The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-11 00:00:00

THE INVESTMENT OF PARIS.

Paris is still closely invested, but the Prussians cannot
begin any active measures to reduce the outer line of
defence till their siege train arrives. Meantime, the
Parisians would seem to believe, judging from their
Press, that the Prussians have their heavy guns up,
but that they do not venture to mount them. The
German army is necessarily occupied in keeping
and fortifying what positions it has occupied. The
French are busily employed in connecting' the line
of forts by strong earthworks, and in throwing
up new redoubts. They are, in fact, doing
as the Russians did at Sebastopol previous to the 17th
of October, 1854 ; but there is no further, or, at least,
no great analogy between the two positions. Ae
yet there !are no signs, so far as I have heard, of the
outlying army from Lyons and Tours, but the people
insist on it that there has been an engagement be'
tween the advance guard of the French force south
of Versailles and the rear guard, or covering reserves,
of the Crown Prince's army. Any plan of the
defences of the city previous to September will give
a poor idea of the present aspect of the place. In
fact, several works, such as that of Genevillers, may be
considered as regular fortresses, and a considerable re-
doubt is also nearly made near Point-du-Jour. There
is also a horse railway inside the Chemin de
Fer de Ceinture. The gap between Valerien
and Issy is pretty well filled up. I hope to
be able to you something about the works on
the North and East in a few days. The 4th Corps, which
has its situation on the North side has been somewhat
harassed by freeshooters, but flying coulumns sent through
the woods have, it is supposed, chased them all out. There
is one matter worth attending.to. It has no doubt been
fully thought out. Winter is coming on. Every one who has
spent a winter in Paris knows that it can be bitter
cold there in spite of stoves and fires. The plateau
of Versailles is considerably higher than Paris, and it
sometimes snows and freezes with energy here. But cold
and frost are not so much to be feared as wet. So far the
repair of roads has not been much looked after, and if anY
sanitary arrangements have been made I am unable
to discover them. Certain subjects connecte .! with the
health of standing camps are quite neglected. Some cores
are remarkable for their utter want of superintendence
on these points, and it will prove little less than
miraculous if there is not an outburst of
some epidemic when rain sets in, and pears and apples
have fully ripened. It will be a week or
more before any breaching guns and mortars
are,,mounted. No estimate of the time in which
results can be attained could have any value
just now till the French and Prussian guile
have tried each other's metal. The ordnance on the forts
is said to be much heavier and much more powerful than
any mounted at Strasburg or the other places which have
suffemd from fire. But the Prussians have unbounded
confidence in their own ordnance.—Times' Corresponclad
at Versailles.

• LORRAINE UNDER GERMAN RULE.
The correspondent of the Telegraph, writing from
Nancy on the 4th inst., gives the following account of the
province occupied by the Germans :—" One begins t°
understand completely the determination of Germany
never to give up the old German Duchies of which she
has now got hold with a grip of iron. From Strasburg
hither, every town and village bristles with German
bayonets ; Prussian gendarmes and South Ger-
man armed police enforce the jurisdiction 01
the conquerors, bringing order and tranquillity with them
wherever they are established—with the exception of s
few recalcitrant hamlets, in which, every now and then,
the misguided inhabitants, prompted by their priests,
fall upon some isolated agent of the law and bar-
barously murder him. Two deplorable cases of that
description have just occurred in the neighbour-
hood of this quaint little town, and a terrible example ie
about to be made in the persons of the respective village
Mayors, who are in custody, and will be shot to-morrow-
A good many Francs-tireurs are scattered over the country
near and around Nancy. They have had the imper-
tinence to write a threatening letter to the Governor,
and sent it in to-day by a peasant—who, poor
fellow, was entirely ignorant of its contents, and
doubtless thought that he was doing a very patriotic deed
in bearing a missive of importance to the redoubtable
chief of the foreign Government organised in the heart of
his native province. As it happens, his father
is a prisoner here, under suspicion of having been
concerned in some shady transaction—a circum-
stance which cruelly augmented his own fears.
However, he was treated kindly by the staff officer to
whom he was brought in, and will be dismissed, as well
as his father, with a warning not to mix himself up again
in political or military matters that do not coneern
The animosity of this population towards the
Germans is exceedingly bitter, and steadilY
maintained ; so that the latter are compelled to be
constantly on the alert, and to manifest a strictness
and severity, in carrying out their precautionary regula-
tions, which are as irksome to themselves as to the inhabi-
tants. Despite the risks, however, of provoking the
authorities beyond their patience, anti-German demon-
strations are immensely in vogue—many of them
utterly in vogue, and unworthy of a people endowed
with self-respect. For instance, there is the regular defiant
promenade of the Nancy Upper Ten' on the Place
Stanislas. You must know that this city is the head'
quarters of lying rumours and `exceptional authentic
informations,' which at all hours penetrate the German
cordon traced round it, and circulate through like wildfire
throughout all classes of local society, generating a pro-
found and exquisite joy that the expansive French cha-
racter is altogether unable to keep to itself. As 9
specimen of these reports, which obtain entire credence,
I may mention two, recounted to me to-day with exulta-
tion by a gentleman of high social position—namely, that
60,000 Prussians had been miserably drowned in the
water defences of Metz, and that 10,000 more
had been blown into the air before Paris. I ventured
to observe that, although the latest telegrams from
both of the two besieged cities had just been officiallY
communicated to me, I had no knowledge what-
ever of these enormous achievements ; upon which mY
informant, with a dramatic and significant smile, replied,
Of course not ; but we know that they have taken place:
I persisted that he must be mistaken, since no
gence respecting those disasters had reached the General
Government. You may think so,' he rejoined,
triumphantly ; but we have our information, upon the
accuracy of which we can depend.' I then asked him
whether he believed that Strasburg had fallen. 011
yes,' he said, 'we believe that, because some of our
concitoyens, who belonged to the garrison, are already
returned on parole; you may be quite sure that we should
not have taken the Prussians' word for it.'"

For the first few days after the surrender of Strasburg
the traffic between that city and Kehl was carried on by
means of a flying bridge across the Rhine. A pontoon:
bridge, however, has now been erected, and thus the chic'
difficulties have been done away with, and the intercourse
which was so long interrupted has been completely re'
established. Though all the materials have long been,.
kept in a state of readiness, it will probably be a fortnight
before the railway bridge is repaired, as the huge fog'
ment of the iron bridge which was blown up lies veil
much in the way.—North German Correspondent.
TILE DIAMOND FIELDS OF THE CAPE. --

The

zglo-African of Tuesday, Aug. 30,.has the following

" We have just received the following from our corre°:
pondent at King Williamstown : Considerable excitement
was occasioned in town last evening by the arrival from
the diamond fields of Mr. Innes with a magnificent gel°,
of 2WI carat-, ; and Mr. Bernard Lee with nine 011°1
diamonds, all without spot or blemish. Messrs. Lee 311"
Innes left Grahamstown by passenger cart this morning.
Arrivals at the fields-.-1,000 per week ! The Aliviii
Observer of Saturday says : Our town was thrown
into great excitement on Wednesday last by the
arrival of Mr. Von Roan from the diamond fields,
who announced the discovery, by Captain Edwards, of a
diamond of 180 carats, valued at £100,000.' Hond bno
purchased 400 diamonds in six days. A real beauty,
pure and bright, without flaws or spots, of 40 carats)
found on the Pneil side. Many more diamonds have been
found."