The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-01 00:00:00

Lodgers not to pay the rent for the ensuing month.

The despatch of bread and biscuit from Paris to the
army of Marshal MacMahon has ceased. The capital
now only sends men, munitions, and projectiles.
Four million kilogrammes of gunpowder have been dis-
tributed in the exterior forts and the fortifications of
Paris. Each of the former is furnished with sufficient to
fire 800 rounds with each piece. Projectiles have also be-
gun to be delivered.

The StaatB Anzeiger says that General Werder has
asked Colonel Ducasse, commandant of Strasbourg, not
to use the cathedral spire as a look-out station, as other-
wise he might be obliged to destroy it. The request was
refused. A Strasbourg correspondent of the Berlin Post
expresses a fear that the spire must be sacrificed, out of
consideration for the besieging troops.

The Thedtre Moniteur of Berlin announces the death
of Madame Pauline Lucca's husband, Herr von Randen,
who fell at the head of his regiment in one of the recent
engagements. On receiving the sad intelligence of his
being dangerously wounded, Madame Pauline Lucca left
Berlin for the purpose of joining her husband, but he ex-
pired before she reached the quarters where he lay.
The Carlsruhe Zeitung learns from Lutzelburg
that the statement of Count Palikao, who affirmed that
the Germans lost 1,300 men before Phalsburg, is false.
The Wurtemburg troops lost two men in the first brisk
attack. and since then they have suffered no further loss
except a few slight wounds. The garrison is estimated at
from 2,000 to 3,000 men.

A French paper says that oxen are arriving in Paris by
hundreds, and sheep by thousands. As all this cattle
must be herded somewhere, it is seriously in contempla-
tion to shut them into the squares and parks„ those
charming gardens arranged with so much care. • The
Garden of Acclimatization has already received a rumi-
nating population. The park of Monceaux and the square
of the Temple are spoken of as sheepfolds.

There were critical moments during the fight before
Metz on Sunday, August 14. One, about seven o'clock,
when in the left centre, where the Ist and 2nd divisions
united, nearly all the officers were struck down. The
Division General von Bentheim seized the moment.
He saw one of his men in the heat of the fight coolly
smoking a cigar. It impressed the General. Hurrying
up to the soldier, he called out " Give me a light," ignited
a cigar, and gathering up his shaken battalions, cigar in
mouth and sword in hand, he again led forward his deci-
mated forces.

The deliberate and unscrupulous falsifications of the
French officials, from the highest down to the lowest, has
brought much needless 'nisei.) and ruin upon the peasantry
of Alsace and Lorraine. The stories they have pro-
mulgated of the robbery and oppression practised
by the Prussians have maddened and excited the
peasants to acts of fanatic cruelty and violence to-
wards the wounded and stragglers acts which
the chiefs of the army are compelled to sternly repress.
Hardly a day now passes without reports appearing in the
German papers of the shooting and hanging of these mis:
guided people. As the troops move on, their way lies
through abandoned villages from which every living thing
has disappeaxed. As a natural consequence, the houses

are broken open and plundered, as frequently by camp
followers and starving local marauders as by disorderly
soldiers.— Times.

MACMAHON'S POSITION.

It would seem that MacMahon, after reaching Stenay,
and taking up a position along the Meuse, between Dun
and Mouzon (it was along that line that skirmishing was
reported by Belgian telegrams on Sunday), found himself
in front of large Prussian forces, which hopelessly barred
the way towards Metz against him, and the re-
sistance cf which he was not in a condition to over-
come. Having thus failed in his main object, which
was to release Bazaine's army, pent up in Metz, Mac-
Mahon began to meditate a retreat, and not improbably
sent some of his troops towards Vouzieis, with instruc-
tions to proceed to Bethel, while, for his own part, he
betook himself to Sedan, possibly with a view to reassem-
ble his army between that fortress and the other more
important strongholds of Mezieres. From Sedan, as well
as from Rethel, there is railway communication with
Mezieres, and with its suburb across the Meuse,
Charleville. From Mezieres-Charleville there is a
northern line going by Hirson and Vervins to Laon, Sois-
sons, and Paris. It could never have entered MacMahon's
plan to allow himself to 'be driven to these fortresses on
the Belgian frontier if he could by any possibility have
avoided it. J3ut his scheme for releasing Bazaine and
the Army of the Rhine from Metz has been found imprac-
ticable, and has had to be abandoned. Nothing
remained for MacMalion, therefore, but to make
his way back if he could, and it was only along
the Ardennes line by Sedan and Mezieres that
the feat was at all practicable. The Prussians were
pressing upon him on all sides. They were in force
at Suippe and along the banks of the river of that
name. They came up to Vouziers in close_ pursuit
of the French, after burning, as we are told, the
little village of Falaise, in its immediate vicinity.
They were also in force between the Marne and the
Vesle, advancing towards Rheims a place which
they could either occupy or avoid. Meanwhile, if
it be true, as it is stated, that the King was still
pursuing his march upon Paris *along the Marne, he
must evidently have maintained his communication
with his troops as they moved northwards on the Suippe,
at Juniville, and Rheims. French telegrams, simply
intended to bewilder the expectant Parisians, represent
MacMahon as " having forty-eight hours' start of the
Crown Prince, as operating against the armies of
Prince Frederick Charles and Steinmetz, and still
hoping to join Bazaine and strike a decisive
blow before the Crown Prince comes up." But
people in Paris wilfully blind themselves to the fact that
when MacMahon was at Stenay or Montmedy, he was
' still sixty miles from Metz, and consequently from
Bazaine and his army, and that by falling back upon
Sedan he has gone at least 30 miles further away from his
goal. If by outstripping the Crown Prince and the other
Prussian armies MacMahon can withdraw his forces
from Sedan to Mezieres, and hence to Laon and Spissons,
he will have reason to think himself fortunate. Should
the Marshal, however, ultimately extricate himself
from the position in which his over-sanguine hope
of liberating Bazaine has placed him, he will only find
himself at Soissons in the same position he could have
occupied ten days before, had he fallen back upon that
place when he found it impossible to hold his ground
at Chalons or Rheims. As it is, whatever may be
thought about the 180,000 men he is said to have with
him, and about their being " well rested and supplied,"
there is no doubt that these marches and counter-
marched, partly through an exhausted country, must have
severely tested the endurance of his troops, and not im-
probably reduced their numbers. But it is by no means
settled yet whether MacMahon will succeed in giving
his Prussian pursuers the slip. They have a decided
advantage over the French on the march, and a single
railway line can afford little help to so large a force as
MacMahon has under his orders.—Times.