The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-11 00:00:00

atic

Ult.

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1870.

THE war news is again unfavourable to France.
After a succession of inconsiderable skirmishes, some
of which have resulted well for the French, but none
of which can have any influence on the fortunes of
the war, two more victori s of considerable moment
have fallen to the Germans. They have frus-
trated another attempt on the part of BAZAINE to
break through their lines at Metz, and they have
scattered some newly-formed levies in the Vosges
mountains. The latter defeat is a serious misfortune
for the French. Their force consisted of Freeshooters,
Mobiles, and some Line troops from the South—in
fact it was part of those new armies which, as we
have been told for the last two or three weeks,
are intended to march to the relief either of
Metz or Paris. This engagement, then, serves to
skew the quality of the material upon which the
hopes of France are placed. The result is not re-
assuring. The French did, indeed, fight very well,
for the engagement lasted over six hours—a clear
proof that the new levies were not easily scattered;
but they were ultimately beaten, according to the
German account, by half their number of Baden
troops. If this latter statement be correct, the
defeat is grave indeed. Had such a miscellaneons
force fought all day long against anything like their
own number of Germans, the action would have
been creditable and hopeful, even though it was lost
in the end ; but if seven thousand Badeners defeated

14,000 Freeshooters, Mobiles, and Line troops, the
result proves that the new levies are well nigh
worthless for the immediate services which are
required of them. The engagement at Metz is of
less consequence. BAZAINE was foiled in his
!sortie ; but his troops fought remarkably
well, they inflicted a good deal of mischief
in some quarters, they retired in good order, and there
is no mention either of captured guns or prisoners.
These constant futile sorties must greatly weaken
BAZAINE'S army, but otherwise the fight is not im-
portant. It becomes more and more clear, however,
that BAZAINE has no prospect of forcing his
way through the Prussian lines without help from
another French army, and it is equally cert.tin that
the best chance left to the French cause is to attempt
the release of the Marshal whilst the bulk of the
German army is engaged at Paris. The new levies
might not succeed in fighting a battle by
themselves, bgt if they attacked Prince FREDERICK
CHARLES on the one side, whilst BAZAINE made a
sortie on the other, it is not at all unlikely
that such a combination would prove successful.
The German force round Metz is necessarily
divided by the Moselle, which runs through the
city ; and it would be open to the French Generals
to concentrate their whole army on one side. It has
been said that BAZAINE would not recognise the Re-
public, if ho were released but the Ministry
cannot at such a moment give way to
considerations of this kind. There is no
time to be lost, for the Germans are fully alive to
the danger, and the corps now advancing from
Strasburg and elsewhere will soon find the new
armies plenty of work on their own account.

THE decisio'i arrived at on Saturday by the naval
court-martial appointed to inquire into the cause of

the loss of her Majesty's ship Captain is precisely
what every one who had paid the slightest attention
to the proceedings could alone have anticipated.
" The pressure of sail assisted by the•heavy sea "—that

is what caused her to capsize. That was the conclusion
arrived at—a conclusion at the same time coupled
with the deliberate judgment of • the Court, "That
the amount of sail carried at the time of her loss
(regard being had to the force of the wind and
the state of the sea) was insufficient to have endan-
gered a ship endowed with a proper amount of sta-
bility." When that is said, all is said, in regard to
the origin of the catastrophe. The equilibrium of
the gigantic floating structure which had been thus
most lamentably lost, had not been sufficiently cared
for, in point of fact, by those entrusted with the
responsibility of its fabrication. Exonerating

the survivors of the great shipwreck from
any blame whatever, the court furthermore
decided with an evidently implied censure of the
ill-fated designer of the lost ironclad or armour-
plated turret-ship, as well as of all his supporters both
within and without the walls of the Legislature,
that they (the Court) esteemed it their duty before
separating to record the conviction they entertained
that the Captain had been built in deference
to public opinion, in opposition to the
avowed disapproval of the whole scheme by
the CONTROLLER of the NAVY and his department.
Between the fatal day when the great ship went down
off Cape Finisterre, on the morning of the 7th of
September, and the pronouncing of the judgment of
the Court Martial at Portsmouth, on the Bth of
October, all the facts in any way adducable have
pointed steadily, unanimously, inexorably in this
one direction. The CONTROLLER of the NAVY in this
instance had not been the Controller. His
opinion had been directly run counter to, and the
loss of the Captain has been the consequence.
Captain COLES had the courage of his convictions,
and he has paid the penalty by losing at once his life
and his life's greatest achievement. It is a lament-
able story from beginning to end, and in our tales of
flood and field will long survive—

" While the billow mournful rolls,
And the mermaid's song condoles,
Singing glory to the souls
Of the brave."

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A SINGULAR SUGGESTION.

A strange proposition has been made with respect
to the difficulty of the French territorial and
dynastic questions. It is suggested that Leopold, the
King of the Belgians, should be elected Sovereign of
the French people. This scheme is said to possess
many advantages, for the Germans would not be jealous
of a small State like Belgium. By the carrying out of
this arrangement, Belgium, it is argued, might be
merged into France, as Scotland was into England
under James the First. Another advantage would
be that France would gain such an increase
of territory that she could submit to
the loss of Lorraine and part of Alsace.
with a better grace than she could be expected to
shew under existing circumstances. Europe would
have confidence in so stedfast a constitutionalist as
Leopold, and need be under no apprehensions that
aggressions would take place, whilst his successors
could be bound over to follow in his footsteps. The
proposer of this impracticable, but ingenious, scheme
declares, in conclusion, that by this means French-
men might be made to choose a middle path between
anarchy and despotism, while escaping from the evils
of their present position.
FRENCH CLAMS ON ENGLAND.

A correspondent of the Times refers to the state-
ments which have been made by foreign writers that
France went to the Crimea as the ally of England,
and for our purposes, and also that England had
abandoned Denmark, and extracts some remarks
from M. Prevost Paradol's La France Nouvelle on
the subject. In reference to 1854, M. Paradol asks
bother in invading the Crimea to prevent a destruc-
tion of the Turkish Empire, whiala would have pre-
cipitated the humiliation of France, they did not
carry on a defensive war for their legitimate great-
ness and for the future independence of Franco.
With regard to the second part of the subject, M.
Paradol declares that the dismemberment of Den-
mark, tolerated by the French in spite of the formal
offers of assistance made by England to prevent so
dangerous an act, and the encouragement which
Prussia received from France in her designs against
Austria, are facts which have an historical interest
only, and which must be left to the severe judgment
of an equitable posterity. The writer says it is to be
hoped that posterity will do us justice, and acknow-
ledge that France did not establish any special claim
on the gratitude of England by going to the Crimea
to prevent her own abasement, and that Denmark
was left unaided because France refused to concur in
giving assistance to her old ally.

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