The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-09 00:00:00

THE ARMY OF THE NORTH.

General Faidherbe has issued a proclamation to
the 22nd Corps, forming the Army of the North.
The most important passages in it are these :—" You
will at once resume operations with considerable
reinforcements, which are being daily organised, and it
will depend upon you to compel the enemy to give way
his turn. I shall mercilessly exact discipline from
You. If all cannot achieve morality, I shall at least re-
quire dignified conduct, and especially temperance.
those who are now armed for the deliverance of the
country are invested with too sacred a mission to allow
themselves the least licenso in public. As regards
contempt of death, I ask it from you even in the
Ileme of your own safety."

THE. SIEGE OF PARIS.
BERLIN, Wednesday (4.20 p.m

There is a report in Parliamentary circles that
before the commencement of negotiations for peace
a congress of princes will meet at Versailles.
The purchase and transport of provisions re•
quired for Paris after the capitulation have been
entrusted to two of the commissariat, who have con-
cluded large contracts with English houses. The
latter have been preferred to German houses, lest
the enormous export of provisions should produce an
Inconvenient rise in prices.

PROPOSAL OF AN ARMISTICE

BY M. G-AMBETTA.

We (Daily News) are enabled to state, upon
authority in which we place confidence, that M.
G ambetta has made an application to the Prussian head-
quarters for an armistice sufficiently extended to allow
time for the election of a National Assembly. M.
Gambetta, we are informed, requests that M. Jules
Favre may have permission to leave Paris, in order
to associate himself with M. - Gambetta in the pre-
liminary negotiations. The Provisional Government
is not likely, we understand, to insist on the re -
victualling of Paris as a condition essential to the
suspense of hostilities.

Negotiations for an armistice, says the Morning
Post, have again been attempted by the Tours Go-
vernment, and have been backed by the support of
the Neutral Powers. It is thought, however, that
no result is likely at present to be achieved in bring-
ing about a suspension of arms.

THE WAR AND SHIPPING MOVEMENTS.

A telegram from Nantes to the Shipping Gazette
says :—ln compliance with the general wish of Com-
merce, the Government has ordered the concentra-
tion of a small fleet at the mouth of the Loire, to
protect shipping and the ports of St. Nazaire and
Nantes. 1t is to consist of the floating batteries
Nos. 8 and 10, of the gunboats Flambard, Boute-
feu, Mutine, Dard, Fronde, Epieu, and Mosquiet
and of two or three small steamers.

(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAMS.)

A LETTER FROM THE PRINCESS ALICE.

The honorary secretary of the Manchester Ladies' Com-
mittee for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded has
received an autograph letter from the Princess Alice,
acknowledging the receipt of goods which were trans-
mitted from Manchester in October for the purpose of
furnishing one of the wards of the Alice Cross Hospital
at Darmstadt, which ward is now called the Manchester
Ward. The letter is signed, "Alice, President of the Alice
Hospital Committee, Princess Louis of Hesse, and Prin-
cess of Great Britain and Ireland." The Princess says
that not only are the sick sincerely grateful for the bene-
fits bestowed upon them, but public opinion has been ex-
pressed in various quarters acknowledging the excellence
of the English gift. It gives the president of the institu-
tion the greatest possible pleasure thus to receive a token
of active benevolence from her native land.

MR. NEWDEG ATE, MP., ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
At the annual dinner of the Rugby and Nunchurch
Association, held yesterday, under the presidency of the
Earl of Dalkeith, the members for North Warwickshire
were present. Mr. Newdegate took a lengthy review of
the events of the past year, which had witnessed the pro-
clamation by the Pope of his own infallibility amid a
thunderstorm, and the outbreak of a war of unpre-
cedented magnitude. This was followed by the
downfall of the Emperor, the eldest son of
the Pope, and of the Government of Spain, the
most Catholic Government in Europe. These results
he attributed to the ambitious designs of the Jesuits. Mr.
Newdegate deprecated the idea of a war with Russia,
which country bad recently effected the enfranchisement
of a great part of her population, and was Protestant
like England, and opposed to the encroachments of the
Papacy.

MR. BRYDGES WILLYAMS, M.P., ON PUBLIC

QUESTIONS.

Speaking at the agricultural dinner at Callington, yes-
terday, Mr. Brydges Willyams, one of the members for
East Cornwall,- said he should like to see the Game
Laws abolished, but if this were done a stringent law
against trespass must be enacted. Europe, he believed,
was on the eve of a great crisis, the issue of which, in a
great measure, depended upon England. This country,
he hoped, would be prepared to defend her Treaties with
arms if necessary. He advocated the establishthent of a
strong military reserve, and that the militia should be
placed on a more stable accommodation and commanded
by half-pay officers.

MR. HORSMAN, M.P., AND HIS
CONSTITUENTS.

Mr. Horsman, M.P., addressing his constituents at
Liskeard last night, stated that the result of the Irish
Land Bill had surpassed his expectations, while that of
the Education Bill had fallen below them. Government
had not dealt so fairly with the latter question as with
other questions of the day. Referring to the Russian
difficulty, he expressed himself perfectly satisfied with
the answer Earl Granville had returned to Prince Gorts-
cha,koff's despatch. Of the Franco-Prussian war he said
that though England bad done what she could to bring it
to an end, he doubted if she had done all that lay in her
power to prevent its commencement.

THE NEW MASTER OF UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE, OXFORD.
The Rev. George Granville Bradley, M.A., head-master
of Marlborough School, was last night elected master
of University College, Oxford, in succession to the late
Dr. Pluratre.

HEAD MASTERSHIP OF MERCHANT
TAYLORS' SCHOOL.
Last night intelligence was received at Oxford that the
Rev. W. Baker, Tutor, and formerly Fellow of St.
John's, had been elected head-master of Merchant Tay.
lors' Schools.