The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-03 00:00:00

THE END OF THE SIEGE.

was expected. I still think that the Germans will insist
on some sort of entry into Paris for all or part of their
army ; but there will be delay and negotiation.
Angry feelings will have time to sober down, and
something will be done to relieve the distress of the
city. We have almost become accustomed to the
silence along the front. Two days of quiet have so
far demoralised us that we should start to attention
and rush eagerly out to inquire what had happened if so
much as a salvo of heavy guns were heard booming in the
distance. Even when Mont Valerien fires its evening
gun, as a matter of routine, we forget for the moment
that this has no significance, and listen with
anxious ears to catch the sound of another dis-
charge. Will they repudiate the negotiations after
all ? Must there be further slaughter to convince the
brave and obstinate losers of the fight that they have
really lost it ? It is painful to think that there may
be more blood shed in a hopeless cause, and
we are relieved when 'the absence of any
further sound shows us that Mont Valerien has not
re-opened fire. This fort was looked on by the
French inhabitants of Versailles and St. Germain
as their chief comfort under foreign occupation.
Its guns spoke to them of resistance to the last, and of
the victory of France even at the eleventh hour. In ac-
cordance with the stipulations of the armistice, the
forts around Paris were this morning occupied by the
Germans. There was no great ceremony about it.
The French withdrew behind their ramparts, and the
besiegers marched in to take possession. At this
moment the German flag waves over Issy and Montrouge,
over Vanvres and Mont Valerien. It is vain to look
across the valley from St. Germain, for the white smoke
puns and bright flashes of the stronghold on the hill top.
It is useless to stand ready in the siege batteries,
as the Germans have stood for a couple of days. The
batteries have done their work, and Paris has sur-
rendered.

THE OCCUPATION OF THE FRENCH

FORTS.

Writing from Versailles, under date January 28, the
special correspondent of the Standard says he forts
round Paris were occupied by the Prussian troops early
this morning. Later in the day the enceinte was given up
also, and German gunners are now engaging in dismount-
' ing the French cannon. Every facility will be
given to summoning the Constituent Assembly, which
is to discuss the conditions of peace, and it is generally
understood that the cession of French Lorraine will
not be pressed. Bismarck, however, will probably insist
on the fortress of Metz being dismantled. Nominally the
capital surrenders unconditionally, the garrison, however,
though laying down their arms to-day, and remaining
within the city, will not be considered prisoners of war,
unless the negotiations for peace are broken off. The
French guns remain the property of France,
their carriages being, however, destroyed. The
Prussian troops will not enter Paris until peace
is concluded, and perhaps not then, unless the war
is continued. The high roads leading into the capital are
to be opened at once, as also the navigation on the
Marne and Seine. Communication by the lines
of rail is not yet conceded. The Germans agree
to afford every assistance in supplying Paris with
provisions-15,000 cows and 25,000 sheep now grazing
between Lagny and Genesse being driven in at once.
No one under the protection of the German authorities
will be allowed to enter Paris except by special permis-
sion. It appears that the terms on which Jules Favre at
first offered to surrender the capital were exactly those
which I stated a few days ago I thought it not improbable
that Trochu would suggest. These were that the city only
should capitulate, the troops being allowed to march out
With all the honours of war, and with leave to go where
they pleased, binding themselves, however, not
to resume fighting until a stated period had elapsed. This
offer was, of course, refused, and Favre must be gifted
' with a wonderfully confiding nature to have made it. Bis-
marck then plainly told him that the Emperor would listen
to nothing less than unconditional surrender, coupling his
statement with the advice that these terms should be ac-
cepted, as by doing so Paris would derive much greater be-
benefit than by holding out in the hopes of obtaining better.
Finding all his endeavours to overcome the decision
of Bismarck useless, he agreed to surrender the city
nominally unconditionally, but begged him, under the
peculiar circumstances of the case, to forego the right of
marching the troops into Paris. "We will give you the
forts," he is reported to have said, " and everything you
want ; but houses, even streets, are undermined, which I
cannot say—but I know that such is the case. The rabble
are in a state of frenzy, and how can I be responsible
for the safety of your soldiers if you insist on taking them
into Paris ?" Naturally enough this rather staggered the
Chancellor, and it is said that both he and the Emperor
would have acceded to Favre's appeal, had it not been for
the counter danger urged by Moltke. The reply, at any
rate, at length given was to this effect :—" Capitulate
unconditionally, and put us at once in possession of
the forts, and we will look after our own safety. Let the
Parisians know, however, that for every Prussian soldier
that is killed twenty Frenchmen will be shot." Events of
course only will prove how the discussion ended. When a
Swiss vase and an iron vessel, however, do come into
collision, there is usually but one result.

A very fine bust of the late Charles Dickens has
just been executed by Mr. W. F. Woodington, jun., of
Brixton. The sculptor is the son of the artist who
designed the bus relief of the " Nile " on the Nelson
Column in Trafalgar-square, and that to the memory of
Wellington, in St. Paul's Cathedral.
THE CULTIVATION OF FLAX IN IRELAND.—At
the annual meeting of the Flax Extension Association,
held in the Chamber of Commerce, Belfast, on Tuesday, a'
cheering view was taken of the prospects of the linen
trade, and inducements were held out to Irish farmers to
cultivate flax more extensively. It was stated by the
chairman of the meeting, Mr. John Mulholland, that the
Franco-Prussian war must prove beneficial to the linen
trade of Ulster.

THE NEW REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY.
The Rev. James Bowling Mozley; 8.D., who has just been
nominated by the Crown to the Regius Professorship of
Divinity of Oxford, in succession to Dr. R. Payne Smith,
now Dean of Canterbury, is a native of Lincolnshire, in
which county he was born in or about the year 1813, and
a younger brother of the Rev. Thomas Mozley, formerly
Fellow of Oriel College, and rector of Plymptree, Devon-
shire. lie was himself educated at Oriel College where he
took his B.A. decree in Michaelmas Term, 1834, obtain-
ing a third class in Literme Humaniores. In the following
year ho obtained the Chancellor's University Prize for
an English essay, his subject being " The Influence of
the Oracles of Antiquity upon States and Individuals."
He was afterwards elected to a Lincolnshire Fellow-
ship at Magdalen College, where he resided for many
years as a diligent student of theology, and held some
College offices. In 1856, he published a learned "Treatise
upon the Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination," and
in the following year a companion volume upon " The
Doctrine of the Primitive Church upon Baptismal Regene-
ration." These he has followed up more recently by
smaller publications on " The Baptismal Controversy,"
" The Thirty-nine Articles," and " Observations on the
Colonial Church Question." In 1865 he was chosen to
preach "The Bampton Lectures " before the University
of Oxford, taking • the much-debated question of
" Miracles "as his subject. Mr. Mozley has held the
College living of Old Shoreham, Sussex, during the last
- He is perhaps as deeply read in
tfihfeteemn,oorkrssioxftetehney
}ea'arsth. ers of the Church as any living
divine, not even excepting Dr. Pusey.
KINAHAN'S LL WHISKY.—
This celebrated and most delicious old mellow spirit is
the very cream of Irish Whiskies, in quality unrivalled,
perfectly pure, and more wholesome than the finest Cognac
Brandy. Note the red seal, pink label, and cork branded
" Kinahan's LL Whisky." New Wholesole Depot, 6A,
Great Titchfieldstreet, Oxford-street, W.

The special correspondent of the Daily .Arcws at the
headquarters of the Crown Prince of Prussia thus writes
from Versailles, January 29 : The end of the siege has
come at last. By the armistice of three weeks, formally
concluded yesterday evening, the French agreed to
yield up their outlying' forts to the Germans in
token of submission on the part of the beleaguered
city, and the Germans agreed to allow provisions to
enter Paris, and to let the garrison remain in a state of
semi-captivity within the walls. Of course there is no
chance of renewed hostilities hereabout, save in a fit of
popular rrenzy, which should make the Parisians re-
nounce their bargain, and seek martyrdom behind
barricades at the end of the armistice. Paris has sur-
rendered ; she has become the prize of the victors, in
so far that that they can use her possession as
a pawn to play for obtaining terms of peace. The
arrangement between Count Bismarck and M. Favre goes
no further than to open a way for an ultimate settle-
ment by giving time to call a Constituent Assembly;
yet even this differs somewhat from the programme
sketched out by popular rumour, and by the wishes of the
army. Count Bismarck has seen that the recent disasters
of the French troops in the provinces would make peace
on any terms acceptable to the vanquished, and
he has used his hold upon Paris in a less peremp-
tory fashion for the mere triumph of the moment than

OUR COTEMPORARIES—This Morning

THE DEMANDS OF COUNT BISMARCK.

The Times thus refers to the extraordinary demands
made on France by Count Bismarck :—We do not wonder
that there is a general disposition to doubt the truth of
the telegram from Berlin stating the terms of peace pro-
posed by Count Bismarck to M. Favre. Anything so
exorbitant has never been heard of in the history
of modern war. There is, therefore, a prevailing
impression that the terms have been exaggerated in
passing from the negotiators to the public, or that
they represent some loose rhetorical language on the
part of the Chancellor or some other, personage, which
has been taken too literally by his auditors. We have no
means of solving the difficulty, and can only reiterate our
belief that they have been stated on good authority. It
may be considered either a corroboration or a weakening
of their credit that they coincide substantially, except in
the enormous amount of the indemnity with the
demands which for some time past have been attributed
to Germany. The cession of fillips of war and of one of
the transmarine possessions of France was indicated some
time since. We can only hope that this monstrous pro-
gramme will prove not to represent any settled purpose of
the German Government. If Count Bismarck wished to
ruin the negotiations he has just commenced, to make the
meeting of the Assembly futile, and to give reason to the
most violent clamourers for war, he could hardly conduce
more directly to that object than by announcing such
terms as an ultimatum. Count Bismarck has always pro-
fessed to be anxious for peace. In accordance with this
language Count Bismarck has stipulated as early as
possible for the machinery of pacification. How can we
conceive Count Bismarck to have any other design than to
smooth the path of the new Assembly, and to aid it and
the Government which summoned it in persuading France
to submit? Yet an indemnity of 2400,000,000 and the ces-
sion of all the great ironclads of the French Navy form a
strange encouragement to choose pacific candidates. The
German Government must believe that all human nature
has been crushed out of the French people if it really
expects that such terms will fail to provoke new resist-
ance. Unless this programme be disavowed, we cannot
but expect that the cry for continued opposition, which
has begun to sound from Bordeaux and Lyons, will
extend to every place which is not occupied by the Ger-
man armies.