The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-23 00:00:00

AMERICAN NEUTRALITY.

A telegram from Philadelphia says that yesterday
the President issued a Neutrality Proclamation.
declaring that during the European war neutrality
Maas would be strictly enforced, and, while not
interfering with the free expression of opinion or
sympathy, commanding people to take no part.
directly or indirectly, or give aid to either belli-
gerent.

THE SITUATION AT PARIS.

SUNDAY.

The state of public opinion here is very peculiar. From
the Ministry and the Head-Quarters there is next to no news,
and the intelligence we get by way of England is alarm-
ingly unfavourable to the French arms ; and yet it is
amazing how the Parisians seem to delude themselves
with the notion that everything is going on well.
The Ministry has set aself to work with right good
earnestness to impose upon the public, and it appears in
a great measure to have succeeded. You will have learned
that the army of Prince Frederick Charles succeeded in
interposing botween Bazaine and Chalons. In that
position two battles were fought ; both armies claim a
victory ; but one result of the fighting is that, victory or
none, Bazaine has not got away from M-etz. It is too
much to be feared that he cannot get away. We have
received no news from him, and all the public has
had to live upon for the last forty-eight hours is a
wretched declaration from Count Palikao in the Corps
I,6gislatif, to the effect that Marshal Bazaine had not
been beaten. "Beaten !" said the War Minister,
"Oh ! no, quite the reverse—he had driven
the enemy into some quarries." He did not say
whether the whole German army had got into
these quarries, or whether, whilst 200,000 men
were thus floundering about amid unhewn stones,
Bazaine had made any effort to get to Chalons.
The whole communication consisted in the statement
about the quarries. It is with this kind of information
that Paris is struggling to make itself cheerful. The
journals, even the most respectable, seem seized with a
strange infatuation. Disregarding altogether the prime
question—whether Bazaine is or is not shut up in a for-
tress where he cannot exist,they continue to assure us that
the French marshal has won two battles, and that therefore
he must be safe. The Patric actually goes so far as to
affirm that if Bazaine has gone into Metz, it is in pur-
suance of a plan of his own choosing. He must have shut
himself up voluntarily. One paper alone forms an
honourable exception to this foolish policy of self-decep-
tion. The Siecle sums up the situation in an article so
impartial as to well deserve reproduction. This is what it
says on the military position :
" We do not wish to disenchant anyone, but we feel our-
selves obliged to recall that after the fight at Gravelotte,
Marshal Bazaine, however victorious he may have been,
did not think it advisable, or found it impossible, to continue
his march to Verdun. On the contrary, he drew closer to
Metz. Sainte Marie-aux-Chenes, where one French regi-
ment is said to have borne the attack of three Prussian
divisions whilst Bazaine executed a flank march, is a
little village in the canton of Briey, 18 kilometres to the
north-west of our great stronghold. We hope that the
account of the military achievement at Sainte Marie,
which allowed the Commander-in-Chief to execute an
im-
portant movement in another direction, may be verified ;
but we cannot conceal from ourselves that the position of
our troops seems anything but free and unfettered. We ,
find in the correspodence of the Gaulois, which is gener-
ally optimist in its views, that at Verdun, where great ,
preparations in the way of provisions and military stores
had been made, the advance guard of the Marshal was
vainly expected during the 17th and 18th. Not a single