The Sun. — 1871-01-20 (London, England)

AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTH-EAST. LYONS, Jan. 10.  The Army of the East fights with great spirit. The news is confirmed that Bourbaki has carried the last of the fortified positions which intercepted his advance on Montb6liard, and to-day will take place an encounter which will decide its fate. The Prussians have spared no pains to defend it, for once Montbgliard is taken the approaches to Belfort will be no longer tenable by the assailants. It is said to be part of Bourbaki's. plan that Garibaldi's corps should turn Montbeliard and take the assailants of Belfort in the rear. The Germans lost heavily in the actions which followed Villersexel. The peasants say the ground was strewed with corpses. Twelve hundred prisoners were captured and sent to Besancon and Dijon. They belonged to Zastrow's corps. The Baden troops, who were decimated in the Cote d'or, took the second line, and fell back between Montbdliard and Belfort. While Bourbaki and Cremer attack Montbelietrd in force, Bressolles will turn the position on the left as Garibaldi will have doze on the right, so that these two generals will find themselves together in the rear of the corps which besieges Belfort. Bourbaki's army is divided into four corps, those of Bourbaki, Bressolles, Garibaldi, and Cremer. The mobilised legions of the Rhone are to join Cremer. The Breton Legion, which is 1,500 strong, and has several mitraille-uses, has gone to the Vosges, Bourbaki having asked for them as scouts. Correspondence with Belfort is carried on -pretty regularly from Porrentruy. One man has carried between 200 and 300 letters, at two francs per letter—six profitable journeys. The garrison musters about 12,000 men, and the besiegers 25,000, partly Prussians, partly Bavarians and Badois. The 3rd battalion of the Garde9 Mobiles of the mouth of the Rhone, which has garrisoned Bonn, in Algeria, since the beginning of the campaign, is expected here. With it will arrive a complete battery of artillery,cannon, cases, and rifled breechloading bronze cannon. This magnificent battery is a present to the Government of National Defence from the Maritime Compagnie des Messageries. Under a Government order, the Prefect of the Rhone has just made a requisition of coaches in all the Communes. They are to be sent to Chalon and Besancon. Walewski, commandant of the Corps des Vengeurs, who fled into Switzerland with his company's funds, will be brought to justice.  A correspondent of the Times with the German army says that Chanzy's forces seem inferior to those with which he resisted the German advance at Beaugency. A letter from Pesth, in the Cologne Gazette, states that General Schweinitz, the North German Ambassador, dined with the Emperor of Austria on the I2th. The Emperor made inquiries as to the health of the King of Prussia, and warmly praised the Prussian army and its generalship. A private letter, written from the neighbourhood of Paris, and dated January 13, says : " Do not expect the fall of Paris too soon. ' There's many a slip,' says the proverb, and Trochu may hammer on until February for aught that I can see. The war is likely to be a longer and more doubtful affair than our German friends expected in November. The fall of Paris will not end a struggle like this, nor is it clear what Germany is to do after her final triumph—if it ever come —at Bordeaux."  General von Goeben succeeds Manteuffel in the northern command. He has only three divisions under him, and will probably remain on the defensive, unless Faidherbe, in attacking him, meets with a decided defeat, and has to seek shelter in one of the northern fortresses. In this case Goeben will probably follow him, and throwing a line of investment round the French general's refuge, rest content with holding the Army of the North virtually prisoners.—Standard Correspondent.  The complaint recently addressed by the French Provisional Government to the Court of Vienna that a large number of Austrian railway waggons were being employed by the Germans for the purposes of the war has led to an inquiry by the Prussian authorities. The result at which they have arrived is, that Austrian waggons have hardly ever been used by the German authorities, but that a large number of such waggons were on French territory at the outbreak of the war, and on the advance of the invading army were sent into western and southern France, where they are still employed for military purposes. It is hoped that the Austrian Government will demand the return of this rolling stock. The correspondent of the Daily News is sorry to saY that drunkenness is on the increase in the German army besieging Paris. "In the active campaign preceding the siege you would hardly ever see a man drunk—now hiccoughing gentlemen, making a staggering exit from the shop tenanted by a marketender, are far from uncommon• There is more than cause for this. The men in a siege get inexpressibly ennuye, and somebody has said that the climax of ennui is delirium tremens or suicide. Perhaps even a stronger cause is the want of beer, and the consequent necessity, if a man drinks at all, to take glass after glass of rotgut rum, schnapps, or arrack."