The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-30 00:00:00

GERMAN GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE.

The government of the Departments occupied by the
Germans, but which they have no intention of retaining,
will form a curious chapter in the history of the war. The
interests of the invader are of course paramount, but
these interests being indirectly promoted by the
security of property, the repair of roads, the re-
pression of crime, and other measures conducive to
the welfare of the inhabitants, the German officials
turn their attention to a variety of subjects. Thus
the Prefect of the Meuse, Herr Bethman Hollweg, an
account of whose administration is given by the Cologne
Gazette, inaugurated his regime by regulations designed to
suppress the rinderpest, which appear to have proved
successful. He next found it neeessary to impose a
fine of at least £BO on the destruction of a railway,
and of £l6 on damage to telegraph wires, to be paid by
the locality where the offence was committed. Cases
of this kind have, consequently, been rare. To provide
against a scarcity of provisions in the districts traversed
by the troops, he ordered the mayor to collect considerable
stores, by contract or otherwise, and to sell these, if neces-
sary, to the inhabitants at reasonable prices. He also
directed the re-opening of elementary schools, and invited
the managers of lyceums and colleges to state whether
those institutions likewise could not resume their opera-
tions. A few weeks later he guaranteed the salaries of
elementary teachers, and instructed the mayor to pay
them out of the incoming taxes. To furnish the German
soldiers with what they usually regard as a necessary of
life, he issued an order that they should each be supplied,
either by those on whom they were billited or by the com-
munity, with five cigars or 50 grammes of tobacco, daily.
This order, however, has been almost a dead letter, the
soldiers being too good-natured to insist on its fulfilment.
One of his earliest measures was the re-establishment of
the post-office, which had entirely ceased its functions on
account of the flight of the officials or the requisition of
horses and vehicles. Every place accordingly has a de-
livery and collection of letters and papers at least twice a
week. In connection with this the mayors were directed
to arrange for frequent inspection of the roads and reports
on the necessary repairs, which were carried out at the
expense of the German authorities. The communi-
ties were invited at the end of October to furnish
a statement of the requisitions of provisions,
forage, horses, and carriages imposed on them, and this
was responded to with admirable promptitude and com-
pleteness, it being evidently thought that these lists would
be placed, as it were, to their credit, and would mitigate
their future burdens. Such returns were afterwards to
be made fortnightly. With regard to taxation, the
arrangements are so complete that as soon as Verdun had
capitulated the inhabitants were served with taxing papers,
which had been prepared beforehand at the prefecture at
Bar-le-Duc.

The columns of the Inclependance Belge are still full of
the protests of captive French officers, against an
Imperialist restoration.

The Journal de Liege says that on Sunday night several
\isains of German wounded passed through Lidge on the
way to Germany. They were from the army of General
Makteuffel.

TWO Italian journalists who are serving under Gari-
baldio in their accounts of the fighting near Dijon, state
that the French Mobiles were seized with a panic at the
first shots of the enemy, and Garibaldi vainly attempted to
arrest their flight by dismounting from his carriage and
singing the " Marseillaise."
Correspondence from Lyons informs us that the body
of Commandant Arnaud was interred with great military
and civil pomp, but with a total absence of religious ob
servance. M. Gambetta, accompanied by his secretary
(M. Spuller) walked at the head of the procession. The
prefect, the maire, the members of the municipal council,
and large numbers of the National Guard, as well as
crowds of citizens, attended to testify their respect
for the murdered man, and their horrror at the crime
which had been committed. It is asserted that his widow
has become insane.

The Echo du Luxemburg says :—" Nothing is talked of
in the town but the arrest of twenty-six Frenchmen,
which was made at the railway station by the gendarmerie
of Arlon. These travellers, mostly working men, or at
least, dressed as such, were bearers of passports and
livrets, testifying that they had come from the forges of
Arssur Moselle. Notwithstanding these papers and the
strongest protestations, despite even the threat of actions
for arbitrary detention, the gendarmes thought it neces-

sary to convey these Frenchmen to the cellular prison,
where they are now interned as belligerents who had
violated our territory."
The Constitutionnel is indignant at the attitude assumed
by the Government of National Defence towards the
French press. The journals generally resent the stric-
tures of the Government on the publication of false news,
and argue that if the Ministers did not leave the public
so long without authentic intelligence, false news would
not circulate so readily. The Constitutionne/ remarks that
the Minister of the Interior and of War have not always
been scrupulously accurate in their accounts, but have
sometimes exaggerated them 'and sometimes softened
them down. The Constitutionnel does not question the
sincerity of the Ministers, who were actuated by a laud-
able patriotism, and desire to encourage the people, but
it claims the same indulgence for the mistaken journals.
The Independance Beige states, on the authority of a
Government official, who has just arrived in the south of
France by a balloon, that Paris has provisions enough to
last until the Ist of 'February, and that the city can hold
out easily until the 20th of January, not, it is true, with-
out privation, but by continuing the present system of
rations—that is to say, she can eke out the ordinary
means of subsistence with the help of rats, cats, &c.
From that date until the Ist of February she will have
nothing but bread and wine, but this will be enough for
her to live on. The Independance also states that General
Trochu is determined to hold out in any case, and that he
intends to intrench himself in one of the forts, with the
full approbation of the population of the city.
The German papers mention several incidents shewing
the hostile attitude of the population of the occupied
French provinces. At Colmar, on the 20th, nine Francs-
Tireurs were arrested, whereupon a crowd, chiefly com-
posed of women, collected before the Prefecture and gave
vent to their sympathy for the prisoners, several stones
being thrown at the military, who, however, shewed great
forbearance. At night there was another crowd, which
rendered it necessary for patrols to traverse the town and
disperse the people. At Kehl, on the same day, several
inhabitans were arrested and sent to Strasburg, on
suspicion of intending to join the Francs-Tireurs in the
south.

The conduct of the Prussians with regard to Beaugency
on the Bth appears to have been atrocious. That town
contained nothing but wounded, not a shot had been fired
from it, and the red cross flag was hoisted in conspicuous
places, yet the Prussians deliberately bombarded it from
the south side of the Loire. The losses on both sides were
enormous, and the French wounded suffered fearfully.
We are told by a correspondent of the Times that the
Prussians simply to not attempt to deal with the French
wounded, but leave them to the chance of casual
assistance.

A young lieutenant of eighteen, commanding a com
pany of 100 Franc-tireurs, on the equipping and feeding
of whom he has spent a large sum of money out of his
own pocket, shewed an English newspaper correspondent
the register of his men's deeds. This register is in a
pocket-book, which is posted up with the utmost regu-
larity, and contains the number of Germans killed by the
company every day. It shews that from the 15th
September to the Ist December 600 Germans bad been
killed by these 100 Franc-tireurs, with a loss to themselves
of only five men, killed and ten wounded.
N.. MODEL SHELL.—As we were looking, In
there was belched out a mighty volume of smoke high
from the rampart of Val6rien itself. It attracted atten-
tion only for the moment, and I was explaining the details
of the position to my companion, when suddenly
there grew up high above us a sound which is like
nothing else in the world—the iron pinion of the
Death Angel which is sent from the mouth of the cannon.
Down it swooped, and from the opposite bank of the river,
which flows at our feet, there came an eruption of earth
and fat smoke as the shell blew out a tremendous
crater. It was a decided success—a messenger from
one of the new guns, which had thus made a sweep
to strike a point 8,000 metres away. Do not smile
at the Death Angel, for surely that shell, well landed
in the midst of them, would have sufficed to shake a
battalion. There was a dog in the field where it fell, and
the wild circles it made, barking with fright, round the
spot, were very amusing. In a few seconds a Frenchman
in a blouse came out from among the houses on the river
bank, and went to the gaping hole ; and then another, and
next a Prussian soldier. Again a woman appeared, and
more soldiers ; and a Frenchman got into the crater, in
which he was buried up to the shoulders, and the dog
finally joined him. The group was complete.—Dr. Russell
in the Times.