The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-23 00:00:00

11J SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1870.

RUMOURED PEACE NEGOTIATIONS.

The Independance Beige of November 22 says
AI. de Chaudordy has not only been instructed with a
mission to reopen negotiations for an Armistice, but
is also the bearer of proposals with regard to a basis
for peace. The question of territorial cession is not
to be raised. _ _ _

Touns, Monday.
There is a report that M. Glais-Bizoin is about to
leave this placa for Paris with a safe conduct.

1,000 GERMANS TAKEN PRISONERS,

The Echo de Luxenbourg of to-day announces
that news has arrived from the frontier stating that
a severe and decisive engagement had taken place,
and that the Germans bad been defeated with great
loss.

1,000 Prussian troops have been driven over the
Belgian frontier, where they were taken prisoners,
and will be sent into the interior of the country.

The Moniteur Beige says the authorities have
received orders to allow foreign soldiers to enter
Belgium if their officers engage in writing not to
leave the country.

[CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAMS.]
MR. CRUM-EWING, M.P., AND HIS
CONSTITUENTS.

Last night Mr. Crum-Ewing addressed his constituents
at Paisley. He defended the Government from the charge
of not having used sufficient energy in endeavouring to
bring about peace, and expressed the opinion
that all must desire to see Germany come
out of the war still a united nation, but
would at the same time consider it most calamitous for
Europe if France should be unnecessarily enfeebled or
humiliated. Referring to the Russian question, he was
sure, he said, that the Government would do anything
compatible with the maintenance of the honour of this
country to avert the horrors of war.
•

MR. HENRY RICHARD, M.P., ON THE WAR.
An address on the war was delivered by Mr. Henry
Richard, M.P., to the Executive of the National Reform
Union, Manchester, last night. Ho contended that one
obvious lesson to be learned from the war was, that the
nations of Europe should find some means of protecting
their own interests and deciding their own destinies.
Another was, that enormous military preparations did
not conduce to the preservation of peace ; and a
third, the necessity for arbitration to settle the differences
of nations.

THE EXPECTED SORTIE FROM PARIS.

The correspondent of the Daily News at the Head-
quarters of the Crown Prince, in a letter dated November
16, writes : The siege has its periods of dullness.- That
much is beyond disphte. Just now we have bad eight
and forty hours without incident. No balloon has been cap-
tused, no sortie has been made, very few shots have been
fired from the forts, and the bombardment has not
begun. Will it ever begin at all ? Some doubt whether
the siege works are more than a device to impose
upon the enemy, and to occupy the German troops.
Some, though they admit the intention to bombard—to
crush and disable the forts at any rate--declare that two
or three weeks must yet elapse before the engineers will
be ready. My own impression is still that the siege
works have been pushed forward in earnest, but
that as hunger is fighting for the besiegers
much more surely than they can fight for them-
selves, it is felt to be better to work cautiously;
and completely. At this moment a large amount of time
and labour is being spent on defences against a probable
sortie. This is not unreasonable when we remember the
large garrison which General Trochu has under his orders.
He might throw sixty thousand men at least upon any
point chosen for attack, and leave the rest of his line
fully guarded. If there were not preparations for
defence to assist the Germans at a pinch, they
would run the risk of being overwhelmed in detail by a
series of heavy sorties, and even as it is I wonder that
they are not constantly disturbed. We suspect that the
silence of the last day or two may be the prelude to a great
effort to break the line, and such an effort would lead to
a sad butchery on both sides. The French must suffer
fearfully in storming the positions of the besiegers,
though if they broke through anywhere they will catch a
number of Germans in reverse, and have a temporary
revenge. They could not, I think, have the permanent
revenge of driving away Count Moltke, so as to bring in
provisions, without help from an army behind him. It is
on the arrival of such a force that, after all, everything
depends. And the-rescue may well be thwarted. Prince
Frederick Charles is straining every nerve to pass between
the " Army of the Loire " and its supposed destination.
More than this, he is likely to hem it into a corner if
General d'Aurelle de ,Paladin be mt more dexterous than
have been other . French commanders. Meanwhile
General Manteuffel passes rapidly northward of Paris, and
shuts out all hope of rescue from that quarter. It
is only in the west that the door seemc still to be open,
and in the west, precisely, some French troops have ap-
peared. They are said to be at Dreux and Nantes, threat-
ening the rear of St. Germain and Versailles. But it is
not believed that they have force enough to break
through. The arrival of the Metz reinforcements makes
Count Moltke safe in his bold game of surrounding the
great city with an army less numerous than the armed
men within the walls. These Metz r-iuforcements have
come up just in time, for France has rallied wonderfully
in two mouths of Provisional Government.

GENERAL BOURBAKPS DEPARTURE FROM

11E NORTH.

LILLE, Nov. 20.
The following is the farewell order of the day issued by
General Bourbaki before his departure for the South
By a Ministerial order, dated Nov. 18. which reached
me to-day by telegraph, lam called to the command of
the 11th Army Corps at Nevers. lam ordered to trans-
fer the command ad interim, to General Fane. In parting
from the National Guard, the Garde Mobile, the Free Corps,
the troops of all arms of the army, I am desirous of
expressing to all my great regret, and thanking each
one for the assistance accorded to me, as wolf as
for that which might have been given me in
the future. Since I have recei vod the superior
command of the region of the North I have been enabled,
thanks to the zeal of the various services and of the diffe-
rent corps, to arm the places in this region, put them in
a state of defence, and form a small Army Corps, which
would not have been contented with consolidating this
defence. I was proud of these results—proud of the
devotion and the confidence shown to me, and which faci-
litated the accomplishment of a laborious task. I offer to
the officers of all grades, the non•eom►nissioned officers,
and soldiers of all corps of the region of the North,
may congratulations for the excellent spirit which animates
them, In bidding them good, bye I promise never to
forget them, at a distance as well as by their side, I
shall follow with the most intense interest the efforts
they will make to courageously resist the enemy, and
I shall applaud with all my heart the success I wish
them. .

" At all points of our dear country hearts must beat in
unison ; the s erne thought must animate all—struggle to
expel the foreigner.

Signed)

" BOURBAKI, General of Division, Commander-
in-Chief of the Region of the North.
"Lille, November 19,"
The Journal a'Antiens, commenting upon General
Bourbaki's address, says :—" There is, it appears to us, a
tone of sadness—we should not like to say bitterness—in
General Bourbaki's farewell to our Northern troops.
General Bourbaki had touching words for the deliverance
of our dear country. We regret that he had not one word
for the liberty of our future institutions.and for the actual
Government of National Defence."