The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-07 00:00:00

ENGLISH MEMBERS ON THE WAR.

It is curious to study the out-of-town speeches, as the
Times has wisely rechristened what it used to call " extra-
Parliamentary utterances," on the subject of the war, and
see whether any classification of the sympathies in rela-
tion to the general politics of the speakers is possible.
Sir Charles Adderley (dry official Conservative) is
decidedly German; Mr. Cawley, M.P. (Pro-
testant Conservative member for Salford) is de-
cidedly German, and regrets the blind folly of
the French. The Hon. Wilbraham Egerton
(aristocratic Conservative Member for Mid-Cheshire)
pities the Emperor, "who was not only beaten by the
enemy, but neglected by his people." "He (the Emperor)
had known the secret of making France happy, and had
encouraged her commerce and agriculture in every way.''
Mr. Cunliffe- Brooks (M.P. for East Cheshire, Conser-
vative and Protectionist) thinks the fault of the war pretty
equally divided. Mr. Bais (Liberal M.P. for Derby), who
has been speaking chiefly on the Army question) is known
by a'previous speech to have taken a French turn since
Sedan ; Mr. Osborne Morgan (Liberal M.P., for Den-
bighshire), who was completely German at first, thinks
Germany "is now fighting for territory and France for
existence, and he must be an Unfeeling man who did not.
sympathise with a people under such circumstances." Mr.
Kay-Shuttleworth (Liberal M.P. for Hastings) is calmly
impartial or too cautious to indicate a leaning; Mr. H. C.
Lopes (Conservative M.P. for Launceston) does not think
the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany would
secure a permanent peace ; Lord H. Thynne (Conserva-
tive M.P. for South Wilts) thinks the policy of Prussia
for the last fifteen years has been one not of conciliation,
but aggression, and though the war was " partly" brought
about by France, he does not wish to see France utterly'
humbled and subdued; Mr. Beaumont (Liberal M.P. for
South-West Riding) is partly French, and does not think
the .Emperor entirely responsible for the war, while Mr.
George Glyn (Liberal Whip, and M.P. for Shaftesbury),
is very nearly as Prusssian as " W. R. G.," wishes to
have a few shells thrown into Paris as a sort of lesson,
and hopes Prussia will take full securities. He thinks
Prussia has knocked France down and `
,` licked her,"—
Mr. Glyn is still schoolboYish in his oratory—and has a
sort of loathing against licking her any more. It will be
seen, we think, by this resume of the drift of the speeches
of the week, that there is no' kind of relation to Liberal
or Conservative politics in the sympathies of honourable
members. The sentiment which leads some men to side
with adversity and others with success, the scorn which
some feel for weakness, the aversion which others feel
towards imperiousness, the principle which makes a few
dislike conquest, are all or any of them sufficient to turn
the balance of sympathy, but ordinary Liberal or Conser-
vative principles are at fault in the matter. We may add
:that a great deal more attention is devoted by these
members out of town to our own Army question than to
the rights or wrongs of the war.—Spectator.

It is noticed that all the French sorties of importance
have been made on Fridays.
In the last fortnight six villages near Orleans, whose
inhabitants made common cause with Francs-tireurs, were
burned.

General Boyer, who surrendered Chartres to the Ger-
mans, has been arrested at Toulouse by order of the
Provisional Government and sent on to Tours.

'TIE CAPITULATION OF METZ.

MORE PROOF AGAINST BAZAINE.

All doubt respecting the conduct of Bazaine during the
siege of Metz must now be considered as settled. Colonel
Valcourt, an officer of the staff attached to the Metz
army has drawn up a report upon the capitulation, which
he has presented to the French War Ministry. In the
following portion of this document the most serious charges
are formulated against the French Marshal. " The
reactionary conduct of Marshal Bazaine induced him to
send a great number of agents through the camps and
among the soldiers, telling them of the honour-
able capitulations throughout France, and espe-
cially that of Tours. On the 18th General
Boyer having returned from Versailles, announced
officially to the council of the marshals that not only
Orleans, but also Tours, Chatelherault, Bourges, St.
Etienne, Rouen, Havre, and Lille, were in the hands of
the Prussians— that no vestige of a Government existed
any longer in France—that in all the important cities
most frightful disturbances existed en permanency, and that
among other places, Lille and Rouen, plundered by the
Socialists, had called in garrisons of Prussians. In a word
it was necessary for the safety of France that the
Emperor or Empress Regent should conclude peace with
King William, and that the army of the Rhine should
thereafter move towards the interior of the country to
*re-establish order and reinstate everywhere the Imperial
regime. All the time General Coffiniere knew, by a letter
he had received, of the existence of the Government of the
National Defence.

" On the 28th October, an order of the day was read to
the officers, announcing that the treaty of peace had been
concluded between France and Prussia by the Empress
Regent, who was about to re-establish herself, and would
come to rejoin the army with her son. That then the army
would move towards the rebel cities, subdue them, and
proceed to settle affairs under the direction of Bazaine.

" There was not since the 18th of August a serious sor-
tie, and those that were made were intended only to ex-
cuse Bazaine to his country and to history. In the second
place he would not make a supreme effort; which would
have thoroughly disorganised his army, and would not have
left him supreme arbiter of the destinies of France. In the
third place, as soon as he was convinced that he could
not bring France and Prussia to entertain the idea of the.
restoration of the Bonapartes, he hastened the moment of
surrender as early as the commencement of October.
"In the army itself a committee had, from the 12th of
October, a certainty that the capitulation was about to be
signed by Bazaine. Marshal Canrobert was very frank
about the matter to the officers of his staff, telling them
to prepare to make a stay of some weeks in Germany ;
after which (added he) we shall return to our old position
under the Bonaparte dynasty.

" The Committee of Defence then tried to find some
devoted citizens who would accept the role of delegates
from the Government of National Defence. These
citizens prepared warrants of arrests against Bazaine,
Lebceuf, and Frossard, naming General Ladmirault com-
mander-in-chief. Many officers, both of the Staff and
Engineers, formed a strategic plan which would
reunite in a few hours around Metz the Tegiments
opposed to all thought of capitulation. The
officers replied that they had 20,000 resolute men,
and it was a question of action sooner or later against the
act of capitulation. This plan, having excited great en-
thusiasm in the army, gained adherents little by little;
but a groat many felt the foolishness of these efforts, and
deplored the inexpressible demoralisation with which the
whole army appeared to be possessed, from the generals
to the soldiers. The absolute inaction in which Bazaine
had left the greater port of his troops since the engagements
of August 31st and September Ist had brought into the
camps untold vagabondage prostitutes promenading
with impunity among the bivouacs on the arms of
officers."