The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1870.

Dunstan Times, Issue 451, 9 December 1870, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1870.

Heneath the Rule of Men cNnrel.y just the pen is mightier than the sword

Each succeeding English Mail brings similar news of disaster to the French arms; and now the culminating point i is nearly reached by the investment I of Paris by one-half the German | army, and, if late telegrams are resile, the big guns opened lire on the : Mil city oi> the Ist of November last. '

The chances of a successful resistance are exceedingly small. The motley crowd within the walls, although as numerous as tlio besieging army, are not sufficiently disciplined towithstand the assaults of the well-trained army

| which constitutes the besieging force, ! and who moreover come to the attack flushed with the success of unparalleled victories in the field. On the first outset of the war few 'concluded that Paris was likely to be besieged, or that the French army would have baen almost annihilated in so short a space of time. Such a contingency appeared beyond the verge of possibilities. We always hoped that things would not have come to this pass, and we still hope that the next mail will bring us news that the Queen City of Europe has been saved. The sack of Paris would be a calamity which humanity in general must deplore. The less sustained by mankind would be irretrievable, while the amount of human suffering it would entail is fearful to contemplate. It may be very easy for members in the French Chambers to say, “ Paris will not be taken. It will be defended from street to street, from square to square, and from house to house.” One million and a half of inhabitants, divided against themselves, and wild with fanaticism, are not likely to hold out Jong when they find the place fairly invested and provisions running short, coupled with the knowledge that they have no army in the field. Under these circumstances a successful defence is almost impo.-sible, and to hold out can only make matters woise. Unless some other Power takes up the cudgels against Prussia—and this does not appear likely to be the case —Paris must succumb to the invaders, let it be defended ever so bravely. The numerical strength and efficiency of the besiegers cannot fail to effect this, and, without something approaching to a miracle should interpose to frustrate the arms of the Prussians, King William may dictate his owu terms in Paris itself. Public opinion, in some channels, may be opposed to the of the Prussian Monarch in i-equiring the cession of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, as a guarantee against future aggressions; but, when we come to consider the revolutionary character of the French people, and the repeated changes in their form of Government, Prussia is entitled to require some substantial guarantee. In the present instance, the government ot Jules Favre is only that of a Parisian mob, who, because their Emperor was unsuccessful in war, deposed him, and declared an Empire a Republic. This cannot be looked upon as the deliberate act of the French nation. The country peop’e, the army, and, we should say, the thinking portion of the Parisians, might be better satisfied with the the Empire, and desire to see Louis Napoleon hack agam at the Tuileries. In the event of Paris being taken, the same mob might be desirous of .setting-up something else in place of the present Provisional Government. Such an event is quite possible with a people who depose their Sovereign because the fortune of war is against him. That the war, at the outset, was popular with the French people there is no doubt. The Parisians, who are now reviling and caricaturing tha Kmperor, would then have gladly licked his shoes ; and, after all, France must recollect that the Prussians have only done to it what France had intended to have done to Prussia. It is only that the tables have been turned. The Prussians have marched into France, instead of the French marching into Prussia. The lesson will be useful to many, and results from the neglect ot a very needful precaution on the part of -the French —not ascertaining their own strength and the strength of the enemy before rushing into war. We hope, for humanity’s sake, that Paris will be spared the horrors of a bombardment. The very idea of such a thing thrills one with horror.