The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-05 00:00:00

TI E WAR.

_

THE FRENCH PRESS AND SENATE.
PARIS, FRIDAY.

Whatever the actual state of affairs in the field, the
journals are determined that the French shall have the
best of it on paper. They speak of their position all the
more positively, perhaps, because we have so little real
information, and of what there is so little Is reliable,
Fancy the Constitutionnel, the semi-official journal, deli-
berately informing us that the situation of the Prussians
is every day becoming more difficult and more
threatening. It explains the steady advance
of the invaders (French journalistic ingenuity
being equal to anything) by declaring that they dare not`
retreat. The King of Prussia, who was at the outset of
the war confident that he should speedily be OA to
announce to Ma people the fall of Paris, is disheartened,
and reduced to his last resources. France must let him
exhaust himself ;for the King is pressed for time, but
France is not, and the European Cabinets are unanimous
in declaring that if Paris will, if France will, the final
victory must rest with her. Fancy, in face of what we
know through England of the real state of affairs, a paper
deliberately stating thatKingWilliam is at his last resources !
The Liberte tries another line of lofty argument. The
King of Prussia, it proclaims in a conspicuously printed
article, is undoubtedly mad. "La Folie du Roi de
Prusse," according to this writer, consists in having for-
gotten that he owes to France his admission among the
great Powers, his capacity to rectify his frontier, and
many other advantages, in having alienated his natural
and necessary ally (What of Jena and the French occu-
pation?), and in thus having left himself unable to carry
out his dream of raising Prussia to a first-class maritime
Power in defiance of Russia, his only dangerous rival.
What would the French affiance have cost him, asks the
Liberte. Only the equal division of the Rhine through its
length from Bale to the sea which the port of Trieste and
his part of Holland would have amply compensated for.
Was not the King of Prussia mad when for the vain
satisfaction of seeing one of his lieutenants ascend the
throne of Charles the Fifth he broke up an alliance
which would have made France and Prussia the arbiters
of the new European equilibrium. With this equi-
librium, to use an expression of Emile de Girardin,
Europe would have been Zollvereinized.` The
Liberte concludes with the declaration, more emphatic than
polite, "fi'il n'est pas fou, it est ivre
The Government made no official communication to the
Corps Legislatif yesterday, but at the close of the sitting
M. Busson Billault, the President of the Council, received
from the Minister of War a note which he immediately
communicated to the deputies in the Salle des Pas-Perdus.
It appears from the information attained, not from Mac-
Mahon himself, but from letters and documents
bearing the semblance of authenticity, that the
Marshal gave battle to the Prussians on Tuesday, August
30, when fighting went on throughout the whole day, and
the Prussions lost enormously. However, MacMahon
was forced to recross the Meuse. The next day the
Prussians made the attack, but the Marshal succeeded in
getting over the river again. The French loss was very
heavy, but the Prussian loss was still greater. Such was
the substance of the information communicated to the
deputies by the President of the Council, and
it may possibly be perfectly well founded,
only why has not MacMahon himself announced his
success.

The great interest of the day yesterday centred i►n the
Senate, where the debate was most animated. It was
opened by M. Le Verrier, who questioned the Government
respecting the severity shewn by the Prussians towards
the French who resist them, who do not belong to the
regular army. M. Le. Verrier made special allusion to
the proclamation of the King of Prussia, in which the pain
of death is so frequently threatened, and asked whether
that was civilisation ?

The speaker went on, amidst the growing indignation of
the Chamber, to cite passages from letters and journals
referring to the rigour of the Prussian conduct. A corre-
spondent of the Courier des Vosges mentions a Prussian
order which says laconically that "every man found
bearing arms will be shot," and a letter from Vienna an-
nounces that this order had actually been carried out in
Lorraine. The Prussian Government, says the Etoile
Belge satirically, evidently creates for itself a code of
patriotism which is quite new, and a moral code
for its own particular use. M. Le Verrier
repeated the anecdote which made so much stir when
mentioned by the War Minister in the Corps- Legislatif
the previous day. The Bishop of Strasbourg having
gone to the Prussian General Werder to represent that his
fire was only directed against the inoffensive inhabitants,
the General replied,, ' I know perfectly well that I can-
not take Strasburg, by attadking its ramparts. Its inhabi-
tants must compel the general to capitulate." The speaker
having asked the- Government what means could be
taken -to mitigate this state of things, M. Bauchart
exclaimed that the best means of checking them was to
defeat the enemy, a sentiment which called forth general
approbation. M. de La Tour d'Auvergne, the Foreign
Minister, read a circular which the French Government
had sent round to the great Powers setting forth a series
of charges against the Prussians the gravest of which
were the shooting of a surgeon, and the forced employment
of French peasants in the trenches round Strasbourg, by
which means the defenders were compelled to fire upon
their own countrymen. Great excitement was produced
by the official confirmation of the rumour occasioned in the
Senate, and the Marquis de Chasseloup Loubat declared
that General Werder deserved to have his name scouted
b• posterity.—M. touruy exclaimed, "Yes, let us put him
in the pillory of history, as we did with his predecessor
before Lille in '92, but let us add that the punishment
was not slow to follow. Jemappes occurred within a few
weeks." There were loud cheers at this, in the midst of
wbich the War Minister read another circular relative to al-
leged infractions of the Convention of Geneva by the enemy.
A circular addressed toFrench representatives abroad which
announced that if the Prussians continued to treat the
Corps 7rancs as non-combatants, and fire upon them, the
French vill in their turn make reprisals on the Land-
wehr and the *Landsturm, who represent the same
class in Germany. This intimation they had asked the
English Government to make known to the Cabinet of
Berlin. The Senate seemed perfectly satisfied with
the Ministerial explanation, so for once Mes-
sieurs les Ministres came off with flying colours.
The commandants of the National Guard have had an
interview with General Trochu, at which the
condition of the capital in respect of a siege
was spoken of. The General declared there were
four guarantees of the safety of the city in case
of attack. 1. The protection afforded by the entrenched
camps outside the forts occupied by the troops ; 2, the
forts served by the artillery of the Marine and the
Garde Mobile ; 3, the railway employed strategically ; 4,
the enceinte guarded by the Mobiles and the National
Guard. Each National Guard will be on duty on the
ramparts one night in four. If by any chance the enemy
should penetrate these four lines of defence
he would find national barricades in all the
streets and every house turned into a fortress. Paris,
says the General, can defy the whole of Prussia. But,
asks the sceptic, how about the bonnets rouges within the
walls ?