The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-04 00:00:00

THE PROPOSED ARMISTICE.

The Times says: Count Bismarck has made an offer to
the French Government which, if its apparent meaning be
its true interpretation, is so conciliatory and even generous,
that it can scarcely fail to be accepted by 'M. Favre and
his colleagues. The Chancellor of the North German Con-
federation proposes an armistice of 2.5 days, to allow
General Elections to be held throughout France, and
the armistice is to be based on the military status quo of
the day on which the agreement is sign' d. This descrip-
tion of the conditions is, unfortunately, not so definite as
could be wished, and we cannot help regretting that the
terms had not been a little more precisely indicated. We
do not forget the exigencies of telegraphic despatches ;
but another sentence would not have been misapplied
in clearing up the ambiguity of the announcement, and
very few words would have sufficed to explain what is
obscure. Of course, we hope that the most favourable
interpretation of the telegram from Versailles may be
its true meaning, and we should have accepted this con-
clusion without misgiving had not Count Bismarck sug-
gested some reason to suspect its accuracy. So recently
as Tuesday last he published his answer to Lord
Granville's suggestion of an armistice, in which he
refers to the terms offered to M. Favre at Ferrieres
as terms of great moderation ; and, so far from giving
any reason to hope that he was now inclined to ibe
more liberal than be was then, he uses language which
implies a resolution to abide by the :conditions ho
had previously submitted to a base of negotiation. With
this dispatch to Count Bernstorff in answer to Lord Gran-
ville before us, we cannot but hesitate before taking it
for granted that the Chancellor relaxed on Wednesday
night or Thursday morning the resolution to which he
seemed determined to adhere on Tuesday.
Count Bismarck insists, remarks the Daily News,
peremptorily as it seems, on a cession of territory and
strongholds, and he has the power to make good his
demands. There is no use in petitioning the inexorable,
or striving against the inevitable. The feeling of Ger-
many not only supports, but urges him on. Impru-
dent advocates are busy showing, out of the mouths
of statesmen, historians, and poets, that Germany
has always considered Alsace and Lorraine as hers by
right, and looked forward to the opportunity of regaining
them. Her appetite for them has been as strong as that
of France for the Rhine. If this be so, the sentiment
does not seem more creditable iu the one case than in
the other. If a prescription of two hundred years does
not override a title originally bad as based on conquest,
and if the will of the people does not override considera-
tions of race and language, there is no country in Europe
which is not liable to invasion and dismemberment. But
whatever the judgment we pass on the feeling, its exis-
tence is a fact ; and the people who are now governing
France, since they cannot conjure it away, must take
account of it.

The Telegraph says :—At last there are signs of peace
Thanks to the well-timed efforts of Lord Granville, the
Provisional Government of France on the one hand, and
Count Bismarck on the other, have so far agreed that the
Prussian statesman has offered an armistice of twenty-
five days, in order that the French people may elect a
Constituent Assembly. The proposal is the result of
the conversation which took place between M. Thiers
and Count Bismarck on Wednesday ; and, since the
French Envoy had previously been empowered to treat
by the Provisional Government of Paris, the terms
will doubtless be accepted by. General Trochu
and die colleagues. The armistice will, of course,
be based on the military status quo, with a view to
letting the combatants start from the position which they
occupy at present if the truce should fail to bring peace.
Hence Count Bismarck has doubtless sanctioned some
such arrangement as we suggested a few days
back, for the provisioning of Paris during the
days of armistice. Since the worst foe of the
besieged city is famine, the aim of the German leaders
could be secured during a suspension of hostilities
if the inhabitants were doomed to obtain no fresh sup.
plies. But the Prussian and the German statisticians can
easily calculate how many thousand sheep and cattle, how
many tons of bread and litres of wine, would suffice
for the maintenance of the capital during the
truce ; and it would not be difficult for the
surrounding troops to enforce the limitation of the
supply. We cannot doubt, therefore. that Count Bis-
marck and M. There have come to an agreement on that
point. So soon as the order shall be formally accepted by
the Prussian Government, the French people will be
summoned to elect a Constituent Assembly, which will
be entrusted with the momentous responsibility of deter-
mining whether France shall continue to wage a hope-
less war, or make peace on the terms proposed by
Prussia.

The Standard thinks there is no guarantee that an
armistice entered into by thy, Government of Paris would
be accepted and observed by the people of France. If
MM. Gambetta, Cremieux, and Glais Bizoin are not
obeyed in Tours—if a crowd can imprison and for a
time displace them, not because they would not
make peace, but because they could not organise war—
what guarantee can there be for the acceptance in those
portions of France which yet know nothing of the enemy
save by hearsay of the bargain which will do so much
credit to M. Thiers if he can make it ? We say again, says
the Standard very frankly, but with the earnest hope that
we may take too unfavourable a view of the situation,
that we have very little confidence in the acceptance by
the Government of Paris of the armistice now offered
by the Germans. But of this we can entertain no
doubt—that unless that armistice involves and is
accompanied by preliminaries of peace which shall leave
France every inch of her territory, its announcement
will be the signal in a large portion of France
for the repudiation of the Government of the 4th
September, and that the French people, having
learnt the lesson M. Gambetta has so eagerly
applied himself to teach them, will find that the deputies
of the Irreconcileable Opposition are quite as much
traitors to France as the marshals of the Empire. What
would be the result of elections held iu such a state of
public opinion ? What the condition of the
towns in which the social and democratic
Republicans lorded it? The armistice to allow
of the elections would be no doubt the beginning of the
end which all desire ; but through what sufferings and
sacrifices will not France still have to pass—what burdens
will Germany still have to bear—if the King of Prussia
and his confederates have not, in granting an armistice,
granted at the same time a peace which France can
aceept with honour, and even with gratitude, and so get
rid altogether of the one danger they have to apprehend,
and the great source in all probability of irreparable losses
to France ?

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

LINCOLN RACES.-YESTERDAY.
BURTON STAKES.

Lady de Trafford c
Gouache
Waif

''
- Six ran.
BLANKNEY NURSERY.

Jester
Byron
Lady Atholstone
Fourten ran.
LINCOLN HANDICAP
Elferon

A1ari0.....
Tit .. 3

Six ran.
JOHNSTONE PLATE.

Countryman
••••••
Lady Mortimer J.
Outpost
Seven ran.
HURDLE RACE PLANE.

Lucksall
Mons Louis .. •
Brandy Sauce
Nine ran.

The winner was objected to for going the wrong aide of
a pbetz- •

CITY BETTING: YESTERDAY.
LIVERPOOL CUP.
6to 1 agst Rosicrucian (taken and offered)
11 to 1 agst Blandford (taken and offered-100 t.
10 taken once)
100 to 8 agst Cardinal York (taken and offered)
100 to 8 agst Syrian (offered-14 to 1 taken)
100 to 8 agst Barford (offered—take 100 to 7)
1000 to 70 agst Altaic (taken once)
100 to 7 agst Cecil (offered)
100 to 6 agat Flibustier (offered-200 to 10 laid onoo
—lOO to 7 taken at first)
100 to 6 agat Bonny Swell offered—take 20 to 1)
100 to G agst Exciseman (offered)
25 to 1 agat Our Mary Ann (offered—take 30 to 1)
33 to 1 agst Miss Theo (taken freely)
1000 to 30 abet Adonis offered-40 to 1 taken)
1000 to 30 agst White Slave (offered—take 40 to 1)
1000 to 30 agst Indian Ocean (offered-40 to 1 taken)
1000 to 30 agst Taraban (offered)
300 to 5 agst Islam (taken and wanted)
1000 to 10 agst Judge (offered)
1000 to 10 agst Starter (offered)
100 to 0 agst Flibustier and Adonis coupled
(offered—take 12 to 1)