The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-28 00:00:00

PARIS AND THE NEW YEAR.

The Telegraph, in an article on the coming New Year,
says : If, indeed, a bombardment takes place, what a
Jour de l' An for Paris ! What a change from the gay
annual holiday when all the city was ea fete, giving and
receiving presents and pretty etrennes, the Boulevards and
Champs Elys6es all alive with the stalls of the
humble merchants of plaisirs and two-sous trinkets, and
the shops shining with costly bagatelles ! Death is
to go the rounds this time, shot and shell are to
be the gages d'amour of the next awful New Year's
Day. War, we know, is war. Paris accepted the chal-
lenge to the present contest, and, therefore, she must take
the consequences ; but the heart melts for all the inno-
cent creatures who may be exposed to the feu d'enfer
about to open. The city will, we hope, be
formally summoned first, and all the women and
children who can bring a week's provisions might
be allowed to go forth. To those who remain,
the subterranean spaces of Paris, and the nature
of the streets and buildings, would offer a consi-
derable protection; nor would the loss of life among
these be, we think, necessarily large. The chief attack
is likely to be directed against the forts, and it is said
to be the intention of the Prussian artillerists only to
show their power over the city itself by dropping a
few shells in different localities. They think that
when a score or two of hundred - and - fifty pounders
from Krupp's great cannon have burst in a cafe
here and there, a public square, a wine-shop, an
evening meeting of patriots, and a picquet of National
Guards, Paris will begin to be reasonable. If she should
not, there can be no cessation of the fire ; once com-
menced, the ultima ratio must be pushed to extremity,
until such an hour as Paris surrenders, if she does not
break the iron ring. To meditate on such an alter-
native is to perceiVe with what embittered
i-,sues the mighty conflict is laden. One hope
alone remains. The year which is departing opened
amid general but fallacious peace, and ends in
such a fifth act of blood and passion that the nations of
the world are standing aghast. Eighteen hundred and
seventy-one, we are told, is to open with a fearful chorus
of cannon, mortar, and howitzer, belching fire and ruin
upon the fairest capital of the earth. Let us at least
pray, that, like the old year, the new year may reverse
the character of its commencement, and bring us the
peace so dearly purchased, so fervently desired.

Several head of cattle have been poisoned in
Cornwall lately by eating hemlock, a root which is very
plentiful in some localities in the county. A farmer at
Trannack, near Penzance' lost a valuable cow on Friday ;
it had partaken freely of the plant.—Chamber of Agricul-
ture Journal.
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MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE FROM MACCLES-
FIELD.— Mr. George William Clarke, a gentleman well
known in Macclesfield, has suddenly disappeared fro'n
that town, and no clue seems to have been obtained of his
whereabouts. The Macclesfield Courier says he left
home about three weeks ago, presumably on important
business at Liverpool, and with the intention, as
he subsequently stated, of proceeding to Frwice.
Mr. Clarke held the position of secretary to the pro-
moters of the projected -Macclesfield, Knutsford, and
Warrington Railway ; he was also honorary secretary to
the Macclesfield Chamber of Commerce, honorary s.•,:ce-
tary to the North Cheshire Chamber of Agricult.:re,
honorary secretary to the Macclesfield Useful Knowle.lge
Society and School of Art, and an active, energetic, and
clever promoter of local undertakin,„,,*s generally which gave '.
him an influential position in the town. ,His',uncx-.
plained absence has plunged his family and fr,i6644 W 044,, with/
state of great anxiety, and caused copookevatialoK)eeillautitolthas ; Loul
throughout the town.