The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-12 00:00:00

CBE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1870.

in the parishes of Templemore, County of Tipperary, and
in part of the parish of Kilbride in King's County. Both
these districts were proclaimed in Tuesday's Gazette.
t

THE POSITION GF GARIBALDI'S
COMMAND.

Writing from Dole on the, 7th inst., the correspondent
of the Daily News at the headquarters of. Garibaldi_saya :
The probability of our retiring upon Mouchard and the
Forest of Chaux, in the event of our being attacked by the
enemy in force, becomes more apparent every day. lam
glad to say that we are now kept tolerably well informed
of the enemy's movements, which seem to indicate that
they intend either to drive us from this part of the
country, or shut us up in Besancon or Auxonne, before
marching upon Lyons. Vesoul is again occupied, as is
also Beaune. Belfort is surrounded, so that the German
line now presents the form of a crescent, extending
from Belfort to Beaune, with Dijon, Gray, and Vesoul
as central points, Besancon undertakes to observe
the troops assembled in the neighbourhood of
Vesoul and Belfort, and to prevent, a descent from that
quarter, while the volunteers, under the command of
Garibaldi, will oppose the remainder of the crescent.
On the line from Dijon to Dole the Germans are at
Callonges, which is the station before Auxonne. At
St. Jean de Losne, which is situated due west
of Dole at the point where the river Ouche runs into
the Saone, we have had several skirmishes with the
enemy's ectaireurs, in one of which we lost two men killed
and six wounded, but held our ground. On the line from
Gray to Orchamps and DOle, the Germans are at Valay
which is the station before Pesmes, numbering, it is said,
3,000, with one battery and a few Uhlans. General
Bosak, however, does not think they are so numerous.
His head-quarters, which a day or two ago were at
Offlange, have now been changed to 'l'ervay, which
is a mile or two this side of Pesmes. He is placed there
to prevent the enemy crossing the Oignon. Unfortunately
he has only sixteen hundred men with him, six hundred
of whom are dressed in blue blouses, and have never fired
a gun. These have been left at Offiange to be drilled.
The enemy can cross the Oignon in two places, at Pesmes
and L'Abbaye d'Accy. At Pesmes the railway bridge
will be blown up, and the passage of the river at
that spot, although not impossible, could then be defended
for a considerable time by a mere handful of men. At
L'Abbaye D'Accy it would be necessary to defend the
passage of the river at the point of the bayonet, and if the
enemy presented himself in force General Bosak would
be compelled to retire upon Besancon. On the other
hand, the enemy is endeavouring to cross the
Saone, in the neighbourhood of St. Jean de Losne,
with a view, perhaps, of surrounding us by a rapid move-
ment of their right wing. St. Jean de Losne and the
river Doubs are defended by the brigade of General
Menotti Garibaldi Auxonne, although not a town of any

particular strength, is sufficient to stop the advance of
the enemy along the railway line between Dijon
and Dole. It has 60 cannon, 3,000 men, and pro-
visions for two months. General Garibaldi in-
intends to stay here as long as he possibly can, and then,
when he finds that the enemy are advancing in force, . he
will move his headquarters to Mouchard, and if he cannot
give battle, will probably retire upon Lyons, by Lons-le-
Saunier and Bourg, In any case, our prospects are any-
thing but brilliant, and if any fighting does take
place, I fully partake of the opinion expressed by
Ricciotti, who firmly believes that we shall all be
killed. It would be almost impossible to conceive an
army worse dressed, armed, and organised than ours.
Nearly the whole of our guns are flint lock muskets
dating from 1813, transformed to the percussion cap
system, and I feel certain that if ever we were to
face the Prussians, a most horrible butchery
_would be

the result. I am not sure whether I have not
already told you of a disturbance that occurred some days
ago between the Etat-Major and one of the Italian legions,
armed with percussion-cap muskets and 'provided with
caps that were too small for the nipples of their guns.
The Italians very naturally objected to fight unless they
could have caps that would fit their guns.

SEC,RESY OF TILL PARIS GOVERNMENT.
The Paris correspondent of the Daily News, in a letter
dated the 7th instant, writes as follows :—One of the facts
which are least likely to inspire confidence is the absurd
mystification which the Government has attempted as to
the numbers of the Army and the Mobiles. Some weeks
ago I gave you these numbers from the official reports as
follows :—For the Army, including the Marine,
70,000 ; and for the Mobiles, 90,00,1 ; in all
160,000. There is no reason why the Governmont at that
time should have underrated their force•. On the con-
trary, there was every reason why they should have an-
nounced frankly to Paris what was her real effective force.
Ever since the beginning of October, all the world has
accepted the figures of 70,000 for the Army and 90,000 for
the Mobiles. But on the occasion of the recent Plebiscite
comes a device which is too transparent to deceive
any one. First of all, there is issued a circular from
the staff of the commander-in-chief, requesting the
papers not to publish the numbers of the Army and of
the Mobiles, as it might give information to the enemy.
Most of the papers accordingly forbear to give the vote of
the Army, and announce the reason why. Then comes
au indiscretion, or au apparent indiscretion, of the ex-
tremely Red papers. One of them, either from
spite, or through want of concert with the Government,
publishes the numbers of the military vote. Finally, the
Journal Officiel, seeing that the numbers have oozed out
against the wish of the Government, thinks it right no
longer to maintain silence, and lets us know publicly that
the numbers which voted in the Army and Mobiles com-
bined amounted to 245,000. This sort of mystification
is very childish, can mislead no one, and does harm to
everybody. When the German leaders see that
since the last report the numbers of the regular force in
Paris have increased for the Army by 55,000 men, for
the Mobiles by'3o,ooo, and for all by 85,000, what will
they think ? They will at once imagine that Paris must
be muoh weaker than it is. There was no reason why
the numbers of the forces should have been concealed
before ; there is a reason why these forces should
be exaggerated now. And then for the impression
in Paris. An effort has been made to mobilise the Na-
tional Guards, an effort which has hitherto completely
failed for a variety of reasons. It must put a complete end
to their voluntary mobilisation if they are made to under-
stand that General Trochu has a force of 245,000 regular
troops under his command. If he has such a force under
him, why should he want to mobilise the National
Guards, and why has he been able to do so little
hitherto to beat back the invader ? The love of conceal-
ment infects every French commander. A French general
could not exist without a portfolio full of secrets. Bazaine
had his plan—a tremendous secret. Now Trochu has his
plan—another great secret. And the secresy of the
general plan is supposed to involve a long train
of secrets which are perfectly useless. The plans
of General Trochu have hitherto been delayed
simply through the want of artillery, In a few days he
will be able to command 500 guns ; in a few days_more,
650. He has no lack of men, and when he has the guns,
it will then be necessary for him to exhibit his plan, and
to do something, if not to save Paris, at least to save her
honour. He declares emphatically that Paris is impreg-
nable. If so, the capital can only be reduced by star-
v4.tion ; and now when we have begun to eat the
beasts in the Jardin des Plantes—the yak was eaten
yesterday at 30 francs a pound for the fillet, and this week
we are going to feast on the monkeys, which are said
to 'lake a very dainty dish—the time is near at hand,
not, indeed, when we are to be starved out, for we have
provisions to last a long time yet, but when we shall
ail feel the pinch of privation at being deprived of
our accustomed food. Paris can then show what she is
worth, and we shall then also know what all the secrets
'of the Government are worth. Paris has still a noble
part to play, and in a day or two we shall know whether
it is in her to recover from the illusions created by the
proposition of an armistice---to trust in no one but herself
—and like a true heroine, to accept again, as she accepted
before, a war to the last extremity.

The Pall Mall Gazette utterly condemns the conduct
of the Germans in shooting peasants who offer resistance
as being both antiquated and barbarous. " The whole of
the ‘Landsturm Ordnung,' as the law of 1813 regarding it
is called, is drawn up—and its author is no other than
Scharnhorst, the organiser of the Prussian army—in this
spirit of uncompromising national resistance, to which all
means are justifiable and the most effective are the best.
But then all this was to be done by the Prussians against
the French, but if the French act in the same way
towards the Prussians that is quite a different thing.
What was patriotism in the one case becomes brigandage
and cowardly assassination, in the other."
The Paris Journal des Debats says that at a meeting which
took place on the thirty-first, a partisan of the rioters
rushed in and declared that a battalion of the National
Guard had taken possession of the Hotel de Ville, but
little attention was paid to his recital. Another orator
spoke with more success. " You wish," he said, "to put
down citizen Trocbu, but by whom will you replace him ?
We want a General, a man of mettle, for we cannot
improvise a General. If he has done wrong let his
conduct be examined, but he must not be put down by
revolutionary means. He has acted like a brave and loyal
citizen, and should be maintained in his authority. We
cannot stop without a leader in the presence of the
Prussians." These remarks were received with great
applause.