The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-27 00:00:00

PUBLIC MEETING AT P OIT I FAS.

A public meeting was held in the theatre at Poitiers,
on Thursday evening, the subjects for discussion being
:
the national defences and the municipal elections. The
Salle was crowded long before the time appointed ; but,
strange to say, no orators were forthcoming, and the
meeting, which opened At eight o'clock, broke up at a

quarter-past nine. The chairman, after having appealed to
the company in vain, desired one of the assistants
to speak. The first orator contented himself with
reading Victor Hugo's address to the French nation; the
second read a letter from one of his friends, a Republican
of some experience. At last an advocate said a few
words respecting the national defences, and mentioned an
interesting fact—the guns which had been given to the
National Guard were those which had won the Battle of
Solferino. As the only other speaker was a very young man
who passed a eulogy on one of the candidates for the
Constituent Assembly, the search for further eloquence
was abandoned. Luckily the meeting produced ono
practical result in a liberal collection for the wounded.

SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, sEPTEIVIBER 27, 1870,

bearer is to proceed to Switzerland. It must first be visjd
by the Mayor of StraAurg, they. countersigned by the
Prussian General 'Werther, and finally approved of by
General Uhrich, the commander of the place. The
latter refuses with the greatest energy to a,uthe-

rise the departure of any one who is of an age
or condition to assist in the defence of the town,
so, that only old men, women, and young children will he
allowed to profit by the Swiss intervention. The
Municipal Council of Strasburg, in adopting the neces-
sary measures for the departure of the fugitives, took the
opportunity at the same time of expressing its gratitude
to the Swiss authorities.

After acknowledging' it misgivings as to whether any
portion of the soil now in French hands should be handed
over, the Gazette says :—" 'We must all the more firm'y
insist, for the welfare of the world, but especially of Ger-
many, on the new frontier not being carried throughout
beyond the limits of language. We have repeatedly,
for more than twenty years, • shewn the entire
inadmissibility of the claim to a strategically
better frontier, and we are the less justified in
such a claim, and have the less need for a strategic fron-
tier, as we are avowedly at present the strongest military
Power in Europe. The doctrine that Metz in French
hands is an outlet for attack, but in our hand,
a security for peace, seems to us utterly incon-
sistent with reason and fairness. Every other
nation has an equal right with ourselves to. put for-
ward claims to a better strategic frontier, and we shout I
thus give the signal for incessant wars. Every
alteration of political boundaries was formerly termed
conquest. The most we can now assert is that the incor-
poration of kindred territory is not to be regarded a
conquest. Every annexation of nationally foreign territory
is surely to be deemed conquest and to be decidedly
rejected. ' Our reasons for a conquest of Metz would
certainly be very strange. We must conquer Metz, fo.
ye Germans are a nation wholly incapable of makin;
conquests." In another part of this article, the Gazett,
hints that the arrest of Dr. Jacobi looks as if
free discussion of the territorial question were pro
hibited ; and proceeds to point out that not,
a few democrats alone, but some of the most
moderate thinkers in 'Germany, are against all
acquisition. "In mercantile and trading circles many
misgivings exist with regard to the measure. How
will it end ? they ask. Alsace has become rich
through protective tariffs, and now supplies more than
half France by its spinning and weaving factories, &c.
The present market will be cut off from it, and if those
monster establishments are not suddenly to collapse,
nothing remains but for them to throw themselves on the
German market. How would German manufacturers
face so sudden and powerful a competition ? "
The East German Gazette is against taking any portion
of French Lorraine. The Hamburg Correspondent is op-
posed to all annexation whatsoever. In another article to-
day the Cologne Gazette follows up its moderate
tone by throwing the blame of the war upon the
French Emperor. The plea that Napoleon was driven
into the war by the pressure of public opinion, will not,
it says, bear the test of examination. The Imperial
Government was making ready for this war long before
anybody in France thought of it. The Hohenzollern
candidature itself was pronounced harmless by the
Paris press before the French Government, in the
most perfidious manner manufactured a pretext for
war out of it, and through the proceedings of the 6th of
July made the preservation of peace almost impossible.
The Luxemburg question, adds the Gazette, sbews how
pacifically disposed the French people are. The ad-
dresses and demonstrations in favour of peace at that time
were even more universal and earnest amongst the French
than with us. It is quite refreshing to find a German
paper speaking at such a time in this fair and moderate
tone.