The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-09 00:00:00

THE CAPITULATION OF SEDAN.

The news of the capitulation of sedan has mused
great excitement among the continental nations. The
Turin Gazette takes a comprehensive view of the
affair, and says that the troops under Macnahon were
in great difficulties, and decimated by a sustained
conflict of three days, deprived, in a great measure,
of arms, and, above all, of artillery ; wanting
munitions of war, and also provisions of food. An
attempt might have been made to beat a retreat, if
not by the whole, at least by a groat part of the army,
which was the most solid and best pzovided for,
but it is generally believed that the Emperor Napoleon
was opposed to this act of desperate energy. It is
certain that the preference given to this opinion
saved the existence of the Emperor, and of many
courageous oneswho would willingly have died sword
in hand rather than have given up their arms to the
enemy; but it is also certain that the traditional
valour of the French could not have allowed
them to consent willingly to so shameful
a compact, one to which the military records
of their people prefients no parallel. As for Napoleon
he cannot possibly exclaim with Francis the First,
after the battle of Pavia, "All is lost except
honour," because his honour was the first thing he
lost. With regard to the war the 7 orbs Gazette
hesitates to believe that it is finished; King William
has conquered the dynasty and the Bonapartist,' bat
he has not conquered France.
THB PAST HARVEST.

Notwithstanding the severe drought we have ex-
perienced, an approximate estimate of the crops
makes it clear that wheat is beyond an average
yield. The expectations with regard to the fine
crop of oats and barley are more than realised. The
unusually large yield of wheat is attributed to the
cold retarding spring insuring short and stiff straw,
and the favourable blooming time enabling every
embryo kernel to set. In many districts the heads
of wheat average fifty grains, and the importance of
this will be understood when it is known that the
yield is usually forty grains. A writer truly says
that the peculiarities of one season so seldom recur
in another., until after a long cycle of years, that the :
lessons they teach we generally forgotten before
they again become applicable. Had the season of
' 1808 been anticipated in 1870 a greater area of
wheat would have been sown; the lands would have
been cleared of stook in early autumn, and the
abundant supply of hay would not have been
consumed.

THE TURF IN IRELAND.
When the probable break up of the Palmerston
Horse Breeding Association of Ireland was referred
to some weeks since, we had pleasure in making it
known to English reader& how deep an
interes k Lord Mayo has always taken,
not only in the formation of such institutions
but also in the advancement of tuxf interests gene-
rally In the sister country. His lordship, it may be
now stated, has not ceased his efforts
for the welfare of racing breeds, and for
the sustenance of horse racing in Ireland.
At the present Curragh "September meeting," the
Viceroy of India has no less than eleven horses
entered, and Irishmen generally are so proud of his
Lordship's consistent support of the turf as exempli-
fied in "his entries for the Curragh programme even
on this single occasion, that We learn they
earnestly hope he may be the man called upon
to give the usual "three dozenof champagne to
the turf club " in recognition of his
being the largest winner. At a time when interest in
the turf is said to be diminishing, sportsmen through-
out the kingdom will acknowledge how great
must be Lord' Mayo's anxiety for its revival
when, although himself in India, he directs that eleven
of his two-year-olds shall contest for the "Anglesea
Stakes" in distant Ireland. We may here add as a
proof that the decline of racing is not as yet very
perceptible on the other side of the Channel, that in
the races for the "Anglesea Stakes" and- for the
"Railway Stakes" forty-five hores have been
entered in the respective cases, while in the
contest for the " Queen's Plate," over a flat course
of four miles, the promised field is scarcely less well
supplied. The fastest time that the race for the
Queen's Plate over the Curragh course, a distance
which is seldom traversed in the present age
of early racing and short distances, has ever
been run was in 1752, when " Skewball " rendered
himself worthy of his sire, the " Godolphin Barb,"
by coming to the winning post in seven minutes and
fifty-one seconds after the start.

I wonder what the Regent-street tradesmen will do who
have hitherto boasted the Imperial patronage. Will they
take down the Imperial arms ? If so, what style and
title will they adopt ? " Perfumer to the Empress of the
French " was all N ery well and proper ; but "Perfumer
to the French Republic " would be too absurd.
If anything beyond the disastrous war were wanted to
complete the downfall of the Bonapartes that has been
supplied by the conduct of Prince Napoleon and his sister
the Princess Mathildo. It will be remembered that at
the commencement of the war the Emperor gave the
Prince a command, and that the officers of the army who
were to have served under him absolutely refused
to do so, so little confidence had they in
" Plon-plon," who, as they remembered well,
was always just in time to be too late during the Italian
campaign of 1859. Not being allowed to display his
military incapacity, the Prince betook himself to Italy
on a diplomatic mission, and endeavoured to persuade his
father-in-law to throw himself into the whirlpool of
ruin which was fast drawing the Emperor into its
vortex. Events travelled so fast that while Victor
Emmanuel hesitated it became out of his power to
help his formal. ally. But though the Prince had failed,
he remained in Italy, and sent orders to have his curi-
osities and articles of virtu and furniture sent away from
the Palais Royal to a place of safety. The
people who had charge of the Palace refused
to i.obey. While he was in. Italy safe and sound,
his wife, the Princess Clotilda, remained in Paris
and though she, as an Italian princess, had a good
excuse for leaving, she continued at her post to the
end—to the end of the Empire and the dynasty. The
last of the Bonapartes was not a Bonaparte, not a French-
man, but an Italian woman. She left Paris amid the re-
gret and the respect even of those who rejoiced at the
downfall of her adopted family. As for the Princess Ma-
thilde, her departure has proved the climax of indignity.
She had got as far as Dieppe with her sixty and odd
boxes when she was taken by the police. The sixty and
odd boxes remind one of the thirty carriages full of luggage
which the Emperor took with him to the campaign. But
the Emperor's baggage was at least his own. The Prin-
cess's was not ; and is supposed to be public property of
great value, including among other things the
Emperor's secret official correspondence. She has
had a strange career, this captured Princess.
She was a daughter of ex-king J4rome Bona-
parte,and was born at Trieste in 1820. On the downfall
of the first empire she assumed the name of Countess of
Montfort. In 1841 she married the Russian Prince
Anatole Demidoff de San Donato; with the condition that
the children should be brought up as Roman Catholics.
This brought down upon her husband the anger of
the Russian Government. The marriage was without issue,
and in 1845 it was dissolved by mutual consent. The Prince
was compelled by the Czar Nicholas to settle a pension of
200,000 roubles (Z. 34,000) on his wife, and she then settled
in Paris, and lived in grand style. When Louis Napoleon
became President of the Second Republic, she did the
honours of his house, and continued to do so
after he became Emperor until his marriage. She then
settled at Saint Gratien, . and set up as a patron
of letters and the arts. On the death of Sainte-
Beuve, the eminent French critic, a few months ago,
there was a good deal of talk about the letters which she
had written to him. Sainte Beuve's heirs proposed to
publish them, but she regained possession of them.
Mr. Richard Wallace,the natural son and the heir of the
late eccentric Marquis of Hertford, has signalised the
entry upon his inheritance in a noble manner.. He has
written to the International Society for the relief of the
wounded that he has placed to its credit at Rothschild's
300,000 francs (£12,000), on condition that the money is
devoted to the establishment of an ambulance, to be
called the Hertferd ambulance. The committee have
gladly accepted the offer, and have asked Mr. Wallace
to be present at the departure of the ambulance.
Canon Liddon's sermon upon the war, at St. Paul's
Cathedral, on Sunday afternoon was very eloquent and
very long. Three-quarters of an hour before the service
I commenced there were no seats to be had. The
aisles were so crowded that the members of the
choir had to fight their way to their seats ; even the
steps of the lectern were occupied, and the rev. canon
who read the lessons had to surrender his dignity and
push through. To this congregation, three-
fourths of which had already been standing for an
hour and a half, Dr. Liddon preached for over
an hour. As to the power of his descriptions of the horrors
of the war, and the thirst shewn for news of it in this
country, the short summaries that have been published
give no idea. The " point" of his sermon was that inasmuch
as neither prosperity n or adversity was the measure of moral
goodness, we should not hastily judge either France to
be receiving the punishment of aggression, or Prussia the
reward of a just foreign policy.
Ministers are returning to town somewhat slowly
considering the importance of the crisis. Mr. Gladstone
and Lord Granville have, indeed, been in constant com-
munication and hard at work throughout the recess.
Mr. Childers and Mr. Cardwell have been looking after
their departments, as indeed they had good reason to do.
The First Lord of the Admiralty has unfortunately fallen
ill again, and will have tatake a holiday with the uncom-
fortable conviction that all which was stated in the Western
Morning .News respecting the deficiency of stores, and
which he contradicted in the House of Commons just before
the close of the session, was only too true, as the Army
and Navy Gazette has just told him. He is now gone to
Germany with his wife, I believe to take the waters.
Mr. Forster has just come back from the moors. Mr.
Lowe has been paying a visit to Mr. Pender
the millionaire briber of Totnes, and to Mr..
Bass the great brewer, who has good reason
to cultivate the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Bright
seems to have passed into oblivion, so Ipng is it since we
have heard anything of him, and so rapid has been the
march of events,during the last few weeks. As for the
other Ministers, I wot not what has become of
them.

Literary news must be scant in times like these.
Poor Mark Lemon, who died in embarrassed circum-
stances and under a peculiarly distressing family calamity
which I do n)t care to name, has left a novel called
" Blue Petticoat," which will be published shortly. Mrs.
Oliphant's tale " John," which has been appear-
ing in B/ackwood's Magazine, is to be republished in
2 vols. Mrs. Pender Cudlip is going to write a
serial novel in Charles's Wain. Mr. Rotten has
just brought 'out an amusing book called " The Inno-
cents Abroad," by Mark Twain, the American lecturer,
who may perhaps follow in the wake of pony Artkaus.
Ward and p.a3r p. 4 visit to England, but uq, • I

LITERATURE.
Money's Worth. A novel. Three vols. By TOLD 11?
Tinsley Brothers. titlf,
11
In this novel, which is divided into three books, efolug'i,
"Constancy," " Cash,„ and " Content," with a P,,' lA,
—" Love and Lucre "—Mr. Hood enunciatesp Ve" 0111'
tical theory, and one which his readers, howeve,,i:eJ,
they may admire it as a theory will be little incl'of ',
't
put in practice. "Money's Worth "is the title or,
book, but money's worthlessness is the purported
pages. In the prologue we are introduc 0;
two sisters, Laura and Mary, who marry, 'el/A,
for lucre and the other for love, and who are eaei%,l3o:
way unfortunate. Laura contrives to entrap the. 'I3,P,
wealthy Mr. Clayter into a belief of her affect's, of,
when she has attained her object, and is mistre,s9oo,4
good position: she indulges in a course of fas,.llll. 00,
frivolity, and her poor husband, who is unfitted ic.'., 4
society, is driven for companionship to old friends
neighbouring tavern. The picture of his deterneo
mentally and bodily, until he dies of delirium trePslti
the midst of one of his wife's gay parties,. is P"10 1:0
the extreme. The heartless wife •is punished
ci;o.‘
turn. In her second marriage she is , 0:4
for her wealth by a needy lover, and, strange ":05e,,,,
in both instances a runaway horse is the ultimatelyl
the marriage of Laura Clayter. The author in V,
to us her after trials and disappointments seems t,_° 0614
Laura Elwin with some commiseration, in which Odd
ment we must confess we feel no sympathy. }ter 000
to her first husband merits a worse retribution 0 -
suffers at the hands of Herbert Elwin. Laursl ",
Mary, who marries for love, is a very silly roms°." S
who is easily taken in by an adventurer, a Captaork,
it
sari:l, who assumes the title of captain on theatre e; 9:
of some skirmishing in Spain, and who believes
soft-hearted Mary to be an heiress. When, i.',.' AP,
marriage, he finds he has been mistaken, his ind-1,6:41x;
is extreme. The character of Captain Hassard, voit'd
a conspicuous part in the three volumes, is consis .OeY
the last. He thinks of. no single individual but 11.,,,e4t
and is guilty of no generous action or unselfish e.,'" P,
His sentimental, silly wife is also well pourtrayed. F
way of "flapping" her hands in hopeless, helpless_ irel
pair in every trial and emergency, great or small, '',t 1
indicative of her peculiar character, or vi3";l4;
character. The actual heroine of the yap
Violet Hassard, is the daughter of the worthless eP,,
Hassard and his weak-minded wife. She is haP,_.l).4 I); ,
dowed with all those excellent qualifications, in vo)"est,
parents are singularly deficient. A charming emhodili3o4
"constancy " and " content," Violet finds her haPPl'lo4o's
no way dependent upon " cash." Tie hero of the soo;
Lawrence Oldham, a gentleman of the press, ilp‘wi
for a considerable period actively engaged. ri•,
the columns of the Daily Cockcrow, and 00
for a time editor of the " Obelisk Mai; Dcee
The author apologises to the reader for having c i,eili
as a hero one of his own craft, but he expresses 1;1101;j
natural belief that such a choice may not be' c 3,00,1
interest for the public. It is true that David Colni J.
and Arthur Pendennis (the editor of the origlo e,;
Mall) were literary heroes ; but, in depicting 00,06
titular trials of Lawrence Oldham's career, the ant Pie
his history enters into many mysteries of the craft, `.Code
he believes to be not altogether familiar to the milts 41°
In the office of the Daily Cockcrow, for example; sv.votlie
introduced to Captain Pen, under a variety of disci" i!J
aspects, from the exquisite gentleman, apparelled 1 r?,
height of fashion, who daintily draws off his lavellaertA;
gloves and proceeds to write some crushing leadingLioce,
flaying some luckless Minister alive, down to Laf '.:O iv"
particular friend, old Higginbotham, rather bri,v,:terp
an extra glass at a late hour of the night, but, Acti'i; °I
his condition at that period, always up to his NO.„%tles
the following day, so much so, indeed, that it is ii. u-tlO.,
of general belief, with regard to him, Iso
" if a cannon ball were to carry off his head, the '-''''icle•t;
of him (as the Yankees say) would finish the 04;c11,
The days of the Cockcrow are, notwithstandin, esol,
staff, unluckyily numbered. The young hatildlitOe
Daybreak makes its appearance, and Lawrence u pio'
has to cast about for a new career. He thinks of les'..;olo
• di' fie
shorthand and abandoning literature, but a PI, "
friend remonstrates with the idea. " The Preicireij;
says, "is like Saturn, who would devour all his chi,
Poor Cybele (Literature) has great difficulty to Prrfee
any for herself." How it ultimately fares with liav!,:ai !ii
Oldham we shall not here reveal. The curious -,-,-,
amply repaid, for on investigation of his history' they rt,
assuredly find more than their " money's worth' in lo'td
rusal of this entertaining novel. The chapters do "it
the villainy of old Soarsdrake and others, and tkeo4lo
vellous transformations of the Lovely Leontine 01.„.tic°,"
aliases, are not much to our taste. We should Icte;
larise, however, among the numerous touches of char,ob;
with which the work abounds, the old lawyko the
Mogridge,who is so learned in the law that he is 'll 01,1),f
concentrated essence of legal knowledge, and is av36B 'e
to his employers like Liebeg's concentrated, esse..lo
beef-soup. A. little bit of Mogridge is sufficient f.. 1013 0
client's emergency, and the stock remains undiniid tli
for the future requirements of the firm." BeYe"„et6
interest of the tale, and its clever sketches of char:eiP
the reader cannot fail to be charmed with the frank 6'iced
spirit and Thorough kindlineeS of tone by which,
chhpter in the whole w6rk is animated throdigkon.'.
. .