The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-08 00:00:00

LOUIS BLANC ON ENGLISH OPINION.

Louis Blanc, immediately on his arrival in Paris, ad-
dressed a letter to the Temps, which the editor, M.
Nefftzer, endorses as highly important. M. Blanc says
he has just arrived from England. Public opinion in
this country up to this time has been, with few exceptions,
in favour of Prussia ; but during the last few days, even
before the Republic was proclaimed, there has been a re-
vulsion, of which he says :
" I have myself received testimony in the shape of nume-
rous denials of the charges of partiality which I myself
brought against the people of Great Britain. Some of
my correspondents contented themselves with declaring
their sympathy for France ; others professed warm admi-
ration for the firmness with which she had supported her
reverses ; and these writers proved their sincerity by an
enclosure for our wounded. Added to this, many English
politicians perceive clearly the monstrous pretensions that
Prussia considers the legitimate consequence of her suc-
cess. They remember how cynically the Prussian
Government devoured its Danish prey in the very
face of indignant England. They remember that
the Prussian Chambers justified the annexation of
Hanover on the ground that the right of conquest
sanctioned the acquisition of foreign states, with-
out consulting the people. All these considerations induce
thoughtful Englishmen to ask whether an immense Ger-
man Empire, guided by such sentiments, would not be a
standing menace to all Europe, including England. It is
in our interest to encourage this reaction of public
opinion in our favour ? Those who doubt the answer
must be ignorant and blind. Hence our line of
conduct is clearly traced. Just before I left
England I received a letter from a Liberal
member of the House of Lords complaining of the bit-
terness and ill ivilrshown in some parts of France towards
his countrymen. If this be true, the Republican Govern-
ment should discourage such a disposition. Oue of the
principal causes of England's inclination to side with
Prussia has been the aggressive character given to the
war by Napoleon. The Liberal party is, consequently,
the most against us. Let us, therefore, undeceive them.
The enthusiasm with which the Republic was proclaimed
ought to prove to the English that a wide gulf separates
France from the Empire. Let the Republicans
tell the world that Republican France did not desire this
war. We leave the right of conquest to tyrants. Inter-
national law, as we understand it, would put an end to all
international hatreds. The character of the struggle is
changed. The Empire is fallen, and France is on the de-
fensive. The bonabarders of the heroic town of Stras-
bourg,' the King of Prussia, if he claims Alsace and Lor-
raine, after solemnly declaring that he fought against
Napoleon, not the people.: these are the aggressors. We
have our country to save, and Europe will not see with a
hard heart children dying in defence of their mother.

LOUIS BLANC.

PARIS UNDER THE REPUBLIC.

Paris, to all outward appearance, is perfectly quiet;
but there is a strong under-current of excite-
ment and agitation, and no man can feel certain
what the next day or hour may bring forth. For .six
hours, from nine till three, I was a good deal abroad
in the better inhabited parts of the city on both sides
of the water, and saw nothing but what is seen in
ordinary times, except men with soldiers' arms and
equipments, but in plain clothes. Even the Na-
tional Guards, who were marching in bodies on
duty, had in many instances a considerable part
of their number in this hybrid equipment. The
usual • force that maintains order in Paris, the
sergens-de-ville, had quite disappeared ; but it will prob-
ably be seen again—the same birds witli different feathers.
I hear they are attiring them in old 1848 uniforms, and
will then change their beats—that is to say, those who
were at the Madeleine will be sent to the Bastille, those
who did duty at the Luxemburg will be transferred to
Montmartre, and so on throughout the city, in order that
their familiar and unpopular faces may not lead to their
recognition and to consequent rows. As yet, considering
the odium attaching to them, they have got off
very well. The papers do not confirm the
alleged killing of several of them on Sunday
afternoon, and although one was seen in
the water, he was, perhaps, got out. A number of them
were disarmed, and their swords and cocked hats
thrown into the Seine. It is reported that the
Gardes de Paris, also an unpopular corps, have been
disarmed, which would be a foolish measure, since they
are good troops, and might be useful if it came to a
siege. But will it come to a siege? That is the ques-
tion which numbers ask, and foreigners especially
make the inquiry, because they do not feel certain
that the effervescence of these last days must necessarily
be followed by a tenacious defence. When all the
troops and Nationals, and even the armed police, are
on the ramparts, who, it is asked, will protect Paris
against the dangerous classes, on the alert for plunder,
and by no means destitute of arms, which they are quite
as likely to employ against their fellow-citizens as against
the common foe? Such are the apprehensions that suggest
themselves to reflecting men, and daily more strongly con-
vince them of the uselessness of defending Paris and of
the internal dangers such defence would be likely to en-
tail. There has been much declamation about this pro-
mised defence, and we have been told again and again
that France will rise " like one man," and sweep the
invader from her surface. But what her brave armies
have not done her raw levies and citizen soldiers will
hardly accomplish. That Paris can beat off the Prus-
sians is no more probable than that the armies said to be
forming on the Rhone and Loire will be able to revenge
the reverses of MacMahon and Bazaine,—Paris Corre-
spondent of Times.

The new Knight of the Garter, in the room bf
Lord Clarendon, is to be the Marquis of Westminster.
Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone yesterday paid a visit to
the Workmen's International Exhibition at the Agricul-
tural Hall. The distinguished visitors remained in the
building nearly two hours.
THE FIRE IN THE STRAND. —Last night Mr. S. F.
Langham, deputy coroner for Westminster, received in-
formation that the remains of the missing gentleman,
who lodged at the hotel in Cecil-street, whic was de-
stroyed by fire on Surday morning, had been discovered.

OUR COTEIVIPORA_RIES—This Morning

THE FRENCH CIRCULAR.

The Times asks whether a disastrous peace is under all
circumstances dishonourable—whether there is not some-
thing noble and even heroic in resignation to an
inevitable evil. Indeed, M. Jules Favre
him-
self does not seem quite confident that the
population of Paris and the whole of France share his
resolution. It would be terrible to. find, after all, that
the people are 'not quite ready to go the lengths of
a resistance that might appear suicidal. There is
nothing so unsteady for a basis of sound,
rational policy as the " humour of a people. M.
Jules Favre and his colleagues of the Provisional
Government have no other guarantee of the earnestness
of the people's mind than the mere clamour of an excit-
able multitude. The Republic untertakes the defence
of Paris, but it was the Empire that prepared and
organised it. The means on which the new rulers depend
are those which their predecessors procured—those very
men whom the Republicans charge with treason to the
country, to whose guilty mismanagement they impute the
disorders in the army, and the consequent collapse of the
nation. The Empire, the Times thinks, rendered it
impossible fore the Republic to continue the war, and
statesmen who can no longer wage war ought to
know how to make peace, how to purchase it even
at an exorbitant—if it be an unavoidable price. If
M. Jules Favre wishes to know how determined
Paris really is to fight, let him not form his
•estimate upon the noisy crowds of the Boulevards or
the suburbs. Let him put the question to the poor
stragglers now coming in by thousands, the miser-
able remnants of the twice-defeated armies of MacMahon.
If out of these he can make a " resolute army "—if these
are not aware of their defeat, and if they long for a new
appeal to the fortune of war, then, indeed, it may be
hoped that either "Paris may save France," or that
" France may rise and avenge Paris."
The Daily News says that the new French Govern-
ment has delivered its ultimatum to Germany and to
Europe. M. Jules Favre, the able leader of the
Liberal Opposition to the Empire and the war, whom
the -Republic has called to the control of its foreign
relations, has issued a circular to the French diplo-
matic agents, stating the view which the new
Government takes of the war. M. Favre and his col-
leagues are themselves individually and collectively free
from all responsibility for • the outrage on civilisation
in which the war began. Tbey had the cour-
age to stand up when France was cheering the
Emperor in his mad career of ambition, and to
protest against the war as unjust and needless.
By one of those strange surmises of which even
French history has but few, M. Favre and his
colleagues have been called to power for the very purpose
of carrying on the war which they so consistently de-
nounced and oppose:l. For them, however, the situation
is changed. The war has failed, and the Empire that made
it is overthrown. Instead of the triumphant promenade
to Berlin, it has been turned into a march of the
enemy on Paris ; and for Paris and France the war
of unjust aggression and aggrandisement has be-
ceme
.a war of patriotic resistance and self-
defence. To patriotic Frenchmen, therefore, the
whole aspect of affairs has changed. France did
wrong : she has suffered for that wrong ; and in
suffering she believes that she has expiated it.
The Emperor represented her aggressive mood,
humiliation and defeat changed that mood to one of de-
fence, and with her change of mood has come a change cf
government. For France the Emperor and the ImperL.l
system are the scapegoats of her sin, the offering which
has atoned for the wrong, and has now sanctified the
struggle it has brought. But M. Favre evidently believes
that Germany and Europe will see the change as they
see it. He and his Ministry are not responsible
for the war, and they believe that in cashiering
the Emperor France herself has got rid of her
responsibility. M. Favre throws the responsibility
of continuing the war on the King of Prussia.
The new Government will yield nothing, concede
nothing, " not one inch of our territory, nor one stone
of our fortresses." It desires peace, but will not move
an-inch to get it. The King of Prussia may leave off if
he pleases, or may keep on—may march to Paris or may
march back to Germany, but he shall get nothing from
France.