The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-04 00:00:00

ORGANISING THE DEFENCE.

The special correspondent of the Telegraph sends the
following from Paris, October 28,by balloon:—The Govern-
ment has not as yet shewn any relaxation of energy in or-
ganising the defence. The troops aro daily drilled as
usual, and there can now bo no doubt that many of them
will shew in action as much discipline and cool-
ness as if they had been soldiers by profession.
The manufacture of ammunition is still carried
on with the greatest vigour. The circus in the
Champs Elysees is now a cartridge manufactory, in which
hundreds of women are constantly employed. Of the
Paris railways the following still continue in operation :
the Northern, which goes to St. Denis ; the Vincennes,
which stops at Bel Air, and the Belt railway, which runs
from the station in Rue St. Lazare to Auteuil on the ex-
treme south-west, and to Bel Air on the extreme north-
east. The Rue St. Lazare station is the only
one which still retains some remains of the old anima-
tion. The Strasburg, Lyons, Orleans, Mont Parnasse, and
Sceaux stations are all closed. Gardes Mobiles
are now drilled in the Strasburg, Northern, and
Mont Parnasse. The great lobby of the Lyons
station is occupied by schoolboys ; the vestibule of
the Sceaux Railway is a post for National Guards.
Our last reconnaissance or two have shown—something
which our Paris friends ought long since to have found
out, and which. they would have known, were any head
with brains in office here—that the Germans have
never occupied the villages which lie between the
forts, and the heights immediately outside them ;
but that the enemy has so fortified himself
upon these heights that he can defy every attack
the French can make. The luckless villages have been
sacked, ransacked, and sacked again by the miserable
horde of Parisians—too numerous among us— that live by
rapine, and from whom we fear almost all that most
people confess as really to be feared in this present siege.
While we tremble, we fire big guns. The cannoniers
of Fort Mont Val6rien get more ex-pert day by
day. Yesterday, I am told, a shell thrown from
this certainly most advantageously-placed fortress pitched
amid a Prussian infantry post just 6,000 yards off. But
though our guns make so great a fuss and carry projec-
tiles so far, we begin really to apprehend that
the bombardment will be no trifle when it does
begin. And rightly so :if such tremendous firing of
guns on our part does not keep the enemy from
enclosing us in a firmer and more helpless grip
day by day, what will be the case when his
guns, carefully planted and trained on delibe-
rately-chosen spots, open their fire ? We know
that the Germans, from the redoubt on the heights
of Chatillon, captured by the Bavarians on the
19th of September, and from the hill of Clamart, near
Bas-Meudon, can easily throw their shells into any point
of a wide radius, the verge of which touches the Palais
d'lndustrie, in the Champs Elysees, the Corps Legislatif,
the Panthdon, the Barriere d'ltalie—nay, from Belle-
vue, which, I need hardly tell you, is just above
St. Cloud, they can cover the whole radius from the Bar-
Here de Roule, across the Place de la Concorde, the Cour
des Comptes, the Luxembourg, and Gentilly. For my
own part, I confess I expect no bombardment ; but other
people that profess to know more than I do fear more.

FRANCE AND "A DISHONOURABLE PEACE."
The correspondent of the Standard at Versailles, writing
concerning the fall of Metz, says: That the surrender of
Metz will prove to be the hinge on which war and peace
turned I still venture to think, though I see you doubt
it. Indeed, it would seem only reasonable to
say that had there not been such an overpowering
amount of bluster, such a blowing of trumpets,
such a vain-glorious parade of the military wonders
that were going to be effected, the French need not have
waited for the surrender of Metz for peace. The • recom-
mendation which in this instance they had given them-
selves by self-praise created for them so exaggerated a
reputation that it was impossible for them to confess
themselves beaten when both themselves and the whole
world saw that they were. Sedan was far more crushing
than the fall of Sebastopol, the defeat of Solferino,
or the disaster of Konigsgratz, and nobody for a
moment imagined that Austria or Russia sheathed a
broken sword too soon. Now we may apply Marshal
Lebceuf's unhappy phrase, and say that France is beaten
—ay, thrice beaten; and it is idle to contend against
patent and palpable facts. This new surrender, which will
bring the number of unwounded French prisoners in
Germany up to 200,000, and will liberate a German army
of 150,000, for further aggressive purposes, renders
submission, I would almost say, a patriotic duty. Is
France to be the only country in the world that is never
to sign what men call a humiliating peace ? Prussia has
had to do it more than once. Poor Austria has
had to do it twice within ten years. Russia
did it only a decade and a half ago. Gallant
little Piedmont had to do it after Novara, and
the whole of Italy has in its time drunk of the
cup of humiliation to the dregs. Even England has had
once, if not twice, to quaff pretty deeply out of the
same chalice. Who has guaranteed France against such
child in the European family ? lam not speaking of what
a consummation ? Are we to have a spoilt and privileged
the exact terms should be, or to what extent Germany
is interested in •not pressing the knee too heavily on
the chest of its prostrate rival, and. Europe generally
in counselling moderation. I refer only to the notion pre-
vailing in France, and encouraged by many people out of
France, that "la grande nation" cannot possibly sign a
dishonouring peace. Such an idea is, in brief plain Eng-
lish, nonsense, and ought to be knocked out of people's
heads as speedily as possible. Otherwise we shall never
have peace at all. Had the game gone the other way,
would not Germanyhave had to sign bitter and humiliating
conditions? Who can doubt it. Qui perd, paie is a
maxim as old as the hills, and has no exception. Let us
suppose Coblentz and Cologne, Rastadt and Landau to
have fallen, all the Rhine provinces to be held by French
troops, Hanover and Westphalia to be once more the object
of requisitions, proud Brandenberg to be scoured by Chas-
seurs d'Afrique, Frankfort to be one of the French headquar-
ters, and Berlin to be on the eve of a fresh,indignity,
would anyone rise up and tell us, in answer to a French
demand for the Rhine frontier, and a big indemnity for the
expenses of the war, that peace was impossible, for Ger-
many could not sign a peace that was dishonouring? The
parallel is perfect. Let us, therefore, mete out equal
justice. Self-interest, real or imaginary, may counsel a
different course ; but then candour should avow the real
motive and save us from abetting this poor France in mis-
chievous, because exaggerated, sensibility in the hour of
her misfortunes.

The Grand Duke of Mecklenburg has forbidden his
men to disturb the vintage in Champagne in any way.
The famous balloon " Vauban," which met with such
extraordinary adventures, has been found near Verdun.
A copy of the Electeur Libre, of Paris, of the 24th ult.
was found in it.

What is the truth about the mobilisation of National
Guards in Paris for active service in the field ? The Daily
News' correspondent says that whilst 40,000 were asked
for, not more than a small fraction offered themselves.
The Times' correspondent declares that the National
Guards supplied more volunteers than their Generals
asked for. This discrepancy is rather serious.
It is announced that General Trochu has had mines
constructed in all the underground sewers of Boulogne,
Clichy, Billancourt, Neuilly, and other places. It is
hardly likely, however, that if these secret preparations
had been made, they would be " announced " to the
public beforehand.
The Kreuz Zeitung declares that only those Francs-
Tireurs who wear no uniform and are not officered
by gentlemen appointed by the Government, will be
treated as brigands. All others, including foreigners,
are considered as soldiers, and allowed to benefit by the
laws of civilised warfare.

Some Freeshooters loosened the sleepers of a line over
which a Prussian military convoy had to pass, near Lau-
nois, in the Sedan district. In consequence, thirteen or
fourteen carriages of the train were dashed down a cutting
on to the side of the line. The Freeshooters then opened
fire upon the confused mass, and did some mischief. These
troops are very active all round Sedan.

CAPITULATION OF METZ.

DEMORALISATION OF THE FRENCH.

The same correspondent thus describes the wretched
and drunken condition of the French troops :—lt was just
beyond Les Bottes that I met the first French soldier-3
cavalryman of the Line. The fellow was as drunk as he
well could be to be able to move at all. He staggered
forward in tacks, dropping his kit piecemeal as he came.
At a bend in the road behind Four-k--Chaux, I wane
upon the head of the prisoner column, marching
onward for their recepuion at the Brasserie-
The men were in a very miserable state, covered
with mud, wet, sodden seemingly, indeed, through the,
through with wet, many of their faces blotched ane,
scabbed with scurvy, and quite one-third in a state a
drunkenness. Not a few were in a state of bestial drunken.
ness, their clothes disarranged, and decency utterly disre-
garded. A little further on, and right and left, lay the
great bivouac before Fort Belle-Croix. The troops were
being collected by their Officers in peloton previously to
being marched out, and several columns were ahead/
converging on the great chaussee. As each body
got the order to go forward a cheer came from the slovenly
and dislocated ranks, and from the columns on the mare'
there broke out at intervals a fitful chorus of some lively
marching song. Most of the officers were grave, taciturn
and downcast. Surely they must have despised the reek'
less throng which they nominally commanded. The
demoralisation of the Metz army is not so great as was
that of the Sedan army, but it is very great. The
men obey their officers and regard the sound 01
the bugle after a fashion, but it is evident that they are
utterly unaffected by the catastrophe which has befallen
the arms of their country, and are eager only to get some'
where where a full meal of victuals awaits them. " The
writer remarks in another place :—" The cavalry seemed
to have lost all self-respect they greeted the Prussians
with cheering, and several men broke from the ranks
and slouched forward through the mud with intent
to salute with a spirituous kiss the Prussian
officers standing in front of their companies. It was
curious to notice the opposite idiosyncrasies of the two
nationalities. Gm e and stern stood the Prussian victors,
with, as it seemed, a silent pity rather than contempt for
the demented tatterdemalions who proffered them the up'
desirable greeting ; while the Frenchmen chattered and
gesticulated, " sacred " and spluttered, sang and laughed,
as they marched the gauntlet through of humiliation." •