The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-10 00:00:00

WILL PARIS FALL ?

Conflicting as are the conclusions which are drawn
from the present aspect of the military situation in France,
says the Standard, we suppose there is one upon which all
men are agreed, that no one can now foretell with any
certainty the conclusion of the war. It is some time since
the Germans desisted from their confident predictions
that they would all spend their Christmas-day at home.
Christmas has come and gone. The new year has come,
with no novelty, but a sameness of horror, and we are
getting on well into the year 1871. The aspirations
of the sanguine King do not stretch any farther now than
hoping " that the war will come to a close in 1871." There
is something in the present aspect of affairs which consti-
tutes for the invading force a rude awakening from that
dream of triumph in which it indulged after Sedan.
It is one thing to feel your foot on the neck of your
enemy, another thing to be engaged in the death grapple
with one as strong as yourself. The first was the situa-
tion which the Germans fondly pictured for themselves :
the latter is the stern reality to which they have
awakened. The two armies of France fell so suddenly
before them that they imagined themselves very great
men indeed, conceived that. all possibility of resisting
them was at an end, imposed a humiliating programme
on the defeated enemy, and endeavoured to force it
down his throat by sheer brute force. The Germans mis-
calculated, and are only beginning to find out their mis-
take. Their army and their Landwehr are now confronted
by the levee en masse, by bodies of troops which already
outnumber them, which will soon be able to sweep them
away by mere physical weight. German resources are at
an end ; but every day adds to the strength of the enemy.
The capture of Paris does not necessarily imply
the defeat of France, but the possibility of its fall
must now be seriously considered. After repeated
attempts, its garrison has failed to cut its way out.
Provisions are failing. The population now lives
chiefly on bread and wine, and we can scarcely
suppose that its fortitude will enable it to hold out,
if unrelieved, for more than another month. Paris
has done good service in holding half the German
army at arm's length, while myriads of French-
men are drilling and fighting in the provinces. Though,
since the abandonment of Mont Avron, where some
of the unhappy shopkeepers who serve as National Guards
seem to have behaved badly, two of the forts in the east,
Rosny and Noisy, and two in the south-west, Issy and
Vanvres, have been lately bombarded, until it is said
their guns have been silenced, there is every reason to
believe that her fortifications are so strong that
Paris can only be taken by being starved. But will
she be starved, or will the provinces come to her rescue
in time?

WANT OF SYMPATHY WITH FRANCE.
Commenting on the French complaint of English want
of sympathy, the Daily News observes :—There is some-
thing more than mere coincidence in the appearance of
complaints from eminent and moderate Frenchmen as to
the attitude of England at the very moment when
English feeling and sympathy have gone over
so conclusively to the side of France. Public
opinion in England is nearly always on the
weaker side. Did we sympathise with Denmark
or with Germany in the Holstein war ? Is it not a per
petual source of difficulty with the United States that
English opinion took part with the South in the Civil
War? At the opening of this present war, when the
English press and public) denounced the Imperial
aggressor, which was believed to be the stronger ? Did
not all the world anticipate that the French army
would advance victoriously into Germany, and.
was there not as much astonishment as there was
satisfaction at the Imperial defeat? At the present
moment, when English feeling moves towards France, is
it so because France is conquering, or because she is
losing ? It is difficult for Englishmen, just at this mo-
ment, to express all they feel for France. A noble nation
may well recognise that good taste demandsof us that we
should keep our pity to ourselves, We wish to
see Germany united, but we cannot afford to
see France humiliated and destroyed. If Paris
is not the capital of civilisation, it is one of
the most important of its capitals. The French
genius is perhaps not so much original as interpre-
tative. By its admirable clearness of thought and of ex-
pression, it gives ideas currency. Other nations may
originate them, but till they have passed through the de-
fining and refining process to which the French intellect
subjects everything, they gain no empire over the minds
of men. In politics the French are after all the apostles of
liberty. England may discover and apply the
principles of democratic freedom, but France formulates
them into doctrines, and preaches them to the world.
The French tongue is the international speech of Europe,
because French thought is the international possession
of Europe. No, we cannot do. without France,
and we do not wish to, try. Nor need
Frenchmen fear that we shall have to do
without her. France is down, but she will rise
again. She has fallen in a bad quarrel, she has suffered
beyond all her demerits ; but the sympathy of the world.
has rallied to her, and that sympathy will save her. There
is a point beyond which her humiliation could not go, and
that point is long past. We have already witnessed
with joy her resurrection from a twenty years* entomb-
ment, and though that resurrection takes place under
hard conditions and the new life lwgins in pain and
struggle, it will at length bring r, et w hope to Europe and
new freedom to the world.

THE FROCiRsESS OF THE BOMBAREOLEXT.
The Telegraph, in reviewing the progress of the bom-
bardment of the French forts, says :—From the accounts,
we suspect that the pleateau of Fort Avron had to be
evacuated, not so much on account of the injuries sus-
tained by the work itself, as because the annoying fire of
the enemy's batteries commanded every approach from
the neighbouring forts. The real horror of the
bombardment will only commence when the
Prussians may be in a position. to shell Paris
itself, and resolve to employ their advantage. There
is a vast difference between the fall of shells in the
open fields—where, in two cases out of three, they are
embedded in the earth—and the crashing of such nii,
siles upon roofs and pavements. The dwellings of a
great city obstruct the view, SO that it is not pos-
sible, as in the case of a fact, to,signal the course of the ap-
proaching messenger of destruction ; and, even if it were, the
inhabitr.nis are not in a position to run at once under
cover, like troops manning a fortified post. A shell burst-
ins in a room will knack down the walls, will send the roof
clattering inta the street, will tear up the ceiling. More-
over, it invariably happens that in, a short time the enemy
gets the range of the leading thoroughfares, and
dropping fire a shells reudexs the streets impassable,
It is true 'that, even in a crowded town, the actuall
casualties are wonderfully small compared with
mass of.projectiles hurled, but the agony, the terror, the
misery eaused by such a catastrophe are things
terrible to contemplate. We hoped that the last arid
crowning misery may Yet be spared the French
capital. Should the further prosecution of the siege
be marked by the same pitiless consistency in
destructive effort that has hitherto characterised
the German operations, and the storm of deadly missiles
be lowed into the city after the surrounding forts have
crumbled into shapeless ruin, pity for the suffering non-
combatants will supersede all other considerations. Until
that time comes the bombardment has for us only the
interest of a duel between hostile batteries, revealing
some of the most impressive and terrible aspects of war„