The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-06 00:00:00

THE FRENCH RESISTANCE.

German letters agree in representing that the resistance
offered' on the Loire is very different, indeed, from any-
thing previously experienced in France. The utmost
vigilance and caution are, therefore, necessary, and
severe reprisals have frequently to be resorted to. Dr.
Horne writes to the Cologne Gazette :—" The further the
Second Army advances the more difficulties it meets with.
Hitherto, we had to contend with soldiers, but now begins
the war with the people. Surprises of single orderlies,
small detachments, provision waggons, and field posts
are the order of the day. Every tree, it may be said, is
now inhabited, not by a charming dryad, but by a blue-
bloused Franc-tirenr, who stands behind and fires the
treacherous bullet at every Prussian. The Franc-tireurs
have ceased to be a distinct class ; every peasant, every
artisan, is a Franc-tireur.' After referring to the dzffi-
culty thus attending military operations, the dangers to
which the communication between the three separately
marching corps is exposed, and the destruction of the roads,
the writer mentions that Villeneuve had been subjected to
a contribution of £1,600, and Joigny to one of .28,000,
for having offered resistance, and that four Francs-Tirenrs
at Villecien were captured and shot. In a suburb of
Nemours several houses were burnt on account of 47
Uhlans having been surprised at night, and several killed
or captured, through the inhabitants having given infor-
mation of their presence to Francs-Tireurs. Another cor-
respondent, who describes the-Grand Duke of Mecklen-
burg's movements as resembling a corkscrew, owing to the
uncertain tactics of the enemy, says Our soldiers will
give no quarter, and their exasperation knows hardly
any forbearance when they see the peasants in the battle
or marching in troops in their blue smocks, with the lace
of the Mobile Guard on their trousers. They know that
they are the men who daily shoot down their comrades
from an ambush, and, therefore, make short work with
them. The blindness which makes the peasantry grasp
the musket is inconceivable. Their resistance is useless,
as they already feel and confess, yet their fanaticism is
always extreme."

The Amiens Municipal Council was ordered to supply a
contribution of £160,000. The bishop endeavoured to
procure a reductio'n of this amount.
It. is stated that, in anticipation of the fall of Paris,
speculators are taking measures to collect largo stocks of
provisions and colonial wares at Havre and other places.
The German troops behave very well at Amiens.
Where they are billeted they offer to assist the owners of
the houses in all kinds of work. They are the most
willing of " aids."
Thousands of Germans are now making a pilgrimage to
Strasburg, which has become to them what Mecca is to
Mussulman devotees ; but while proud of having recon-
quered their ancient city, they are said to be by no means
enamoured of their reception there.
A Manchester Guardian telegram from Havre says :
It is stated here on good authority that the Delegation at
Tours have ordered nearly 300 rifled cannon in America,
and that the whole are to be delivered before the end of
the present month.
General Voigt Retz, Commander of the 10th Army
Corps, states that at Beaune-la-Rolando he had 11,000
men against 31,000 Frenchmen, who attacked his flank to
prevent his effecting a junction with the German main
body.
A Berlin letter in the Allgemeine Zeitung says :—" The
order has been given to raise the Landwehr battalions,
provisionally 800 men strong, to a strength of 1,000 men
by further levies, and to despatch them to the seat of war.
By this decree the army at present in the field will receive
a reinforcement of more than 150,000 men.
The Berlin National Zeitung relates that a few days
the French officers detained in Belgium were invited to
assemble at M. Zachard's, the French Envoy at Brussels,
where they met M. Richard, the Feer.ch Army Inspec-
tor, who, in the name of his Government, asked them
to break their parole, fly to France, and re-enter the
army. Officers were wanted, and they would be imme-
diately promoted.

The fighting at Amiens was serious. In killed,
wounded, and prisoners, the French total will not be far
from s,ooo—over 1,000 of their wounded have been found,
including many of the 43rd Regiment, and the 20th
Chasseurs ; " the latter especially made a beautiful fight."
The Prussian losses, it is whispered in well-informed
quarters, is accepted as 7G officers, and about 1,700 men
killed and wounded.
The Loire army has a great advantage in the matter of
railways. Tours is at the junction of five lines of rails,
exclusive of the one to Bordeaux. The five lead to Angers,

Le Mans, Vendtime and Chateaudun, Orleans, Vierzoll
Bourges, and Nevers. There is a prodigious amount Of
rolling stock upon these lines, which is of immense ser-
vice in the movement of troops.

The other day Fort Valtrien fired for two hours on ei
Prussian battery, after which it sent out spies to ascertain
the damage that had been done. The spy returned with
a cannon under his arm made in pasteboard, and he found
similar ones strewn along the ground.
M. Gambetta has written to General Ca,mbriels
respecting the Council of War which the General as"
fur to explain his conduct and put a stop to the attach'
made upon him. M. Gambetta, declines to do so, awl
considers the telegrams he has sent to the General are
sufficient replies to the charges made against him. I‘-f'
Gambetta adds that if he were to call the Council toge'
ther it would be making himself a party to the charge:
against the General, and finally he 'states that he himself
is quite satisfied with the course pursued by General COO-
briels, in spite of the retreat in the Vosges.

The German field post never goes out now without
lan in front and another in rear of the van. Two of
these poor orderlies have been shot in the service between
this place and the point at which the mail is put on the
railway. A regiment of Uhlans could not secure the con-
voy against shots fired by Francs-tireurs. The latter CO
effectually conceal themselves in the thick woods which
the mail must pass through between this place and Daily
martin. It would be necessary to clear miles of forests to
effectually deprive them of shelter. -

The Monitenr publishes the following official notice,
which, it says, has been sent by the Prussian militarY
authority to the mayors of the Department of the Eure
—" In order to prevent useless homicides, the General 01
Division has ordered me to say, and I ask you to publish►
to all the inhabitants of your country, that no civilian
discovered with arms will be treated as a soldier, bet
as a murderer, and punished with death. The
lade shall be burnt in which the inhabitants commit
hostile deeds. —DE ROSENBERG, Chief of the Regiment of
Lancers." -

A v French paper says that the Prussians entered
Montargis a few days since, to the number of 20,000 men
and 48 pieces of cannon. It was after the fight at Laton
that the town was evacuated. In this fight 1,500 Mobiles►
supported by artillery, dispersed 4,000 Hanoverians. The
engagement took place in M. Grenet's park. He is the
chief engineer of the bridges, &c., attached to the public
works. The Prussians, after considerable losses, retired
upon Pithiviers, taking with them the sub-prefect 'Oil
two of the principal inhabitants of the town as hostages.
At Arthenay a battalion of the 39th, a company of scouts►
and a squadron of lancers, held a position behind the rail-
way and killed a hundred Prussians without losing one
man.

The Patrie relates the circumstances under which ie
number of peasants resident in the neighbourhood of Paris
recently effected their escape from their German cow.
querors. A requisition having been made for labourers to
work at the construction of some intrenchments and re-
doubts in the plain of Chatellan, the country people were
called upon to assist in the task of completing works
which were destined to bombard the Forts Vanvres, IssY'
and Montrouge. The men thus employed were for sole
custody lodged at night in a church, but resenting their
involuntary employment against their countrymen, they
determined to escape, and accordingly, by a preconcertea
arrangement, they burst open the door of the church,
killed the sentries, and fled to the woods, whence they
singly made their way to the French outposts.
The son of General D'Aurelle de Paladine is among the
French prisoners interned at Konigsberg. By means of a
Berlin house having relations with the German firm of
Falck, at Marseilles, the young man has hitherto received
a monthly allowance of 300 francs. In recognition of
this favour General Aurelles had directed that Ire°
Falck might remain at Marseilles without molestation•
A few days ago, however, a letter from Geneva was re-
ceived from the latter stating that in spite of the General e
protection he had been expelled, and must therefore beg
his Berlin correspondent to suspend the payments to the
prisoner.
The Journal de l'Orne complains bitterly of the want ef
generalship and military science displayed by the French-
Mans is a highly important town as being the point of
division of several great railways, and it will no doubt he
strongly defended ; but where is the security that it 'will
not, from want of the spirit of direction, allow itself to
be surprised? The Prussians, they say, make war with
surprising skilL Surprises are part of their regular pro-
gramme, and they are nearly always successful. On the
other hand, the French scouts are very deficient. The
peasants, frightened by the thunder of the cannon,
and the flames of the incendiary fires, are
either paralysed 'or give their information to the
enemy.. In the last invasion of France it was very dif-
ferent. The peasantry braved everything to assist the
national forces, but to-day Bismarck's gold produces nunr
berless treacheries, which are expiated before French
court-martials. At Illiers very recently a peasant ink"
cated to the Prussians the position occupied by the
French. He was detected and shot.

FRENCH REFUGEES.—The Allgemeine Zeitulzg
gives an account of the French refugees in Brussels
whose number it estimates at 37,00. They think thew."
selves under an obligation to the Belgians, and make 0
complaint of the high prices which prevail. The Bel-
gians are too discreet to burden them with their syinP3-
thies, but a melancholy smile comes over the countenances
of the ladies and girls, dressed in black, if they hear 1
sympathetic remark on their conutry. A German word
at the table d'hote or on the promenade, on the other
hand, gives them a shock. Most of these families hare
relatives among the killed, captured, or missing, but they
never utter a complaint or sigh for them, carrying the na"
sence of sentimentality to apparent stoicism. The writer
sees the emigrants shudder when the Gaulois is offered to
them in the street, and the Belgians think such a scanda-
lous print insufferable, while its writers and patrons har6
to slink through the streets with downcast gaze. The
French women cool their burning forehead and eyes 011
the marble floor of the cathedral praying for good news
from Amiens, Paris, and the Loire, the anguish of sus'
pease teaching them really to pray, and they no longer
take into their hands a Gaulois or Figaro.
GERMAN OEGANISATION.—The Daily News cor-
respondent at the Head-quarters of the Crown Prince a
Saxony relates the following amusing incident have
borne tribute to its [German organisation] merits, but
the most whimsical tribute I have yet heard we'9
exacted from a Briton, who is with the head"
quarters of Prince George of Saxony. I have the
story from the gentleman himself. He had been
dining with Prince George, and was on his wir
to his quarters along the causeway. On his roar,
he came upon a provision waggon, one of whose wheel";
had broken, and the concern was in the mud. Not for lowq
though ; presently the waggoner produced another wilee!
in a matter-of-fact •way which seemed to convey that
he had an unlimited quantity of extra wheels on hand.
The new wheel was put on, and the waggeil
rolled. Our countryman, comparatively a new comer,
had heard much of the Prussian organisation. Here,
to his hand, as if he had ordered the rehearsal, was?
specimen. Far away from a wheelwright, a waggon Oa'
denly breaks a wheel at midnight ; so thorough is the or-
ganisation, that a new wheel is on and the vehicle under
way again in less than ten minutes. Our countryman fev
lowed Captain Cnttle's counsel by making a note of this
illustration, intending, no doubt, after the manner
of a Briton, to write about it to his newspaper. Before,
going into his house, he happened to look into a she'
which hd been allocated as the dwelling house of a gig, ill;
which he had a few days before invested. The wheels of
his gig was gone. It was the wheel of his "ig that he he
seen stuck on to the proviant waggon. He went to bed,
trying, as he might, to digest this last phase of his illur
tration of the " German organisation."
Mr. Johnston, M.P., has (according to the
Northern Whig) been deposed from the grand mastership
of the County Grand Lodge of Belfast for his Liberi

leanings.
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