The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-20 00:00:00

TIM, ANTICIPATED BOMBARDMENT:

The special correspondent of the Telegraph sends the
following from Frankfort, dated December 19:—You may
rely on my statement when I tell you that some recent
reports from Versailles about the coming bombard-
ment of Paris are erroneous. There can be no bombard-
ment at present. It would take a month to render it
possible. The German chiefs have believed so strongly
in " short commons " and their effects, that
nothing is ready save the batteries. The guns
already brought up do not exceed in number 500, and
most of them are only 21-pounders, which would be useless
against such forts as Mont Val6rien. If the besiegers
laid siege in detail to all the forts, such small ordnance
might prove effective, as it did at Strasburg; but for a
bombardment they must have gams equal in calibre to
those mounted in the French forts, or the bat-
teries would be knocked to pieces half an hour
after they opened fire. The forts have fronts
armed with twenty to twenty-four guns, mostly 70-poun-
ders, of much greater range than the Krupp 24-pounders ;
and, with the exception of Mont Val6rien, each fort is
covered by the fire of two others, so that batteries opening
on any one fort would be exposed to a concentrated fire
from 60 or 70 guns. It is generally felt that the throwing
of a few shells at long range into Paris would be
absolutely useless the fact being also intelligible
that the two monster guns lately mounted on Valdrein
can reach Versailles. The Prefecture, the residence of
the King, is under fire from the advanced works of that
fort, and shells from the main work have fallen near the
Marly Aqueduct, a distance of more than four miles. The
French have lately constructed works a mile
nearer to the German lines, and moved forward
the same guns ; the new works are only four and a quar-
ter miles from the Prefecture, the Chateau, the Hotel des
Reservoirs, and the Ye ry centro of Versailles, and the
range of ie gm ,s is known to be 41- miles. From the
ocular demonstration of a trustworthy informant, I am
able to assure you that four or five days since the guns
intended for the bombardment were still in the great
artillery park at Villacoublay, except a comparative few
which had been removed to Ile mounted on the German
works of defence against possible sorties.

Regarding the working of Mr. Baxter's purchase
department. a correspondent writes to us :—" -V cooking
galley was lately put on board' H.M.S. Wolverene at
Sheerness, but on the ship's way down Channel, en route
for Plymouth it was found that it was too small for the
wants of the crew, and on arriving at the last-named pore'
an application was made for a larger one. It will scarcely
be credited that there was none in store, and the only way
by which the Wolverene could be sent to sea was by render-
ing another ship useless for the time being. The alley
of the Pallas (one of our armour-clad first-class reserve
ships) had. to be taken out and fitted into the other vessel.

OUR CO iIdii.PORARRL;---This

THE RESIGNATION OF MB. BRIGHT.
The Times thus alludes to the announced resignation of
the President of the Board of Trade I—The country will
hear with regret that Mr. Bright has been obliged to .re-
sign his office. They will lament the loss time sustained by
the country, but they will be equally giik ved on Mr.
Bright's account. The late reports of his illness seemed
to hold out a promise of his recovery within a moderate
time, and we have all been hoping that there was at
least a definite prospect of his being re Stored to health.
His present decision must, we fear, be regarded as evidence
that these hopes must be disappointed. It will be readily
understood that Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues have
done their utmost to induce Mr. Bright to spare himself
and them so unwelcome a decision. The temporary
loss of his services, indeed, was a misfortune:
but both his colleagues and the country would have pre..
ferred to wait any reasonable length of time if this
separation could have been avoided. Retirement, how-
ever, is thought necessary for the recovery of Mr. Bright's
health, and we can well understand that to a man of his
energy the mere fact of his nominally holding an office,
however completely .his colleagues might relieve him of a
responsibility, would be a constant obstacle to the
mental repose he needs. A complete release from
care offers, at all events, the best opportunity for com-
plete recovery, and Mr. Bright carries with him into' re-
tirement the hopes as well as the good wishes •of his
63untrymen. He has been withdrawn from public life
before the commencement of the Session, and at the
most momentous crisis of the century, The Ministry
hay e peculiar cause' to lament his loss ; for in the
difficult decisions they have to make they can
ill afford to dispense with the support of Mr. Bright's
authority. It is satisfactory to be formally assured that
"on all political grounds, whether of foreign or domestic
policy," he is still at one with the Aministration, so that,
although he has been compelled to sever his official con-
nection with them, they ss.ay still claim the support of his
personal influence.
Englishmen, remarks the Daily News, without distinc-
tion of party, will share the regret with which we an-
nounce the resignation of Mr. Bright. Brief as his active
Ministerial career has been, it has been fruitful of
results. He has left his mark upon most of the great
measures which have been passed by the Ministry to
which he belonged. The Irish Church Bill had in its
main features been foreshadowed by him in op-
position. Some of the most important clauses of the
Irish Land Bill embody a scheme which is known by his
name, and which, long denounced as involving Commu-
nism and spoliation, was supported in the House
of Lords by the Marquis of Salisbury, and
was the only part of the measure which was
passed in that assembly without a division. His name
was a tower of strength to the Government during his
absence. No doubt in the coining Session his
former colleagues may count confidently upon his
support as an independent member. Possibly the time
may come when restored health may enable Mr. Bright
to return to the Ministry. In the meantime it is the
weaker for his absence. Its original construction left
the Radical or advanced Liberal party insufficiently
represented in the Cabinet. Subsequent changes
have not tended to correct that fault. Mr. F orster,
it is true,' has been admitted to the Cabinet ; but
Mr. Forster's elevation only balances, if it balances, con-
cessions to the more Conservative section of the Liberal
party. The new President of the Board of Trade should
be a man of varied and ample official experience, and of
tested administrative capacity. We venture to say that
if the incipient divergence between the advanced
Liberal party and the Government is to
be prevented from widening into alienation, he should
bring into the Cabinet the weight not merely of achieved
Parliamentary position, but of declared sympathy with
those newer and larger ideas of policy which it is the
special mission of the present Government to reconcile
with old forms and venerable institutions.

The Telegraph says : Take this man for all in all, and
granting occasional defects of temper, we cannot wonder
that his countrymen regard him with honest pride. Every
one knows how he was born and educated, and how he
became one of the very few leading Englishmen.
As an orator, he has no living superior.
The Premier, and possibly one or two more,
may contest with him absolute pre-eminence
in the faculty of public speech ; but when the
circumstances of his career are reckoned up, the name of
Mr. Bright will remain as that of one of the greatest
orators who ever adorned the House of Commons. On
the other hand, we should doubt whether Mr. Bright, as
an administrator, was the equal of men intellectually far
inferior to him. We doubt if on many occasions he did
justice to his opponents. Had he done so, and •
seen both sides of the question with equal force,
would he have been the great Reformer he has
proved himself through all the incidents of his active life ?
Upon another point Mr. Bright was singularly deficient,
and that was his appreciation of foreign politics. He did
not thoroughly understand the Continent. Again,
in matters connected with our military and naval
armaments he was a very unsafe guide. To
the last he persisted in supposing that men
would act from the same motives as himself.
Just before the outbreak of the Russian war, there
is no doubt that Mr. Bright and his friends did unutter-
able harm by leading the Russian Emperor astray as to
the intention and wishes of the ..English people. But,
when we have made these and all other drawbacks,
where shall we turn to find his counterpart
or equal? May many years of happiness and tranquillity
be his, although he has now retired from public life !
The middle classes of this country may search for many a.
long day before they find so true a representative as John

THE ROMANCE OF WAR.
The Morning Advertiser thinks that from the moment
the first step was taken towards Paris from Sedan. the
Genius of King William deserted him. Yet how tempting
was the promise that drew him on ! The armies of
France were conquered; the greater part prisoners,
the rest demoralised, scattered, and put to flight.
Accounts from Paris, and the previous character and de-
meanour of that city, encouraged the Germans in the
belief that at the very sight of their victorious legions,
and at the first sound of their trumpets Paris would
surrender herself a graceful and graceless but facile prey.
But the King and his advisers made a wrong calculation.
Paris has astonished him, them, the world, and herself.
She is stronger than ever, and probably provisioned for a
period that will last long after the powers of
endurance of the besieging army have commenced to
fail. What a wonderful story what a romance of
history and war ! It is possible that both Emperors—
for such we may call the King of Prussia now—
may be prisoners in each other's territory. He of Prussia
may possibly ere long stand in a position similar to that
of Napoleon 111. after his first defeats, with a victorious
nation closing round him for the death-grapple; and with
revolution in Fatherland. For the French, _disputing
the advance of the Prussians mile by mile, and
yielding only to stand again at bay, strewing the
fields and roads with their own and German
corpses, have by their desperate and prolonged resistance
brought it to this, that the German armies are sensibly
diminishinc, and being worn away by constant engage-
' ments. It probable that the Germans cannot fire a
shot into karis. Their loss from the Owns of the
forts must have been constant. They can bring up
no guns to silence the French sailors' and marines' can-
nonade. The roads, too, are heavy in France at this
period. At least two months ago, Dr. Russell spoke
ominously of his Crimean experience, of bad roads when „
heavy guns and supplies had to be brought up. But what
were six miles at Balakla,va, compared, with three hundred
now? It is a terrible and significant fact that the last
levy or ban of the Landwehr has been made in Germany
to supply the ravages of war in the German ranks.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—One Shilling Day, Monday,
December 19, 1870.—Admission by season tickets, 1,435 ;
ditto on payment,
.474 ; total visitors, 1,909.
The Court Journal understands that the Royal
marriage will take place early in March.
The Prince of Wale's rectory of St. Mewan, Corn-
wall, has become vacant by the death of the Rev. R. T.
Wilson Taylor. It is worth about £3OO a year.
Miioza Kaglon-Bey, the well-known Tartar pro-
fessor and Orientialist, died at St. Petersburgli on the
9th of this month.
A ten-mile foot-race was run in the City Grounds,
Manchester, on Saturday, in the presence of several
thousands of persons. There were three competitors, the
winner being George Hazell, of London.
EXETER AND THE EDUCATION ACT.—At a
meeting of the Exeter Town Council yesterday morning,
it was resolved to make application to the Education
Department for a School Board to be formed for that
city ; with a further request that the number of such
Loard should not exceed fifteen. There is already school
accommodation of 3,600 children, hut only 3,000 attend.
Accommodation for 5,000 will have to be provided.

FORTHCOMING TRIALS.—A. contemporary says ;
An action for libel and slander, by the widow of the late
Colonel Pownall against his two sisters, will be tried
before the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, on Wed
nesday, Sir John Karslake, Mr. Philbrick, and Mr.
Straight representing the plaintiff, and Mr. Serjeant 3al-
lantine and Mr. Bennett the defendants. It probably
will be remembered that the Misses Pownall cha--;ed
their sister-in-law with poisoning her husband, and ca used
• an inquest to be held upon his body, at which it was con-
clusively proved that the decea,sl officer died 'from
natural causes, and the jury so found. The great 'rich-
borne case will positively come on in the early pw t of
1871, and is sure to engage a large share of public atten-
tion. Those who espouse the cause of the plaintiff are very
sanguine of success, and declare that they are in a position
to make out an uuwwerable case,