telligence ceased to be transmitted by pigeons and bal-
loons. It was even reported by some persons that Trochu
and Jules Favre had been assassinated by the Republicans.
In the arrondissement of Marseilles the Republican list
of electors was supported by the Egalite and Peuple jour-
nals. The former declared that the names of Gambetta,
Ledru Rollin, and Esquiros were intended to re-
present Constitutional, Revolutionary, and So-
cialist Republicanism. On this list was the name of
Delpech, the founder and former editor of the EgaliM
journal, and, since his resignation of a prefectship, the
commander of a brigade in Garibaldi's division. An
editor belonging to the Peuple figured likewise in the list.
These rival Republican papers have made friends for the
time, and when the prefect Gent yielded to the persuasion
of Gambetta, and withdrew his opposition to the elections,
the league was immediately organised. The moderate
journals, on the contrary, had each a different list, and
only five or six of the same names appeared in each paper.
M. Gambetta's name was in three of these lists. M. Pel-
letan was favoured by the Liberal Democratic Com-
mittee. These various circumstances conspired to
place M. Pelletan in the first rank in the
arrondissement of Marseilles, and M. Gambetta in the
second. The other candidates of the Republican Alliance
had a majority of from three to four thousand over the
moderates. In the country places the prevailing senti-
ments are fear of revolution and weariness of war ; but the
bad weather keeps away many of the country voters, and
was enough to lose the day for the moderates. Among
those elected at Vaucluse were M. Gent, Prefect of Mar-
seilles, who resigned at the fall of Gambetta ; M. Naquet,
former editor of the Peuple at Marseilles, at present Pre-
fect of Corsica; and Taxile Delord, editor of the Siècle,
who failed in the election of 1869. On the opposite side
were Leopold de Gaillard, political director of the
Correspondent at Paris, and M. de Laborde, a former
representative,

MOTES FROM LILLE.

LILLE, February 13.

A strange state of things has prevailed here of late.
When M. Bert resigned his post as Northern Prefect, M.
Hendl4 came to Lille, having been deputed by the Govern-
ment of Paris, who thought the city was in a state of
anarchy. Having to his surprise found every-
thing 'quiet, M. Hencll6 returned at once to
those who sent him, and is not expected to come
back to Lille. We are, therefore, without a prefect for
the time being, but the Secretary-General performs the
duties in the interval. The next serious inconvenience of
our present position is the cessation of our renewed corre-
spondence with Paris. The North Company had, with the-
consent of the German authorities, reorganised their service
of trains to and from Paris. Two went every day, and con-
veyed passengers who were furnished with the necessary
double pass. Yesterday, without any previous notice
having been given, the train which left Lille in the morn-
ing was stopped at Busigny by the Prussian military
authorities, and the passengers were compelled
to return from whence they came. Since then not a
single train has been allowed to pass by the enemy's
lines. This unexpected. event has given rise to various
surmises such as a revolution in Paris or a general rising
of the people in the invaded territories. Our epistolary
correspondence is reduced to the smallest limits, and no
papers arrive. M. de Fonvielle has given up
his idea of returning to Paris by a balloon
for the present, as the wind was blowing in so contrary a
direction that the aeronauts would in all probability have
found themselves over the North Sea instead of approach-
ing the Seine. The last report is that the cause of the
quarantine imposed on Paris is the non-payment of the
contribution which was imposed, and that the communi-
cation will only be reopened when the Parisians have ful-
filled the stipulated conditions.

THE CAPITULATION OF PARIS AT
CONSTANTINOPLE.

The Constantinople correspondent of the Independance
Beige says the sensation produced in the Turkish capital
by the capitulation of Paris is very great. The news pre-
viously received from the besieged city had not given rise
to such anticipations. In official circles it is asked whether
the war will finish here, and the peace so ardently
desired by the Turks arrive. The representatives of the
Sublime Porte at Bordeaux and Berlin have already the
necessary instructions for giving their most active sup-
port to all efforts which may be made by the
neutrals towards an arrangement. It is hoped
at Constantinople, despite the categorical refusal
of all mediation by Count Bismarck, that the neutral
Powers, who cannot be indifferent to the duration of this
terrible war, will regard it as their duty to interpose. If
there is to be any intervention at all, Turkey will take
part, since she occupies a place in the European system,
and she will by all the means in her power endeavour to
arrest the effusion of blood. The new diplomatic agent
of Roumania, M. Jean Balatchiano, has been well re- i
ceived by the Porte, the private letters addressed by Prince '
Charles to Ali Pacha having enlightened the Porte as to
the real state of affairs in the Principalities. The verbal
explanations given by M. Balatchiano have completed the
cclaircissement, and have thus disposed of the policy
adverse to Prince Charles, and consequently prejudicial
to the interests of the Sultan, which was beginning to
prevail. At a time when grave questions of European
interest are engrossing all attention, and a new system of
alliances is being spoken of, the affairs, of Roumania
must necessarily be relegated to the second
ritik ; but their turn will come. While on
this subject of alliances I may state that it is not only by
the three Powers, but by all the Courts who signed the
Treaty of Paris;that Turkey will be guaranteed against
Russian aggression. The Porte will obtain from the
London Conference the recognition of her right
to open the Dardanelles at will, to the war ships of all the