The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-17 00:00:00

REQUISITIONS AT VERSAILLES.

i .
A correspondent writing from the head-quarters of
the "King of Prussia at Versailles, on the Bth instant,
remarks :—The. adjustment of the various requisitions
requires infinite tact and patience, for those who have the
regulation of them are between two fires. The Prussians
insist and their poor fellow citizens desprecate. How to
satisfy both? They probably find that an
insoluble problem. It is said that things are better
since the King came, that his royal eyes have spied out
the barrenness of the land, and his lips countermanded
t certai already-ordered financial inflictions. The Crown
Princ had previously stopped the killing of mi.ch cows
—the eese, as Paddy would say, who laid the golden
eggs—for butter is still three and four francs a
pound; and it remained for the King to go a
step further in relieving the cry of distress. I
belieii poor Versailles is really not in a position to bear a
heaVy burden. During the last ten years, as any of the
inhabitants will tell you, the compulsory construction of
schools, and of various works tending to increase the
comfort and health of the place, has entailed
upon it a debt of, in round numbers, four millioons
of francs. Thus Versailles was already in a condition
calling for strict and vigilant economy. Its occupation by
the Germans has dried up most of the sources of its
,-,revenne, and inflicted upon it, in three weeks, expenses
which are calculated to amount to the respectable sum of
£24,000 sterling. During the last few days, it is acknow-
ledged, the foreign authorities have seemed to recognise and
appreciate its hard position. Versailles never lives, except
by a borrowed life, and now it is cut off from the foreign
centre of its being. Its richest inhabitants have
quitted it. The poor, whom we have always with us,
have had their little taken away to feed the in-
vader ; and the small rentiers and pensioners,
who always swarm in a place like this, now
find themselves in a position which may fairly be
termed precarious. This is the fate of the
losing side in war, unless indeed the conquerors
be very sentimental people indeed. I read
in your columns of cruelties committed by the
invaders. I can only say that I, personally, have wit-
nessed none of them, or I should have reported them with
impartial fidelity. But the Prussians are not folks to be
trifled with. When they say a thing they mean it ; and
when they order a thing they see that it is done. Two
gentlothen belonging to the Prefecture—MM. Manuel and
Dutilleux—resigned the other day their posts, but took
care to disappear. A third, M. Cochard, resigned, but
remained here. He was fined 200 f. Refusing to pay it,
he was walked off to the barracks in the Rue Royale,
and there incarcerated. Loss of liberty brought to him
an altered mind. He has since paid the eight pounds.
and resumed his functions. Yet there is generally, if
not always, a most even justice in the proceedings
of the victors. •At first they pitched upon the Church
of Notre Dame as the sacred edifice where they
would like to hear Lutheran service. The curd not
wishing to be alone in what he deemed misfortune,
petitioned that the other quarter of the town should
take it turn and turn about with the one where stands
Notre Dame. His prayer was at once heard, and
every, other Sunday the cathedral likewise opens its door
to the heretics. Of course this in nowise interferes with
the Roman Catholic services. It is only introducing in
France a tolerant custom long practised in many parts of
Germany.

Amongst the Imperial documents now being given to
the world, is a letter from General Todleben. It gives a
decidedly favourable opinion of the Paris fortications.

A correspondent of the Cologne Gazette testifies to the
activity with which the new troops of Paris are being
drilled. They parade under the very eyes of the Germans
well knowing that the latter will not fire upon them.
M. Gambetta desired to leave Paris three days before
he could get away. The wind was unfavourable. When
the party got off, the crowds, who had been watching
every day, were seized with a panic through fear that the
travellers would come down in the midst of their enemies.
A letter hi a German paper says that the German
troops are being taught the use of the Chassepot before
Paris, and will soon open fire with that weapon. " None

of our men have as yet starved, although they may have
had to subsist on potatoes for some few days. Wine is
still found in large quantities hidden away under ground
in the gardens, even in some of the places where the first
detachments of our men had sought for and found whole
treasures of it. Our provision convoys are on the road,
and no fears can be entertained of our being deficient in
the necessaries of life." The writer does not say what will
happen if the convoys are by chance intercepted.
A curious document has been found among the 'papers
in the Tuileries. It is a note from M. Rouher to his Im-
perial master, commenting on the characters of the prin-
cipal politicians of the dynasty who have been suggested
as Minister of the Interior. The portraits have been
sketched off without particular ability, but so as to shew
the merits and defects of each individual. But it is notice-
.able that in running over the parliamentary bodies,
the Administration, the magistracy, &c., M. Rouher can
only find old men, invalids, frivolous idlers, or incapables,
and, moreover, he gives the Emperor to understand that
these are a fair representation of France.

The able correspondent of the Cologne Gazette says that
the position before Paris is getting very uncomfortable.
" The nights," he says, " are bitterly cold, and though
the troops besieging Paris are mostly in cantonments,
the wind blows through the broken window panes of the
peasants' cottages over the straw or mattrass. The fire
in the great is not sufficient, and soon goes out, for every
stool cannot be brought near it, and if short commons
hefal the troops for several days, and even wine and
brandy, with the potatoes come to an end, the shivering
under our thin garments will be terrible. Every contin-
gency must, therefore, be provided for."