The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-29 00:00:00

THE WAR.

ANOTHER SKIRMISH ON THE FRONTIER.
The following Prussian official despatch has been re-
ceived at Berlin :—" On the morning of the 27th a
detachment of the enemy, consisting of three companies
and eighty horsemen, advanced from the direction
bath towards Volkingen, and attacked orthe 69th
infantry Regiment. The enemy we 7- driven back with a
loss of one officer and eight r4t-.3u. On our side one man
was wounded. Otherydst nothing of interest has occurred
in the course of the day along the frontier."

ENGLAND AND PRUSSIA.
The North German Gazette of Thursday evening con-
tains an article in which it speaks to the "
welt-
founded dissatisfaction of the German people with
regard to the character ti England's neutrality,
and the manner in which it is observed." It
says :—" Englishmen are executing orders for cartridges
which are to be used to shoot down our country's children.
But it may be objected, what is to become of England's
commerce ? Well, her trade would certainly cease if we
were to let France take Belgium. . . . During the
Crimean war England reproached us for pursuing a legiti--
mate commerce, but what shall we call a traffic by which
England is turned into an arsenal close on the French
frontier for the use of France, and the British Govern-
ment does nothing-Ito stop it? "

THE StORET TREATY.

The Berlin Official G.azette contains the following :
" On Lord Granville and Mr. Gladstone declaring in
the British Parliament that they relied upon explanations
being given by the two Governments concerned in the
projected treaty recently published, the Chancellor of the
Confederation telegraphed the following to Count Berns-
torff, the North German Ambassador in London pro-
mising at the same time a complete documentary
exposition of the matter :
" ' To Count Bernstorff,
' Your Excellency will be good enough to communi-
cate the following to Lord Granville :—The document
published by the Times contains one of the proposals
which have been made to us since the Danish war by
official and unofficial French agents with the object of
establishing an alliance between Prussia and France for
their mutual aggrandisement. I will send the text of an
offer made in 1866, according to which France proposed
to aid Prussia with 300,000 men against Austria, and to
permit Prussia's aggrandisement by six or eight millions
of subjects in return for the cession to France of the dis-
trict between the Rhine and the Moselle. The im,
possibility of agreeing to this course was clear to
all except French diplomatists. On this proposition
being rejected, the French Government began to calcu-
late upon our defeat. France has not ceased to
tempt ua with offers to be carried out at the cost of Ger-
many and Belgium. In the interests of peace I kept
them secret. After the Luxemburg affair the proposals
dealing with Belgium and South Germany were renewed.
M. Benedetti's manuscript belongs to this period. It is
not likely that M. Benedetti acted without the Emperor's
sanction. Finally, the conviction that no extension of
territory was attainable in conjunction with us must have
matured the resolve to obtain it by fighting us. I have
even grounds for believing that had not this project
been made public, after our armaments on both sides
were complete, France would have proposed to us
jointly to carry out M. Benedetti's programme against
unarmed Europe, and to conclude peace at Belgium's
cost.
" If the French Cabinet now repudiates aims for our
participation in which it has uninterruptedly laboured
since 1864, either by demands or promises, this is easily
to be explained by the present political situation. "
The North German Gazette, alluding to the late revela-
tions in reference to the draft treaty between France and
Prussia, says that other revelations are behind, M. de
Benedetti's draft not being the only document of the
same nature. Negociations of a similar character
were commenced here by Prince Napoleon, according to
which, among other matters, mention was made of those
Swiss cantons in which the French language prevails, and
unmistakeable hints were thrown out that in Piedmont
it was impossible to distinguish where French ended and
4 Italian commenced.