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

THE GERMAN ARMY.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the homesickness of
the Germans and their longing for peace. Besides this
homesickness, they consider that the ultimate result
of the conflict is so certain that they feel and
shew the kind of annoyance which a mathematician
feels when some one tells him that an attempt
to square the circle or to enclose a space
with two straight lines may one day be successful. Nor
can it be concealed that, although the fighting power of
the Germans is doubtless as great as it ever was, their
morale has suffered considerably during° their long and
tedious " Wacht am Seine," as it is the fashion to
call it. In the beginning the army was one of the
soberest it has ever been my lot to live with ;
indeed, the remark was in every English
man's mouth that you might see more drunken men in
the streets of Chatham in a single night than in those of
Versailles in a month. No one would make such an
assertion now, and, strangely enough, drunkenness is
much more prevalent among the more highly educated
men of the Landwehr than among the soldiers of the
regular army.—Pall Mall Gazette Correspondent.

Angers has voted £B,OOO for defensive purpose.
The Germans in New York have sent an address to the
Prussian Chambers protesting against the continuation of
the war for the object of incorporating Alsace with
Germany.

The blowing up of the railway bridge over the Moselle
by the Garibaldians, caused great inconvenience to the
Germans round Paris. In fact, it cut off communication
with Germany altogether, during a day or two.
So disastrous was the French retreat from Le Mans
that the correspondent of the Standard, a warm sympa-
thiser in the French cause, says a couple of defeats in
pitched battles would not have involved greater loss end
demoralisation.
Two artists of some celebrity have recently died in
Paris. One was the sculptor, Joseph Pallett, whose
statue of La Nuit achieved so great a success ; the other
a young flower painter, named Vincslet, who was rapidly
rising into distinction. He was only 30 years of age.
General D'Aurelle has declined the offer of a military
command. " I will only," he says in a letter to M.
Gambetta, " accept that command at the hands of a
regular Government whose first act shall have been to
pass judgment on the ambitious and incapable men who
have lost France."

It has come out that a project for the capitulation of
Paris was on foot immediately after the last sortie ; for it
is ascertained that the Envoy of Trochu who was sent to
Versailles to ask an armistice to enable the burying of the
dead, was instructed to put out feelers in regard to what
reception would be given to a proposal to surrender.—
Scotsman.

The Echo de Luxemburg has received some particulars
of the accident which took place in the Montmedy tunnel.
It appears that a collision occurred between two trains,
and that the first carriage of a train containing some pri-
soners of Faidherbe's army was completely destroyed.
Among the killed are seven French officers and three
Prussian soldiers.
The Prussian Prefect of Metz has interdicted the cir-
culation of the Journal de Luxembourg in Lorraine, so
long as that paper which calls itself " A voice from
Luxemburg for right and justice," contains articles and
accounts likely to excite and irritate the public. The Etoile
Beige says that petitions are being clandestinely cir-
culated in Limbourg, demanding the annexation of the
province to Prussia.
The misery occasioned by the war has not been confined
to France. The Journal de Bruges says that many
German families have been obliged to seek in foreign
lands for the food they cannot procure at home, and have
arrived at Bruges in a state of complete destitution. The
Antwerp journals record the same state of things in that
city, and say that their offices are continually besieged by
Germans, who are in the greatest distress, and ask for
bread for their wives and children.
Count Bismarck has imposed an extraordinary contri-
bution of 10,000,000 f. on the province of Lorraine as a
punishment for the destruction of the railway bridge
between Nancy and Toni. This is to be rigorously col-
lected. Several attempts having been made to destroy
the railway between Wasselonne, Molshim, and Barr, the
German Prefect of the Lower Rhine has ordered that in
future hostages shall be carried on the locomotive of every
train between those places. The former French railway
officials are to be preferred for this duty.
The Ursuline Convent at Blois, in France, sent to its
kindred institution at Berlin to petition that the estab-
lishment might be exempted from the payment of war
charges. The Superior of the Berlin convent applied to
Queen Augusta direct, and when the Prussian officers ap-
peared before the establishment at Blois to request it to
lodge fifty men and horses, they were presented with a
paper signed by King William, commanding that the
convent should be freed from all military charges.
The Germans think highly of the mitrailleuse. They
would rather face a large body of infantry than half a
dozen of these instruments. "I find," says the Tin-es
correspondent, " among-the fighting men a general agree-
ment that the mitrailleuse, especially when behind a little
cover, is very dangerous. A bold dash against infantry
causes the Chassepot to be fired at random, or even in
the air. The mitrailleuse, once laid, shoots ateadily for it
has no nerves. I was told yesterday by a General that
the Germans will certainly adopt the new weapon in
some form or other, after the war, for positions in the
field."

The Germans declared that a vast quantity of English
made weapons had been found in the French camp at
Conlie. A correspondent rode over the camp to see.
He found a few miserable old muzzle-loading
Enfields, which must have been taken from among those
condemned by our Government as unfit for use, probably
rejected at proof, or they would long ago have been con-
verted into Snider breechloaders. There was also a mass
of American arms, some packed in boxes, others standing
in rows or laid in heaps under the shelter of wooden huts.
The rifles were Spencers, none of which are manufac-
tured at all in England. They bore the American
mark.
The evidence of the Times' correspondent with Prince
Frederick Charles respecting the strength of the army that
fought against Chanzy, is worth notice. " The Duke of
Mecklenburg, so far from having 70,000 men, is only, ex-
clusive of cavalry, about as strong as one Prussian corps
weakened by fighting, and I believe that if the whole Ger-
man forces concerned in the short campaign just termina-
ted be reckoned at 85,000 men, it would be considerably
above the real number. The French say they had 200,000
men, but perhaps 120,000 would be nearer the truth. The
Germans were very strong in artillery, carrying with them
about 400 guns."
" Pauperism," says Herr Wachenhusen, of the Colonge
Gazette, " will on the conclusion of peace prevail in one
half of France and will eat up the other half. Already
armed bands are roaming about which plunder the
country houses and chateaux, and murder their own
countrymen with the very arms put into their hands by
the country as Francs-Tireurs. Hundreds of thousands
have been suffering for months. They are enduring all
privations for a time as a sacrifice imposed upon them by
the misfortunes of the country, but with the war their re-
signation will cease. Hundreds of thousands of officials
are starving with their families because too old to carry a
musket ; in the occupied towns the inhabitants have long
ceased work, and have not the means to procure the
requisite materials. Entire communities have emigrated,
and will, perhaps, on their return find half their property
burnt.
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THE ENGLISH IN FRANCE.—The papers of the
Western Departments of France have published a protest
from the English residents to Mr. Gladstone on the course
pursued by the English Government during the present
war. The chief points which the protest refers to are the
silence which the English Cabinet kept after the interview
at Ferrieres, from whence followed the determination of
Prussia to pursue the war without taking any advice from
the other Powers, and their neglect to summon the English
parliament immediately. They record their regret that