The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-31 00:00:00

BOMBSHELLS FOR LUTETIA.

" BEFORE all things clear your mind of cant" is
useful advice at all times, and Mr. CARLYLE would
find abundant room to give it now. The way in
which some some of our largely circulated journals
are writing about the war is really almost sicken-
ing. Here are two nations engaged in a death
grapple, out of which one must come victor and the
other vanquished, for in a struggle of this sort there
is no such contingency as a drawn fight, and we,
who are looking on, take upon ourselves the office and
ministration of advisers general. Certain journals,
for instance, which have throughout wished the
Germans every success, are now beginning to say that
the invaders are going too far. Utterly forgetful of
the fact that English troops have sacked cities of
ancient oriental magnificence, that English artillery
have battered down marble palaces in India and
China, the Prussians are now told that they
must not touch Paris. To bombard that
beautiful city would be, says one of our
leaders of public opinion, an outrage upon
civilisation. Similarly for Prussia to annex Alsace
or Lorraine would be -to upset the Balance of Power
in Europe. Can anything be more inane or imbecile
than this language ? Wars are not, any more than
revolutions, made with rose-water. If one great power
chooses upon a mere pretext to send its armies
against another, that one of the .two which is least
able to sustain the conflict will have to suffer; and
all the baby talk in the world will not
prevent such a result. Luck, as some per-
sons will say, an overruling Providence
which still reigns to punish the proud and to over-
throw the spoiler, as we prefer to say, has defeated
the aggressor, and the aggressor must suffer the
consequences. We know now what he would
have demanded, if he had succeeded. NAPOLEON
at Berlin would have taken from Prussia all
that she won in 1866, and something more, that
something being the coal district of the Saar,
which was to be transferred to France.
Moreover, Prussia was to have been reduced
to its limits before Waterloo, and to have
repaid Austria the indemnity which that
country paid four years ago. Above all, the North
German Confederation was to have been broken up,
and the great military power built up at Sadowa was
to have been overturned, so that France might once
more be predominant on the Continent and give the
law to Europe. We do not yet know all that King
WILLIAM will demand at Paris, should he get there.
But we do know that the whole German nation is
determined that it will not be any longer exposed to
a French invasion every half century. What Germany
wants is not fresh territory. She has enough of terri-
tory and to spare, but a frontier that will be less
open to attack. If, therefore, she asks that this line
shall be taken back to the Vosges mountains, it
would be a most natural demand, and neither Eng-
land, Austria, Russia, nor Italy would have the smallest
right to object to such an arrangement. It may be
said that Alsace, which would then change masters,
is thoroughly rench ;to which we reply that it is
certainly more German than Nice and Savoy were
French before 1860. Arrangements of this kind
are not often. resisted by those whom they
concern. It has taken but four years to
make Hanover, Hesse Cassel, and Nassau as Prussian
as Prussia Proper itself. In ten years the Alsatians
would be proud of belonging to the great German
nation, with which they are allied in speech and
descent.

As for Paris, that too must take the fortune of war.
If, by reason of its beauty, it ought to be spared,
then let it throw down its fortifications and
trust to the clemency of the Conqueror. A.
beautiful woman who has faith in her
charms will do wisely not to resort to arms.
If Paris thinks that her great buildings, broad boule-
vards, stately palaces, and works of art, ought to save
her from the horrors of that war for which the
Parisians were shouting six weeks ago, then let her
dismantle her fortresses and throw open her gates.
Of two things, one: either Paris is a city of pleasure,
and, as such, an open town, incapable of defence, or
it is a fortress, and, as such, liable to bombardment.
If the former alternative be correct, then let
General TROCHU and his National Guards take them-
selves off, and let M. CHEVREA U, the Minister of tile
Interior, follow the example of the Mayors of Nancy
and Chalons, and tell the people that it is useless to
think of defending themselves against the enemy
and that they will do wisely to restrain their patriotic
sentiments and their feelings of indignation. The
Parisians have already made their choice. M.
THEERS, for good or evil, made Paris a fortress, and
this fortress intends to resist the invader. While we
English, who have all along been viewing the war from
our insular point of view, have told the Prussians to
.withhold their hands from Paris, because we like it
so much, because it is only ten hours from London,
and gives us the opportunity of enjoying ourselves
easily, Paris has shewn no lack of energy, for it
has comprehended the position. Stores have been
laid in, beggars and vagabonds have been expelled,
troops have been armed, the fortifications
have been mounted. It may happen
even now that not a shot will fall within
the beautiful city, that the decisive battle of this war
will be fought, as other decisive battles of former
wars have been fought, on the plains of Champagne.
But should the worst happen, Prussia has tho most
perfect right to attack Paris, and Paris, unless in-
ternal political dissensions should paralyse the
defenders, will doubtless give a good account of
herself.—Western Morning News.

A MODEL LANDLORD AND TENANTS. The
coming of age of Lord Monteagle has been celebrated by
a dinner given by his lordship to the tenantry on his
estates in county Limerick. Replying to the toast of his
health, Lord Monteagle said he should use his best efforts
to secure the happiness of his tenantry, and to promote
the introduction of improved systems of agriculture.

We read in a medical pnblication that in 1869
40,000 deaths occurred in England from scarlet fever and
its allied disease diphtheria. In the six months of this
year ending June 1a5t,13,900 deaths were returned by the
registrars from the same type of zymotic disease, which,
in round numbers, has carried off 470,000 victims in the
last twenty-two and a half years.

THE ART OF SALAD MAKING.—It is a pity people
in this country neglect to add to their diet by a more liberal
use of harmless salad herbs which are now altogether
wasted. Watercress is very well in its way, but is not
everywhere accessible. It has lately been pointed out
that our sorrel plant is a more delicate and agreeable
variety than the wood sorrel so largely used at table in
France and Germany ; that the common shepherd's purse
and lady's smock may supply the place of the watercress
that the famous " barbe des capucins " of the Paris restau-
rants is nothing more than the blanched shoots of the wild
chicory, and that the " salade de chanoine " is our own
neglected corn salad. Our peasants, however, have yet to
learn the art of making salad, and the wisdom which
selects and dulcifies with oil the bitter qualities of such
herbs as the endive or its proposed humbler substitutes,
the avens, the bladder tampion, and the tender
shoots of the wild hop. This art must descend to them
from a more cultivated class, and in nothing is the Eng-
lish middle-class table more generally deficient than in the
wholesome, varied, and savoury salad, which adds an at-
traction to the simplest fare, and gives something of
freshness, if not of refinement, to the richest as to the
poorest ,table.—Pall Mall Gazette.

MILITARY BLEINDRRS.—MiIitary critics, and
especially those whose tactics are learned by arranging
the salt, the coffee-cup, the eggs and the toast as " strate-
getical points," on the breakfast table, are always severe
on the movements or non-movements of armies in the
field. There is not one of these who could not have done
better than the French Generals. What military com-
m asound
famous Brussels ball, where xnander, successful or unsuccessfuj, is there who never
blundered or never was outwitted ? It is related
thatwhenWellingtonwase
of revelry by night," the Prince of Orange came. at
and
"there ere
supper,v
whispered in his ear. The Prince was dismissed with a
verbal order; the Duke withdrew from the table and
asked for a map. It was furnished him by the Duke of
Richmond. Napoleon has humbugged me !" broke out
Wellington with an oath, "he has gained twenty-four
hours' march on me.",, " What will you do ?" asked the
Duke of Richmond. I have ordered the army to con-
centrate at Quatre Bras, but we shall not stop him there,
and if so I must fight him here, drawing his thumb-nail
over Waterloo. The Duke of Richmond traced the
nail-mark with a pencil, and the map—perhaps still
in existence became a wonderful war relic.
But suppose—and it was then as fair to suppose one event
as the other—suppose Napoleon had not been beaten at
Waterloo ? Then, all the military critics in their teens
would now be able to write theses on Napoleon's wonder-
ful skill and Wellington's shameful dalliance, if not
dancing, playing cards, and eating suppers at Brussels,
while the wonderful conqueror was hemming him in and
cutting off his connections. The present Napoleon's
chances look dark enough, but we shall know who is suc-
cessful, and how far, when the war is over.—Philadelphia
Ledger.