The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-21 00:00:00

WAR A OUTRANCE.

'rim .Siicle, which has lost none of its bellicose spirit,
publishes an article from Louis Blanc, which it terms a'
magnificent reply to the partisans of a Constituent Assembly
and of peace at any price. Louis Blanc asks to what
limit Prussia would not have pushed her exactions and her
insolence in face of a Constituent Assembly if France, a
nation of 38 millions had seemed to lose hope at an invasion
of 800,000 or 000,000 men; if with half a million of armed
citizens, who were nothing unless in Paris, she appeared
to recognise that she was hopelessly vanquished, and
that hereto France was indeed dead. It would have
been necessary either for the assembly to reject dishon-
ourable conditions of peace, in which case matters would
have been where they were before the armistice, or else
it must have resigned itself to submitting to the law of the
conqueror. What would have been the result?
Peace would have been concluded, but it would
not have been founded, for France, however enervated
by twenty years of Imperialism, would never
have consented to her own abasement, and the idea of a
revenge would be the constant preoccupation of her
people. Such a peace, endured as a means of escaping
from her troubles by a last effort, would be nothing morn
than a feverish halt in the war. From the humiliation of
to-day would spring the storms of to-morrow. M.
Louis Blanc goes on to praise the Republic, which he de-
clares it is the interest of all to preserve untouched as the
form of Government which, in the words of M. Tillers,
causes the least division, and which is the natural and ne-
cessary Government for a country threatened with death.
But if an assembly had been convoked to treat of peace
before France had recovered herself, and Paris was free,
the supporters of a dynasty would have argued that
monarchical Prussia must regard a Republic with horror,
and thus the desire for peace would have been one
of the forces of the enemies of the Republic.
Peace must be conquered by the arms of France
and not accepted from a conqueror. "We havo
two courses before us," says the article, in conclusion,
" either to succumb with honour, or to conquer. To
treat with an enemy who occupies our territory, and who
dares to speak to us as master, is what we ought not to
do, what we cannot do."

FRENCH AND GERMAN SIEGE ARTILLERY.
A military correspondent of the Times, in a letter from
Etampes, on December 14, says :—" The civilization of
this age is not likely to receive the terrible shook which a
bombardment of Paris would give to it. The guns
mounted on the forts are quite equal in power to any that
the besiegers could bring opposite to them. If the German
batteries were to bombard the city it could only be
after having reduced all the forts within easy
range ; otherwise, the batteries firing against the
city would be exposed to bombardment in their
turn from permanent forts with bomb-proof cover
at a comparatively short range. To reduce one
fort might be an easy task, if the fort stood alone ; but
each member ,of the encircling guardians of Paris sup-
ports, and is in its turn supported by others, so that were
one to fall no large force could march through the gap
thus made without being exposed to the concentrated fire
of many heavy guns, such guns as have never been used
in war until now, if we except the isolated rounds fired
from the Affondatore during the battle of
Lissa. The forts are armed with heavy ship guns, breech-
loading all of them, made of cast iron, and strengthened
by steel hoops round those portions of the piece most
exposed to the shock of the explosion. The guns are
rather untrustworthy in strength, but under present cir-
cumstances there is time enough available to take any
precautions that may be thought advisable. So far as is
known, the gun of highest calibre now in Paris has a bore
measuring more than ten and a half inches across its diame-
ter. The projectile weighs little short of 5001b5., but a
comparatively large charge cannot be used on account
of the danger of bursting, unless the Ems-
, elan plan of burying the piece in the earth
be tried, as men say it has been lately. The nearest
approach to Versailles from the French side has been
made by a gunboat, which has come close up to the bridge
tat Shvres. The distance as the crow or the shot flies is,
according to Stanford's map, less than five miles—about
8,500 yards. English artillerists have not, with some ex-
ceptions, aimed at building guns for extraordinary ranges;
yet 8,500 yards, the distance between the French gunboat
and the Royal Quarters at Versailles, has been
more than attained over and over again by
English guns, and, I believe, lately by French
guns from the forte. Given a form of gun
capable of standing a large charge of powder, and a
long rifled barrel, with a long projectile, there is no range,
certainly up to 10,000 yards, which may not be attained.
Either Sir W. Armstrong or, Sir J. Whitworth, would,
without doubt, pledge. thous reputation to design and
fashion such a gun, and if the French cannot do so the
failure must not be ascribed to any intrinsic impossi-
bility. Descending from these supreme efforts of artil-
lery science, the second French gun has a calibre of
about nine and a half inches, and a projectile weighing
rather more than 300 lb. lam not sure whether any of
the 10i-inch pieces are mounted round Paris ; but there
(An be no doubt that the projectiles, more than three feet
long, which have been fired lately, must be from a piece
of that calibre at least. Next comes a 7i-inch gun, with
projectiles up to 178 lb. weight, and then a number
pieces from about 6i-inch calibre downwards." As to the
Prussian guns, the correspondent, without naming the
pieces actually present before Paris, gives some particulars
from Captain llajendie's pamphlet.