The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-18 00:00:00

tHE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY-, NOVEMBER 18 1876,

WITH GARIBALDI.

A correspondent of the Daily News writes from Autun,
under date November 13th : This town abounds In
churches and convents, all of which are crowded with
soldiers. Those lodged in the cathedral scarcely seem to
appreciate the honour, as they are grumbling at the damp i
and insufficient straw supplied. The Bishop of Autun
is indignant at the Garibaldian invasion, and
gives the sous-prefect no peace with his complaints.
That functionary, being ultra-liberal, passes on the chap-
ters of lamentations to headquarters, and there is an end
of them. Within the last three days we have had two
Garibaldians condemned to death by court-martial,
one for stealing a revolver; the other, who luckily
for himself escaped, for a far more serious crime.
The court is composed of two French and two
Italian members. The revolver case caused great
excitement. PetitiOns were sent to Garibaldi for a remis-
sion of the sentence. He declined to interfere, saying in
France French laws must be obeyed, and that if. he par-
doned an Italian, he could not in any case condemn a
Frenchman. A telegram was sent to Gambetta, who
suspended the sentence. Accepting Colonel Tanara's invi-
tation to breakfast, I rode out on the high road to Epinac,
which runs through a fertile plain shut in on one side by
snow-covered hills, on another by oak and pine woods ;
corn-fields and vineyards are on all sides. I found the
Colonel and his staff lodged in the most modest of
cottages, in the midst of a very slough of despond.
One tolerably-sized room serves as sleeping apart-
ment for himself and four officers, dining, drawing-
room, and office ; the chief furniture consists of
two massive oak wardrobesi with massive steel
ornaments, occupying one entire side of the room ; the
walls hung with pictures of saints and martyrs, crucifixes,
and saintly relics ; from the blackened b ,ams of the
ceiling hang nondescript articles—boots, hams, sides of
bacon,, bunches of canary seed, dried herbs, and from
cords slung from beam to beam the officers' gear. From
the adjoining room, which seems to serve as kitchen and
sleeping apartment for the family, savoury odours pro-
ceeded, and presently a regular Italian soup of ham,
vegetables, and broth, flavoured with real Parmesan
cheese, was set on the table, followed by a dish of liver
and potatoes, and another of stewed fowls, the
first substantial meal I have eaten in France.
The messes they give us at the hotels are
simply uneatable water-soup, particles of chopped meat
in thick black mud—so that your choice lies between
starvation and feeding exclusively on the one recog-
nisable plat gigot de mouton. Some bottles of Burgundy
and Sauterne were produced, a present from the " lady
of the chateau ; " but we all drank very moderately.
The Colonel, the gentlest-tempered man alive, was, for
a wonder, in bad humour. The curate of the village
had summoned his flock in the parish church—told
them the Garibaldians were heretics and heathens, that
the Prussians were their real brothers, that if they fed
them, housed them, or assisted them in any way, the
Prussians, when they came, would burn their villages,
destroy their herds, and send them off as slaves. Tanara
naturally had them arrested, but on an order from M.
Gambetta he was obliged to set him free again; hence the
cause of his ill-humour.

PROBA BLE RESTORATION OF THE
EMPIRE IN FRANCE.

In a letter from Cassel, dated November 15, the corre
spondeut of the Daily News says :—From what I see and
hear I become more and more convinced of the impending
re-establishment of the Empire in France, if the French
do not succeed in forming a legal Republican Government
before the fall of Paris. It is, of course, im-
possible to communicate to others what are mainly
personal impressions ; but there are also considera-
tions of a general and public character that
ought not to escape the attention of the European public.
Just let the reader put to himself this question—What
are the Germans to do with their prisoners if the war be
protracted beyond the fall of Paris? They cannot keep
and feed them for ever, and if they, sooner or later, must
send them back to France, the resistance of the French at
the same time continuing, can they do it in any other way
but on condition that these prisoners themselves must
overcome the resistance ? But, then, this must be made
sure of beforehand, by the prisoners being reorganised
into a regular and disciplined army, acting in the name
of a Government—a French Government—which has
made its peace with Germany. What other Government
is to be had for this purpose like an exclusively military
one composed of Louis Napoleon and his marshals ?
It is not at all necessary that this Government
should first ratify the cession of Metz and Stras-
burg. The Germans hold what they want ; they
have nothing to receive ; they will only give back
what they are ready to give back. Having taken
Paris,
_they can put it to the choice of the Parisians,
whether they prefer to be kept in order by a German or
by a French garrison. The result of this choice, which
cannot be doubtful, will be the title of posses.
sion for the reestablished Empire. Suppose the
South and the West being then yet unsubdued,
what harm would it be to the Germans ? An
Empire in the North, a Republic in the South,
and perhaps a Bourbon Monarchy in the West, struggling
with one another, would only contribute to the safety of
the German conquest. This reads like Macchiavelism,
but it is far more a consequence of French thoughtless-
ness in political things, than of German astuteness. Re-
volutions and coups d'etat are not the means of
strengthening the position of a nation in the long run.
Violent changes of government and law are followed by
disastrous consequences, be it ever so late. And the
Germans could not even be reproached with
having purposely brought about such a state of
things. They were ready to let a National Government
be formed; they offered every facility for forming it they
safely could.

THE WAR VICTIMS' FUND.

Mr. Tom Taylor has favoured us with extracts from
communications he has received from gentlemen who are
at present engaged in distributing relief to the sufferers by
the war in the Metz district. The subscriptions to the
War Victims' Fund already forwarded to the offices, 8Q
Houndsditch, have reached the amount of £12,000.

Manz, November 13, 1870.
Two days since I left Metz by the Port des Allemauds.
I proceeded along the road which winds under the fort
St. Julien; to thh village of that name. This village,
which was one of tha fAVddrite feßorts of the people of
Metz on Sundays and festivals, has not itself suffered
much, but all around it is a scene of hopeless desolation.
There were great numbers of suburban houses here with
neat gardens, and, besides these, many market gardening
establishments, some on a large scale, with great quanti-
ties of fruit trees, ruing, &c. All this is one mass of
ruin—the walls are levelled to the ground; the houses de-
stroyed, and the gardens rooted up. Great lines of earth-'.
works stretch across the plain, hastily erected byl
the French before the battlbs of the 12th and 14th
August. One great conservatory was still left standing.
It was pitiable to see thousands of fruit trees so hopelessly
ruined and trampled into the ground, and of course the
people ruined too, in another sense of the word, for they
were all small proprietors. I visited the villages of Poix
and Servigny.. In the former there were two houses
burned, and in the latter eleven. The Mayor told me
that it would take a year's patient labour to level the
earthworks and restore the land to its normal condition.
Almost everything is gone—crops of every kind, hay, straw,
corn, oats, and potatoes. No houses, no cows, farming
implements, carts, &c., almost all burned for firewood by
the peasantry. Great quantities of bedding and clothes
pillaged. Out of 250 persons 50 are now in want, and
there will be 100 in three weeks, when the little that is
still left is gone. This a fair description of three out of
every four villages in this diitrict:
I went out to St. Barbe, *lade 11.6 hchissis verb
burned. I visited nearly half the houses in the village,
and in all I saw only one bed. The church had been
used as a barrack, and the belfry as a stable, and on the
door of the sacristy were still scrawled in chalk the words
" Regiments Bureau." Half the seating in the chnrch
had been burned, the walls were disfigured with hooks
and nails, the pulpit rails and the confessional had been
broken. In the belfry among the litter of straw I observed
the fral,„rments of a handsome candelabra in gilt bronze,
which formerly hung in front of the altar. The people
here are all small proprietors who look to the pro-
duce of the autumn for their support in winter
and spring. They have nothing now their houses are un-
inhabitable ; they have neither food, bedding, nor clothing.
Their vines, the labour of years, are 11 destroyed,
trampled into the very earth. The tubs and casks for
making and storing the wine are almost all burned, as well
as the sticks to support them, which are worth a great
deal of money. Ido not say that this is an ordinary case,
but it is little in excess of many others. On my way home
I visted Nouilly and Noiseville, both of which have suf-
fered severely. Here there are a great many masons, car-
penters, &c., who work esenerally in Metz. Now, of
course, there is no work, and they ate almost on the verge
of starvation.
To-day I was at Peltre, where 92 out of 106 houses are
burnt, together with the church and convent, part of
which was a school for 500 girls. The unhappy people
have taken refuge in various villages round ; who can
measure the distress which such a frightful occurrence as
this causes? It was a rich village, but there is absolutely
nothing now but crumbling walls and a few poor people,
who I suppose have no where to go to. Have I said
enough to show you that there is use for every shilling you
can possibly raise ? As far as our inquiries' have done, and
they are not yet finished, there are now from 6,000 to 8,000
persons in need of assistance, and there will be
12,000 or it may be 20,000 before the war is
over. In fact, it is impossible to say how many people
will actually want bread before the Ist January. There
are so many villages in which there is still a little left,
and there is such a spirit of independence and brotherly
help (a very noble form of communism), that as long as
half the population have enough, the others won't be let
to starve. But this cannot last long, and in many vil-
lages we shall find some day (or, rather, those who succeed
us will) that there is neither food nor money left, so
that it is impossible to say how far our esti-
mate is below the mark; above it it certainly
is not. I had a long conference to day with
M. Magnin, and we arranged the heads of the infor-
mation he is to seek from the mayors of each commune,
t.s to the condition of agricultural affairs, and the pro-
b able wants in seed-corn and other seeds.

One point he mentions is of the greatest importance, he
said that there was no question that in the spring there
would be numbers of speculators going round selling old
seed cheap, which, of course, will not grow ; and he said
that there was no way in which we could confer so great
a benefit on the agricultural community as by selling
seeds where we did not think it needful to give them. He
said that it could be easily advertised beforehand, and that
his warranty would give confidence to all purchasers.
There is great need of warm clothing, and of clothing of
every kind ; and we are very glad to find that you have
already sent out a good quantity. I wish you could have
seen the delight of the poor people to whom I made dis-
tribution at Briey, last Sunday and Monday, and the
following day as I passed through the villages I was of
course recognised pleasantly. Poor creatures ! many of
them looked as if they had not had a good meal for a long
time ; which was indeed, no doubt, the case.