The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-29 00:00:00

THE FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS.

The Telegrciph remarks that without impugning the
veracity of the French envoy, it suspects that he natu-
rally exagerates to some extent the initiative which
he declares himself to have taken in qeclining
the armistice. He assures the Parisians that
the cession of Tod, Strasburg, and Verdun or Phals-
burg, was demanded as the requisite condition of a fort-
night's truce on the 20th instant. On the 23rd Tout sur-
rendered, and on the 27th the gallant defenders of
Strasburg laid down their arms. Nor is it likely that,
if the Prussians choose to push on the attack with
vigour, either Phalsburg or Verdun will be held by French
garrisons at the date fixed for the expiry of the proposed
armistice. On the other hand, the refusal of M. l'avre
and his colleagues to purchase a truce at
the cost of a surrender which they must
have known to be inevitable is not unreasonable
from the French aspect of the question. The trutL
is' that although the negotiations nominally failed
on the collateral issue whether the garrison of
Strasbourg should be allowed to march out with
tho honours of war, the failure really took place
because the representatives of Prussia and France
could find no common ground for the conclusion
of peace. We are afraid, continues the Telegraph,
that the time is fast coming when France will be com-
pelled to admit that the loss of ALslce and Lorraine is not
too dear a price to pay for peace. But, until that time
has arrived—until• that conviction has been brought home
to the public mind—her Government would be untrue to
it duty if it accepted terms which indirectly involved the
abandonment of the provinces for whose recovery France
is still prepared to fight to "the bitter end."

THE TIDE OF PRUSSIAN VICTORY.

The tide of Prussian victory, remarks the Standavd,
which had appeared for a few days to have experienced
a check, has broken with fresh force over unhappy
France. Strasburg has surrendered, and the roads from
South Germany to Paris and to the south of France
are opened up. Paris itself is invested much more
closely than those who believed in the strength of
its fortifications had imagined; Orleans is occupied by the
enemy, and Tours is threatened. But these successes of
the German arms, important as they are, count for little
in comparison with the glosses which private and inde-
pendent accounts supply to the official stories of popular
enthusiasm. We are told that the soldiers of the regular
army are undisciplined and insubordinate. We hear that
the • Garde Mobile prefers discussion to fighting-, and
thinks it better to denounce and arrest a general than
follow him into battle; and, worst of all, that in every
part of France in which its own strength or tha
cowardice of the rest of the population allows
it to assume supremacy, the Republican mob—
utterly wanting in patriotism as in every noble,
generous, and honest sentiment—" exploits " the
misfortunes of France for the gratification of the meanest
and basest passions. No doubt there is as much exaggera-
tion in these sinister reports as in the dithyrambic procla-
mations and decrees of the Government of National De-
fence. It is necessary to distinguish. There are individuals
who, under pretence of patriotism and love of liberty,
seek the gratification of the most contemptible desires,
and by their conduct prepare a welcome for the Prussians
in the districts in which they rule and rob. But, on the
other hand, in those parts of the country in which
the social and democratic Republic has no par-
tisans' in which the blatant demagogues who
hurried in crowds from Leicester-square and the other
repairer of this class when the Republic was proclaimed
in Paris, and whom the Government of the National
Defence was compelled, from the vice of its origin, to pro-
fess to welcome, find no adherents, an earnest spirit of
patriotism has been exhibited, and an army able to meet
the Prussians could be found if only there were time.