NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 844, 1 August 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

THE STRUGGLE IN PAEIS. Paris, May 26. The English and Belgian Governments expressed the deepest sympathy with that of Erance, and offered to send land steam engines and corps of firemen to help to extinguish the Paris fires. Their services were not required, a<? the conflagrations were already almost isolated in the quarters held by the Versailles troops" Six thousand insurgents surrendered this forenoon (May 26th) at the Barriere d'ltalie. They had constituted the garrisons of the southern forts, and having been successively driven from Issy, Vanves, Montrouge, and Bicetre, had concentrated in Port Ivry and the adjoining entrenched positions. This morning they had quitted this their last external stronghold, with the intention of entering Paris and of making terms if possible, or taking part in the supreme intramural struggle. Their entrance was prevented by the Versaillists. A parlementairo came forward to demand that all lives should be spared as the condition of surrender. The reply was promptly, " Unconditional surrender." This was accepted. The insurgents blew up Fort Ivry on evacuating it, and it is now a heap of ruins. Marshal MacMahon has repeatedly demanded that the Government should grant no permission whatsoever to anybody to enter Paris, and this is being acted upon with great strictness.

The Chevalier Nigra, the Italian Minister, was refused entrance to-day, and returned to Versailles with a deputy who had also vainly demanded admission. The Prussians aro equally inexorable on the northern and eastern sides.

General Clinchamp is arming tho Buttes Montmartre with naval guns, and threatens to pour red hot shot into the North-East district of Paris. The troops have advanced to the Pan-

theon, which is believed to bo saved. General Douni saved the museum of the Louvre, but the library is utterly destroyed. Among the leaders taken prisoners aro mentioned Eudcs, Ranvier, Amouroux, and Bergeret. General L'Herillie is in possession oftlio Bank nf France, which is intact. Five thousand troops left Versailles on Wednesday night fey both the railways, which will soon be open to the public.

Several hundred insurgents who took refuge in the Madeleine were, it is said, bayonetted in the church. Not one, it is declared, came out alive.

Many women, accused of firing the Ministries, have been brought in here prisoners. An eminent advocate, second to none in execrating the Commune, says he was shocked to {see an officer draw his sword upon a woman who tried to leave the ranks, and inflict a deep gash upon her face and hack off part of the shoulder. Later in the day another officer was arrested for protesting against similar barbarity An incredible quantity of Jbits of. half-burned papers, fly leaves of dividends, obligations, and other securities, were carried by the wind after the burning of the Finance Ministry as far as the Forest of St. Germain.

Herds of prisoners are still being driven into Versailles. Eleven waggon loads of dead bodies—the dead bodies of insurgents taken while escaping under cover of Fort Montrouge and shot—have been buried in the common ditch of Issy Cemetery. The majority of the Committee reports against so much of Jules Simon's Bill for restoring the Vendome column as contemplates substituting the allegorical statue of France for the statue of Napoleon I. The Committee says that this would be to decapitate the Grand Armee, and to falsify history. But instead of restoring the statue of Napoleon I. in Roman Imperial robes, it proposes to put up again the well-known Petit Caporal with the cocked hat.