The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-07 00:00:00

THE FIGHT AT LE BOURGET.

In his communication from the Prussian head-quarters
at Versailles, under date November 1, the special corres-
pondent of the Telegraph gives the following account of
tue engagement :—ln the affair at Le Bourget on Sunday
last—a bitter fight that has cost the Prussian army one
of i s best officers —the French troops displayed much more
steadiness and resolution than they have hitherto exhibited
in any contest under the walls of Paris. Le Bourget is
a hamlet situated on a small rivulet that runs into
the Seine, and lies in the middle of a considerable plain.
It is about equidistant from St. Denis, Aulnay, and
Sevran, and midway between the French and Prussian
outposts. The rivulet in question had been dammed
up by the enemy, so that the country immediately
environing the village was flooded. A company of
Prussian Guards occupied Le Bourget, their view
being to prevent the French from throwing up
earthworks there, d la Todleben, and making it avail-
able for an experiment in what is aptly called " offensive
engineering." On Saturday last the French sallied in
force, drove the company out of its position, and took Le
Bourget. The incident was at once reported to head-
nuarters, and early on Sunday morning General von
Moltke communicated to the general commanding
the 2nd Division of Guards the order to re-
take Le Bourget at any cost. The French had not
been idle with their prize, for during the few hours they
held it they had traced the lines of important earthworks,
and commenced throwing them up. At 11 a.m. on Sun-
day morning, immediately after receiving Von Moltke's
orders, General von Budritzki attacked at the head of
seven battalions—about 6,000 men—and encoun-
tered au unusually obstinate resistance. The
French had crenelated and loopholed every
available wall, and were forced out of their extemporised
stronghold only by a desperate effort, having held the
Guards at bay for a considerable time. At the moment
when the fight was at its hottest, and the Prussians
seemed to be getting a little the worst of the day,
General Budritzki and Colonel Kanetz, grasping
the standards of the two regiments engaged
(Konigin Augusta and Konigin Elizabeth), put themselves
at the head of their men—who, cheering loudly, swept
the French clear out of the village, and drove them back
to within a short distance of St. Denis. Two Colonels
commanding regiments were killed Count von
Waldersee ( Konigin Augusta ), and Colonel
Zaluskowski (Konigin Elizabeth) ; with one captain
(Compagnie chef), Count von Keller, son of the
King's klofmarschall. Count von Waldersee, wounded
severely in one of the battles before Metz, and
especially mentioned in the King's telegram to
the Queen on that occasion, had recovered from
his hurts, and lately rejoined his regiment. He
is deeply deplored by a large circle of friends,
amongst whom are the members of the Royal Family.
Count Keller was a young officer of high promise. Besides
these fatal casualties, thirty officers were put hors de
combat. About as many French officers and 1,2,.)0 men,
were captured by the victorious Guards—who, however,
suffered heavily.

(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAMS.)
MR MELLY, M.P., ON EDUCATION.
The distribution of prizes of the North Staffordshire
Ironmasters' and Manufacturers' Educational Association
took place at Stoke•on-Trent on Saturday. After Mr.
Melly, M.P., had distributed the prizes, he said he
appealed to all, of every age and every station, to ladies
as well as gentlemen (for the influence of the former is
even much greater than the latter), to leave no stone un-
turned, until at the proper time a Council of Education is
placed in power, which will enforce the attendance of
every child at the National Schools of the district,
unless that council is satisfied that the children are
being properly educated elsewhere. This is a subject
upon which I wish tc;lay before you one or two arguments,
not because those arguments are new, for all arguments on
this subject have been preached by many preachers ; but
because, as the decision rests with you, you should be
armed with any weapon you may have been able to pick
up in other fields. I would also propose to you this pro-
position : is it fair or right that we should subscribe or be
taxed for the creation of schools which are not to be used,
in the playgrounds of which grass is to grow, and in which
the masters and mistresses provided by law are to sit
without duty or occupation. I ask you, secondly, whether
it is fair that you should as ratepayers be bound to
maintain in workhouses or in prisons those children
when grown to man's estate who by the
education provision you have endeavoured to withdraw
from so terrible a fate. I cannot conceive that I shall
have any difficulty in bringing to bear on this a local
argument under the compulsory clauses of the Factory
Act, adopted in the trade of your district. You enforce
the attendance at school of children employed in your
manufactories, and therefore you are placed in this absurd
and illogical position : that if a child is learning the
duties involved in intelligent and industrious labour, if
he is learning lessons of obedience and order in the factory,
he shall go to school ; but if he is learning the
lessons of disorder, profligacy, drunkenness, and
crime in the gutters of your towns, he shall not
go to school ? Is it possible to conceive a proposition
so illogical and unjust ? I am told this law deals with the
liberty of the subject ; of all bugbears commend me to the
liberty of the subject ; those wbo uphold that bugbear
wish for unrestrained license. The right hon. gentleman
argued for compulsory education in the interests of the
parent; child, the State, and Heaven.

REPRESENTATION OF NEWPORT (ISLE OF

WIGHT).

The Liberal candidate for Newport (Isle of Wight) has
not yet been definitively settled upon, but it is now
generally expected .that the Right Hon. Milner Gibson
will contest the vacancy in the Liberal interest. Mr.
Kennard is the Conservative candidate.

MR. ALBERT PELL,_M.P„_ON THE FOREIGN

CATTLE BILL.

At the meeting of the Leicestershire Chamber of Agri-
culture, on Saturday afternoon, it was unanimously re-
solved, on the motion of'Mr. Albert Pell, M.P., that this
chamber expresses the hope that her Majesty's Govern-
ment will not hesitate, with reference to the establish-
ment of a metropolitan foreign cattle market—already
too long delayed—to enforce the provisions of the Cattle
Diseases Animals Act of 1868. In the course- of
his speech Mr. Pell complained of the foreign
cattle market not having been made before ;
and he feared that unless pressure was brought to
bear on the corporation of London it would not
be completed by the time prescribed by the Act, and
that the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, who are a powerful
body, would go to the House of Commons for an extension
of time. It was also resolved that all foreign cattle should
be slaughtered at waterside markets, to be established at
all ports of debarcation, and that the Metropolitan
Markets be opened as before the introduction of the cattle
plague, such resolution not to include home-bred stock,
which must be subject to quarantine, and not be pitched
in any market.