The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17,

THE EARL OF . DERBY AT MANCHESTER..
(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAM.)
The Earl of Derby presided last night at a large dinner
in the Town Hall, Manchester, given to promote the inte-
rests of the Royal ,Albert Asylum at Lancaster. Several
of the local members of Parliament were present. After
the dinner his lordship rose and said : The first
toast I have to propose is one which always
takes precedence on these occasions. I mean " The Health
of her Majesty the Queen." For thirty-three years her Ma-
jesty•has reigned over a prosperous, a loyal, and a united
people. I was going to say over a contented people, but it
did occur to me that there is a certain amount and measure
of discontent,which rather belongs to the English character,
which chews itself in an amount of healthy grumbling,
and which is, perhaps, the inevitable accompaniment of
social and political progress, because if everybody was
contented with things as they are we should never have
any changes. (Hear, hear.) During that time her Majesty
has discharged in a manner to place her beyond the reach
of censure or of criticism the duties of a constitutional
Sovereign. Now those duties may seem very easy to
discharge, but somehow or other they never have been
satisfactorily and successfully performed in any time
but ours, and very seldom in any country but this.
(Cheers.) It may be that our successors will have
stormier times to encounter than ours have been, and
that they will look back with feelings of envy
and of regret upon ,the comparative calm which
this generation has enjoyed ; but whatever the future may
have in store for us, this at least no one can deny, that
during her Majesty's reign vast legislative changes have
been, accomplished, that great administrative reforms
have been carried out in every branch of the public
service, that the general level of comfort and civilisation
has been perceptibly increased, and that the industrial
progress which we have made has been such as is unex-
ampled in the history of this country. (Cheers.)
His LORDSHIP next proposed the toast of " The
Prince and Princess of Wales, and the rest of the Royal
Family." He said: The members of the Royal Family
are placed in a somewhat peculiar position. From the
sphere of active political life they are necessarily excluded,
and with the exception of one or two military appoint-
ments, and I do not know that they will be exceptions for
long, they are almost in practice shut out from adminis-
trative occupations. Now, that is a situation
full of difficulty, because while on the one
hand it puts many diecouragements and obstacles
in the way of their taking a part in the public services, it
does, on the other hand, hold out every inducement to a
life of social ease
.and enjoyment. I think, therefore, it
is but_bare justice to those who are so situated, and whose
every action and word are watched and noted with a care
which would not be exercised in regard to any other per-
sons, should be credited with the abilities which those
who have been brought into contact with them, but which
they have not the opportunity of publicly displaying.
The Prince of Wales had never shrunk from any of those
duties of representation which naturally fall to his share.
He has always performed them, as far as I have been able
to observe and to hear, with genuine courtesy, and with
perfect tact, and those who know him know that he has
watched silently, as becomes one of his position, but
carefully, and intelligently, the progress of public affairs.
(Cheers).
Lord DERBY, in proposing the next toast, said: From
princes to idiots was a descent lost in the social and intel-
lectual scale. (Laughter). But he had now to
propose " Prosperity to the Royal Albert Asylum."
He strongly commended the charity to the • con-
sideration of the public as the only means expe-
rience had provided as an efficient means of dealing with
this evil. Poverty, ignorance of sanitary law, and, above
all, drunkenness and debauchery, were the causes which
made the plague spriad upon the land ; and if these
causes could be removed—he did not say that they could,
or how they could—but if they could they might, he
believed, almost eradicate idiocy from the country in
three or four generations. He stated that seventy
thousand pounds was the cost of the land and asylum, and
that fifty-seven thousand pounds of this sum had beon
raised.
Lord DERBY, in afterwards replying to the toast
of the House of Lords, said he thought the House was in
a difficult position. He had always noticed that if they
let a billpass which any section of the public disapproved,
people were apt to say, " Oh, it's just like those Lords ;
they never look after public affairs.. They care about
nothing but their own pleasure. One could expect nothing
better from them." (Laughter and applause.) On the
other hand, if it so happened that they thought it neces-
sary or desirable to stop for further consideration some
measure upon which any particular section of the public
had set at heart, Billingsgate itself could supply no equal to
the invectives which fell to their lordships' lot. (Laughter
and cheers.) He had never thought that their real func-
tions as a body consisted mainly in the mere delaying of
measures upon which the public had set its mind.
(Cheers.) In the first place, the function of delay was a
very subordinate and a very unimportant one, and in the
next place, if it were possible, which it was not, that any
legislative body could be so constituted that it should
exercise that function only, it would very soon become so
unpopular that it would cease to exist. (Cheers,) Where
the real duty of the House of Lords, as he conceived, lay,
was in revising and reconsidering the measures which came
to them from the other House of Parliament. Nearly
all his political life had been passed in the House of
Commons, and therefore he was bound, and he was sure it
was his wish, to speak well of that body. (Cheers.) As
to the purely political functions of the House of Lords,
he thought their weakness and their difficulty did not
arise, as people are apt to fancy, from the growth of demo-
cratic dower, but from the fact that the increase of wealth
had been so greatin this country, and the number of persons
holding important positions so numerous, that the House
of Lords could not claim to be anything more than as it
was sometimes put, a jury selected at random out of the
upper classes. Whatever they might be, however, and
however they might exercise their power, he thought that
for those among them who chose to look out for public
duties to discharge, there was still abundant opportunity
eft. (Loud cheers.)

THE INVESTMENT OF PAHL;

THE GERMANS AT ST. VALERY AND
DIEPPE,

The special correspondent of the Telegraph with the
Eighth Army Corps sends the following under date Dec.
14 :—Yesterday morning we marched into St. Valery,
and the troops had the satisfaction of seeing the sea, many
of them for the first time in their lives. The beach was
soon covered with Prussian soldiers—some tasting the
water to see if it was really salt; others gazing with won-
der as the heavy swell dashed the curling wave of the ebb
against the pebbly beach; some inspecting the French
fishing boats. Near one of these a little group was
gathered, and I drew near to hear what they were saying.
" Vat is dat fur ein Ding ?" asked one in the most ap-
proved Platt-Deutsch, eyeing a French lugger curiously
from stem to stern. " Ein Schiff," sententiously
responds his companion. "Of course," says the first
speaker. " But which end goes first ?"—adding, " for,
on the Rhine, both ends are alike." " Ah," says his
companion, " but then, you know sea-ships have always a
square end and a sharp end." " Warum !" in-
quires the first. " Oh, well, because they are sea-
ships." The little battery to the left of the Pier is being
manned with Prussian guns, as a precaution against the
arrival during the night of any of the enemy's cruisers ;
and the artillery horses, very unwillingly, are being led
into the sea to cool and refresh their legs.
They too, like the men, have tried to drink
the water. The lanterns on the pier-head have been
carefully put under sentry ; not one is to be
lighted. The telegraphs have been cut, and the signal sta-
tion of the coastguard is occupied by a patrol of Hussars.
The troops of General von Goben marched into Dieppe
this afternoon, having come from St. Valery, a distance
of twenty-five English miles, in a-little under seven hours.
The first English paper I took up after my arrival here
was one of the sth of December, containing the telegram
of General Briand, regarding the action, as he calls it,
of Etrepagny. In order that your readers may
be better informed as to the facts, and know
how to read the General's despatches for the
future, I will give you a concise description of this
" glorious victory." A squadron of Saxon cavalry
occupied the town of Etrepagny at about four p.m. The
horses were stabled and fed, the guards were posted on
the outskirts, and the men went to their quarters, and
eventually to bed. No sooner had the inhabitants made
certain that the tired soldiers slept, than a daring citizen
stole to the church, situated in the centre of the town,
and opened the door. Immediately from out the sacred
edifice there poured a battalion of Gardes Mobiles.
Still and quiet as they dead they loaded, and then pro-
ceeded to butcher the unfortunate Saxons in their
beds. A truly glorious victory ! No doubt, whilst in the
church, these Mobiles had prayed fervently to their patron
saint, if they had such, to aid them in this dastardly deed;
no doubt General Briand chuckled in his sleeves when he
covered this work of murder with the name of victory.
But it cost Etrepagny somewhat dear ; for the Saxon
troops were not very long in avenging their murdered
comrades, and all that now remains of a once flourishing,
country town is a heap of smoking ruins.

The Prince of Wales has accepted the presidency
of the Agricultural Society of Ireland for the year.

Writing from the Royal Headquarters, Versailles, on
December 11, the special correspondent of the 'Standard
says :—" No more misleading piece of consolation could
be offered to the French than to assure them that Ger-
many is so sick of the war that her statesmen must
needs soon recal her forces to their homes. Perhaps
such ought to be the state of the German mind ; but
I feel convinced that it is not. That the popu-
lation and even the leaders are wearied with.
the struggle, and long for its close, is true
enough ; but that they will close it on their own
terms, and on their own terms only, is still truer. Like
the Americans of the North in their great civil. struggle,
they have taken a big job in hand, and they are resolved
to carry it through, and carry it through this one time at
all costs. There is no chance of Germany abating its
terms, or being worn out in spirit and blood by the length
of the contest. The Germans are what friends would' call
the ;most resolute people, and enemies the most obsti-
nate, that 41 ever had the pleasure of consorting
with. To have said a thing is a sufficient reason-for
them to adhere to it. Their first view is invariably their
last, and I never knew them to acknowledge themselves
mistaken. As in thought, so in action. In a word, they
know their own minds, and have resolution enough to
make their might keep pace with their minds. Goethe
says in "Wilhelm Meister" that he reverences the man
who knows what he wants and goes straight towards it.
That might be the motto, of wisdom engraven on
the German heart. Folks -may accuse them of what
they like in this war, but they cannot accuse them
of wavering. No doubt this strong feature has its bad
side. They hate resistance, and end by regarding those
who oppose them as " wicked." But I conclude as I
began. France is the best, and perhaps the only judge of
whether she ought to continue this struggle ; but let no
one give her false encouragment by telling her that she
will " wear her enemy our." That she will never do.
European complications, or her own valour, might con-
ceivably change the situation, but those accidents excepted,
Germany will hold on tight to what she has got, and go
on seizing more until Paris falls. Then, indeed, she may
possibly pursue a course which is much talked of. She
may wring from the captured capital a swingeing requisi-
tion, dismantle its forts, and then abandon the whole
country save so much of it as she claims perpetually for
herself. Alsace and Lorraine will be finally incorporated,
and a goodly part of Champagne retained as
guarantee for a war indemnity, the payment of
which at any moment would cause it to be restored.
Germany will remain as it was before the war, ready at
three weeks' notice to renew the bloody game, but with
those additional advantages not possessed when the Em-
peror made his first false move. This, I can assure you,
is a scheme much ventilated ; but an indispensable pre-
liminary to the programme is the capitulation of a
city which holds half a million of armed men and
a million and a half of civilians. When will
that preliminary pass into an accomplished fact?
Prophets have beers wrong so often that their forecasting
wisdom is at a discount. One or two of us have not been
wrong yet, for we always named Christmas-day as the
probable, and New Year's-day as the final term. But
perhaps our discomfiture likewise is approaching. Every
now and then we hear a gun, and the report sounds
loudly in our ears over the snow, and through the
frosty air ; but we think nothing of it. Like the
chiming quarters of a clock, it does not tell us the
hour. They say that a shell from Mont Valerien
has fallen not a thousand yards from the end of
Rue du Plessis, and that the gunners and guns of that
terrible fort are being trained to drop a long shot well into
the prefecture, where abides the future Emperor of
Germany ! But it is a far cry from a thousand yards off
the wrong end of the Rue du Plessis to the Avenue de
Paris; and were my tympanum a royal one, it would
convey no terror to my soul when shaken by so distant a
report. I have written the words "Emperor of Ger-
many." They fitly represent and crown the result of this
successful war. It is no secret that the monarch
full of years who is first to bear this title prefers his pre-
sent one of King of Prussia ; but sacrifices have been
demanded all round, and this is the sacrifice that falls to
the share of King William. I Trill not dilate to you on
German politics Any further than to say that the end is
avowedly not yet, and that certain stumbling-blocks are
said to have been purposely left in the way by a well-
known, far-designing head, in order that they may pre-
pare the way for the solution of yet other questions which
cannot conveniently be raised at this moment. .

THE BATTLE AT BEAUGENCY.
The special correspondent of the Times, writing from
Menyy, December 10, says :—We were told this morning
that the men were so exhausted with the three days'
fighting that we were to have a quiet day, the better
to fit us for a decisive battle to-morrow, but there are
two parties to this arrangement, and it appeared
that the French were not disposed to enjoy the
luxury of a rest, for we had hardly started on a
tour of inspection round the foreposts when a few
suspicious puffs high up in the clear winter sky, told
us that the enemy's shells were bursting in the air,
long before we heard their report. We accordingly
struck straight across the country for Cravant, a village
'about ten miles to the north-west of Meung, which
the 22nd Division had taken by storm yesterday,
and which the close of the battle last night still formed
the extreme point of our position in that direction. On
a rising ground behind it we found the headquarter
staff assembled, and the Tenth Army Corps, which had
arrived the previous night, were being pushed forward
on the extreme right. On the evening of yesterday the
French seemed, indeed, to be beating a decided retreat,
but if such was the case, they must have received large
reinforcements during the night, for at daylight this morn-
ing they attacked the 22nd Division, which was holding
Cernay and Cravant, andbombarded those villages furiously
for a couple of hours, without, however, inflicting much loss
upon the Germans, who quickly brought their artillery into
position, and at the moment of our arrival the
engagement was pretty general along the whole
length of the line, which extended from Villor-
ceau to L'Hey a little to the eastward of Cra-
vant. Making as usual for the church tower, upon
the steps of which lay a dead Zouave, we had a splen-
did view of the new position. The enemy seemed
to. be extending rapidly to our right, apparently
with a view of getting between us and our base of
operations at Orleans, a movement which was
promptly met by the Bavarians, who were
pushed forward on the extreme right, supported
by the whole of the 10th Army Corps, which, having
newly arrived, Were fresh and full of fight. Their
artillery took up a position along the whole length of a
ridge extending eastward from Cravant to a village the
name of which I did not learn, but from our post of obser-
vation it was beautiful to see them dash along the plain
to the long low crest of the hill and open a line of fire
which speedily produped its results. At this time Cravant
became the centre of the German position. The two
armies were now in almost parallel lines, the direction of
which by compass was from north-west to south-east ;
the French resting on Josnes and the left on
Villermain and Montigny. In the fields immediately
beneath us we could look down upon the Germans spread
out in skirmishing order, while with equal distinct-
ness we could see the French skirmishers advance to
within long rifle distance and exchange shots from
their respective covers and the temporary barricades they
have erected wherever they could do so without incurring
much risk. Altogether the distinguishing feature of the
day on both sides seemed to be caution. There were no
brilliant dashes, no furious fusillades of small arms, and
even the artillery fire languished. The day was so
beautifully clear that we could perceive the movement of
the French with remarkable distinctness, the mis-
fortune was they moved so little. The long line
of artillery kept incessantly puffing off jets of
smoke, the shells came cracking over the heads of
the artillery beneath us, but if they did not explode in the
air they seemed almost invariably to fall short. The
church tower of Cravant had been struck an hour before
our arrival in it. Altogetner there was a good deal
more barking than biting, which was an intense
relief after the carnage of the last three days. As a
military spectacle, however, the scene was perfect.
We could see the French become conscious of the heavy
forces massing upon their left, and gradually with-
drawing from their projected plan of operations of
circumventing us in that direction, as they found that the
tables were being turned upon them, and we could see the
German ectaireues feeling the French as they retreated
and returning to report that the villages which they had
occupied were vacated when the Germans advanced to
take possession of them. .All this was done
calmly and deliberately, as if each party tho-
roughly understood what it was about. It will thus be
seen that the French have drawn in their horns on
both flanks, and are concentrated between Villermain
and Josnes, with the huge forest of Marchenoir imme-
diately in their rear. Here they will probably make a de-
cisive stand, and it was premature to hope yesterday that
they had felt themselves so severely beaten as to refuse to
accept another battle. The fact is that they outnumber
us by at least two to one—probably more—and are re-
ceivmg reinforcements continually. They have, more-
over, a choice of position and a General who seems
to know when he has got a good one and how to
hold it. The Bavarians were to have returned to Orleans
to-day, their losses having been so severe as to make a
respite an absolute necessity. One division alone has
lost during the last three days 1,200 men and 48 officers ;
the other has suffered as severely, and this out of a
strength not including the reserves from Germany which
did not arrive to take part in all the fighting, of about
7,000 men.