The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-14 00:00:00

rnE s tJN, LONDON, MONDAI, NOVEMBER 14, IA7O

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE

SHREWSBURY RACES7-Tars DAY.
• • (By ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

ABBEY PLATE.

Visage
Gladness
Bonnie Katie
Seven ran.
HANDICAP PLATE.

Countryman
Roedeer , .
Tull ibardine

Seven ran.

THE IVIONEY MARIiET.

CITY, Two o'CLocx.

The rumours respecting the Vastern question have
caused a great decline in the Stock Markets. A reduction
of has taken place in Consols, which are now 92 to
94.
Foreign Railways are very fiat, More particularly Tur-
kish, which are 14 lower ; Egyptian, ; Italian and French
Scrip, ; and Spanish, to I. Annexed are the parti-
culars :—ltalian, of 1861, 54( to 54i ; Spanish, of 1867,
301 to 31; ditto of 1869, 50i to 51k ; Egyptian. of 1863,
76 t 077 ; Peruvian, 89 to 90i ; and French Scrip, par to
prem.
The Manchester Courier states :—`"lhe suspension of
Messrs. Edward Bigg and Co., of Bombay and Man-
chester, has been announced, with liabilities stated at
£116,000, of which one firm in London appear as creditors
for about 277,000, the remainder being distributed princi-
pally among the Indian banks. The assets are, however,
considerable. At a meeting of the creditors of Messrs.
Morgan and Jackson on Friday afternoon, nothing
definite was done, the meeting having been adjourned.
The liabilities are £8,500, but there is a joint life policy
upon the debtors for £5,000, the premium of which is
guaranteed for six years."
It is understood that the claims of many of the members
of the Stock Exchange against the private estate of the
late Sir Robert Harvey, of the Norwich Crown Bank,
representing a total of nearly £lBO,OOO, will be heard on
the 19th inst. in the Rolls Court, The case excites great
interest, as might naturally be expected from the large
amount involved.

A new undertaking has just been formed, under the
title of the Cape and Natal Steam Navigation Company
(Limited), to establish a line of steamers from London to
the Cape, Algoa Bay, and Port Natal, to sail once a
month, or more frequently, if required. Provisional con-
tracts have been entered into with builders for the con-
struction of the steamers, as well as with the managers
and loading brokers for conducting the business of the
company. As showing the rapid increase in the
commerce of the colony, it is mentioned that the
exports of wool from the Cape in 1868 ' reached
141,916 bales, against only 694 bales in 1834. In ad-
dition to the direct cargo for London, it is intended
to take advantage of the large intercolonial trade
carried on between Natal and the ports in the
Cape Coloriy. The recent discovery of diamonds
in the colony is expected to add considerably to
the usual passenger traffic. Reference is made to
the successful working of the steamers of the
Union Company, between Southampton and the
Cape. The capital of the undertaking, which is re-
spectably constituted, is fixed at £250,000, in 12,500
shares of £2O each. The proposed first issue is £20,000,
in 10,000 shares.
An extraordinary meeting of the Levant Submarine
Telegraph Company (Limited) will be held on the 21st
inst. ; and the ordinary general Meeting of the Madras
Irrigation and Canal Company on the 29th.

THE POLITICAL CONDITION
•OF PARIS.i
Distusshig the political aspect of affairs in Paris; the
correspondent of the Daily News, in a communication of
the 7th of November, remarks :—lf, however, the reac-
tionary party has intimated its disappointment at the
rejection of the armistice, such has not been the case
with the proletarian classes. These have less to lose, but
their sense of national honour is exceedingly quick.
They received the intelligence with an, actual cry
of rage, believing that the armistice meant a dis-
honourable peace. There is no refuting this fact.
Coming immediately upon them with the news of the fate
of Metz, and of the avoidable disaster at Lo Bourget, the
feeling manifested itself by the demands for the Commune,
as a means of controlling the Government, and stimu-
lating it to more vigorous action. I was under the
'impression that the movement of the 31st was
premeditated. I am assured not, by a gentleman
closely connected with the members of the
Government. I told him what I had myself noticed
at the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, but he tells me, that
whatever may have occurred later in the day, the first
movement was a spontaneous one on the part of a portion
of the National Guard, and that the members of the Go-
vernment present in the Hotel de Ville were privy to
the issue of the placards bearing the words,

"No armistice. Vive la. Commune !" It is certain
that the reports of MM. Flourens, Pyat, and
others, published' since the Government accounts
have thrown a very different light upon the transactions
°Utile 31st, though they do not extenuate the attempt of
the leaders of the movement to abolish the Government
after it had agreed to the Commune, and to substitute
themselves. So long as the, National Guard remained
ignorant of this attempt, it" stood firm for the Com-
mune, but turned against it as soon as it acquired
the conviction that a coup d'etat was intended,
and in actual course of execution by the arrest of the
principal members of the Government. Upwards of ten
thousand. National Guards were at one time in the Hotel
de Ville, spread throughout every part of it, and ready to
defend, as well as to assert, the Commune ; and as, I am
assured, only the conciliatory course of M. Flourens and
M. Delescluze, at a very critical juncture, saved the
Hotel from becoming a scene of massacre. It is
now established beyond possibility of disproof, that the
Government, as represented by M. Dorian, M. Etienne
Arago, M. Jules Ferry, General Tamisier, and H. de
Rochefort, entered into a transaction with the leaders of
the revolt, and consented to the establishment of the
Commune, and the municipal elections for the morrow,
and also that both parties quitted the Hotel de
Ville amicably. The facts have since ' come out
and the truth should be told. Under these circumstances
the arrest of the chief participators in the scenes at the
Hotel de Ville is nothing short of a gross, unpardonable
blunder on the part of the Government. M. Doran could
scarcely be persuaded to retain office upon hearing
of these arrests. Nothing will come of them, for
should a trial be attempted, M. Dorian will be
bpough forward as a witness, and will disclose what he
knows to be the facts of the case. I hold this from the

highest authority. Greatly is it to be regretted that the
Government should have adopted such an extreme mea-
sure. It acted wisely in appealing to the popular vote
for a confirmation of its powers, cleverly in submitting
the question as between itself and those who had
sought to usurp its authority. Five hundred and
fifty-seven thousand nine hundred and ninety-six
votes against 62,633—the figures officially recorded, not
including those of a few suburban communes, gave it
an authority and a power it ought not to have abused ;
and the fault is all the greater, because the arrests
wore not made until after this vote of confidence had
been obtained. By it the Government became strong
enough to treat these opponents with contempt.
Persecution will convert them into martyrs, and as no
trial is possible they will be released upon a record of " no
case," and come out not only with no loss of their own
strength, but with an actual gain of all that the Govern-
ment will have lately lost by the failure of its object. M.
_Edmond Adam persists in his resignation as Prefect of
Police arising out of these transactions, and so does
Henri de Itochefort, but it is supposed he will con-
sent still to act as President of the Commission of
Barricades.

A REVIEW OF THE SITUATION IN FRANCE
The Paris correspondent of the Daily News, writing on
the 7th, says :--But to whatever other causes besides
superior numbers, superior tactics, superior artillery—
each in its degree L-the magnificent successes of the Prus-
sians may be attributable, as masters of the situation
their right to impose terms of peace or conditions of
an armistice is incontes table. The only question is
whether it is prudent on their part to take the
fullest ,advantage of their strength, and exact the
hardest conditions they can obtain. Looking at their
position from a military point of view, and taking into
consideration the contingencies of a change in the political
situation, it is unquestionably their policy to push their
advantages to the utmost, and as rapidly as possible, or
they will commit a gross military blunder. On the
other hand, by this course, though they should even
secure a final and a most brilliant triumph, and
should reduce France to abject submission, they would so
alarm the susceptibility of the neutral Pow& rs, especially
of Austria and Russia, that they would involve themselves
in' a political error of equal magnitude. Thus, at this
present moment, their very successes place them upon the
horns of a dilemma, escape from which seems
impossible ; and hence, perhaps, their • apparent
readiness to listen to the suggestions of the
neutral Powers. If, however, Prussia be sincerely desi-
rous of an armistice, with a view to afford France the
opportunity of selecting her permanent form of govern-
ment, and presently of. determining the great question of
peace on such terms as can be obtained, or of war to
the knife, how happens it that she repudiates the only
conditions upon which France can, without dis-
honour, accept this means of ascertaining the sentiments
of her entire population ? The revictualling of Paris for
the whole period of. the armistice is a material point,
because if negotiations were broken off at the end of that
term, the city would find itself so many weeks materially
less able to resist her besiegers—that is, with her stores
of provisions diminished by so many weeks' consumption,
let alone the increased number of consumers which
the assembly of a . Constituente would bring , into
Paris. Count Bismarck's reason for refusing the
revictualling is that the Prussian army is actually itself
in need of all the provisions which it can obtain, and that
were the condition of the revictualling of the city per-
mitted, the food taken into it would be just so much
tarn from the besiegers. With regard to the refusal of
the permission for Alsace and Lorraine to vote with the
rest of the provinces, it is held to be tantamount to an
assumption that they are not only lost to France,
but gained absolutely by Prussia—a position the
Government will not admit, so long as the metropolis
has not been subdued, so long as the nation at large has
not agreed to surrender those valuable parts of her terri-
tory. Prussia may have her own reasons for assuming,
because up to the present moment the French armies have
been vanquished, that France is herself subdued, but such
is not the case. The provinces have not risen to defend
the metropolis, but to defend themselves. To employ
one of M. Garnbetta's latest phrases in one of his most
recent despatches, "the defence is tending to localise
itself." This fact is significant. It is a result of the
system of centralisation which, during so many years,
has left the provinces to the initiative of Paris in all
matters, and now Paris—the head—is cut off from the
body, the latter is for the moment paralysed. This,
however, is a state of things which will right itself. I
believe Paris must not expect help from the outside.
Instead of the provinces coming to the succour of the
metropolis,' it will be the metropolis which will go to tho
help of the provinces. Paris cannot fall without an effort
to save herself. Up to this moment the nation has met
with nothing save reverses. Paris must vindicate the
national honour, must assert herself as the head of the
nation. A successful sortie, one decided advantage, may
change the whole aspect of the war, and bring the pry
vines tollie rescue.

THOROUGH TEST OF DOUBLE PLOUGHS.—The
most important, and thorough trials of Double Ploughs
which have taken place since the Peterborough meeting
came off on Friday last at Alford. Major Grantham,
Spilsby, and Mr. Helmsley, Nottingham, who both acted
as judges at Peterborough, and Mr. Jamas Martin, of
Mainfleet, all eminent agriculturists, were the judges on
this occasion, and, as at the Peterborough trials, the
services of Mr. C. E. Amos, C.E. the Engineer to the
Royal Agricultural Society of England, were engaged to
carry out the dynamometrical experiments. For this
purpose Mr. Amos brought with him the self-recording
instrument belonging to the Royal Society. The princi-
pal competitors were Messrs. Ransomes, Ipswich ;
Howard, Bedford ; Ball, Rothwell ; Cooke, Lincoln ;
one of Fowler's Pirie Plough; and three others. The
land, which was very heavy, was iu a terribly sticky and
wet state, owing to the heavy rains-, and the frost of the
previous night, and afforded a good test of what Double
Ploughs could do on heavy land. Whilst most of the
work was as good as that produced by single plough; a
saving in draught of more than 25 per cent. as compared
with them was clearly shewn. Messrs. Ransomes' plough,
as at Peterborough, shewed a very light draught, regis-
tering on the dynamometer only 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 71bs. ;
Messrs. Howard's 5 cwt. 1 qr. 14 lbs. ; whilst some of the
implements took more than 6 cwt. At the conclusion of
the trials the first prize of £lO for the best general pur-
pose double furrow plough, due regard being had to light •
ness of draught, ease, and economy of management,
strength, and simplicity of construction, was awarded to
Messrs. Ransomes, and-the second prize of £5 to Messrs.
Howard.—Daily News.