The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-10 00:00:00

THE FAILURE OF THE ARMISTICE.

The peace negotiations at Versailles, the Standard re-
marks, from which the organs of the English Govern•
ment promised so much, and from which, as we insisted
from the first, so little could be hoped, turn out to
have been nothing more than a farce, in which Count
Bismarck made M. Thiers his butt. The Chancellor
of the North German Confederation seems to have
considered it consistent with his position and
his power to make sport of the Government of Paris
and its representative, and to mock the sufferings
of some two millions of people. He professed an anxiety
to deliberate with the Government of Paris as to the
terms of peace, and to spare that slaughter of hundreds
of thousands about which he had written so coolly,
not to say complacently, to the diplomatic representatives
of the North German Confederation. But when,
after more than one conversation, in which he had pro-
fessed somewhat exuberantly his own moderate views,
the French representative came to business, and asked
what would be the conditions of the armistice he was so
ready to concede, in order to facilitate the convocation
of a Constituent Assembly, and to enable France to
choose her own Government, it appeared that he
would only concede what he could not obtain by
a persistence in war; that he would agree to no armistice
which should not practically assure the definitive triumph
of Germany. Well, from the German point of view such
a determination is defensible enough, and might be
deemed by neutrals to have its warrant. But to talk,
with such .a policy decided upon, of modera-
tion, to engage M. Thiers and the Government
of the National Defence in negotiations which
he intended should come to nothing unless they should
surrender at discretion, and their very entrance upon
which was calculated to injure, and for the moment did
injure them, was no doubt clever, but was also mean and
dishonourable. To offer an armistice of twenty-five days
to consume the stores of provisions still left in Paris,
whilst the Germans brought up supplies, was really to
mock the Government of Paris and France.

THE LIVERPOOL EDUCATION BOARD. The
election of fifteen members of the Education Board will
take place at Liverpool on the 25th. A meeting of the
Churchmen and Dissenters favourable to religious educa-
tion is being arranged for Saturday with a view of
avoiding as far as possible a contest in opposing the
members of the board.

THE CENSUS IN PHILADELPHIA.—An American
correspondent writes :—"
The census of Philadelphia is
completed, and the population is announced at 657,179, an
increase of 94,650 in the last ten years. This result is a
great disappointment to the people of the city, who con-
fidently expected a population of 800,000 at least, and,
like the New Yorkers, whose population did not come
up to their hopes, charge the census-takers with negli-
gence."

A VETERAN.—George Oxley, an in-pensioner of' the
Royal Hospital at Chelsea, was buried at Brompton
Cemetery on Tuesday. He served in the St. Helena
Artillery, and had charge of a signal station on that island
(hiring the time the Emperor Napoleon I. was confined
there, and his duties were to signal to the authorities when-
ever the Emperor left or returned to his residence. Oxley
was about 77 years of age.