The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-26 00:00:00

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CAMPAIGNERS.

For many a long year to come, says the Daily News,
France and Germany will remember the terrible Christ-
mas of 1870. The latest news that reaches us is still of
marching and counter-marching, of the clash of armies,
and of thousands of human beings mown down by rifle
and greoade, and left to stiffen on the wintry fields of
France. The end of the campaign, indeed, is apparently
as far away as ever, and the German and French
soldia.s now in the field may probably haoe
thought that, since they could not enjoy Christmas
with their families, they would extract as much merri-
ment out of it as was possible under the circumstances.
If the soldiers who darken the white plains of France at
this moment are likely to make the best of their bad
fortune, and be glad of such camp celebrations of Christ-
mas as are possible to them, far otherwise must it be with
their families at home. On them falls the true brunt of
the war. With what heart can they sit down to any
rejoicings—with what thankfulness can they hold
that festival which, in Germany especially, has
always had a peculiarly sacred and devotional character
—when at the very moment their sons and brothers may
be lying senseless and dying in some distant wood or
valley? They do not know whether the presents they
have sent will reach a living men or a corpse. To tneir
desolation they add a terribly anxiety. And there are
those to whom this anxiety is no longer possible.
They have found a certain name in those lists pub-
lished from time to time in the newspapers; and now,
in many and many a home, in France and in Germany,
instead of a happy g tthering of friends and relations
crowded round a hospitable board, the family sits corn-
less and alone, and the women are silent and in tears.
The soldier's lot is by far the prefer:.ble of the two.
Either he is killed and has done with it, or else lie
lives to enjoy his double rations, and hopes his
letter of kindly wishgs has reached his folks
at home. Such is the Christmas of 1870.
as it will be long remembered. A gloomier one Europe
has seldom seen ; for, indeed, there is no glimmer of hope
that this suicidal struggle between the foremost nations of
the world will come to a speedy end. If the chances of
the campaign were to place the Germans—by the raising of
the siege of Paris, and by one or two decisive French
victories—in the position which the French hold now, we
might see the war indefinitely protracted, with both
nations in the death grip. We hope that history might
not have to say of yesterday that it was only the first
Christmas wnich the German armies of King William
spent in France.

THE REAL AGGRESSOR IN THE WAR.
The Advertiser, in discussing the reply of the Univer-
sity of Gottingen to the Royal Irish Academy relative to
the preservation of the treasures of art during the war,
says : It is time to sweep away the mendacious paradox
which represents France instead of Prussia as being the
real aggressor in the present war. The object of France was
not conquest ; it was simply to restore the independence of
Europe—defend herself and Europe both from Prussia, as
she defended Italy from Austria, as she and we together
defended the rights and liberties of Europe against Russia,
who never menaced or assailed them more fatally than
Prussia has been doing for years past, now threatening
to destroy them altogether. What France wanted was
to force Prussia back within her former limits, and bind
her over to keep the peace, as we bound Russia ; to re
store to independence and to their rightful owners those
States and parts of States which she had violently seized
and annexed, against the will and choice alike of
Sovereigns and people, in 1866. That accom-
plished, France would have had no need for the acquisi
tion of territory, for it was only the enormous territoria-
and military aggrandisement and expansion of Prussia,
who had elarged herself into all Germany, her armies
amounting to a million and a half, that suggested some
equivalent compensation to her neighbours. The
equilibrium of Europe once restored by Prussia
being reduced to the dimensions within which she
yet proved herself strong enough to crush Austria
at Koniggratz, France would not have required compen-
sation, things would have been restored to their former
status, and the balance of Europe would have been re
dressed and rendered secure. Prussia is not only playing
the tyrant of Western and Central Europe, but she has
let loose Russia to play the tyrant in the East, to de-
nounce and tear up the Paris Treaty of 1856, the fruits of
the Crimean war ; to attack and absorb Turkey ; to block
up our thoroughfare to India, at which she can now
strike from her position in Central Asia, and ultimately,
as she hopes and intends, to conquer India itself. This is
what holy Prussia has done. Is it not time that Europe,
with England at its head, should make a supreme effort
'or safety and independence ?

The case of Messrs. A. and C. Black, Edinburgh,
against Messrs. Alexander Murray and Son, London, for
alleo(Yed piracy of copyright of Sir Walter Scott's " Min-
strelsy of the Scottish -Border," come before the First
Division of the Court of Session, at Edinburgh, on Fri-
day, on a reclaiming note by the defenders against the
judgment of Llrd Jerviswood. The Court afhrmed the
decision of the Lord Ordinary, finding the complainers
entitled to judgment.
The Council of Law Reporting in Ireland seems
not to have found its undertaking successful. We
learn that the staff has been dissolved with the view of
reorganising the arrangements. Members of the bar
Lave been invited to send m their applications for employ-
ment as reporters and editor, the present editor, Mr.
Woodlock, having resigned. The council purposes dis-
continuing for the present reports from Landed Estates,
Probate, Bankruptcy, and Admiralty Courts. They
announce also that they will not guarantee the pay-
ment of any of the salaries, should there be a deficiency
in funds, in which case all salaries are to abate propor-
tionately. •
INDIAN OUTRAGES IN THE RIVER PLATE.—We
have news that the Indians had invaded the settleniont
of Bahia Blanca, to the number of 1,400, and car.ied
off 4,000 cows, 10,000 sheep, and everything portable in
their way. The savages went up to the very walls of
the town, and the victims include, I am sorry to say,
three Englishmen, who died bravely defending their pro-
perty. „There are about sixty English settlers at Bahia,
and their position must now be exceedingly unsatisfac-
tory, and even perilous.—Brcenos Ayres Correspondent of
the Brazit and River Plate Mail.