The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-06 00:00:00

SCENES IN PARIS:

FRATERNIZING OF NATIONAL GUARD AND
THE PEOPLE.

The Paris correspondent of the Times gives the follow-
ing animated description of the outbreak of popular
feeling -on Saturday night and Sunday morning under
date, Sept. 4, 1.30 a.m., he says :—We have just had one
of those changes which would be startling in its sudden-
ness if any change in the aspect of Paris could be rapid
enough to take by surprise those who have watched it
during the last few weeks. For many days there has
been a perfectly marvellous calm, at least in the
Outward aspect 'of affairs. I scarcely know how
to account for this almost lethargic attitude of
passive expectation, unless it is to be, compared to the
stillness which suddenly comes over the most excited
group of gamblers at the moment when some resolute
player is preparing his last and heaviest stakes. How-
ever, it is scarcely
-worth discussing now, for already it is
•klmost ancient history. There is, a gulf between thi
morning and to-night. The news for which Paris has so
long been passively waiting has at last come, and has
thrown the whole city into a fever of excitement, all the
fiercer, perhaps, as a reaction from the recent calm. As
I:came along the principal boulevards this afternoon
saw at once that something important had happened.
Groups were forming everywhere, eagerly listening to
excited disputa-fits, each new-comer with difficulty believ-
ing that such terrible tidings could have been given in the
Chamber itself and from the lips of the Minister of War.
The reverses of Bazaine and MacMahon must be crushing
indeed thus to break down the hitherto rigid barriers of
official reserve. Every moment the Boulevards became
more crowded, and the buzz of general conversation
louder and more animated. Between eight and nine
o'clock processions began to form, and I followed on:.s. n Lid'
was making its way through the crowds on the pftvement
with a very resolute, business-like air, uttering but one
jollying cry, " Vive la France !" It led me, as I expected,
to the Ministerial offices in the Place VendOme, but be-
fore we got there it was swallowed up in the conflux of
other larger processions, and, in lieu of " Vive la France!'
' " La Dechdance ! la D6cMance !" became the watchword
incessantly shouted or chanted in stentorian tones, of an
immense mob. I did not at the moment know whether
it was aimed at the Emperor or the Ministry, but other
cries I heard soon afterwards shewed that the people
were almost equally ready for the overthrow of both.
I have' used the word " mob," as it comes natu-
rally to hand when one is hurridly describing
seenes of popular commotion in the streets, but
it suggests a scarcely fair or correct idea to Eng-
lishmen who have known London since the "reign
of the roughs " began. My neighbours to-night were
-most of them well-dressed men, belonging apparently to
the respectable classes, and, notwithstanding their great
excitement, their behaviour was orderly in the extreme.
They did not wait long in the Place VendOrne, and, fuiding

that they were starting for the Tuileries, I hurried on
ahead in order to get a place near the gate, which was
most likely to be the centre of attraction. On my waY
a decidedl significant scene—a highly ' suggestive
" sign of the times"—presented itself. We had
to pass a group of the National Guard on dutY
and rifle in hand ; but this did not prevent
their eagerly fraternising with the crowd, and one of them
was so outspoken and so. extremely liberal, to say the
least, in his views of the political situation of affairs that
two delighted Republicans then and there insisted upon
kissing him. His less ardent companions had nothing
more serious to undergo than vigorous hand-shaking all
round, but the fraternisation was evidently so cordial and
sympathetic on both sides that if those National Guards
at all represent their brethren, the Government are
not likely to find them of much use in putting the
people down. It is •said that on the day of the
re-opening of the Chamber for an extraordinary sganee
they refused to obey any order to fire upon or even charge
the people ; but I saw then nowhere any such symptoms
of fraternization "avec effusion" as I saw to-night. The
crowd had to wait some time in the open space between
the Palais Royal and the Tuileries, and its impatience •
naturally found vent in cries even less complimentary
than "La Decheance 1" though this still remained the
first favourite ; " Vive la Republique I" made not a bad
second, and " A bas l'Enzpire !" came, I think, third.
I only once heard "A bas l'Empereur 1" although through-
out the 'evening especially since the news •of his
capture has arrived—the orators of the Boulevards have
not spared to speak of him with the profoundest con-
tempt, a feeling which has been gathering for weeks, and
has now come to , a head. When a cavalry soldier
happened to ride up, and a few of the more. turbulent
spirits wanted to prevent his passage in the Tuileries,
their opposition was at once overruled by the indig-
nant remonstrances of the majority. It was evi-
dent that the demonstration was well in hand, and when
at last the gate opened, and General Trochu appeared, the
delegates, seemed perfectly satisfied, and immediately
agreed upon an adjournment to a house in a neighbour-
ing street, at which the Deputies of the Left usually hold
evening conferences. Having a carriage close at hand, I
again got a start, and was at the house in question when
the crowd approached it. I shall never forget the
orderly, disciplined way in which they slowly moved up
to it, uttering not a sound, probably to prevent the
alarm being given to the police. The Deputies had
not met that evening at the house, and though the
concierge, ,not the least dismayed at the number of
the callers, or their unexpected visit, most politely
offered to send for a Deputy "if the gentlemen would
wait a few minutes," the offer was not accepted, but
another adjournment—to the house of M. Jules Simon, at
the Place Madeleine—was immediately put and carried
nem. con. I accordingly hurried off there to secure a seat
for the expected oration of M. Simon, but we were all
again doomed to disappointment. When the crowd—or
rather only this time a very small detachment of it—came
up, M. Simon was not there, and one of his friends ear- )
nestly deprecated any further " manifestation " as, to say
the least, unnecessary, s the Chamber meant to settle
everything next day. It did not seem then to be known
that an extraordinary seance was to be held at midnight.
Possibly thii was an afterthought, on account of the
Emperor's reported capture and the surrender of 40,000
Rench troops.

THE LAST GREAT BATTLE.
The details furnished by the correspondent of the
Standard relative to the last great battle are very
interesting :—"Although I shall only know in the
evening the results of the day, and although
shall have missed about three hours of the battle-
field, I can decidedly announce to you that to-day will
certainly be marked in the annals of war as one of the most
sanguinary contests which perhaps ever toot place. I
have observed since daylight all the movements, and up
to two o'clock a rapid and continual. cannonade is increas-
ing, and an infuriated and desperate fight is going on on
both sides without interruption. From my observatory at
the flank of the battle-field and within about two miles of
r it, I Can distinguish nearly all the movements. New
corps d'arm6,e arriving successively round the hills,
columns advancing and retrograding, batteries of artillery
taking new positions or annihilated in the middle of the
confusion. I try to appreciate the number of troops en-
gaged—l should say at least 300,000 men. The battlefield
comprises a space of about four miles, on the line
between Carignan and Sedan, in a north-west direction;
it embraces a large tract of country right and left
of the Meuse and Chiers rivers. It encircles the vil-
lages of Balan, Waldencourt, Bazeilles, Nonilly, Douzy,
and Brevilly, the village of Telaigne being its extreme
point to the south-east, Sedan the corresponding point on
the north-west, the centre of the battle being at Douzy,
at the junction of the Meuse and Chiers, on a plain
nearly three miles in width, at six miles from the Belgian
frontier. As early as two o'clock this morning the
cannonade began and the attack commenced ; at four
o'clock a.m. the French army had fullY 'advanced from
Sedan, and from that hour the whole of the artillery
werr engaged, and the battle wrs developed in all its
fury. Up to half-past eleven o'clock the French had
been winning ground, their progress forward being per-
fectly sustained, and the retiring of the Prussian columns
to the south and the withdrawal of their ba,tterles were
perfectly noticeable. At a quarter to twelve a standstill
of the principal corps d'armde took place, which
lasted about twenty minutes, and the engage-
ment began again along all the line with Increasing fury.
At that time the position of the two armies was exactly
thus. The French army, with its right wing sustained
against the fortress of Sedan, turning back to the Belgian
territory, was occupying the villages of Balan, Bazeilles,
Douzy, up to the Douzy sugar works, and mastering
the point where the rivers Meuse and Chiers make their

unction. The Prussian army occupied the villages
of Telaigne (Carignan side), Brevilly, Nouilly, and Wal-
dencourt, their staff being at Noullly. The confluence of
the two rivers is about the centre of operations, and for
the last two hours, up to two o'clock, the battle encircled
that spot, the struggle concentrates around it, and the
possession of it will likely remain to-night to the victorious,
and decide the day. I have left the battle-field for two
hours, but, from the small village of Messincourt, only four
miles distant, I hear the cannonading going on with
the same sustained regularity. It will be most likely
the greatest slaughter of human beings which •ever took
place in one day. Amongst the different incidents I
noticed in the morning, I have seen the destruction of
a full regiment of Prussian Dragoons by a powerful bat-
tery of mitrailleuses, and nearly in the same time a
French brigade culbute by Prussian artillery. Since eleven
o'clock the village of Waldencourt is on fire. As I have
not been able to ascertain exactly if any other corps
d'armee than the one of Prince Frederick Charles and
Steinmetz are engaged On the Prussian side, I cannot give
any faith to the news that the army of the Crown Prince
has arrived, and joined in the contest. I certainly saw
in the morning a Prussian corps of about 30,000
men with vowerful cavalry, arriving freshly on the battle-
field, but was it not the reserve Prussians from Carignan,
or perhaps the vangnard of the Prince of Saxony's army ?
Impossible to communicate for the last two days with•the'
French staff. lam nearly separated from them by the
Prussian battle line ; I can only appreciate and conjec
ture on what I witness, but I shall endeavour as soon as
I can to join the French generals, and I shall complete'
my outline sketch by the real details of the affair and the.
enumeration of the corps de armee engaged on both sides.
Four p.m.—l am off again to the battle-field, and dis-
patch my letter to the Beigian frontier."

[ADvEraisEmENT.] Holloway's Pills. Fevers and
Febrile Complaints.—ln the summer this type of diseases
usually makes its appearance, being occasioned by the
miasma of decomposing animal and vegetable matters
evolved by the sun's heat, probably aided by the sudden
electric disturbances in the atmosphere. These purifying
Pills and specifics for arresting the transit of the fever
poison through the frame, and for expelling all morbid
matters from the blood. They ward off diseases by
rousing the liver to increased action; while they regulate
the impulse of the heart, and steady the circulation, they
improve digestion and stimulate the kidneys. Holloway's
Pills act so mildly that they are particularly, efficacious
in removing all febrile disorders, without irritating the
brain or nervous system.