The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-28 00:00:00

1 LIE Str,N; LO DON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 187 e.

THE PRINCESS LOUISE.

I remember so well the day when I first saw her Royal
Highness the Princess Louise. It was a day in the early
spring, soft and brilliantj not without showers, yet
crowned with snnshine. I had made a journey of some
little trouble to go to the Royal Isle of Wight, • for the
foundation stone was to be laid of a building belonging
to an institution that was clear to me, and the Princess
Louise was to lay the first stone. She has taken her part
since in much more brilliant and crowded ceremonials, but
I cannot but think her Royal Highness will long remem-
ber that day in the undercliff. lam sure that there were
many there who will long remember her. We waited
some time for the sound of her horses' hoofs, for she had
to traverse the whole breadth of the island on her errand
of mercy. There as a throng of fair ladies present, but
as the eye wandered over that living parterre there was
no more sweet and intellectual face than that of the
young Princess. Her duties were long. and must have
been fatiguing, but they were done gracefully and well.
There was one murmur of praise and congratulation. All
of us remembered that day, and will always recollect it
with pleasure. One slight incident occurred ; but to me,
a man of 'a loyal nature, the incident was in no wise
slight. The Princess went off, magna contitante caterva, to
a distant part of the grounds, to plant a memorial tree. I
admired the courage that I dared not imitate, for the wet
grass was associated in my mind with the ailments of the
poor people for whom our good work was intended. But as,
with a lady on my arm, I lingered by one of the pathways,
it so happened that the Princess suddenly came back that
way, and passed close by. We stood quite alone, and made
respectively curtsey and bow, and the Princess gave us a
gracious salutation and a courteous glance of her candid
eyes. It was but a trifle, yet one which we valued and
treasured.
We know but little of the your g life of the Princess,
and yet we know that it presents a fresh fair picture that
might easily be shadowed forth. Happy is the nation that
has no history, and happy are the princes who in contem-
porary history are unknown, Yet in the " fierce light
which beats upon a throne " much of the private life of
the English Royal Family has been unveiled. The
Queen herself has given us glimpses of her home
and of hEr family life. We have all been
privileged to see how the fair children of
Osborne and Balmoral grew up under the plastic care of
the Prince Consort, and to observe evidences of the care,
forethought, and tenderness with which the training and
education of his children were attended. And whispers
came respecting the Princess Louise on how rich a soil
these fruitful germs were implanted. We were told of
the rare culture and intelligence which she possessed.
We see with loyal appreciation the wisdom and love
which the Queen manifested towards her children. We
recollect how in her Highland book there is a simple men-
tion of her Majesty teaching her eldest child her lessons
while on one of her excursions. The Queen herself has
touchingly shewn how she values the peace and security
which a happy marriage can impart, and how little she
desires for her children a position of solitary splendour
like her own. In a memorandum contributed to " The
Early Years of the Prince Consort," she says, " A worse
school for a young girl, or one more detrimental to all
natural feelings and affections, cannot well be imagined
than the position of a Queen at 18, without experience and
without a husband to guide and support her. This the
Queen can state from painful experience, and she thanks
God that none of her dear daughters are exposed to such
danger.
We have all some knowled,:re of the great accomplish.
ments of the Princess. We need hardly say that
she is an accomplished artist. In the Old Bond•street
Gallery of the British Institution she exhibited some
works at an exhibition on behalf of the destitute widows
and orphans of Germans killed in the war. "The battle
is decided, the defeated and the pursuers have passed
from view before the day has quite closed in night, leav-
ing the dead and wounded far behind. Pallid light still
lingers in th e deep blue sky, contrasting with the glare
of a burning village ; the dead and wounded; both French
and German, are on the plain, and there are dis-
mounted cannon. A sister is supporting a wounded
soldier, stanching the blood, and another sister is bearing
her help. It is a gleam of mercy on the battle field."
We believe that the Princess Louise has given much
practical attention to such deeds of mercy. In the Royal
Academy two years ago she exhibited a bust of her Royal
mother, not indeed the work of a great artist, but in-
finitely above the ordinary level of amateurs.
Even amidst the terrible scenes of the war, the excite-
ment of telegrams, the battles and rumours of battles,
there was a thrill of pleasure and sympathy through the
country when that little piece of home news came from
Balmoral. It seemed sach a gracious thing that while the
horizon abroad was wrapped in fire and flame the security
and love of our English homes seemed symbolised by the
story of love and coming marriage in our own Royal house.
It was felt that the Queen had done such a wise, motherly,
and national act in overruling the prescriptive etiquette
of Courts by the higher law of her own sense and feeling.
She virtually declared that she ruled a nation among
whose sons, as among princes, she could find a fitting
mate for her beloved child. She gave away a daughter
of England to a peer and representative man among her
subjects.
If Love should wander beyond the range of titular
princes, his sweet, pure course should not be checked by
pride or precedent. Is not, too, the son of a great British
duke, himself a great duke to be, in the best sense a real
prince, as much as any prince of Italy or Germany ?
The of Lorne, held by the young nobleman who
has just leaped into such splendid and sudden fame
through his affiance with the crown, suggests many
associations. In the first year of the last century tha
Baron Lorne became a marquis when the Earl of Argyle
became a duke. It was the first Earl of Argyle, the re-
presentative of that mighty Campbell clan which has
been historical ever since Scotland had a history, who first
obtained the lands and lordship of Lorne. We do not
wonder that poets and artists and literary craftsmen are
now busy with the land of Lorne. It was part of that
land of Morven, the hilly country dominated by Ben
Cruachan, over which the legendary Fingal bore sway
—the home of the Ossianic poetry. The far-famed
region of Lorne extended over a broad territory on the
western side of glorious Loch Awe, including the many
islets of the adjoining friths and fiords. The domains of
Argyle included lands on both sides of Loch Awe, extend-
ing from Loch Fyne to the Atlantic. Lord Lorne's second
title of Kintyre is derived from lands there, and in their
centre is Campbelltown—an appropriate name for the
Kintyre capital.
The land of Lorne and the 'Western Isles appear now
to be in a fair way of receiving copious illustration. The
Duke of Argyle is just publishing a work onlona ; and the
beautiful story of the sacred isle is indeed one from time
to time worth re-writing for each generation of readers.
We do not wonder that among those who are locally
connected with Balmoral and Inverary there has been the
expression of much earnest and hearty feeling. We all
read the paragraphs of the rejoicings of the Clan Camp-
bell, and the offerings of respect and regard from the
household of Balmoral. In truth such are the feelings of
us all. It may be truly said that the forthcoming marriage
of the Princess Louise will be one of the most important
landmarks in our domestic history. There is no need
to rivet and strengthen that feeling of loyalty to the
throne which is a passion with Englishmen ; but all the
wisdom of the Cabinet could not have devised such a
means of binding the hearts of the people to the Queen,
and making all hearts beat together in unison. Long after
the garlands of conquerors have withered, long after
therecollection of battles and sieges has become indistinct,
it will be remembered that the news of the sanctioned
alliance between our beautiful and gifted Princess and the
man of her choice, worthy of the historic name he bears,
sent a vibration of happiness through the country, and
deepened the intensity of that heartfelt prayer which, in
all English shrines, we offer for the welfare of the Queen
and Royal Family of Great Britain. —London Society.

It was one slid of a penurious money lender that
he kept the trunk containing his securitiys near the head
of his bed, and lay awake to hear them accumulate
interest,
In the theatre of ;gar the boxes are for cartridges,
the stalls are for the cavalry, the vivandibres' tent is the
gallery, the pit is for the dead, the tiers are those of
widows and orphans, the prompter is ambition or revenge,
or conquest, or sometimes a just cause; the stars are the
marshals and generals, the stock is the army, and the-
curtain, which closes in the final scene, is generally a tape-
bound diplomatic rag, or a patched-up peace.
One of the strangest places to sleep i❑ is an
American railway car. It seems so odd to climb uo on to
a shelf, like an upper berth in a steamer, and go to sleep
while the train rushls and rattles on at the rate of forty
miles an hour. The panting of the engine, the rumbling
of the multitudinous wheels, are sounds from which you
cannot easily divert your thoughts : if you do
doze, the stopping at the stations is sure to
awake you by the comparative quiet, and then a half
drowsy fear seizes you that the train is perhaps being
taken to pieces, or that it has reached its final goal.
Then, again; you are apt to start at some louder pulsa-
tion or scream of alarm from the engine, and to imagine
that a collision is about to take place. That alarm once
roused, away jangle all your nerves, and there is no more
sleep for you, my gentleman, that night.

TWO YOUNG WOMEN SUFFOCATED IN BED.—
Between two and three o'clock on Friday morning Mr.
Carson, bacon curer, Kirkpatrick-Durham, near Castle-
Douglas, was aroused by a stifling smell coming from the
direction of the bedroom above, in which his daughter,
Grace Carson, and the servant girl, Mary M'Craitl slept.
On entering the room he found it to be filled with dense
smoke, emitted by the smouldering feathers of the bed on
which the young women lay. They were immediately
carried downstairs, and medical assistance procured, but
life had been extinct for an hour before the accident was
discovered. The two girls went to bed about ten o'clock
on Thursday night and, it is believed, placed a hot brick
at their feet, which, having been overheated, ignited the
feathers, and the gas given off by the smouldering feathers
caused their death. One of Miss Carson's toes was slightly
charred, but otherwise neither she nor the servant was ex-
ternally injured. Miss Carson was fifteen years of age.

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Can be obtained all over the kingdom, in the well-known
sealed and labelled bottles, or in bond for exportation at
the London Docks. Wholesale Agents to Messrs. Bass,
Guinness, and Younger, and Dealers in Foreign Wines
and Spirits.

THE WAR.

THE SIEGE OF PARIS. •

LETTER FROM M. GAMBETTA.

A letter, dated Bourges December 14, had been
received by the Government from M. G-ambetta just
before the last balloon left Paris. The provincial
dictator describes, in language by no means bombastic,
the operations since the recapture of Orleans by the
Germans. The letter concludes :—" Chanzy is now in
perfect security in la Perche, ready to take the offensive
in • the direction of as soon as he has rested his
troops, which have fought admirably without interruption
against superior forces from the 30th of November
to the 12th of December. Thus you see that the
Army of the Loire is far from having been annihilated,
according to the lies of the Prnssians. it is divided into
two armies of equal force, ready to operate, the one by
—, the other by —, in order to march upon --. In '
the North Faidherbe will have retaken La Fire, and found
large stores of ammunition and provisions with guns. But
we are very anxious about you. It is now more than a
week since we received any news of you, whether
from yourselves, frqm the Prussians, or from abroad.
The cable with England is not acting? What is
happening ? Take advantage of this south-west wind
to send a balloon which will fall in Belgium, and
so put an end to our solicitude. The Prussian retreat is a
movement about which there can be no mistake. If we
can only hold out—and we can if we have only the will—
we shall beat them. They have already suffered enor-
mous losses.; and I learn from the most trustworthy
sources that the experience the greatest difficulty in
obtaining supplies of food. But to triumph we must re-
sign ourselves to supreme sacrifices without murmuring,
and fight even to the death, In the interior the most
admirable order reigns on all hands. The Government of
National Defence is everywhere respected and obeyed."

" INACTION."

Some loud complaints of the inactivity of the Govern-
ment find expression in the Paris journals. The
(pinion Nationale in particular urges the Government to
further efforts. "We have here an army of 300,000 men,
with a formidable artillery, and we do nothing. We
neither try to pierce the lines, nor to raise the siege, nor
even risk partial actions in order to kill as many Prus-
sians as possible. Which is the best system to follow?
We do not pretend to answer this question. But, un-
doubtedly we are following the worst in doing nothing.
We are losing time, we are eating up our stores, and we
are not pushing on the work of deliverance. This inaction
is deplorable. It allows the enemy to detach one er even
two hundred thousand men from Paris, and to send them
into the provinces to the succour of Frederick Charles.
There will always remain a sufficient number of men to
defend p"sitions which are never attacked. Moreover,
our soldiers, inactive in their bivouacs, up to their knees
in water, with all the ennui and none of the excitement
of war, will inevitably become demoralised. Why, we
may ask, were the war battalions of the National Guards
formed ? Was it for precaution or action? Why are
cannon being made by thousands, and projectiles by
hundreds of thousands? Was it to offer to the King of
Prussia specimens of Parisian industry on the day when
hunger forces us to capitulate? He will not feel grateful
to them. Let Parisians die, but save Paris. We do not
ask you to fight a battle of twelve days, like the Army of
the Loire, but we do ask you not to remain inactive for
sixteen days, but to use to some purpose the forces which
you have in hand. At the commencement of the month
you destroyed 20,000 Prussians. What prevents you
doing the same every week?"

women drew him out of the salle. In the
street he was roughly treated by some persons
armed with guns, and was struck in the forehead by
a bayonet. He believed his life to be in danger, and
wishing to frighten the rioters, he drew his revolver
and fired twice, without hurting any one. He was at
once disarmed, and dragged into Valentino amid shouts of
"He has fired 'on the people ! He must be
shot ! " A dozen of the most extreme members
of the club at once formed themselves into a court
martial and ordered the unfortunate Arnaud to be shot.
A. few minutes later the sentence was actually carried into
effect, and Arnaud was executed on the Place d'Armes at
a few paces distance from a barrack, and a station of the
National Guard. It was one o'clock in the afternoon when
the murder was committed. Arnaud died with great courage.
Ha took off his tunic, flung aside his kepi, and shouted "Viva
la Republique !" At first the people were absolutely
stupified by the crime, but soon a general feeling of irri-
tation displayed itself, which threatened to become
gerous for the agitators , Action was i in-
mediately taken, and the ringleaders of the
affair were arrested without delay. The judicial
inquiry was carried on very energetically, and
among those arrested were the ringleaders of the Valen-
tino Club who formed the mock court martial. One of
them, named Lapierre, gave the order to fire on the
victim, who, it seems from the last details cur-
rent was not killed, but only wounded by the
first fire. He was despatched by a wretched
gamin only fifteen years of age, who stepped up to the
wounded man and :fired a carbine full at him. The
detestable viragoes who had played so prominent a part
throughout stood ranged as spectators on either side, en-
joying the sight, and afterwards remained to guard

the corpse, while the assassins were making their arrange-
ments to convey it to the Mairie, where they made the
official statement of the death. A terrible scene took
place when Madame Arnaud beheld the mutilated remains
of her husband. She fell fainting to the ground. The
murdered man had in vain intreated permission to say
farewell to his wife and children. At first the news of
the crime was received with incredulity, the time con-
sumed having been so short, but when the truth was
knoirn the public indignation became unbounded.
The National Guard at the Croix Rouse
are especially loud in their protestations, and
the papers are full of their appeals to the authorities to
repress such outrages energetically. The instigators of
popular disturbances can, it is evident, no longer reckon
on the assistance of this army. All the National
Guard expressed an earnest wish to attend the obsequies
of the unfortunate Arnaud, and leave to this effect was
given by the general. The municipal council and the
judicial body, as well as all the civil authorities, were pre-
sent. The pall was held by the Prefect, the General of
the National Guard, the Mayor of Lyons, and the Pre-
sident of the " chefs des battaillon." Such a funeral has
seldom been seen in Lyons.

Arrests are still going on. It appears certain
the assassins were few in number, though they appeared
to be numerous, from the number of gamins and women
who accompanied them. It was these same women who
an hour later presented themselves at the Hotel de Ville
to demand that all the mobilised regions of the
south should be at once set on foot. They
were received with a very bad grace, but
little attention was paid to them in the midst of the gene-
ral excitement. Six of them are arrested, the total num-
ber of arrests being seventeen. Two members of the
Socialist press are among those sought for. It seems
that two or three citizens saw the preparations
for the execution, and tried to interfere, but
were repulsed by the women, who threatened they should
be treated like Arnaud. They hurried off for assistance,
which came too late to be of any use, the whole affair,
trial, execution, and all, being over in half an hour.
Some soldiers who saw the cortege en route thought
of stopping it, but seeing two officers of the
National Guard among the party they thought the execu-
tion was a legal one and passed on. The whole of the
Valentino meeting were implicated in the crime, as the
condemnation to death was voted unanimously. M.
Arnaud was foreman of a silk weaving manufactory,
and was well known at Croix Rousse for
the ardour of his republicanism. He was down on the
Imperialist lists as one of those to be arrested in case of
a coup d'etat. He was greatly esteemed in the town,
where a most painful impression has been produced byhis
death. At Croix Rousse the feeling is so strong that some are
wavering in their republicanism. The red flag, the
banner of assassins, must, all agree, be extirpated. The
council of the commune has decided that the town shall
adopt the children of M. Arnaud, and that a pension shall
be settled on his widow.