The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-05 00:00:00

OUR COTE

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

'his Mo:

By Lord Granville's reply to Prince Gortschakoff'so
Note of the 28th of November, the Times observes, the
matter of the Conference which presents the new phase
of the Eastern Question appears to be satisfactorily
settled. Russia has committed no act amounting to
a breach of the Treaty ; she only announced her in-
tention to violate the Treaty at some future time ;
but, in the meanwhile, she thought she might
right herself with the Neutral Powers by asking
their permission to do so. Clearly, when she finds herself
in presence of those Powers at the Conference, she will
have to fall back from the position taken up in her first
Note. Her mere appearance at the Conference implies
a wish for conciliation; defiance might better have been
attempted at a distance. We trust, says the
Times, it will soon be difficult to account for
the alarm this untoward incident has created in
this country; we seem to have forgotten that
dogs seldom bark when they mean to bite. Had
Russia meant to go to war at once, she had no time to
lose in preliminary negotiationg. Had her Note been
followed by an attack on Turkey, her offence would
hardly have been less flagrant than the attack without
the Note. The Note would only have added insult
to injury;; it would have sounded An unnecessary alarm ;
we should have been forewarned, and, consequently,
foroarmed. Were it only for the interval elapsing be.
tween the declaration of War and the outbreak of hos-
tilities, Russia would have deprived herself of the advan-
tage derivable from an unexpected blow. Any
pretext for a quarrel with Turkey would, no doubt,
answer Russia's purpose just as well, The ' neu-
trality of the Black Sea was sufficiently safe. For
many years to come Turkey would, at all events, be
able to hold her own on those waters, for she would at
the utmost require very little help, which would cheer-
fully be lent by any of the naval Powers having an
interest in the free navigation of the Mediterranean.
What longings Russia ;may still harbour for the
possession of Constantinople and the Straits we
deem it idle to inquire. But since the
Crimean War we think she must understand
that conquest in that quarter is no longer practicable by
sea. The solution of the Eastern question, if Russia
meditated it, would have to be sought in Danubian lands,
and there the complication of interests constitute a tangle
which the sword cannot easily cut asunder.

THE SIEcIE OF PARIS.
The Daily News thinks that for the moment all hope of
seeing Paris relieved must be abandoned. The Army of
the Loire and the Array of the Capital have not joined
hands. Indeed, at the very time that General Ducrot
was making gallant efforts to get away from Paris by the
south-eastern roads towards Fontainebleau, the Army of
the Loire was in retreat. For the first time since the
Delegate Government began to issue its summaries of the
events of the war, the official telegrams from
Tours are marked by a gravity and an apparent honesty
which )lave almost a touch of sadness in them. There is
scarcely an attempt to conceal the fact that the Army of
the Loire has been defeated, and forced to fall back upon
Orleans. The only consolation offered by the official
announcement to the country is, that General
d'A urelle has been able to occupy • and divert
a large section of the German forces which
otherwise would have been opposed to General
Ducrot. That is true enough ; but if the forces already
round Pails are sufficient to imprison Trochu and Du-
crot, there is not much for France to be thankful for.
On the very day, indeed, on which Ducrot was
attacked in Brie and Champigny by the Germans,
the Bavarians assumed the offensive in the south,
and a "long, obstinate, and bloody battle" was
the result. News from Tours, dated yesterday,
now tells us that this battle decided the Army of the
Loire to fall back on its entrenchments outside Orleans ;
while the Germans had advanced as near to them as
Pithiviers and Artenay. So ends, for the present,
the great preconcerted movement which had been
intended to make last week memorable for the
French arms. Paris has made its first great sortie,
and failed. The Army of the Loire has not advanced to
its aid. Count Moltke has survived a combination in
which an attack by the Army of the North was probably
intended to have been included. Will Paris now seek
to free herself by her own unaided efforts ; or wait
until fresh armies are again ready to advance; or
capitulate? •
The Telegraph says :—When the news becomes known
that, so far from having effected a junction, the Army
of the Loire has been defeated and the Army of Paris
has been driven back under the walls of the capital,
the public mind by a natural reaction, may believe
the conflict to be hopeless. In like manner, the
population of Paris are certain to be dejected by
seeing the killed and wounded brought back into
the city, and by the knowledge that the grand sortie on
which such hopes were built has failed to pierce the
Prussian lines. And, if it is true that the provisions of
the besieged capital are well nigh exhausted, and that
there is a powerful party within its walls iii favour of
capitulation, then the passage of the Marne may be only
the beginning of the end. Without disputing the
weight of these arguments, we must point out
that the very facts to which we have al-
luded are capable of an opposite interpretation..
Even taking the gloomiest view of the reverses sustained
by the French armies, it is impossible to deny that
both on the Loire and on the Marne they for a time
held their own against the Prussians. Now, the
position in which the besieging army is placed
renders uninterrupted success on the field of battle
essential to its very safety. During the last few days
the Germans may have won real victories, but many
such victories, so hardly fought, so dearly won, are
almost as fatal as defeats. The whole question is, whether
the French can go on attacking the German lines of in-
vestment from without and from within. If they can, no
matter what may be the result of each contest, the position
of the Prussians must become untenable, and they must be
driven to the alternative either of raising the siege or of
attempting to capture Paris by assault. It should
be remembered that the engineers who constructed
the fortifications of Paris, acted on the assumption, not
that their batteries could render the approach to Paris
impossible, but that under the shelter of their guns the
garrison could sally out in comparative safety against any
invading force. Down to a very recent day it was
thought that Paris was practically without an army
which could venture beyond the walls. The result of
Wednesday's battle has shewn that such is not the case,
and that, thanks to the respite which the Prussians
have granted to their enemies, General Trochu has had
time to form an army not inferior to the besieging force
iu numbers or even in efficiency. Hence the problem,
as we read it, stands thus : Can the French, whether in
or out of Paris, hold their own for a few weeks longer ?
Time must shew. But, be the result what it may, it is
well for France and the world that a gallant nation has
proved itself still to be possessed of the qualities which
Lave given it a great historic name.

FRENCH RESENTMENT AGAINST ENGLAND.
As France gains strength, she finds breath, says the
Standard, to accuse England of indifference worse than
hate, of the malignant suggestiveness of a portion of her
press, and the outrageous comments and advocacy of her
official orators engaged in airing their principles after a
manner utterly unknown to foreign politicians. The
bitterest resentment against the English people
finds expression now in Paris, and unfortunately the
French neither can nor will believe that the English
masses have deeply sympathised with them in their cala-
mities, and prayed for their success at fast ever since the
capitulation of Sedan, whilst a feeling of indignation
pervades this entire kingdom at the cruelty of poltroonery
which applauds the cruelty of brute force. It is, indeed,
a singular anomaly that the disciples of meekness and
lamblike submission on the part of this country, who
constitute the un-English element; of our political
and social life, are all the votaries of conquest,
ferocity, and the rule of blood and iron elsewhere. Does
Russia want a British apologist ? She finds one in the
philosophic economist, with his millennial theories for
home consumption. Does Prussia require
an. English
champion to uphold Bismarck and advertise in the lan-
guage of eulogistic approval the death trade of the despot
who desolates German homes in order to ravage France? That
champion appears here in the shape of a preacher of non-
resistance, of selfish isolation and passive dishonour.
Nay, should any armed foreign brigand threaten England,
forthwith he enlists the sympathies of the drab dema-
gogues, who are always ready to assert that England is
in the wrong, and to shew cause on behalf of her
assailants and her foes. Despite of the wishes and the
predictions of such persons, coupled with their insulting
recommendations to yield to German demands, Paris has
closed her gates, and continued to fire her guns. The
admonitions, the ridicule'', and the counsels of these noble
Britons have reached the eyes and ears of Frenchmen
with no effect have that of engendering resentment
against England, not only for deserting an ally, but
insulting him in his misfortunes and hounding on his foes.

Mr. Reverdy Johnson has written a letter advising
those who are seeking indemnity under the Alabama
claims to withdraw their demands from the Government
of the United States, and appeal directly to the British
Government.