The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-28 00:00:00

FOOD,

The proceedings of the Government with respect to
bread and wine produced something like a panic. An
official note stated that there was bread and wine until
March ; and one day a decree was issued putting into
requisition all stores of flour and wheat. In the Villette
and Belleville quarters the significance of this pre-
cautionary measure soon became exaggerated. Bread
was not only on the point of being rationed,
but rationed at the lowest estimate capable of
sustaining life. " Every baker in the neighbourhood,"
says one account, " saw his shop immediately besieged
by an army of m4nageres, who, so anxious were they to
lay in a stock, in some cases obliged the unfortunate man
to sell even the small loaf he had put aside for the use of
himself and family. Such a state of things could not
exist in one part of the town without soon spreading to
othe others, and by the evening even the very heart of
the city had caught the contagion to such a degree
that by six o'clock there was no bread to be
had anywhere for love or money. On the
following morning an appeal to the public
good sense, signed by all the members of the Govern-
ment, was placarded about. Though it assured the in-
habitants that bread would not be rationed, and that
there was no fear of scarcity, the bakers' shops were
closed at an early hour; but on the morrow ' all seemed
to have been forgotten. It has been since ordained by
our all paternal rulers that in a few days we are to have
nothing,but brown bread, as being better for the health
than white now that it has become the only thing we
have to eat or very nearly so."

The correspondent of the Telegraph says : Yesterday,
attracted by a crowd round a butcher's shop, I looked in
and saw some meat exposed for sale that positively set
one's mouth watering. On inquiry I learned that the meat
in question was all sold for 15f. per lb. It consisted prin-
cipally of a young elephant and two camels which the
enterprising butcher had bought at about £BO each in
the Zoological Gardens, and for which he had found
ready purchasers, A few pieces of dog, that he had also
for sale, he informed me were almost equal to beef, and
preferable to horse ; but as I did not quite like their ap-
pearance, I declined to purchase any at four francs per
Pound. I and others have eaten cat, and find it little
inferior to rabbit ; I have also tasted mouse and rat—but
I must reserve the account of my gastronomic observa-
tions.

ANOTHER EDITION OF "LA LANTERNS."

M. Henri Rochefort has written a preface to a new
edition of La Lanterne which he is about to issue. He
calls the regime of the Empire no reign at all, but "a weary
sitting of drunkards," and declares that he would not pub-
lish the history of such moral and political obscenities,
but the world ought not to suppose that thirty-eight mil-
lions of human beings could have lived for twenty years
with a bandage over their eyes. "In reading my
essay you will see that many of my prophe-
cies have been accomplished. I do not pride
myself on this. For a lower empire there were
only three ways in which it could fall-1. By a military
revolution. 2. By a popular insurrection. 3. By a
foreign invasion. In prophesying all these I could not
fail to be right. With his usual foresight Napoleon chose
the last. It is the most cruel for us, but the best for him.
He alone will not suffer by the siege. This third-rate
actor was without the courage to play to the last his part
of Emperor. He who gave up our country to ruin wrote
the other day to an English officer stupidly complaining
that we had fallen into a complete anarchy. His uncle,
Napoleon. 1., who was little less of a bandit,
than he, at least knew how to veil his effrontery in
phrases like this—" Let my ashes repose by the banks
of the Seine, among the people I have loved BO
well." The nephew is reduced to calumniate the nation
which he had endeavoured to stupify, like those criminals
who, in the dock, shake their fists at their victims, and
shout :—" The wretch, just as I was going to strangle
her, she, was wicked enough to shout for aid." Thus this
pretender who the Mornys, the Persignys, and the I'rop-
longs helped to pasture in the Tuileries, was without
those qualities which his trade rendered necessary. When
these panderers who held him in a leading string loosened
the cord and allowed him to walk alone, he shewed that
he had never ceased to be a—brute."

THE TRAGEDY AT LYONS.

LYONS, Dee. 22.

A painful incident has startled and saddened the
town. The details, so far as they are yet known, are
as follows :—During Monday evening the news of the
defeat at Nuits produced some agitation in Lyons,
and some ruffians of Croix Rousse, who seize every oppor-
tunity of creating a disturbance resolved to make the
most of it. A meeting was held in the Salle
Valentino, the origin of many previous troubles,
when it was determed to have a demonstration
with women in mourning and the red flag, with the object
of clearing out the Hotel de Ville, and installing the
revolutionary commune, who would know how to conduct
thh war, with more energy and more success. The club was
in session All night, but after all there was some difficulty in
getting up the demonstration. Some women were forth-
coming, but no guns. A few excited National Guards
were caught, and induced to join, but there were not suf-
ficient to sweep out the Hotel de Ville. A bat-
talion, at least, was wanted for that purpose. A visit
was paid to the abode of one of the heads of battalions
belonging to the Croix Rousse, and it was demanded
that he should beat la generale. This he refused to do,
and after awhile the conspirators bethought them of
M. Arnaud, commandant of the 12th battalion.
He was induced to cone to Valentino, on the pretext
of being . wanted in connection with the service,
and when there he was ordered to come to Lyons with
his battalion. He refused decidedly. The excited