The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-15 00:00:00

THE SIEGE OF PARIS.

The Standard, arguing from the latest news received
from Paris, says there seems no chance that internal dis-
sension will lead to a shameful surrender of the city.
Paris, of course, may be starved into submission, or taken
by assault ; but, adds the Standard, the pro-
spect of that successful assault, or of that
starvation into submission upon which the Prus-
sians have reckoned, must appear, too, much
smaller in their eyes than it seemed or that they pre-
tended it appeared some days ago. We need not trust to
the French statements to arrive at this conclusion, al-
though there can be little doubt as to their correctness.
The Prussians have never yet reported a repulse. They
may tell the tale of their victories truly, but
they suppress their defeats, although those defeats
have not been few. Who, for instance, has heard by
telegram of the checks the besiegers have sustained at
Bitche and Phalsburg? Who has heard from reports
from the German headquarters of the extent
of the losses sustained by the German armies
in the engagements in which they have been
victorious ? But the Prussians practically admit, as
well by their inaction as their exclamations, the latter
statements made by the French. That suc-
cesses were real and important is all that
we wish to insist upon here, and that they were
is quite clear from the remarkable telegram from the
Prussian head-quarters, which complains that the French,
without any provocation, had shelled and set on fire the
Palace of St. Cloud. The tone of injured innocence
which speaks in this telegram is one of the curiosities
of Prussian polemics ; but we may leave it
out of question now. We are only discussing the facts, and
they are most significant. The besieging armies have been
compelled to recede from the positions they had taken up,
to make the circle wider, and, consequently, weaker.
That the French should have shelled St. Cloud shows
that their artillery is a great deal more powerful than the
Prussians had assumed; and proves that the bombard-
ment of Paris, talked of so glibly by the Germans, is a
work far more difficult than they had assumed, or, rather,
than they had asserted.
Paris, remarks the Daily News, is not only isolated from
information—she is in reality isolated from such help as
the rest of France can give, and must face her destiny
alone. It is impossible not once more to ask, Must
that destiny be starvation and bombardment? Is
there no middle term between victory and ruin
which France might be willing to accept, and
Germany might be content to impose ? The German
commander has himself drawn so terrible a picture of the
result of this struggle on the vast non-combatant popula-
tion of Paris, that it can hardly be possible to justify any
persons in authority in facing, or the victor in inflicting,
such evils. Whatever be the result of the struggle for Paris,
if it continues the people must starve. For miles around
the capital the country is cleared of food. The French
themselves made a zone of desert immediately around the
city, and now the necessities of the German armies are
widening that zone to such an extent that succour can
hardly pass it. If the city falls, or even if the German
forces go back to the Rhine, the population will still be
almost entirely dependent for food on the supplies stored
up within the walls. If the city is taken, even those sup-
plies will have to satisfy the previous claims of the victo-
rious army before the citizens will be allowed to share
them. Whichever way we look, the horizon of the fu-
ture is dark around Paris. Even for the German Armies
themselves the winter prospect is gloomy. The city may
not be easy to reduce, and the besiegers must necessarily
suffer a good many of the evils they inflict. Of the
multitudes who from all sides have looked
down on Paris as it lay before them in the
autumn sunshine, a large per-tentage will never
enter it. Thousands of them will die from
exposure in the open field, or will fall in the trenches, or
will be slain in the assault. Yet with all these terrible
possibilities before the combatants, the siege goes on.
Nearly three millions of people are being involved in a
cataclysm of passion ; how many to be swallowed up by
it, how many to emerge from it, no human foresight can
guess.

Sin W. TlTE.—Last night's Gazette contains a
notification that the Queen has conferred on Sir William
Tite the order of the Bath.

John Brown, a man 56 years of age, met his death
by falling downstairs, at his house at Fulham. His
spine was fractured by the occurrence, and he only lived
a few days.

At the Toxteth Park Guardians meeting, it was
stated that there were 309 cases of out-door fever under
treatment, against 180 last week. There were 161 cases
of relapsing fever in the workhouse.

FIRE AT THE GAIETY RESTAURANT.—A firo
broke out about six o'clock last evening at the restaurant
attached to the Gaiety Theatre in the Strand. Although
it occasioned some alarm, it was confined to the cellars,
in which it was discovered, and the performance in the
theatre took place as usual.
•

AN ABSCONDING POLICE SUPERINTENDENT.—
The Kent County magistrates have issued a warrant for
the apprehension of Mr. George English, Superintendent
of Kent County Constabulary at Ashford, on a charge of
misappropriation of money. Some time since a woman
was apprehended at Ashford for a felony committed at
Rye, in Sussex, and, fearing a conviction, and the con-
sequent forfeiture of a sum of upwards of £2OO she had in
her possession, she placed the money in the hands of Mr.
English to take care of for her. The woman was con-
victed, and after the ,expiration of her sentence, failing
to obtain the return of the money, a solicitor was
instructed in the matter. Upon this Mr. English obtained
leave of absence for a fortnight. He did not, however,
return, and, it having been ascertained that he had
taken passage on board a sailing vessel for Australia,
an officer has been despatched with a warrant to await
his arrival.