The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-08 00:00:00

THE FOOD QUESTION.

It becomes more than ever difficult to form any approx-
imate idea of the state of affairs inside Paris in respect of
the food supplies—the one important question of all.
The reports are most diverse. All the prisoners, on the
one hand, who were taken in the great sorties of last week,
agree in representing that there was plenty of food inside
the city ; and, what is more, they looked extremely well,
and bore no signs of deprivation. The Prussian official
paper says that 200 captives taken to the south of Paris
looked very dispirited ; but they agreed that great stores
of salt meat remained in the forts. The Times correpon-
dent spoke to several of the prisoners. " They
all said Paris is not going to yield. One of
them, a very intelligent fellow, boasted that there
were 350,000 armed men in Paris, that the whole
nation was being mobilised, that the city was
impregnable, and that there were provisions for two
months. 'We shall make sorties,' said he, 'as long as
there is a soldier left."' The experience, of the Daily
News correspondent was of precisely the same import.
Another Daily News correspondent, who writes by
balloon mail from inside the city, gives a most hopeful
account :—" Among the many notabilities of this siege,
there is perhaps none more remarkable than the quality
and abundance of food, considering that there
are full two millions of us eating into our stock now
for more than two months. Salt meat from Government
stores was substituted this last week for the first time for
fresh in the butchers' shops ; then we came back to fresh ;
and so are to alternate as long as the latter holds out.
Bread— the essential—coffee, chocolate, wine, are at old
prices ; sugar a trifle, and salad oil somewhat higher than
this time last year. We can hold nit till New Year's-
day without much hardship ; till mid-January cheer-
fully if an occasional victory over the enemy about us
here or in the provinces, keeps us in heart ; till Feb-
ruary gloriously,if we feel assured of driving him off by that
time." Against this glowingprospect is tobe set a letter from
the Rev. Dr. Smythe, to Mr. Cave, M.P. He observes:—
" All is quiet ; but sadness and bitter &termination mark
the faces and the conversation of the masses. The
general tone of all matters is most grave. All our meat
supply is finished, except the doling out of one-tenth
of a pound of hard, badly-cured beef for each person
daily. Our supply of coals is done. The gas
will be cut off on the 30th inst., there being only sufficient
for the use of balloons. Bread is plentiful—but for how
long ? Our own stores of rice for the poor will be ex-
hausted in a week. We are going to apply to the Govern-
ment to-day, and we hope they will open their stores to
us. We can hold out for a month longer on extract of
meat. The increase of applicants on our committee is
becoming most serious. Persons in the most respectable
positions of life almost daily present themselves, but only
when their children have been days without bread ; ladies
in the last stage of consumption." Probably Paris will
be like Metz ; we shall have no certain information of
the food supply until the end suddenly and unexpectedly
comes.

THE CAMPAIGN ON THE
LOIRE.

MANOEUVRES BEFORE FIGHTING.

A general review of the operations on the Loire, which
have ended so disastrously for the French, may be given
in a few words. D'Aurelles retook Orleans on the 9th, and
drove Der Tann back upon Paris. But the further ad-
vance of the French was prevented by the rapid on-
coming of Prince Frederick Charles, who by the 24th of
*November was in position in front of Orleans, with the
3rd, 9th, and 10th Corps d'Armee in line, extending fr,nn
the main road between Orleans and Paris to the rail-
way from Corbeil, where is the Ober Etappen Commando
of the 3rd Army, to Montargis, and fronting the Army
of the Loire, hidden in the dense forest of Orleans,
in which the French had intrenched themselves after
their occupation of that town. The Grand Duke of
Mecklenburg was at that time moving from Dreux, in the
direction of Le Mans, and had arrived close to Nogent le
Rotrou. On the 25th of November the French army
began to manoeuvre as if to engage the Red Prince's at
tention, His Royal Highness, perceiving their design to
turn his left, was engaged in making a corresponding
movement to meet it, but before he had completed it,
D'Aurelles, massing his regular troops, fell with great
fury on the 10th Corps, which held the left of the Prussian
line and lay in position between the towns of Corbeille
and Beaune la Rolande across the road from Montargis to
Fontainebleau.