The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-23 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPT. 23, 1870.

Idle

THE biter end, seeing apparently that it must
come at last, is nearer we can only hope than the
most sanguine amongst us anticipate. Diplomacy
appears for the time being to be almost paralysed
among the neutrals. The Prussians have seemingly
full swing. Not a voice is raised among surrounding
nations to say, with the authority of any one of the
onlooking " Powers that be" at London, at Vienna,
at St. Petersbur,z, "Hold ! E noug ! Thus far—and
no further !" France having crossed swords sixteen
years ago with Russia, having eleven years ago com-
pelled Austria to lower her standard on the field of
Solferino, having for these last eighteen years,
in fact, for these last two-and-twenty years, that is,
ever Since Louts NAPOLEON became the head of
the Government, the true and staunch ally of Eng-
land, in peace and in war—France, now, at her direst
need, has not a friend to help her. Not one amongst
the sovereign powers of the world feels calle 1 upon,
like CAMILLUS, to throw his sword into the scale,
when the honour and the very existence of a great
nation seem to be momentarily oscillating.

There is one small consolation, small, that is,
comparatively, all the while this terrible tragedy has
been enacting, the recognition of which as an actual
fact has, at any rate, in some degree ten ded
to assuage the anguish caused by the recognition of
the powerlessness of England as a neutral to
prevent the continuance of the fearful carnage that
has been raging, now in Alsace, now in Lorraine,
.now in Champagne, and that is of course the rapid
increase and multiplication of the funds collected
in this country for the relief of the appalling
suffer;ngs of the sick and wounded, of the dying and
the maimed at the actual seat of war. In the further-
ance of that humane enterprise, at least, England
has all this while not been apathetic. If she has
not seen her way to interpose effectually between
the infuriated belligerents, she has striven at any rate
to her uttermost to vindicate her character,
for humanity, by her ready and eager assistance at
the ambulance. Throughout all classes of our com-
munity, the appeal has nowhere been made in vain.
From the QtrEEN, who is the patroness, and the
PRINCE of WALES, who is the preside-it of this sud-
denly improvised association, down to the poorest
cottager and the lowliest artizan, aid, varying from a
thousand pounds sterling to the humblest scraping
together of a few lapence, has poured in week after
week, ever since the war commenced, is pouring in
still with no sign of slackening or abatement;
and, .as fast as it has been pouring in upon the
hands of the treasurers, this timely aid, either in
money or in kind, has been distributing comfort
lavishly and yet discriminatively among the tens of
thousands stricken down upon those terrible battle-
fields, where death and agony have descended alike
upon the defeated Frend'a and the victorious
Germans, in the shape of the most ghastly mutila-
tion and the most terrific massacres. While the tri-
color has been lamentably draggled through the
dust, and the banner of the black eagle,
bullet-riddled and blood.-stained, has been carried
triumphantly through a rapid series of victories, the
white armlet, with its noble badge of the red cross
has at any rate been proudly donned by England, I
eager, at the least to proffer her good services for the

comforting of the sick and wounded among the
Franco;k4ermanlielligefents. If Only
,htrdiplomacy
could havebbeii 6itectiv6l to the
negotiating of a timely pacification !

SEPTEMBER 20th has come and gone. It is a not-
able anniversary. Sixteen years ago on that day
French and English troops fought their first battle
together, and won their first victory, on the banks
of the Alma: Var more memorable was that same
day of the inontli seventy-fight years ago. Sep-
tember 20th, 1792,.,5avv, the " cannonade of Vainly,"
safe Paria unfortihed Paris—saVed seores,of miles
away froth her streets. It was a great deliverance.
Paris seemed then in more evil plight than it seemed
on this 29th, September just past. The last days of
August 1792 had been alinost a diSastrous as those
of 1870. It wag on the 28th of the month that
DUMOURIEZ reviewed the discontented, demoralised,
almost mutinising French troops in that very town
of Sedan which Was; more than three-quarters of a
century later, to Witness the overthrow of the Second
Empire. Then, as now, the vast Teutonic-host was
pressing on through France, led by a Sovereign
Prince, the Duke of BRUNSWICK, carrying
everything before him. If it were ever
lawful for captain to despair of his country,
it was lawful for Dumounaz to despair of France
then. The position was apparently far worse than
the present is. Paris had no enceinte, no girdle of
forts, no place of refuge into which a defeated army
might retreat: The defence against foes Without
beekned hopeletis, and alas there ttre foes within.
There was a perfect panic of suspicion and fear.
The city was believed. to be full of aristocratic
traitors ready to betrak Paris to the invaders. Proba-
bly the suspicion was not unfounded. The itiNG and
the QUEEN were in prison; what wonder if royalists
who believed in the divine right of kings were pre-
pared for any desperate measure that would rescue
the LORD'S anointed out of the hands of the blood-
thirsty sans-culottes who had massacred the faithful
Swiss guard only a few days before? Then, too, it
was believed that BRUNSWICK'S proclamation,
with its threats of "signal vengeance" and
a military ekecution " had be'en prompted by
the friends of theae same aristoOrats. There
is nothing so cruel as fear: and so it came to
to pass that Paris-, which, on the first Sunday in
September, 1870, was en fete in spite of the Onward
march of the enemy, in spite of a defeat and a cap-
itulation unparalleled in history, and was so because
the Empire had been overthrown, arid the Republic
was established—on the first Sunday of September,
1792, witnessed a horrible spectacle, the "Massacres
of September," which, beginning on that day, lasted
for one hundred hours, and saw- the best blood of
France poured out like water.
If Paris has been happily spared that fearful
catastrophe, it has not, on the other hand, witnessed
that great victory which converted danger into safety,
and drove back the enemy far away from the capital.
CARLYLE, in his graphic way, has told how
DUMOURIEZ held council of war at Sedan. It
was but small comfort that they gave
him. "The generals, strangers to DumouniEz,
look blank enough, know not well what to
advise—if it be not retreating, and retreating
until our recruits accumulate ; tiil, perhaps, the
chapter of chances turn up some leaf for us ; or
Paris, at all events, be sacked at the latest day pos-
sible." DUMOURIEZ says .nothing, but ho has not
been passing three sleepless night for nothing. The
map of " the forlorn war district " is before him.
His finger is placed on the spot where France is to be
saved. It is the Forest of Argonne, with few practic-
able passes; only three or five at the utmost. BEUNS-
WICK is taken unawares ; while DANTON is massacring
poor Abbe SICARD and the rest of the thousand and
eighty-nine victims, DUMOURIEZ takes possession of
the passes, and BRUNSWICK finds the road to Paris
barred by a mountain wall of forty miles. Then,
after nearly three weeks' manoeuvring and vain
endeavour to get round the " fortress " which he
could not force, BRUNSWICK finds DUMOURIEZ
opposed to him
.in battle array. " Five la
Pattie" cries the one side ; " Es lebe dos Vaterland"
the other. DUMOURIEZ and his lieutenant,
Alsatian KELLERMANN, are stationed by the
windmill of Valury. There they receive
unmoved, assault after assault. The brief
equinoctial twilight falls before BRUNSWICK
ceases his attack. But at last he is compelled to
draw off the forces battered by the army of Sanscu-
lottes, who were to have fled " like poultry." Thus
Paris was saved. Thus it has not been saved this
year. If it is to be saved at all, it must be Ly the
eloquence of a lawyer. rather than by another
"many-counselled" soldier.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

AN UNSTABLE GOVERNMENT.

Between August 1792, when Louis XVI. was

tbrmally deposed, and September 18702. when the
Decheance of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was loudly
demanded in the Chamber of Deputies, the French
people have tried a good many forms of Government
without, it would seem, being fully satisfied with any.
The Republic was established with _the fall of him
who was thenceforward contemptuously knowii as
Capet, and the National Ccnvention was established
in the following September. Three years later
it was dissolved and replaced by the Directory.
The Directory, hewever, did not have a very
long life, and gave place in December 1799 to
the Consulate of Napoleon. Every one knows the
successive steps by which the first Consul of 1799
became the Emperor of 1804, to be succeeded in 1814
by Louis XVIII. as king. Thit, monarchy was very
short lived, and the " hundred days" of
.the Empire
followed, but after Waterloo Napoleon abdicated
the second time in favour of the young King of
Rome, whom Imperialists still reckon as Napoleon
11. However, the real ruler of France was the re-
stoked Bourbon Kim., who did what no other ruler
of France has done since Louis XV, and died on the
throne. Charles X, who succeeded him, was forced
to abdicate in 1830, and Louis Philippe, who
changed the old title of King of France into King of
the French, was compelled in 1848 to fly from Paris.
Then came another Republic, of which Louis
Napoleon was elected President, which, in 1852,
became another Empire under Napoleon 111.,
Emperor of the French. A correspondent of the
Court Journal, in remarking on th's series of
Governments, reminds us tbat Auber, the celebrated
composer, has witnessed all these changes. Born
under Louis XVI., he has successively saluted the
first Republic, the fir t Empire, the Monarchy of
Louis XVIII., of Oharle X., and of Louis Philippe,
the Republic of 1848, the second Empire, and lastly,
the third Republic. We may add that, as he is
still living in Paris, it is possible he may outlive a
few more changes of dynasty.

THE EXPORTATION OF ARMS.

Mr. Goodman, the chairman of the Birmingham
Small Arms Company, writes to the Times respect-
ing the exaggerated statements as to the ex-
portation of arms to France, which he says
have obtained currency during the last few
days. It has been stated that 400,000
are in course of construction in London
Birmingham and Sheffield, whereas Sheffield has no
means for producing a single rifle. The facts, ➢lr.
Goodman declares, are as follows : The breechloaders
in the hands of English manufacturers at the out-
break . of the war did not exceed 20,000, of which
44,000 were in the hands of two manufacturing
firms, one of them Mr. Goodman's own. These have

RE - LOiNDON, FR DA Y, SEPTEM •
BER . 23;
.1876.

been sold to English buyers, and he has no doubt
that they hate found their way to France. It is
probable, tlakt Of: the 0,000 to o,opo, remaining on hand
in Birmingham and London vlieii tllee sks were
effected some 2,000 have since
_been shipped, but not
it appears exclusively for France, as on the 14th inst.
2,520 rifles were shipped by the Middlesex to
Rotterdam. Besides these rifles there were in
London 11,000 Chassepots, made in Birmingham,
which we're sent td France on the 18th of July, As
for orflersl, their extent hag been limited on account
of the rigorctis ddnditioris exaitd by both
sides. The seller has required thdi Bank
of England notes shall be in his • hands
before the giins leave his premises, while the
buyer has stipulated that every gtin shall be
packed for starting twenty-four hours after the
contract is made. There is no supply of Martinis,
needle guns, or Remingtons in England, available
for military service, and neither of the tro small
arms companies of Birmingham and London has any
order from the French Government. Such is Mr.
Goodman's Version of the present state of affairs.