The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-30 00:00:00

THE FIRST PRISONERS OF WAR.

In one of the letters of the Daily News written from
Metz, July 26th, an account is given of the arrival of two
German officers who were taken prisoners by a recon-
noitring party. The writer says :—" The Messirs, as the
inhabitants of this place are called, have had to-day a
most agreeable excitement. On coming out of my hotel
this morning, I found that there was quite a crowd
assembled opposite the Hotel de l'Europe. Of course I
thought that another English journalist had been cap-
tured, and felt rather shy of making inquiries for fear
of meeting with a similar fate myself. However,
I soon learnt that this time it was not
the Press, but Prussia, which had furnished the
victims. It would seem that the prisoners belonged to a
vedette of the Prussian army. They were surrounded by
a party of French light horse, engaged in reconnoitring,
preparatory to the French advance. I suspect, although,
of course, none of the officers here will allow it exactly,
that the captors were quite as much surprised at their
good fortune as the captured at their ill-luck. An
admiring crowd is contemplating the uniforms
of the prisoners, being trusted in the yard of
the Hotel ,de l'Europe, a process which seems
to give them the keenest delight. One of the said
uniforms, which I have had the distinguished
honour of handling, is of light blue cloth, faced with red,
with perfectly plain silver buttons. On it was pinned the
bronze military medal of the Grand Duchy of Baden, at-
tached by a yellow riband, on which was the clasp for the
Sadowa campaign with "1866 " upon it. On the red
collar was the gold crown and star, indicating the rank
of the wearer. The medal had a laurel crown, and the
device " Fiir Ehre "—" For valour "—on it. The pri-
soners have been extremely well treated by the French,
they are lodged at the best hotel in the place, and every
comfort (except their liberty) afforded them. Baths have
been sent for their use, and a tailor from the Bon
Pasteur " store is now with them that the officers may
have plain clothes to walk about in without attracting
attention, as soon as they receive their parole. Nothing
has been obtained from the prisoners as to the move-
ments or strength of the Prussians. Tbey at once declined
to answer all questions, telling the French officer in
charge of them that they were quite sure that if he in
his turn were to be made prisoner, he would be the
last to give any information which could possibly be of
service to the enemies of his country. To this dignified
and soldierlike reply there could, of course, be no answer,
and the French officer in charge turned to neutral sub-
jects. He learnt that the destruction of the bridge be-
tween Kehl and Strasburg was owing to a misunder-
standing, or rather a mis-reading of the telegram. The
engineer officer on duty at Kehl received a despatch
from Berlin " Mine the bridge across the Rhine."
As the bridge had been mined for several days, he
naturally concluded that the telegram meant that the
mine was to be lighted; he put the electric battery to
work, and the bridge, one of the noblest engineering
works in Europe, is now—at least on the German side—a
heap of ruins. The work of destruction had barely been
completed before he received a second despatch from
Berhn, " On no account fire the mine until further orders."
His dismay can be imagined.

COUNT MOLTKE.—General Count Moltke's dis-
positions are now extending to Southern Germany, as is
shewn by the successful blowing up of the bridge over the
Rhine at Kehl. The General has become more taciturn
than ever, and as this is well known scarcely anybody ever
speaks to him, but everybody waits until he speaks.
People here are so accustomed to his peculiarities and
solitary habits, evidently the result of constant
pondering over his duties, that they even feign
not to see him when he passes. Yet he can express him-
self very fluently and vcry clearly on occasion, as I my-
self can testify, having heard him once explain the topo-
graphy of the seat of the Danish war. Some few days ago
the tacit convention was broken by an individual who
claims to be one of the grandees of the Bourse. " Well,"
he said on meeting the General in the street, " how are
things getting on, General ?" " Thank you, sir," replied
the General, "my rye crops are getting on beautifully,
but my potatoes are very backward." The Bourse gentle-
man disappeared.—pailv News Correspondent at Berlin.

TALK OF PEACE.—The Daily News Paris corres-
pondent sent a strange paragraph yesterday : While " dread-
ful note of preparation" is alone sounded by the organs of pub-
licity very extraordinary news reaches me, from which I
inferthat serious hopes of peace are yet entertained by the
magnates of the world. Lord Lyons has has been many hours
to-day with the Duke de Gramont—indeed for the last
week the British Ambassador has almost lived with him—
so assiduous have been his endeavours to prevent the
chassepots and mitrailleuses from doing their work of
slaughter. Now wonderful as it must appear in the midst
of all the symptoms we see, I am told the Emperor is
hesitating. He has, according to most reliable informa-
tion which has reached me, been brought to
fear the consequences of a coalition against
him. He may, perhaps. dissimulate yet, and
deceive the diplomatists who are negotiating
with him as to his real intentions, but I have
no hesitation in saying that at this moment the Cabinets
of Europe are under a very strong impression that there
will be no war. A piece of news indirectly bearing on
the rumour of to-day giving currency to the possibility of
peace is found in the Monitear de la Meurthe, which speaks
of the abdication of the King of Prussia in favour of his
son as on the cards.

THE ONE CENTRE OF GERMAN DISCONTENT.—
In one province alone there exists a class of " Irrecon-
enables? In Hanover a few noblemen have been arrested
on the charge of high treason. Though the large majority
of Hanoverians have long espoused the national cause,
with which Prussia is identified, some brave but romantic
men remain attached to the former Government, and will
act up to their convictions. Besides the two Hano-
verian noblemen arrested at Weimar and Strelitz,
three more have been detected and handed over to the
judicial authorities at Hildesbeim, Bremerhefen, and
Osnabruck. The names of the prisoners are Herr von
Hartwig, Herr von Issendorf (both captains in the late
Hanoverian army), and Herr von Bremer, late Privy
Councillor in the service of King George. A Countess
Kielmansegge has been likewise arrested on her estate,
Blumenau, near Harburg, her husband having, it is said,
effected his escape just in time. The prisoners are all
said to be persons of the highest respectability. It seems
to be one of the melancholy laws of history that
fallen grandeur should drag down others with
it. When ascending the English Throne the
Hanover dynasty had for a period to wage war against
many a brave Jacobite nobleman ; hi like manner,
its own adherents, though fewer in number and, in
accordance with the altered character of the times, far
less dangerous than the Scottish cavaliers, are now
opposed by a dynasty that has a still more recent title to
greatness. It is asserted, though I do not know with
what right, that the prisoners have been in correspen-
deuce with the French Government on the subject of a
landing on the North Se% If they counted upon a
popular rising, the futility of their designs may be per-
ceived by a glance at the Hanover press. The papers, of
all shades and hues of opinion, the uelphic not excepted,
protest against the misdirected loyalty of the accused.
Times Berlin Correspondent.
NO RESPECT TO PERSONS,—A special of the

Telegraph, who has reached Frankfort, gives some inte-
resting details of the conscription. At St. Goarshausen
some hundreds of horses, 'delivered by their owners to the
authorities in virtue of the Governmental requisition,
were collected by the river-side under the care of a few
dragoons. Their immediate destination, I learned, was
Coblentz, where they are to be classed as " reserve
remounts." All the best horses in the country have
been called in, to the great inconvenience of their
proprietors. The Prussian system is, as you know,
unsparing of persons. Let me give you one instance, out
of the many that have come under my notice, of the grim
impartiality with which it lays hold of every class. Many
of your readers will remember the tall, good-looking, and
courteous proprietor of the Hotel du Nord, in Cologne—a
prosperous, wealthy man, quite a personage in Rhineland,
an excellent linguist, and the head of a large commercial
enterprise, which he has hitherto successfully man-
aged in person. On Saturday last he consigned
eight of his best carriage horses to.. the army service
and on Monday he himself was draughted into a
Cuirassier regiment. Here is a man taken away from the
conduct of his own interests and from his family, com-
pelled to sacrifice his substance, and to risk his life on the
battle-field. Of course his case is not one whit the more
deplorable than that of the humblest peasant snatched
from his field or his vineyard—both jeopardise their
existences for the Fatherland ; but the former
outside that grand equalising stake, suffers actually
a greater material loss than the latter, even
taking into account their relative positions.
In the towns, many of the shops are being shut up; for
their occupants are obliged to assume needle-gun and
helmet, and there is nobody to keep the business going.
The hotels are becoming forlorn of waiters—a deprivation
that is mitigated in its severity by the fact that but few
guests are left to require the ministration of those
obliging polyglottists. The exodus of foreigners from
Germany during the past week been something
astonishing. On arrivinc, here about midday I found
the office of our excellent Consul, Mr. Kuchen, be-
leagured by English and French subjects —the latter hav-
ing been placed under his protection—the enfans perdus
of summer wanderers, who had lingered on in the neigh-
bouring watering-places. hoping against hope that " every-
thing would be set straight—England would never allow
France and Prussia to fight about nothing." What
with a tremendous run upon passports, endless in-
terrogatories respecting " lines of route," despairing
appeals for money advances—as bills upon London are
"not to be done" just now in Frankfort—and the innu-
merable, persevering, and long-winded claims which
bewildered British subjects deem they have an inborn
right to inflict upon her Majesty's representatives abroad,
poor Mr. Kuchen would have been badgered, coaxed, and
worried out of his senses by this time, were he not one
of the most good-natured, as well as industrious officials
on the F. 0. list.

ON THE RHINE.—At Coblenz (writes a corre-
spondent of the Pall Mall Gazette) a sense of security is
so great that not a native resident family has left, or
made a move to leave, and the future is awaited with
calmness and confidence. Business is of course almost
entirely suspended from the tremendous drafts made on
those by whom business is carried on. To begin at
the bottom, my barber is gone. My tailor yesterday
came to wish me good-bye in his uniform. " I go," he
said, "to Mainz ; there will soon be an end of me." This
was accompanied by a significant movement of the
finger towards the heart. " How about your wife,"
I asked. " Ach, Got ! she will be lucky if she gets
gets a cup of gold water and a crust of bread." My
daily supply of artificial ice is stopped ; the man who
made it has gone, the man who delivered it has gone, and
my "Eis-schrank " has become anincumbrance. The man
who used to drive me to Ems and who whistled all the way
and cracked his whip as an accompaniment has gone one
way, his horses another ; they will never meet again.
A widow woman who depended on her two sons to
carry on her trade saw them off. As the train moved off,
she turned round with white and quivering lips, and said,
" Oh, that I had six sons, that I might send them all !"
This is not a weak attempt at fine writing, but what I
heard with my ears, and I am writing from a province
said to be infected with French proclivities.

IMPERIAL PA EILIAT4E

HOUSE OF LORDS.- FRIDAY.

The Lord Chancellor took his seat on the woolsack at
five o'clock.

THE SECRET TREATY.

Tho Earl of MALMESBURY asked the noble earl opposite
whether he could give any further information as to the
treaty published the other day in the Times.
Earl GRANVILLE said a dispatch had been placed in his
hands, received by Count Bernstoff, from Berlin, which
he would read to their lordships as translated.
From Count Bismarck, communicated July 28.

" You will communicate to Lord Granville the follow-
ing, reserving a further written explanation :—The draft of
the treaty published in the Times contains one of the nume-
rous propositions which have been made to us since the
Danish conflict up to recent times, through official and
non-official French agents, in order to bring about a treaty
between Prussia and France for objects of mutual aggran-
disement. I send to you the tenor of another proposition
made to us in June, 1866, also following an offensive and
defensive alliance, according to which France promised us
the aid of 30,000 men against Austria, and an aggrandise-
ment of six to eight millions, for the cession of a tract of
land between the Rhino and the Moselle. The impossi-
bility for me to agree to such proposition was certainly
clear to everybody with the sole exception of the
French diplomacy. After we had refused to agree
to this or other propositions in June, 1866, the
French Government began to speculate on our
defeat in the profit it might derive from it, and to prepare
it diplomatically. Since the "patriotic fancy" of M.
Rouher, France never ceased to lead us into temptation
by propositions at the expense of Germany and Belgium.
For the sake of France I kept the secret, and treated the
propositions in a dilatory manner. When the moremodest
French designs with reference to Luxembourg had been
counteracted by events which are publicly known, the
now extensive propositions embracing Belgium and
Southern Germany were renewed. It is at this time,
1867, that Count Benedetti's manuscript was communi-
cated to me. That the French Ambassador should have
drawn up this draft with his own hand, and repeatedly
conferred with me on the subject, without the consent of
his Sovereign, is impossible. The different phases of
French discontentment and warlike inclination which we
experienced from 1866 up to the Belgian railway question,
coincided with the inclination or reluctance the French
agents expected to meet with on my part regarding these
transactions. The final conviction that no terri-
torial aggrandisement for France could be obtained,
with our co-operation, has undoubtedly confirmed the
resolution to gain it by war against us. I have some rea-
to believe that if this publication had not taken place,
France would have proposed to ns after the completion
of her war and of our preparations for war, to enforce
Count Benedetti's propositions at the head of the two
armies against unarmed Europe, that is to say, to con-
clude peace at the expense of Belgium. The draft of the
treaty which was in our hands, and which Lord A. Loftus
has seen, is, from beginning to end, including corrections,
in Count Benedetti's own handwriting, well known to the
English Ambassador. If the French Cabinet deny ten-
dencies for which it has constantly tried to obtain our con-
sent since 1864, by varying promises and demands, this
seems very natural under present political circumstances.
(Signed) " BISMARCK."

Yesterday M. Lavalette had made a statement which he
would read to their Lordships from a dispatch in which it
was embodied :

From Earl Granville to Lord Lyons.
"Foreign Office, July 29, 1870.

"My Lord,—The French Ambassador called on me on
the 28th instant, for the purpose of communicating to me
the purport of a dispatch which had been addressed to his
Excellency by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs on
the subject of the pretended Secret Treaty, published in
the Times. In that despatch, which M. Lavalette was
good enough to read to me, the Duc de Gramont observed
that the very form in which the treaty was drawn up, and
the terms in which it is couched, sheaved clearly whence
it came, and deceived no one. Those who have watched
the course of European affairs since the accession to office
of M. de Bismarck, are aware from which side come
those suggestions which are now attributed to France.
Ever since the year 1865 M. de Bismarck has constantly
endeavoured to carry out his own plans by endeavouring
to turn the attention of the French Government to terri-
torial aggrandisement. He told M. de Lefebve de
Behaine, the Charge de Affairs at Berlin, that Prussia
would willingly recognise the right of France to extend
her borders wherever the French language is spoken,
thereby indicating certain Swiss cantons beside Belgium.
These overtures the Government of the Empire declinld
to entertain. The following year, immediately
after the battle of Sadowa, similar proposals were
made at Brunn to M. de Behaine, and on that
occasion Count Bismarck told me that the course of
France was clear. The French Government should go to
the King of Belgium and explain that the inevitable
increase to Prussian territory and influence was most
disquieting to their security, and that the sole means of
avoiding these issues would be to meet the destinies of
Belgium and France by bonds so close that the Belgian
monarchy, whose autonomy would, however, be respected,
would become in the north a real bulwark and safety to
France. Further, respecting a conversation with Count
Bismarck, in July, 1866, the French Government informs
M. Gramont that he reported nothing new in stating that
M. de Bismarck is of opinion that compensation should
be sought by the French in Belgium, and offered to come
to an understanding on the subject. The Government
of the Emperor, the Due de Gramont went on to say, de
dined to listen to these proposal, and when at a later
period they sought a rectification of their territory, they
expressly declined to mention even the name of Belgium.
The Duc de Gramont then points out that if such designs