The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-06 00:00:00

THE Sig6'E" OF PARIS.

The great mischief, or, I might add, danger, of our
position in Paris is that, however stout may be the defence
offered by the French capital, it is impossible to give
any silencing answer to those pestilent querists who will
persist in asking you, " Granted a heroic defence,
what next ?" The provisions stored in Paris will
last, some say for one, some tor two, some for three
months. My own private impression is, that before three
weeks have flown we shall not lack very distinct intima-
tions from Belleville, Aubervilliers, and La Batignolles,
that famine is upon us. Be it not forgotten that labour
tad its concomitant wages are dead in this metropolis.
rho peer are poorer than ever, for those
who live by hanest toll can find no work to do, and
e who, like Autolycus, pick up the...thousand
a reconsidered trifles or perform the numberless
)1d jobs of a great capital, are at their wits' end.
Chill penury and coercive hunger loom up daily
before us like a grim Frankenstein, with which
neither the Gardes Mobiles, nor the Gardes Na-
tionaux, nor the Provisional Government, nor General
Trochu can successfully cope. Even if Paris hold stoutly
out, after the fashion of 'foul and Strasburg, what hope
has she of being able to resist M. Bismarck's terms when
aunger lays her at the conqueror's feet ? As for la province,
"la province se " the rest of France is
rising like one man." This has been the cry of Paris
ever since that fatal 6th of August which witnessed
the defeats of Forbach and Woerth, but I must fairly
confess that I have no longer the slightest faith in its
truth, or even in its probability. The id htl army
of Lyons is now said to have dwindled to two or
three regifnents ; and an American friend, who has re-
cently returned from the headquarters of the Crown Prince
of Saxony, assures me that another large German army
has entered, or is about to enter, France, in order to
look after the putative forces which our southern
cities may throw into the field. You will probably
be better informed in England than we are as to what is
taking place in Touraine, and if the army of the Loire
has any other existence than that which is accorded to it
by the imaginative brain of Parisian journalists. But
inasmuch as there are two Frenchmen here v. ho
have come from Toulouse, and who have entered
into a mighty contract with the Provisional Government
to supply the South with guns, I shall not be suspected of
half-heartedness towards Fiance if I deny the probability
of any army being formed and organised to the south of
the Loire which is in the least likely to exercise any
influence upon the siege of Paris. I can come to
no other conclusion than that Paris will have to fight the
battle out for and by herself. If. as I fully expect, the
Prussians are satisfied to close every avenue leading into
or out of the doomed city, what matters it whether we
are three weeks or three months in learning that we have
no choice, but, sooner or later, to accept Count Bismarck's
terms ?—Special Paris Correspondent of the Telegraph.

THE _FOREIGN SECRETARY. hart Uranville
returned from Walmer Castle yesterday afternoon ; and
afterwards received his Excellency the Duke of Saldanha,
the new Portuguese Minister, at the Foreign Office.
THE BISHOPRIC OF WELLINGTON.—The bishop-
ric of Wellington, New Zealand, vacant by the resignation
of the Right Rev. Dr. C. J. Abraham, has been conferred
upon the Venerable Archdeacon Hadfield.
SERIOUS ILLNESS OF MR. REBOW, M.P.—Yes-
terday the senior member for Colchester was reported to
be dangerously ill, a relapse of a former complaint being
supplemented by an attack of diptheria. His physician,
Dr. Williams, had remained with him all night, and Dr.
Garrad, who had been telegraphed for, arrived from Lon-
don. Mr. Rebow, who is 71 years of age, has contested
the borough four times—once unsuccessfully. His only
son is an officer in the Life Guards-
CRYSTAL PALACE.—One shilling day, Wednesday,
sth, 1870.—Admission by season tickets, 2,026 ; do. on
payment, 2,824. Total visitors, 4,850. -

BREAKING THE PAROLE.—The other day we
drew attention, in a statement communicated from the
head-quarters of King William, to a breach of faith
charged against General Ducrot, who, having given his
word to surrender at Pont-h-Mousson in order to be in-
terned in Germany, broke his parole and escaped
to Paris, where he has fought against the German
troops. It would seem that this case of -breach of faith
—against which, the German semi-officials state, the sen-
tence of shooting has been pronounced—is not the only in-
stance of easy interpretation of parole on the part of
French officers. We believe that not a few who surren-
reridered at Sedan, or on other occasions during the earlier
disasters of the campaign, and were released on con-
dition that they should not serve against Ger-
many during the present war, have returned to
France—have exchanged into regiments now sta-
tioned in Algeria—and so liberated for service
against Germany other officers, to whom they
have now transferred the conditions of their parole.
The annoyance and distrust which this conduct has
occasioned at the Prussian head-quarters are, it would
seem, likely to infuse into the relations between the two
belligerents a new element of suspicion and bitterness,
which honourable men on both sides must cruelly regret.
—Telegraph.