The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-31 00:00:00

strong reason for hoping that it may not be un-
founded. These interruptions in the course of
slaughter are always favourable to peace. When
once the beaten side recognises its inferiority, it is
seldom that it haggles irreconcilably about a degree
more or less of harshness. When once a conquered
people's attention is turned towards peace, it is only
with extreme reluctance that it decides upon re-open-
ing the war. It is in this general rule that we find
the strongest justification of the French Government
in refusing to call a National Assembly until every re-
source for the relief of Paris had been exhausted. To call
an Assembly is to acknowle Ige defeat. The French
nation, previously to the defeat of CHANZY, could
not persuade itself that its fall was irretrievable, and
therefore it obeyed M. GAINIBETTA'S orders so
readily and universally. It is true that the
prolongation of the war after Sedan greatly in-
creased the loss of life and destruction of property.
But the proper way to avoid such calamities was to
have kept the peace last July, not to have
cravenly refused a struggle for the redemp-
tion of a disgraceful and demoralizing defeat.
It may be presumed that if the German terms are in
any way acceptable the French National Assembly
will take them. It would be premature, however, to
entertain perfect confidence in the end of the contest.
The French are an imaginative people, and at the end
of three weeks they may forget the loss of Paris
as readily as they forgot the loss of Metz. More-
over, many men whose voice might be for peace are
absent from France, and c innot return. M. ROUHER,
who was the soul of the Imperialist party in the Corps
L4gislatif, M. 0 LLIVIER, M. FORCA DE, and many others
cannot without great danger re-enter the country.
The banishment of the Orleanist princes is main-
tained. Thus the Republicans have two immense
advantages on their side. They are the party in
power, and their chief opponents are incapable of
competing with them. Even amongst the Repub-
licans, however, many ;of the moderate thinkers
must be convinced that fighting on is useless; and
therefore the chances are probably at least as much
in favour of peace as of continuing the war. GAMBETTA
may organise the Reds in favour of further resistance.
But FAVRE, PICARD, and others apparently desire
peace; and in the absence of means for carrying on
an Orleanist or Imperialist campaign, the order-
loving classes of all opinions will go with
them. " Better," will say the manufacturers and
farmers, " a Moderate than a Socialist Republic.
If we cannot get the Due D'AIIMALE or NAPOLEON
we may as well cast in our lot with the moderate, and
patriotic FAVRE." There can be little doubt that
the convocation of an Assembly at this crisis greatly
improves the prospects of the Republic. True; sign-
ing a disastrous peace is not a proMising beginning.
But then there is practically no rival.

SOMETHING like fatality seems to have beset the
French arms throughout this campaign. Their most
hopeful enterprises end not only iu 'defeat, but in
utter disaster. BOURBAKeS expedition to the
East is a case in point. Well managed, the
attempt to cut the German communications might
have had good results; and even if it could not suc-
ceed, it ought not to have involved anything like ruin.
It soon became apparent that it would not s ceed.
BOURBAKI moved slowly, manoeuvred poorly—owing
verylikely to the bad quality of his troops; he failed
to cut off vox WEIRDER, from Belfort, and afterwards
failed to drive him away and relieve the besieged for-
tress. Yet after this repulse it was easy enough to
withdraw the French army in safety upon Lyons
Bo URBAKI, however, seems to have been overwhelmed,
paralyse I, by his failure. He remained inactive for
some days, and his troops seem to have melted away
in great part. BOURBAKI has shot himself, and only
the greatest skill and energy can save his army from
complete capture. The campaign is the darkest
record of disaster recorded in history. The French
failures, and the consequent mismanagement and
blundering which convert failures into calamities,
are without parallel.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

£30,000,000 for the war and £10,000,000 for the
national defence, will not certainly do much to restore
the equilibrium.

CONDENSATION.

Amongst the most ingenious contrivance to which
the siege of Paris gave rise is that whereby the
matter of two whole pages of a paper like the 'limes.
has been transmitted from London to Paris. Those
pages of the paper which contained communications
to relatives in Paris, were photographed with
great care by the London Stereoscopic and
Photographic Company on pieces of thin and
almost transparent paper, about an inch and a half in
length, by an inch in width. On these impressions
there could be seen by the naked eye only two legible
words, "The Tunes," ant six narrow brown bands
representing the six columns of printed matter form-
ing a page of the newspaper. Under the microscope,
however, the brown spaces become legible, and every
line of the newspaper was found to have been dis-
tinctly copied, and with the greatest clearness. The
photographs were sent ,to Bordeaux for trans-
mission thence by carrier pigeon to Paris. When
received there they were magnified, by the aid of the
magic lantern, to a large size ani thrown upon a
screen. A. staff of clerks immediately transcribed the
messages, and sent them off to the places indicated
by the advertisers. Why should not such an art be
applied further—to cumbersome catalogues and the
like ? Indeed, a whole library on this system might
be carried about in the coat pocket.