The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-02 00:00:00

SOCIETY IN FRANCE.

In addition to the misfortunes that have already visited
her, France is threatened with still another, perhaps more
terrible than any that has yet been felt—the disorgani-
sation of society. This is a calamity that seems ever
ready to appear hi a time of war:or of revolution. The
old landmarks are broken up ; the regularity of social
order, to which men trust as confidently as to the per-
manence of the phenomena of Nature, is destroyed ; and
the popular mind, astonished to see things it had
been accustomed to respect vanishing away like
dreams, and, intoxicated at the degree Hof liberty,
or even of licence, allowed to it, rushes into a thousand
excesses. France seems to have reached such a crisis.
There is a cry of terror from many Provinces. The
peasants have passed from the stunned incredulity in
which they first received news of the disasters that had
befallen the army into a more dangerous mood of anger
and suspicion. They are certain there must have been
foul play, or the legions of France could never have been
crushed by the invader. They have been encouraged in this
belief by the wild imputations of treachery that have
been scattered broadcast by men who ought to know
better, and who must know better—the better educated
classes, the speakers and writers of France, those whose
special function is to guide and moderate public opinion.
It cannot be surprising if peasants who have been en-
couraged to suspect everybody above them should direct
their passionate resentment against any and every person
in their own neighbourhood whose ways do not exactly
coincide with their own The Parisians who have insti-
gated them may deprecate—and, no doubt, do de-
precate, very smcerely and earnestly the direction
their f anger assumes, but they •cannot,k,hold them-
selves free from responsibility when they have
fanned to a blaze the temper of an ignorant and excited
people. It is only too easy to understand the agitation
that haespread among the provinces of France. Are
not similar experiences written in histories for our edifi-
cation and warning, though we are apt to take little
benefit from them ? Peasants against nobles, Catholics
against Protestants, Atheists against priests, villagers
against officials, workmen against employers, country
against town, and in towns the faubourgs of the
poor against,;thel.faubourgs,,of.qthe rich. When the
evil days come, the division of class against class makes
its appearance among them. It is too easy to understand
the fact, and in judging the outrages that are committed
we cannot but remember how much there is to palliate
the offence of those who perpetrate them. War, however
humanely carried on, is a ghastly thing. Consider the
form in which it appears to a peasant of Lorraine. An
army of locusts will march across a country and strip it
of every green leaf, ,plant, 'or twig in their passage,
leaving it a gray desolation. Does any one suppose
that an army of men, is more sparing as it overruns a land?
The French marched through Lorraine eastwards, and
their requisitions denuded it of half its stores. What was
taken was commonly paid for at a certain fixed
price ; but it is always forgotten that the value
of an article increases as it becomes more scarce,
and the price that is sufficient for superfluities does
not, even when paid, represent the value of a man's neces-
sary stock. A farmer may sell half his oxen and sheep,
er half his horses, or half his corn, and not complain, but
if all his stock, live and dead, be taken, and his neigh-
bours are stripped as bare as himself, be will be disposed
to curse the barren money which is the poor equivalent of
his wealth. The French went East and returned to the
West, and each time they took what they wanted, and
the second time not so scrupulously as the first. The
Prussians have come after them, and they are, according
to impartial accounts, and even according to the sufferers
themselves, civil and exact, if strict, in their dealings ;
but they come speaking a strange language, and abso-
lutely denuding the land through which they pass.
The Lorrainer is left with money, with paper money, with
cheques, and acknowledgments ; but his house is despoiled,
his stores are empty, his fields are desolate, his cattle
have vanished, he has been unable to gather his harvest,
he has not even the seed for a coming year, and he may
look forward to a winter of misery and starvation. Add
the chance that the strong arms which would have helped
him are gone for ever, and we have a too common picture
of rage and despair. It is true that the same experience
cannot be found in all its details in the South
and West of France, but there has been suffer-
ing enough to inflame the more passionate natures
of Languedoc and Brittany. Their sons have been
taken away. Their stores have been draughted to fur-
nish the commissariat of Paris. Their homes are empty
and bare, with no sense of national triumph to sustain
their courage such as thrills Germany from Silesia to the
Saar. But perhaps the inhabitants of the banlieue of
Paris are the most unfortunate of all. They are com-
pelled to see their houses razed and their fields reduced to
pristine savagery, while they themselves are driven to
share the miseries of a besieged city. Those who
have to deal with men in such a case are bound to
be as careful as if they walked through magazines
of gunpowder. It is human nature torn from all its
moorings and tempest-tossed on a sea of misery we en•
counter. But what have these poor peasants been
taught by their professional teachers ? They 'lwo been
led to believe that the secret of their sufferings lies in
domestic treachery and an organised espionage on the
part of the foreigner. Nothing too gross could be said of
the
denialsenemy.
from Stthoer i ells
posf cruelty
thosehave b
who eae
rn id, ns
aviedn ted , and
to
have
suffered under them have been treated as naught.
, That every foreigner should be regarded as a
traitor in the pay of the enemy is nothing, when
every Frenchman is suspected by some other
Frenchman of pursuing the same calling. Can it be
surprising
such at
a reoncesx, t burstha intone t flame
followed.
am ?
wonder
When
thesuffe wriings,
tten ldaet, prepared as they have been by former
voicesybesl d
h if
of Paris talk of "spies" and "ene-
mies" on every hand, the peasants of the provinces
naturally follow the lead that is shown them, and break
into violence against Priests and Protestants, proprietors
and officials, anybody—the nearest—that can be subjected
to their summary persecution. It is impossible not to
see that the military disasters of the nation threaten to
be more severe than ever, and the material of human
passion must become more inflammable.—Times.

A meeting of volunteer officers is about to be held
in London to consider steps for placing the medical de-
partment of the volunteer force in such a position that,
should that force be ever actually engaged in warfare,
those of its number who might suffer from the casualties
of war should not be left unattended.

V MOSES and SON.
E

CORNER of MLNORIES and ALDGATE.

TEW OXFORD-STREET, CORNER o
HART-STRENT.

CORNER of TOTTENHAM-COURT-ROAD
and EIISTON-ROAD.

BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.

LI MOSES and SON'S PRICE LIST of
E

GENTLEMEN'S CLOTHING.

Frock Dress Oxford Camb.
Coats. Coats. Coats . Coats.
255. 255. 17s. 18s.
30s. 30s. 21s. 225.
355. 355. 265. 28s.
425. 425. 30s. 325.
50s. 50s. 365. 365.
635. 60s. 425. 425.
Also at Also at Also at Also at
other prices. other prices. other prices other prices

S and SON beg to remind the public
cheapness of an article depends entirely on its
y venture to affirm that every article sold by them
cheaper than what can be obtained at any other
ad.

ILI MOSE;
• that the
quality, and the
is '3onsiderably
ho Ise in Eng

E
MOSES and SON'S PRICE LIST of
.

GENTLEMEN'S CLOTHING CONTINUED:

Summer Tourist Summer Dress
Suits. Suits. Trousers. Trousers.
245. 245. 10s. 6d. 15s.
28s. 28s. 12s. 6d. 16s. 6d.
365. 365. 14s. 18s.
40s. 425. 15s. 6d. 21s.
455. 48s. 17s. 6d. 245.
555. 525. 20s. 265.
Also at Also at Also at Also at
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ORDERS by post are attended to with care and
punctuality, and the easy and accurate system of self-
measure introduced by E. MOSES and SON enables them to
guarantee a faultless fit.

E.
MOS:

S and SON'S PRICE Li T of

BOYS' CLOTHING :

Knickerbocker
Suits.

9s. 64

13s. 6d

16s. 6d.

Eton
Suits.

Also at
other prices,

Brighton 1 Harrow
Suits. Suits.

15s. I 18s. I 18s.

325.

30s. I 365.

1 325.

365.

Also at I Also at I Also at
other prices, other prices. other prices.

FMOSES and SON supply every description of
. clothing, ready-made, or made to measure, for all ages,
all occasions, and all classes also Hosiery and Drapery, Hats
and Caps, Boots and Shoes, and complete outfits for all climates.
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The following are the only addresses of E. MOSES and SON

LONDON.
CORNER of MINORIES and ALDGATE.
NEW OXFORD-STREET, CORNER OF HART-STREET.
CORNER of TOTTENHAM-COURT-ROAD and EUSTON-ROAD.

COUNTRY BRANCH
BRADFORD. YORKSHIRE.

VAUDEVILLE THEATRE, STRAND.-
Lessees—Messrs. H. J. Montagne, D. James, and T. Thorne.
THIS EVENING, at 7.30, CHISELLING. Mr. David James.
After which, at 8, the Comedy, in Three Acts, entitled TWO
ROSES, by James Albery. To conclude with the successful
Burlesque, DON CARLOS ; or, The Infante in Arms. Supported
by Messrs. H. Irvin G. Honey, Lin Rayne, W. H. Stephens,
and T.lThorne ; Mesdames Nelly Power, Amy taarsitt, T. Lavin,
and A. Newton.

MA DAME TUSS AU D'S EXHIBITION,
BAKER STREET.

On view Portrait Models of the Emperor Napoleon 111., the
Empress Eugenie, and Prince Imperial ; King William of
Frussia, and Count von Bismarck. Admission, ls.; Children
underlo years of age, 6d. Napoleon Rooms 6d. extra. Open
from 10 sun, till 10 p.m.

PARTRIDGE AND COOPER,
MANUFACTURING STATIONERS,
192, FLEET-STREET (CORNER OF ONANCERY-LANE), LONDON (EX ).
rHE PUBLIC SUPPLIED AT WHOLESALE PRICES,
AND

OARRIAGE PAID to the COUNTRY ON ORDERS OVER 20s
Per ream. s. d.
Fine Cream Laid Note; a cheap paper...
Superfine Cream Laid Note ; much approved
Superfine Thick Cream Laid Note ; especially recommended 5 6
Extra Superfine Double Thick Cream Laid Note . 7 0
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Large Commercial Note Papers Be., 49. 65., and 6 0
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COLOUR STAMPING. (Relief) reduced to ls. per 100. Polished
steel dies sank by the best artists in the trade at about half the
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An ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE, containing full descrip-
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