The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAI „JANUARY 30, 1871.

NAVAL AND MILI ARY INTELLIGENCE.
The Army and Navy Gazette learns that an influential
member of the House of Commons purposes during the
ensuing session to call upon Mr. Cardwell to furnish a
complete statement as to our system of transport
and supply, with a view of testing the
capabilities of the Control Department. Th e
Navy Estimates have been, we understand,
prepared with the usual degree of economy so pleasing to
Chancellors of the Exchequer in general, but if the House
of Commons decide upon making important additions to
our naval defences, a supplemental vote will be required.
—The new sword-bayonet invented by Lord Elcho is
about to have an official trial, with a view of testing its
adoption by the War Office.
The United Service Gazette says :—lt is satisfactory to
know that recruiting has been • carried on with greater
success during the last few days than has attended it for
some time past. The extra 20,000 men sanctioned in
August last are, however, far from being obtained as yet.,
We have good reason for believing that at least 8,000 of
them are still deficient.—A rumour has obtained currency
at Aldershot that it is in contemplation to mass 40,000
troops at the camp in the forthcoming summer.—lt has
been officially announced that provisions will be made in
1 the Army Estimates of 1871-2 for building a barracks at
Tipperary.
The Broad Arrow says :—We believe we are correct in
stating that the Government hasno intention, for financial
reasons, of embodying the Militia this year, but will order
the force out for six weeks
e or two mo
nths' trainin instead
of the customary twenty.ight days. The force will be so
affiliated to the line that it will practically serve as
second or third battalions as the case may be, and thus
each regiment will be recruited in its own county. Single-
battalion regiments will have their county Militia for a
, second battalion. This change will most probably be
effected in April.

TTE W All.

THE LAST DAYS OF THE SIEGE.
(BY BALLOON. MAIL. -FROM THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
OF THE " CENTRAL PRESS.")

PARIS, January 23.
The agitation still exists, though all outward dis-
turbances have ceased. It seems that yesterday's out-
break originated in the unpopularity of Trochu, and the
growing discontent of the populace at the prolonged
inaction of the Government. On Saturday morning, at
5 a.m., after a long and stormy discussion, it was decided
that General Vinoy should replace Trochu in the supreme
command, the army being separated from the Presidency
of the Government, and the title and functions of the
Governor of Paris being still maintained. This was a
mistake. It was due to a personal feeling of delicacy and
consideration towards Trochu himself, who is deserving of
all courtesy and respect, but such a crisis allows for no re-
finements, and the old soldier was wiser when he requested
his colleagues to accept his unconditional resignation per
et simple. He knew what was the unpopularity of an
unsuccessful general, and the popular agitation would
never have reached to such a height if he had been per-
mitted to withdraw. The Reds were already in motion,
and troubles were looked for by those who could best
judge. The Republican Alliance published the following
address to the people of Paris, signed by fifty-two per-
sons, and bearing among others the name of Ledru
Rollin :
" The continued reverses of the army of Paris, the want
of decisive measures, badly directed action succeeding to
indolence, and insufficient rations, are calculated to weary
patience. And yet the people wish to fight and conquer.
To oppose them would be to provoke civil war, which the
Republicans intend to avoid. In the face of the enemy,
before the country in danger, Paris, besieged and isolated,
becomes the sole arbiter of her fate. It is for Paris to choose
the citizens who shall direct at the same time her ad-
ministration and her defence. It is for Paris to
elect them, not by pl4biscitum or tumult, but by regular
ballot. The Republican Alliance addresses itself to the
whole of the citizens ; points to the public peril ; demands
that, within forty-eight hours, the electors of Paris be
convoked in order to name a Sovereign Assembly of two
hundred representatives elected in proportion to the popu-
lation ; and demands that the Citizen Dorian be in
eluded in the Commission charged to make the elections.''
Trochu's anticipations were perfectly justified by the
event. The people demanded his resignation, though it
was given out that Generals Vinoy and Clement Thomas
were in command of the troops. Then came the demon-
tration at the Hotel de Ville. What made the scenes of
civil war the more painful was the fact that the Prussians,
who evidently knew or guessed what was going on,
redoubled the bombardment meanwhile. Proclama-
tions were subsequently issued by General Clement
Thomas, General Vinoy, and the Government.
That of General-Thomas was addressed to the National
Guard, and referred to the attack on Mazas. " A hand-
ful of agitators," it said, " have broken open the prison at
Mazas, and have released several prisoners, among them
M. Flourens. The same men attempted to occupy the
Mairie of the 20th Arrondissement, and to instal the in-
surrection there. Your chief commandant reckons on
your patriotism to repress this culpable sedition. The
safety of the city is concerned. While the enemy
bombards it, the factions unite to destroy the defence.
In the name of the common safety, of the laws, of the
sacred duty which bids us unite to defend Paris, let us
put an end to this wicked attempt. At the
first appeal let the whole National Guard arise,
and the agitators will be struck powerless."
General Vinoy's order to the Army of Paris was as fol-

THE BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER C !RPS.
At the annual meeting of the Birmingham Volunteer
Corps, at which Lieutenant-Colonel Ratcliffe presided, the
gratifying fact was announced that after paying all
liabilities the balance sheet shewed that the corps had
still a handsome balance at their bankers. Thls
fact must be extremely gratifying to the gal-
lant Lieutenant-Colonel who has been untiring
in his exertions to bring the corps up to the
highest standard of excellence. At the commencement
of the volunteer movement, one of the most active of its
promoters wasLientenant-Colonel (then Captain) Ratcliffe.
He came forward in the most liberal manner to help
it onward, and great as must have been his anticipations it
scarcely entered into his imagination that Birmingham
could take the poiition it has amongst the
crack corps of Volunteers. At Wimbledon it
has carried off large sums in prizes whilst
as an efficient regiment it has received the highest
approbation from the military authorities appointed
to inspect the different corps. The gallant Colonel
made an excellent speech on the occasion
of the annual meeting, and concluded by saying
that they as volunteers had not enrolled themselves
members of the Volunteer force of the country merely
as a pastime or recreation ; but that they might shew
their determination to serve the Queen, and prove

their loyalty and attachment to their country. He
was sure they would prove, whenever they were
called upon, that they would not turn their
backs at the sound of the bugle, but that they
would be ready to sacrifice all they possessed, and
even life itself, in order that they might shew themselves
true to the engagements they had undertaken, and the
high sense in which they looked upon the duties required
by their enrolling themselves members of a Volunteer
corps. The balance sheet :was unanimously received and
adopted, and the proceedings terminated with a highly
complimentary vote of thanks to the gallant chairman.

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE STAGE
The Atheneum, says :—We are informed that at the
next meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, which will be
held on Monday, February 6th, at 8 p.m., Dr. Ginsberg
will communicate the result of his latest researches re-
garding the inscription on the Moabite stone.—The paper
in the Edinburgh Review on Shakspeare's hard words,
which attracted so much attention two y ears ago, was, it
appears, written by Professor Baynes, of St. Andrews,
Fife, whose recent article in the same Review on the text
of Chaucer we have already noticed. We are glad to
hear that both articles, with some other papers on the
History of the English language, by the same writer, at e
to be published in a separate volume.—Messrs. Chapman
and Hall, we hear, have purchased the entire series of the
Dickens copyrights.—We understand that Professor
Seeley is to deliver a lecture before the members
of the Peace Society on ".How to abolish War,"
that is, on the scheme of federation necessary among
European nations to prevent war arising between them,
and to secure the peaceful settlenient of disputes.—M.
Paul Meyer, chief editor of the learned Revue Critique, is
now serving in the National Guard in Paris, and has had
three short campaigns outside the walls.—" Better late
than never " may be said of the Spanish and Portuguese
Dictionary, just published in Madrid. It is a curious
bibliographical fact that, although no fewer than four
editions of the " Lusiad. " of Camoes in Castilian verse
exist'(the earliest being that of Benito Caldera, printed
at Alca,l4 de Henares by Juan Gracian, 1580), no
dictionary of the two languages has hitherto
been printed either in Portugal or Spain.—Dante's
" Divina Commedia " is now being translated into
Roumanian by the best of Roumanian poets, I. Eliades
Radulescos, who has for some time past been
engaged on this task. An Indian weekly paper
has been started at one pice —a farthing and a half.—
We learn from good authority that Sir Roderick Mur-
chison, the co-patron with the Crown of the chair of
Geology, in the University of Edinburgh, has nominated
Mr. Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., as the first professor. Sir
R. Murchison's endowment is £6OOO, and the Crown adds
£2oo.per annum to the interest of this sun'', and the fees.
The munificent patron reserved the privilege of naming
the first professor.—Mr. J. F. Barnett's cantata, " Para'
dise and the Peri," one of the novelties at the late Bir-
mingham Festival, will be executed for the first time in
London, on the 14th of February.—Mdlle. Nilsson, after
her last concert at Chicago, on the last day of the old
year, left for St. Louis. She is accompanied by Miss
Cary, M. Vieuxtemps, M. Verger, and Signor Brignoli.—
A carious proof of the uncertainty of theatrical matters
is shewn by the fact that Mr. Robertson's comedy,
" War," which was so complete a failure in London, has
obtained a great success at the Boston Museum Theatre.
Elsewhere in America, however, it has been less for-
tunate.

The Law 'limes notes the death (as it believes) of
the oldest county court judge. Mr. Christopher Temple
died last Saturday, at the age of 86, having continued to
act as judge of the courts of the Northampton Circuit

until,the very end.
Ainurder has been committed at Barton-under
Needwood, a village five miles from Burton-on-Trent. A
labourer named Beach deliberately clove his child's skull
through-with an axe. The man, who is said to be insane,
is in custody.
The new sovereign has been issued ; but
though numismatists are glad to see the old George and
the Dragon restored, they complain that the new die is
not nearly so sharp and good as that used in the time of
George IV. Moreover, the colour of the coin is not so
good. The gold seems to have been alloyed with copper
instead of with silver.
WitEcK OF A SLAVE Slim—lntelligence has
been received in Liverpool from Havana, announcing the
total wreck of the once notorious slaver Wanderer, pro-
bably one of the largest and fastest clipper schooners
afloat, oh the Colorado Reef, on the north coast of Cuba.
The Wanderer has had a most eventful career. About
thirteen years ago she was in Liverpool, and her trim
outfit aroused the suspicions of the customs authorities,
who placed her under surveillance pending inquiries.
Although these suspicions were well founded, the Wan-
derer was permitted to sail on her " blackhirding" cruise,
and nothing was heard of her until late in the year 1859,
when she ran a large cargo of slaves safely into Savannah
from Whydah, on the coast of Africa. •
EXPORT OF ARMS FROM THE UNITED STATES
—ln the course of an investigation before Judge Blatch.
ford, of the case of the alleged filibuster steamer Florida
an imporl;ant letter from the Secretary of the Interior
(dated October the Ist) was read by the counsel for
the claimant. It says :—" After full consultation with
the Cabinet, the President was of opinion that
the shipment of arms and munitions of war was not
prohibited to either party in the Cuban struggle.
The Revolutionists have as full a right to buy
and ship arms as the Spaniards, and it is only upon the
fitting out of a military or naval expedition that the
neutrality laws operate. . . . It is a mistake. to sup-
pose that the United States' officers have ever been
instructed to stop the shipment of merchandise, though
it be in the form of articles contraband' of war. The
owners and masters of the vessel must simply accept their
own risk in such cases. The matter assumes a different
complexion, however, when an armed expedition, in-
tended for naval warfare, is started from our
ports. . . . The Cuban Republicans must learn to
draw this distinction before complaining of our conduct."

lows :
" The Government of National Defence has *placed
me at your head. It has appealed to my patriotism and
my devotion. I have no right to refuse. It is a heavy
charge. I only accept danger and there must be no
illusion. After a four months' siege, gloriously
sustained by the army and the National Guard,
and manfully supported by the population of
Paris, we have arrived at a critical moment. To refuse
the dangerous honour of the command under such circum-
stances would be to fail to respond to the confidence
placed in me. lam a soldier, and I cannot shrink from
the perils which this great responsibility may entail. In
the interior the party of disorder agitates even while tha
cannon sounds. I wish to be soldier to the last, and
therefore I accept the risk, convinced that the
concurrence of all good citizens, of the army, and of the
National Guard will not fail me for the maintenance of
order and the salvation of the country.
GENERAL VINOY."

The Government proclamation is very brief :
" Citizens ! An odious crime has been committed
against the country and against'the Republic. It is the
work of a small number of men, who are serving
the cause of the foreigner. While the enemy is
bombarding us, they have caused the blood of the National
Guard and of the army to flow by firing at them. May
this blood be upon those who shed it for the satisfaction
of their criminal passions. The Government
has the office of maintaining order, one of
the strongest forces we can oppose to Prussia.
The whole city demands the severe repression of this
audacious attempt, and the firm execution of the laws.
The Government will not fail in its duty." This proclama-
tion is signed by the whole of the Government and the
Secretaries. The names of General Le Flo, Dorian, and
Magnin are under the head of Ministers, not members
of the National Defence. M. Dorian persists in refusing
the office of Minister of War,

THE LAST GREAT SORTIE.
(From the Times Correspondent.)
It was so thick that the French were able to develope
au enormous force on the approaches to these heights from
St. Cloud and Ville d'lvray to Garches, Bugenval, and
the slopes towards Vaucresson before there was any
alarm. If there were not such an immense gulf between
real trained soldiers in strong " stellung" and masses of
armed men, it would be quite impossible for any one to
believe that such a force as could be seen for some 3i or 4
miles covering the ground like a carpet could be
prevented from doing as they pleased with two divisions
of infantry. But so it was and so it will be. As an old
officer said to me. " A carter is stronger than a jockey,
but he cannot ride a race ; and yet a jockey can drive a
carter's horses." Well, there have been, I hear, two com-
putatiOns of the French dead. In front of one division

there lie some 1,100 dead. In front of another some
what less, and, counting the prisoners and the wounded,
it may well be that the French lost between six and
seven thousand men in %H. And what have the Prue-
sians lost? I scarcely like to write the figures, but lam
assured that they have had only seventy-seven men
killed and 483 wounded. Among the former there is a
large proportion of officers, for when the French were in
Montretout village they picked out the officers of the de-
tachment: which had to fight their way through the
street. And then to take Montretout and to lose it as
they did this very night—driven out ingloriously, dis-
gracefully, without a shot almost, by an attack of a regi-
ment of the 10th Division ! Why, a general with an army
with a pinch of salt for their horse meat and such a basis
of operations as Montretout ought to have hurled the sth
Corps and all its supports out of Versailles this very night.
But then Trochu has not an army ; he has only a gathering
of men, whose individual weaknesses are multiplied by the
numbers of their total force, and who are ready to die,
but are unable to conquer. They advance far enough to
be killed. They are too brave to run quite away.
Their artillery practice was excellent. It was quite
unlike the work done on the 21st of October. The air
was not filled with the smoke of bursting shells, but con-
stant puff balls of blinding white in the dark woods shewed
where their shells were bursting in a way that would have
proved most murderous to uncovered infantry. At this
period, 11.30, it was also evident, first, that the French
were very much in advance of theline they had occupied on
the 21st of October ; and, secondly, they were four or five
times as numerous. The ground between "Talerien and
the river was blue with their masses. There was not a
sunbeam to lighten them, but cavalry in white and light
gray cloaks, and white and gray horses, and even field
tents checkered the plains, and at times there rose. trails
of smoke from camp fires, mingling with the clouds of
" pulverdampf."
From the ocean of bluish gray ruffled by these lines
of lighter colour, streamed out the rivers of men towards
the front, where they fretted iu a spray of smoke against
the base of the hills and upon their slopes.
I could not see the Prussians—a bad sign—so far back
were they now, and more than once I found myself look-
ing at the map for the trace of a route to the Crown Prince's
headquarters, in case I was cut off in the prime of the day
at Roquencourt or Marlay. The columns, of which there
were three well-defined, moved very slowly, now coyly
retiring, now gaily advancing." Had some fiery com-
mander from Cnsar's Camp looked down on such work in
the Long Valley, against Cocked-hat Wood, he would
haply havb behaved as our men did in Flanders in
Captain Shandy's time. But still they advanced and
retired very steadily, and it was to be observed
that the Divisional batteries of the 10th Division, under
Colonel Roell, had posted themselves on the slims of