The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-26 00:00:00

PRUSSIA'S TERMS REJECTED.

The Daily News thinks everybody must regret—no
one has need to wonder—that the negotiations for an
armistice between Germany and France have failed.
The plain truth is that France is not yet convinced.
Surely there is nothing surprising in that fact. Tw:,
months ago France counted herself mistress of the
politics and destinies of Europe. In the real world
people are commonly accepted for as much as they
choose to give themselves out—at least, until some
harsh rebuke of fate dispels the illusion. So it was
with France. She .id she was the born Empress of
Europe, and Europe was content to acknowledge her su-
premacy. We cannot wonder that she finds it difficult
to bow the head all at once to a decree which deposes
her, she hardly yet understands how or why, from her
sovereign place. She cannot yet believe that the Ger-
mans have strength or daring enough to dictate terms
to France. We fancy Jules Favre would himself
probably have accepted the armistice, of which,
indeed, the conditions do not appear to have
been extravagantly severe. Germany demanded
only to be allowed to remain in such a position that if the
negotiations for peace were broken off she should be in no
worse a condition relatively to France than she is at the
present moment. The idea that she could consent to rest
upon her arms, and do nothing, while General
Trochu was drilling a new army, and General
Uhrich was repairing the breaches in the defences
of Strasburg, could only, as Count Bismarck
said in his recent circulai, be " founded on the
erroneous supposition " that the Ministers of the King
of Prussia klack military and political judgment, or are
indifferent to the interests of Germany." The Germans,
it appears, required conditions precisely necessary to
maintain the status quo.

The peace negotiations at Ferrieres, the Standard
observes, have, as we anticipated, completely failed.
The terms M. Jules Favre took back with him to Paris
on Thursday were at once, and indignantly, rejected
by the Government of the National Defence.
Nominally its decision amounted to nothing more than a
refusal to accept the armistice Prussia had condescended
to offer. Practically it was a refusal to accept
the conditions upon which Prussia is at present
disposed to grant peace. Count Bismarck and
M. Jules Fevre did not spend two days in discuss-
ing such questions as the legitimacy of the
Provisional Government, and the terms upon which
Prussia might afford to wait for the meeting of a Consti-
tuent Assembly, practically convoked to give its assent to
a treaty that the Provisional Government had agreed to.
They discussed the conditions of peace. M. Jules Favre heard
from Count Bismarck what the Chancellor of the North
German Confederation declared to our corsespondent a
fortnight ago, and what, some days before this inter-
view, he had stated in two circulars to the diplomatic re-
presentatives of Germany—theresolution, or, as the procla-
mation of the Government at Tours calls it, the desire
of Prussia to reduce France to the rank of a second-rate
Power by wresting from her Alsace and Lorraine. If the
Government of the National Defence was not prepared to
consent to this dismemberment, it could not, of course, agree
to any armistice except one which would have allowed it
to continue its preparations, whilst the enemy, on
on the other hand, was prevented from reaping
the
fruits of his victories—an armistice which, it is
needless to say, the 14ruselian Government would
not, indeed could not, gr'ant. The Provisional Go-
vernment refused the armistice Prussia offered, be-
cause it would not accept the peace which the con-
clusion of the armistice would have bound it to sign.
In the terms of the armistice there is nothing that a
Government ready to make peace upon the conditions
explained by the conquerors could object to. In the
position
the Germans now hold it must be allowed that
the conditions they put to the armistice were issgebilia,

A telegram from Berlin states that Colonel Gram-
mont, the Duke's brother, has arrived at Munich as
prisoner. He lost one arm at Woerth.
The French Government has bought in England four
steam fire-engines at the price of £4OO each. They are
intended. for the prompt extinction of the fires which the
bombardment may occasion in Paris. A telegraphic
service will connect the different fire-stations.