The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-23 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN ITiiußsDAy.

On November 13, 1851, the price of Paris Rentes was
kndwn the same morning on the London Stock Exchange,
and guns were fired at Dover by communications from
Calais. Ever since that date; the date on which the
submarine telegraph was opened, not es day has passed
until this present week, without direct eoMmunication
between the two capitals. In this morning's papers
there is nob a single telegram of yesterday
from Paris. So far as the rest of the world is concerned,
that great city is as though it had been • swept
off the fade of the etirth, or swallowed up in some tre-
mendoUs catastrophe of nature. Suoh an event would
have seemed impOssible three months agd. The man who
on June 22 pfedieted that on the same day of Septem-
ber, English newspapera ilould haVe appeared without
a word of yesterday's news froth Pitisi would have been
counted insane. He would have been thotight all the
madder if he had prophesied that on the same day
which saw Paris almost wiped ' out of our journals
they would have contained ail announcement of
the entry of the Italian troops nto Rome; and the
surrender of the Pope. •" What, Italy seize upon
Rome and France have nc;thiiit; to say to it ! Could any-
thing be more extravagantly insane D' Nevertheless, all
this hashappenekand the strangest thing abodt it is that
the news which we have received has almost ceased to
produce any excitement by reaion of the news which we

have not received. Three months ago the events in Italy
would have been set forth in the biggest of capitals. Now
letters of moderate size are thought large enough to
announce it. An event so tremendous as the downfall
of the temporal power has almost lost its interest by
reason of those still more tremendous events which have
preceded it, and which may follow it.
To-day, however, the expectation is that these events
will not follow. We are now hopeful of peace. Evert the
fresh bloodshed which this morning's papers announce—
the defeat of General Vitioy—is hailed as an incident that
will tend to hasten the end of the wars There are urgent
reasons why it should end. Not only is the
bombardment of Paris an event which the World
would deplore, which even the besiegers would
lament ; but there is even a more cogent cause for termi-
nating hostilities. It is no secret that the political con-
dition of Paris excites great alarm. The Reds have shewn

themselves in force. Most of them are armed. It would

be a terrible thing if the parallel between September,
1870, and September, 1792, so close in these respects were
to be rendered still more close by another "September
massacre." It would be most lamentable if the history of
the Second Republic were to be repeated in that of the
Third, and June 1848 were to be acted over again in Sep-
tember or October 1870.
Did your readers note the strange appropriateness of
last Sunday's first Lessons to the great events on the Con-
tinent? They could scarcely have failed to do so. Mar-
vellous was the coincidence between the position of Jeru-
ralem as described in Jeremiah v. and that of Paris now.
Still more marvellous the parallel in Jeremiah xxii. be-
tween Shallum and Napoleon, between the captive king
taken away to a foreign land and Napoleon a prisoner in
Germany ; or again, between the latter and Coniah " cast
out, he and his seed cast into a land which they know

not."
The course which events have taken in France sorely
puzzles extreme politicians in this country. The high
Tory Standard, which was frantically French so long as
Napoleon was on the throne, inspired therein by Lord
Malmesbury, finds itself now greatly divided between its
philo-Gallicanism and its anti-Republicanism. It detests
Jules Favre and all his associates, but cannot give vent
to its hatred lest it should seem to be favouring the
still more detested King William and Count Bismarck.
On the other hand English Radicals of the Odger stamp
find themselves so enamoured of the new Republic that
they are forgetting all about the origin of the war, and
are now assuming that France is its innocent victim
instead of its guilty originator. Happy they who can
keep their minds clear of party politics, and read the
lesson of this great conflict without the aid of spectacles
" blue " or " red."
It is to the credit of Englishmen that they will not allow
themselves to be partizans in their aid to the victims of the
war. Yesterday a strange sight might have been seen in busy
London. The spacious churchyard of St. Martin's-in-the
Fields, Trafalgar-square,. was filled with bales, and boxes,
and casks, which were being corded, packed, and labelled
by a little army of porters. All the goods were marked
with a red cross, and on reading the addresses I noticed
that some were in the ordinary Italian handwriting which
we English use, some in the Gothic characters which Ger-
mans adopt. The goods were bound to various destinations
some to Belgium, some to France, some to Germany,
Bouillon, Pont-h-Mousson, Coblentz, as the case might
be ; but all were intended for the same holy object—all,
whether bandages, disinfecting powder, or clothing, were
destined for the relief of both the nations who have been
made the victims of this most unholy war. I rejoiced to
see these packages. It cannot he denied that during the
last week or two suspicion has been growing up that the
money contributions are likely to be overdone, and to share
the disastrous fate which has befallen that most
grievously mad-administered charity, the Royal Patriotic
Fund. Tre idea has got about that it is intended to es-
tablish a permanent fund for future wars, to be devoured
in the interval by an army of clerks and secretaries, and
" honorary " commissioners with handsome salaries, and
all bent upon the object of not expending upon proper
claimants the funds entrusted to them. It is to be hoped
that Colonel Loyd-Lindsay will be able to dissipate this
idea. At the same time he should declare if the money
now so liberally subscribed be not applicable to the
relief of starvation as well as of wounds and sickness.
The sums so freely spent on costly daily advertiiements in
several London papers would go a long way to supply the
needs of the unfortunate peasants of Eastern and Northern
France, who have lost everything.
Among the ladies who have so nobly gone in person to
the relief of the sick and the wounded in the war is Miss
Kingsley, daughter of the canon and novelist. She
received a proper training in the Chester Infirmary, and
is now gone to the' hospital at Bingen, on the Rhine,
where a large number of sufferers are housed.

When King George of Hanover was dethroned by King
William of Prussia he started an " organ " in Paris in
order to represent his interests and aid him in regaining
his Crown. Jt was soon found that the journal was very
costly and very ineffectual. It put countless crowns into
the pockets of editor, publisher, and the rest of the staff,
but it did absolutely nothing towards putting a crown
upon the head of King George. Consequently, the
journal in question was speedily discontinued. Someone,
I know not who, though I daresay M. Pietri knows, has
started a journal in London, in order to support the
Bunapartes. I have a copy of it before me. It is called
La Situation. *lt is a small. paper of four,pages, each con-
taining four columns, is well printed in large type, ands
the price is announced as " un penny." La Situation

centains some tolerably smart writing, and among othe
things puts the following question, referring to a subject
that appears to have altogether escaped public attentiohe
n.
\vim; has become of General Changarnier ? When t
EepUbligau General joined Napoleon at Metz the
Left
thought that .61.7
fortunes, which ,'',ad befallen the French aria.
had found a panacea for all the rals-
Since Grarelntie and ti edan we have heard nothing
patriot.
of this distinguished &oldie.
have done very
rat
Wherever he is he does not seem t 4;
o hope for betternt
for Frande, What reason is there 1,,
--yatriot. Where is
things from his friends of the Provisional G°verroneist
than we have had from himself, asks the little Nac° ..eer
journal ? Perhaps La Situation will have a longer 4t
than its Hanoverian inspired contemporarY%
all events there must be vastly more Frenchraen
London to read it than there ever were Germans in rari9
since 1815. London streets swarm with the Gauls, er''.
ster-
pecially Regent-street and the parts about Lei°
sqUare. As for the London cabbies, they are ra04111,5
fortunes out of the purses of the prosperous, but tim/01,",
Paris bourgeois who have fled hither, and who, have 116:.
yet learnt the mysteries of that wonderful coinage, whiel
they Must imagine was devised for the expr ss purP°se°
fleecing unhappy foreigners:
I grieve to say that Lady Herbert of Lea is volt
seriously ill, and her condition causes great anxiety
was on this account deemed necessary to keep from her,
the news of the foundering of the Captain with her secellu
son on board. The Illtletrated London News of SaturclaY
will have portraits of Captaid P 'irgoyne and Captain
ColeS, and also an engraving of their ill-fated ship.
Lovers of nittsio will be glad to hen that the dang,hte`
of Jenny Lind, though still too young to appear in Public'
has already given proof that she inherits her mother 5
talent. Indeed, a well-known musician, Mr. Lam'
gives it as his opinion after hearing' Miss Goldscluili'v
that the daughter's voice surpasses the mother's.
While beautiful Paris is preparing to blow itself up in the
event of its being captured, ugly London is stenagY im
proving and decorating itself. Within the last fe'
weeks asphalt has been laid down in several of the prilY
cipal streets with the result of giving us a noiseless*
cleanly, and firm treading road instead of the deafen'
ing, filthy, and slippery stones that we 113°°_,
had to endure. The experiment was first trio
in Threadneedle-street, and with such success
that it has been adopted in Holborn and other ixuportallt
thoroughfares. Another great improvement will shortly
be revealed to Londoners. Wayfarer); along the Thames
,
embankment have noticed a wooden paling on the Orb.'
side, which was evidently only a temporary structure.
Behind it there has, within the last few days, been laid
out a miniature park with grassplots and gravel
This will soon be thrown open, and make still mere en.
joyable one of the noblest promenades in the world.
Spending a few hours at Malvern, where, by the WV
I was nearly devoured by midges, who covered one
like the coal dust that one collects in a rail;
way journey on a dry day through the midi'''.
counties I found a considerable gathering of ecclesl3s:
tical dignitaries. The Bishop of London and his fatt4ll
were climbing the hills like ordinary persons. A 13°4
church was opened near Malvern on Tuesday, and tile'
Bishops of Worcester and Exeter were the preachers'.
Travelling on to Worcester I found the place redolent a
hops. Hops were here, there, and everywhere, and ever'
the town hall was crammed with them. The repairs of the
cathedral are approaching completion. The new windows
are a vast improvement. At Salisbury I found, a few (1391
before, a forest of scaffolding, and the work of restoration
very little Wore than begun. The restoration of the
choir is to be a memorial to the late Bishop, Pr.

Hamilton.
Never do I remember literature so dull as it is now. IC°
new books are coming out. There are plenty written,'
but the publishers say that it is useless to publish the M'
I think they- are right, for I hear on all hands ever):
one saying that for the last two months they have rev
uothing but the newspapers. The result is that Purel/
literary papers, like the Athenceum, have shrunk wonder:
fully, and their advertising pages are reduced to the loos'
minimum since the Russian war.

Cffu t trtglar,