The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-16 00:00:00

THE EFFECTS.

The scarp of Issy is beginning to suffer considerably;
the embrasures are knocked about, the front especially ;
but the angle guns are still firing occasionally. Vanvres
is very much in the same condition—rather worse than
better. Montrouge, above which there is still
smoke arising from the ruins of the Great
Barrack, has mounted. fresh guns, and keeps up an
enfilading fire from the west face. Bicetre is beyond
my sphere of observation. Val4rien had up to yesterday,
as well as could be seen through the snow cloud, escaped
any serious imputation on its character as a very potent
and troublesome work, and it fires all round as if it were a
land Monitor. It is hazardous to state where damage has
been done on this side, because the intelligence might fall
into the hands of the besieged, who could turn it to good
account. But places which were quite safe are now
posts of danger and of no honour. The losses are
small on this side, but the proportion of killed to
wounded is very large, as might be expected, and men's
bodies are torn into fragments and sent flying about in
and outside the batteries in a way full of warning to the
beholders. General Guern is of opinion that the French
shells burst better than the Prussian officers are disposed
to think ; he estimates, after a careful reckoning of a day's
firing, that not more than 18 per cent. miss, and can be
counted non-effective as explosive missiles.— Ti 17163 Corre
spondent.

at the same time to send him two xnitrailleuses. The
General answers in a brief, soldierly fashion.
"My dear C.—," he writes, "Thank M. IL for me for
his flattering proposal ; but let us leave the subscription
where it is. If you will send me the mitrailleuses, I shall
accept them with gratitude.—Your devoted,
" G. GARIBALDI."

M. Lissagaray has brought out a Journal du Camp at
Toulouse, saying that the staff, the engineers, the medical
service, in short, every department of the army, have
orders to open their offices to the journalists, as repub-
lican administrators ought to live in glass houses.
In this journal the first contingent of the mobilised legions
Ire estimated at 49,997 men, in 17 legions and 51 battalions.
The strongest contingent is that of the Haute Garonne,
which is over 10,000 strong, the weakest that of Tarn et
Garonne, 3,000. The Prefect of the Loire has received
another message from Bordeaux to expedite the departure of
the mobilised troops. There has been so much stir
about political matters in this direction that the more im-
portant question of armament has been somewhat slighted.
It is said there is a strong concentration of French troops
on the Doubs, and the Germans are massing at Montbe-
Hard. There will be a dechiive affair in that quarter.
Bourbaki is said to have transported his headquarters
from Dijon to the centre of his military operations. A
letter from Bourbaki himself, dated from Chalons-sur-
Saone, January Ist, speaks of that place as his great head-
quarters, and thanks the sub-prefect for the kind
reception given to his army. A mistake was
made in the east. It was thought that Prince
Frederick Charles was marching in person against Belfort
but he remained in the West to face Chanzy. It is
thought that part of his army was detached to assist
Werder as soon as he learnedßourbaki was in the Vosges.
This was the corps d'armee which reoccupied Auxerre,
and whose avant gardes were seen near Dijon. Wer-
der wanted, when reinforced, to secure Belfort before the
French army came up, but he was repulsed with heavy
loss. He had to take his wounded to Porrentruy, on
Swiss territory. The Mobiles of Saone and Loire are at
Dijon, with their fine artillery. The 14,000 Mobiles of
Isere are only waiting to exchange their present arms
for the Springfields, just arrived at Brest, to rejoin
them.

may go on till the Ist of March if we eat up the horses of
the cavalry and artillery, and make bread out of the oats
which should have fed them. This calculation makes no
allowance for the reserve of food which will be required
after the gates are open. and before Paris can be revic-
tualled."
A German correspondent says that the losses at
Bapanme were heavy, especially in officers. A prepon-
derance of killed and wounded officers is a general feature
of the German losses. The losses at Bepaume must have
been greater than the official bulletins admitted, for a
fusilier of the 33rd Prussian regiment says :—" Our bat-
talion, which went into battle with 590 souls, numbered
after the battle 3 officers, 24 non-commissioned officers,
and 322 men, the remainder being either killed, wounded,
or missing."
Apropos of the number of firearms said to be forwarded
by " perfidious Albion" to the seat of war, we may advert
to the supply of quinine for the sick and wounded sent
from this country. Messrs. Cox, Son, and Co., of
Brighton, recently received a telegram from a West-end
firm to know whether they could undertake to supply a
million quinine pills within a fortnight. The whole of the
pills were made up by them in eight days. As each pill
contained a grain and a half of quinine, the market value
of which is 6s. per ounce, nearly £l,OOO worth of the alka-
loid was used.—The Lancet.
The Augsburg Gazette publishes some details of the ap-
pearance of mutiny among the prisoners of war at Ras-
tadt. On the 2nd inst. it seems it was necessary to repress
same attempts of this character by force, and some of the
prisoners were wounded. Since then they have been more
strictly guarded, and are in part shut up in the casemates.
They are not allowed to go out into the town nor to re-
ceive visitors. It is believed that this movement was not
wholly unconnected with the advance of the corps of
Garibaldi and of the Army of Lyons, the emissaries of
which had got as far as Delle, and even as far as Mul-
house.

Heine's remarks on the fortifications of Paris are of
interest at the present moment. Writing on the 13th of
February, 1841, he said :- -" France has not yet come to
its end, but, like all nations, like the human race itself, it
is not everlasting. It has perhaps already passed its
meridian, and is now undergoing a metamorphosis which
cannot be disguised. On its smooth brow various wrin-
kles are shewing themselves ; its thoughtless head is get-
ting gray, stoops anxiously, and no longer busies itself
exclusively with the present; it thinks also of the morrow.
The decision of the Chamber on fortifying Paris indicates
such a transition period of French national feeling. The
French have learnt a great deal of late ; they have thus
lost all desire of blind irruptions into dangerous foreign
territory. They new wish to intrench themselves against
the eventual attacks of their neighbours."
A correspondent writes from Cherbourg : " The
greatest activity prevails here both in organising troops
and in sending them forward to join the armies in the
field. About a hundred artillery horses, well harnessed
and in splendid condition, passed my window to-day. The
cavalry in this town are, as regards both the men and the
' mounts,' as fine as any I have ever seen. The line of
railway has been ' requisitioned ' by the Government for
the exclusive conveyance of troops ; passenger traffic will
be suspended, I believe, for a week. Large numbers of
wounded soldiers are being brought in. The principal
hotel and the public ecole have been taken by the Govern-
ment for their accommodation. The Halle, a building
about half the size of the Smithfield Market, is converted
into a stable for cavalry. Gambetta, it is reported, is
about to pay us a visit. He would be well received."
FRENCH AND GERMAN DEMOCRATS.— The Re-
publican Union of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, on
the motion of M. Guichard, formerly a deputy, have
addressed a letter to Citizen Jacoby, formerly a member
of the . German Parliament, expressing the strong
feelings with which they have read his letter to the
German people, which proves his true patriotism, inas-
much as he does not separate the cause of his
country from that of justice and humanity. They
say that "it is evident that if France and Germany had
possessed institutions securing to them the right of self-
government, war would never have broken out between
the two countries ; but while Napoleon 111. was compelled
to defend his autocracy in France by stifling the progress
of Democracy under a military rule, the German Govern-
ment misled German feeling by accusing France of threa-
tening the German territory. This was an imposition.
French Democracy condemns all notion of conquest. In the
month of May nearly three millions of French citizens,
by their vote or by their ' abstention,' protested against
it, and the 7,500,000 were only induced to vote the
pl6biscite by the machinations of the Imperial Govern-
ment, which persuaded them that it meant the preserva-
tion of peace. The war was a crime of despotism, and
was in fact finished on the 4th September ; but what re-
sults can the Germans now expect from a war with
France ? Their victory will be as fatal to themselves as
to the French, and they must not expect a final victory.
The soil of France is the object of the worship of the
French, and they will not submit to foreign conquest, but
will defend their indivisibility just as a parent attacked
in his house defends all his children."
ALSACE AND LORRAINE.—The provisional admi-
nistration of Alsace and Lorraine will soon be replaced
by a regular and difinitive organisation, and on this
subject the Conseils Genera= will be consulted. What
has been said as to the introduction under the Prussian
Minister of a system of public education is unfounded,
as M. Muhler, the Prussian Minister, will have
nothing to do with Alsace, and the superintendence of
instruction in the province is to be entrusted to a
Minister who is not a Prussian. The present Adminis-
tration is anxiously occupied with the question of in-
struction, and is taking steps to obtain teachers. The
execution of border railroads has been put off, but
Baden and Alsace will combine for the improvement of
the navigation of the Rhine. This navigation at present
only extends as far as a little above Maya, the French
commercial system having diverted the commercial
relations of Alsace to the French ports on the Atlantic
and Mediterranean by means of the internal canals.
In 1869 Strasburg sent out by the Canal de l'lle towards
the Rhine only 104,000 tons, but by the other canals to
the south she sent 650,000 tons of goods. In future the
province will free itself from its dependence on the
French ports, and will receive consignments by way of
Belgium, Holland, and the Hanseatic towns. These last-
named will do well to place themselves as soon as pos-
sible in direct communication with the new province, and
to study its needs and resources.—Letter in the Augsburg
Gazette.