The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-19 00:00:00

PROSPECTS OF THE SIEGE.

The Paris correspondent of the Standard, discussing the
nivestnient of the city, remarks :—" Three modes of
aking Paris are open to him (the enemy)—by regular
siege, by famine, or by both combined. Put aside entirely
the idea that Paris can be brought to capitulation by bom-
bardment : the thing is not possible. If the belt of de-
tached forts is not a sufficient argument to the
contrary, the state of the town and the spirit of
the population ought to be. The city teems with men
anxious and ready to make sorties on any batteries from
which bombardment could be essayed ; the precautions
against fire are ample and admirable, the pave-
ments in the neighbourhood of buildings present.
ing points-de-mire have been uprooted and replaced
with sand, blindayes have been constructed in all ex-
posed positions, and, over and above all that, owing to the
immense area of the city, there must always necessarily
exist whole quarters perfectly out of range of projectiles,
and women and children, the old, the sick, and the timorous
can be .sent there for security. Rest the three other
means, which, properly speaking, reduce themselves to
one, siege and famine combined. What chances are there
that that will succeed ? In ordinary sieges it is admitted
that the besieged must capitulate if not succoured by an
army from the outside. But this is no ordinary
siege. It is the greatest ever attempted. Even
if no army arrives from the West or from
the Loire, Paris may prove to have within itself
the materials for raising the siege, which will be some-
thing of a novelty in military history. Here I know I
shall find myself at odds with the accomplished writer of
your Diary of the War,' but with all submission for his
large professional knowledge I beg of him to admit are
not the conditions of this siege something extraordinary,
and may they not develop even that phenomenon
He knows better than most men that the army effectually
to besiege such a place at Paris should consist at the very
least of 400,000 men apart from the corps de blocus—
that is always presuming that Paris is properly
defended. Let us assume that that the Prussians
have such a force. For the proper defence of Paris
100,000 good regular troops are enough. Now what is
the fact ? There is actually at this moment in Paris a
garrison which is equal in number to the army of the be-
siegers— in fact, a garrison,which, according to the plainest
axioms of military art, is viciously large. At first sight
one asks in wonder how a scientific soldier like Trochu can
have been guilty of such a mistake. The explanation is
simple. At the time the Prussians came the garrison
was not a garrison of Cdiers ; if it were, he would most
assuredly have sent out into the open at least
50,000 men, under an enterprising general, to manceuvre
in the valley of the Marne as a zone of operations. But
the garrisons to be relied on was in very truth not too
great for the emergency. It was an unsolved problem
whether those provincial Mobiles would fight. It was
a delicate point whether the people of Paris would
act in an orderly manner or would not require
soldiers to keep them in awe. The governor could
not weaken his regular troops without compromising the
peace of the community, and consequently the safety of
the city entrusted to him -for defence. He could not
think of sending out the half-drilled youths of the Mobile
to what would be a probable butchery. He took the bold
resolution of keeping all the regular troops in Paris, and
the sequel may prove the resolution was wise. One grave
error--so it cannot but be viewed—he did commit in
leavhig too many women and children, too many non-
combatants—' useless mouths' if any are—within the
boundaries, and this, it is to be feared, will hamper his
liberty of command before the end."

OIIILD FOUND IN A RAILWAY CARRlAGE.—Yes-
terday morning, at the Swiss Cottage Station, a porter, on
sweeping out a first class carriage, found a parcel contain•
ing a fine new-born child. It must have been left on
Monday evening, as the train was then shunted into the
siding and left till yesterday morning. It was taken tc
the district police-office for further inquiries.

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