The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-29 00:00:00

THE FRENCH ARMAMENTS.

The official lists of the Empire returned 8,849 cannons
and 3,567,639 guns, a statement entirely fabulous. The
exact figures are not known, but the French field
artillery was proved manifestly inferior in number to the
Prussian, while not only Chassepots but the old Minni 4
rifles are lacking for the free shooters. The Gardes
Nationales and Mobiles have as yet been only parly armed
and with the old percuskm muskets. In their depair and
indignation of this state cthings the befence Committees
throughout France have resolved to ask nothing more
from the State but to order the manufacture of guns and
revolvers in the larger industrial establishments, and to
open forced loans to defray the expenses. The provinces
are going to form an association to combine their resources
and to arrange for united action in the matter.

The account of the Duchess of Hamilipon's visit to the
*Emperor Napoleon has been autharitatigely contr,actitetcl.
. 4 • .

The police at Calais have received orders not to allow
any Frenchman to leave the country, whether he is pro-
vided with a passport or not.
The garrisons in Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland
have been strengthened,owing to the sympathy manifested
by the Poles for France.

A correspondent of the Frankfort Journal, writing from
Phalsburg on September 21, says that the commandant of
the beleaguering army before that town has sent a depu-
tation to Nancy to request immediate relief or permission
to withdraw.

The commandant at Mareilles has issued a notice,
calling upon artisans to join working companies to assist in
completing the defences of the city. Langres is reported
to have been placed in a complete state of defence, with
provisions and ammunition for three months.

According to the Constitationnel, an attempt was made
in one quarter of Paris to establish a revolutionary com-
mune. Thanks to M. de Keratry and M. Rochefort, who
has acted most patriotically, the endeavour was frus-
trated.

From a very unintelligible telegram received by the
Earl of Denbigh, it appears that none of the English
Zouaves in the service of the Pope were killed in the
trifling engagement at Rome, and only one or two
wounded.

A telegram from Namur says that the inhabitants of
Al6zi4es and Charleville are flying to Belgium in conse-
quence of the announcement that if the towns do not
surrender within twenty-four hours they will be bom-
barded.

The material of war captured at Sedan comprised
100,000 Chassepots and 8,960,000 pounds of powder. The
large cannon taken at Sedan have been sent for the use of
the besieging army at Paris. The Prussians have made
preparations for a long siege, and 5,000 furs have been
ordered for the army.
The upshot of the controversy among the German
papers as to the displacement of General Steinmetz seems
to be that the veteran could never forego a momentary
success for the sake of ulterior advantages. It was there-
fore found inconvenient to continue him in high command
at the theatre of war.—Pall Mall Gazette.

The London correspondent of the Birmingham Post'
telegraphs :—" After his interview with Count Bismarck,
M. Jules Favre lost no time in communicating with Lord
Lyons at Tours, in hopes that the British Government
would intervene to save France from dismemberment.
The Prime Minister has summmoned a Cabinet Council
on Friday to consider this communication."
In an official report the Staatsanzeiger says that all the
country mind Paris is deserted, and only some small
shopkeepers remain in the little towns. The greatest
panic prevails, and there is no appearance of the National
Guard to keep order. In some places the mayors provided
the inhabitants with arms, but at the approach of the
German troops all took to flight or threw away their
arms.

The Order of St. George, which has just been sent by
the Czar to the Crown Princes of Prussia and Saxony
and Prince Louis of Hesse, is the highest honour that is
conferred in Russia. There are only two knights. of the
order—the King of Prussia and the Archduke Albert of
Austria. The Czar himself has only a Cross of the Fourth
Class, while the crosses given to the Crown Princes of
Prussia and Saxony are of the second class.
The captured French officers who wish to hire private
lodgings will be allowed, according to the Madgeburg
Gazette, to reside in an open garrison town. On giving
their word of honour to proceed by the shortest route
to the appointed place, and there to report themselves,
they will be permitted to travel without an escort. If
they give reas on for dissatisfaction, they may be remitted
to prison. The guard have discovered four women among
the armed Turcos ; they were of course taken away from
their comrades.

The alleged attempted suicide of the Emperor Napoleon
appears to have been one of those attacks of syncope to
which he has been so much subject of late. It is just
possible, however, that indigestion may have been the
cause of the alarming symptoms, and the Independance
Beige jocosely observes that as the attack occurred so soon
after the arrival of the King of Prussia's cooks, there is a
good deal of probability in this hypothesis.
The Berlin correspondent of the Times writes :—M.
Thiers is trying his hand in la haute politique. If my
information is as correct as I have reason to believe, the
great historian will endeavour to secure Russia's gratitude
by offering her the plum she has so long coveted. In a
(territorial
if Russia will save France from the humiliation of
loss, France is ready to make her certain con-
4ssions in the East. More than this, France in such a
case will try to obtain the approval and co-operation of
that Austria which has so long resisted the growth of
Russian influence on the Danube, but which, it is hoped,
will be induced to share and share alike if the oppor-
tunity offers.

With respect to the burning of Bazeilles, the Bavarian
Minister of War makes the statement that—" All the
accounts from eye-witnesses of the fight concur in proving
that if lamentable acts were committed—acts contrary to
the laws of honour—they were not committed by our
troops. These accounts concur in showing that the fate of
Bazeilles was the terrible but just punishment of the
atrocious conduct of those pretended National Guards
who, assisted by their 'wives and children, selected our
surgeons and other persons engaged in affording, relief
to the wounded, as objects to fire upon, and whose in-
famous behaviour was carried to the extent of consigning
those unhappy wounded to the flames of houses partly
set on fire by artillery."
At Kcenigsmacher, on the Lorraine frontier, a provision
column destined for the army before Metz, and consisting
of 192 waggons, was attacked on the 20th by French
soldiers. The seven men of the Landwehr infantry who
escorted it endeavoured to beat a retreat, but the villagers
joined in the raid and barricaded the road with ploughs and
harrows. The waggons, laden with 'bacon, bread, oats, and
other victuals, were seized, two of the escort being also
captured. Of the 300 waggoners only 49 made their
escape to Treves.with 13 horses, the rest being forced to
take the waggons to Thionville, whence 52 returned on the
23d, having had money and food giver" them. Two Land-
wehr companies have been sent to Kcenigsmacher. It is
not explained how the column came to be sent with so weak
an escort through a district where there are few Prussian
troops. •

Respecting the siege of Strasburg (now finished), the
correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette writes :—" The
effect of the bombardment at some distance is more like
the play of what is called summer lightning than any-
thing else. Sometimes a particularly bright flash will
light up the horizon and shew the long lines of poplars
stretching away right and left, and the old cathedral
spire rising above them, and then all is black again ; and
then the dull boom of the shot comes rolling back through
the night. Sometimet, too, the shells of the garrison
burst high over the batteries with a bright blue
flash like diabolical fireworks ; but, as far as I could see,
the Strasbourg fire seemed slow and intermittent. Inside
Strasburg it is a different story. A Strasburg refugee
I met in the train told me that when he was there shells
fell sometimes at the rate of twenty-four or twenty-five
a minute. From his account the delapidation is enor-
mous, whole quarters of the town were already in ruins
when he left. Travellers will be sorry to hear that
amang the houses that have been destroyed is the good
old-fashioned hotel, the Rothes Haus."
Four British newspaper correspondents join in repu-
diating the charges of misconduct brought against the
German troops. They have been present at nearly all
the engagements of the war, and so far as their expe-
rience extends they are enabled to give an unqualified
contradiction to stories of outrages on women, and spolia-
tion of property. "We have found want, suffering, and
misery enough-wherever we have turned, but we have
never yet met, or even heard of, a single instance of per-
sonal violence offered. to the peasantry, a single instance
of outrage towards women, or a single instance in which a
farmhouse has been robbed of more than its stray fowls
and fruit. Amid all the horrors which have been going
on around us we talk among ourselves of the kindness,
forbearance, and singular honesty with which, consider-
ing all the circumstances, the Prussians have behaved
towards the people and property of the town and districts
through which they have passed."

SPAIN AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.-The
Madrid correspondent of the Independance Belge says that
Senor Olozaga, on his return to Madrid, had several inter-
views with the heads of the Ministry, in which he ex-
plained his reasons for not literally obeying the instruc-
tions of his Cabinet, and for recognising the Provisional
Government. Nothing was definitely known on the subject
but the friends of the ambassador assert that he is about
to visit his country estate at Vigo. It is certain that
Bismarck exercises great influence on Spanish
politics at this moment, and that Olozaga was
recalled at his formal request. The letter of recog-
nition dated the Bth inst., and Jules Favre's reply
were both transmitted by telegraph to Madrid, where the
Ministerial organs treated them as a natural thing. Two
days after, the Min?ster of the Germanic Confederation
protested against the attitude of Senor Olozaga, and on
the 13th. he received orders to return immediately to
Madrid. The 'Spanish Chargé d'Affaires at Paris has
been directed to go to Tours, like the other foreign repre-
sentatives.

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" •

THE POPE AND THE CAPITULATION OF

ROME.

The Rome correspondent of the Daily Telegraph gives
the following account of the capitulation of Rome :
" When, in the early morn, the roar of the Italian artil-
lery broke in upon the stillness of the scarcely-vanished
night, the. Pope rose from his bed and at once sent for
Cardinal Antonelli and the General of the Jesuits. BY
six o'clock the - diplomatic body had arrived in the
Vatican. During the five hours of the conflict, his
Holiness did not betray unusual emotion. In appear-
ance he was calm, and even gay. He walked up and
down the hall, occasionally stopping at one of the
windows to- look abroad on the scene without. Even
were his eyes undimmed by age, little could he see dis-
tinctly. For, you remember, the day was still in its
earliest youth. The fog of the September morning had
scarcely cleared away, and with it mingled the smoke of
roaring cannon and burning houses. Whenever the staff-
officers came in with news of the fight, he asked what
was the cause of the flame here, the smoke there. Occa-
sionally he knelt and prayed. Once he suddenly started
from his knees, and asked anxiously whether there
was any danger of shells falling on the Vati-
can. You must not forget that from the
Leonine . City, where the Vatican stands, the
Zouaves were directing a terrible fire against Bixio 's
batteries, and to such effect that one of these had been
disabled, while ten of the gunners and one officer were
either killed or severely wounded. Bixio, however, had
received the most urgent orders not to fire on the Leonine
City. Though his gunners had not fired on this locality,
some of the shells had fallen close to it, and it was the
conflragations caused by these that gave rise to the Pope's
anxiety. At a few minutes before ten o'clock Count di
Carpegna, the messenger of General Kanzler, was ushered
into the presence of the Pope. He told his Holiness that his
sad mission was to inform him that, in General Kanzlers
opinion, resistance was no longer possible. The Italians
—said the Count—had occupied almost all the gates
of Rome which lay on their line of attack. The Villa
Buonaparte was in flames; Ferrero and Maz6 de in
Roche were advancing on the Piazza Colonna. Resistance
would be madness. In a few minutes the Romans would
be surrounded by 50,000 troops. The Pope looked at
Cardinal Antonelli, and after a few minutes' silence,,
said, Your Eminence was right; it cannot be helped
I have been abandoned by Catholic Europe, and I must
yield. Never mind. My glorious predecessor, Pius VL,
and myself were once forced by the revolution to
leave this palace, but we both returned. Revolu-
tionary Italy and her revolutionary King sur-
round me and the (Ecumenical Council with
their bayonets. I must yield.' Turning then to Count
di Carpegna, he said, Go, and tell General Kanzler to
capitulate ; make haste.' Scarcely had he uttered these
last words, when Count Arnim stepped forward, and
offered. to accompany General Kanzler to the Italian
head-quarters at the Villa Torlonia. Thanks, Count ;
accept the offer in these days the representative of
Prussia may obtain better terms. Your help will secure
this result, at least,' added his Holiness with a somewhat
sarcastic smile. No doubt he intended to allude
to the letter of King William of Prussia, in which his
Majesty declined to arrest the march of the Italian
troops. When Count Arnim entered the large
and magnificent hall of the Villa Torlonia,
was coming from the breach which had • been
just made by the 34th Battalion of Bersaglieri. Tb'
Count was followed by Count di Carpegna, an old man of
about sixty-five, the Marquis de Mestre, and by another
officer of General Kanzler's staff. Count Arnim having in-
troduced the negotiators, and exchanged a few words with
General Cadorna, withdrew. Cadorna at once granted an
armistice, and said he was prepared to discuss the terms
of an honourable capitulation. The main points of this
capitulation were, that the foreign troops should be sent
to their homes by sea, embarking at Civita Vecchia ' • that
all the native troops, including the gendarmes, should
likewise receive their eonge ; that the Squadriglieri should
be also sent to their native land—those, however, ex-
cepted who had deserted from the Italian army, °r
who had been implicated in charges of brigandage or °there
crimes. These were to be delivered into the hands of
justice."