The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-25 00:00:00

THE FOOD QUESTION.

The Paris Temps gives this summary of the provision
stock : Beef will fail in a week, horse will then last a
fortnight, salt meet a further week; vegetables, dried
fruits, flour, &c., about three weeks more.
The " Besieged Resident," supposed to be Mr. Labou-
cher°, who contributes to the Daily News, believes that
this flour estimate is understated. If the Parisians are
contented to live on bread and wino, the stock of flour,
we are told is practically unlimited, and as no attempt is
made to prevent its waste in pasty and fancy cakes, I
presume that the statement is correct.

The same writer observes respecting She meat supply:—
" How many oxen and cows there still are I do not know ;
a few days ago, however, I couited myself 1,500 in a
large pen. The newspapers calculate that at the cora-
men.cement of the siege there were 100,000 horses in Paris
and that there are now 70,000 ; 30,000 will be enough
for the army, consequently 40,000 can be eaten. The
amount of meat on each horse averages 500 lbs.,
consequently we have twenty million pounds of
fresh horseflesh a quantity which will last us for
more than three months at the present rate of the meat
consumption. These figures are, I think, very much
exagerated. I should say that there are not more than
40,000 horses now in Paris. The Peaks Voitures (Cab)
Company has 8,000, and offered to sell them to the

Government a few days ago, but that proposal was
declined. As regards salt meat, the Government keep
secret the amount. It cannot, however, be very great,
because it is only derived from animals which have been
killed since the siege commencotl.

The consumption of strange auirnabi is decidedly on

the increase. Cats have risen in the market—a good fat
one now costs 10 francs. Those that remain are exceed.
ingly wild. These sagacious animals seem to have
remarked a murderous intention in the eyes o
their former friends. This morning I had a sal-
mis of rats ; it was excellent—something between
frog and rabbit. t breakfasted with the correspondents
of two of of your contemporaries. One of them, after
' a certain amount of hesitation, allowed me to help him
to a leg of a rat ; after eating it he was as anxious as
a terrier for more. The latter, however, scornfully
refused to share in the repast. • As he got through his
portion of salted horse, which rejoiced in the name of
beef, he regarded us with horror and disgust. I remember
when I was in Ilgypt that my feelings towards the
natives were of a somewhat similar nature when I saw
them eating rat. The older one grows the more tolerant
one becomes. If ever lam again in Paris I shall eat the
national dish whenever I get a chance. During the siege
of Londonderry rats sold for 7s. each, and if this siege
goes on many weeks longer, the utmost which a person
of moderate means will be able to allow himself will be an
occasional mouse. I was curious to see whether the pro-
prietor of the restaurant would boldly call rat, rat in my
bill. His heart failed him—it figures as a salmi of game.
Tho cbrrespondeut of the Times adds an amusing
paragraph to this most important question :—There is
a young American lady here, the belle of an ambulance
(as this seems an odd expression, let me explain that
the drctors, on strictly hygienic principles, encou-
rage pretty and well-dressed young ladies to visit
their ambulances in order to enliven the wards
and administer small doses of flirtation to patients),
who is just now in the depths of despair about
her dog—a splendid Siberian wolf-hound, valued at £lOO
in hard cash, and of unappreciable value in the softer
coin of sentiment. The authorities have found him out,
and declare that a dog which eats two and a half francs'
worth of food a day cannot be allowed to live in a besieged
town. The wild beasts must, therefore, be in consider-
able danger. It has been suggested—probably by the same
strategist who wanted to have the country all xound Paris
strewn with broken bottles to impede the advance of the
Prussians—that all the ferocious carnivorous beasts should
be let loose upon the enemy ; but who is to doit ? If, like the
war elephants of Pyrrhus, they turned round upon their
friends, what accidents might not happen even among the
married members of the National Guard. It will, per-
haps, therefore; on the whole, be better to eat them our-
selves ; and, what with rats, cats (if these have not already
all gone), and dogs, it is calculated that the supply of
fresh meat will last till nearly the end of this month.
There is supposed to be, salt meat for about two months
more.

THE CAMPAIGN AROUND THE CAPITAL,

THE FRENCH PLAN.

A correspondent of the Daily News at Orleans writes on the
19th instant as follows :—The army has not advanced yet.
The headquarters are at Neuville, about five miles from
here. General d'Aurelle is replaced in the command of the
Army of the Loire by General de Paliere. General d'Aurelle
is appointed commander-in-chief of all the armies out-
side Paris—generalissimo. I now understand some-
thing more of their plans, and ultimately they may
prevail against an enemy in a hostile country. They are
making three lines of entrenched defences, which will be
armed with heavy artillery, and easy of defence. The
third line is Orleans, which to the north has
been powerfully defended by earthworks. The
second line, which is, I am told, about Artenay,
has been actively prepared by 10,000 workmen,
besides the soldiers who worked at it. The first line will
be, of course, further up. De Keratry is doing the same
thing, and so is Bourbaki. So that, if the French
are, which is likely, repulsed in their first simultaneous
attack upon the investing lines round Paris,
they will fall back upon the first line of de-
fences, and then prepare to begin again. This is
the idea. General d'Aurelle leaving two or three times
offered battle to the enemy in front of him, and the
enemy not having accepted, the Army of the Loire
is going to pass by them, having about 50,000
behind to threaten any army which might wish
to get behind it. The report is spread that the
Army of the Loire is 100,000 strong; but I think
I may venture to tell you that it is nearer 200,000 than
100,000 strong. The artillery is very numerous. The
Government have at last thought fit to attach an English
officer to the headquarters of the army ; they suggested it

themselves. Colonel Reily is here and will follow the
army.

GARIBALD lAN MOVEMENTS.

From Autun, under date November 18, the Daly News
correspondent at the headquarters of General Garibaldi
writes :—I mentioned in my last letter that a portion of
our army kad made a move forward. Part of
Menotti's Brigade now occupy positions extending
from Epinac to Melly and Saint-Seine, a village
of 750 inhabitants, situated on the road to
Chatillon-sur-Seine, at a distance of twenty-five
kilometres north-west of Dijon. Saint-Seine is so
named on account of its being close to the source of the
Seine river. Menotti, who had been absent for several
days, returned to headquarters this afternoon. Another
party of skirmishers belonging to Ricciotti's Brigade oc-
cupy a line extending from Anton to Saulieu, Semur, and
Montbard, celebrated as the birthplace of Buffon. Ric-
eiotti has with him about 1,000 Franca-tireurs. lam un-
able to say whether the advanced posts of Menotti's
troops are at ISt. Seine, or whether Riceiotti's men have
reached Montbard, but in my case they are a considerable
distance on the road, and have orders to advance to these
points, so that it will be impossible for us to be surprised
by the enemy. A third party of skirmishers, under
the command of Citizens Ordinaire and Brown, have
orders to occupy positions extending from Autun
to Chateau-Chinon, Lormes, and Clamecy. The Francs-
tireurs, under the command of Citizen Brown, arrived
here two days ago from the Valley of Thann, on the road
to Mulhouse, having very cleverly succeeded in passing
through the Prussian lines. The Francs-tireurs de I'Ega-
lit4, of Marseilles, eight hundred strong, commanded
by Citizen Delpbche, are at Epinac awaiting orders,
General Garibaldi told me to-day that he does not
estimate the troops under his command at more
than 8,500 men. We have now two batteries of
artillery (12 pieces, calibre 4)—one composed of field
pieces, and the other of mountain artillery, similar
to what is used in Algeria, drawn by mules.
Altogether we are in a far better condition than we were
at Dole. At least two-thirds of the men are now armed
with either breech-loading rifles on the tabatiere system,
Spencer rifles, or Chassepots, and everyone professes
perfect confidence in Garibaldi.

Small-pox is on the increase in Paris. The week be

fore last the deaths from this disease amounted to 419.

M. Felix Pyat has been let out of prison by the
Paris Government. He says that he rather prefers
being there than at liberty, for in his cell he can " forget
that he is in a town inhabited by cowards," and devote
himself to the works of M. Louis Blanc, which he calls
the " Bibles of Democracy."
There are in Paris two hundred and forty-three ambu-
lances, and when the siege commenced, such was the
anxiety to obtain a blase, that when a sortie took place,
those who brought them in were offered bribes to take
them to a house over which the flag of Geneva waved.
A man with a broken leg or arm was worth 30 francs to
his kind preservers.
The German troops seem not to have extended their-
grasp of the country north of Paris as widely as they
have done to the south and east. Lusarches, where a
post balloon descended on Sunday, is only nineteen miles
from Paris, and the letters conveyed by that medium
have been duly forwarded by post to their respective desti-
nations.

The "Besieged Resident," who contributes to the
Daily News, says :—Anything more dreary than the
boulevards now in the evening it is difficult to imagine.
Only one street lamp in three is lighted, and the cafes,
which close at 10.30, are put on half-allowance of gas.
To mend matters, everyone who likes is allowed to put up
a shed on the side-walk to sell his goods, or to collect a
crown by playing a dirge on a fiddle.

Places of shelter have been erected on the ramparts of
Paris, at short intervals, for the National Guards on
duty. These places have fires, and are protested over-
head by a sloping roof of iron bars, strong enough to
resist the fall of a shell. Several fatal accidents to
National Guards on day are reported in the journals, in
most cases caused by falling down the steep fasces of the
earthworks.

- It is noticeable that the women of Paris hold aloof from
all attempt to influence the course of the siege. They
seem to consider the whole question a political one, which
in no way regards them—they neither urge the men to
resist, nor clamour for peace. 2 ros Tyriusque seems much
the same to them; a few hundreds have dressed them-
selves up as vivandieres, the others appear to regret the
rise in the price of provisions, but to trouble their heads
about nothing else.

That- the Germans expect to spend Christmas in or
before Paris is shown by a Post Office notice issued at.
lerlin on Saturday. It states that in order to effect the

dispatch of Christmas presents tot the troops—inFraucO
the field post parcel service Will be maintained in its
pmesent extent till the evening of the Bth of December,