10 SEPTEMBER 1870

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The great battle before Sedan, on Thursday, 1st September, of

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which we gave the King of Prussia's telegraphic account last week, and the great result of which we were able to give last Saturday in a second edition, ended in far the most...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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"U P to Friday night the hope of peace was still but faint ; and as nearly as we can gather, affairs stood thus. The Repub- lican Government, recognizing the defeat of the Army...

By five o'clock the fate of the day was so

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completely decided that a French officer carrying a white duster, in default of any flag of truce, came to ask for terms. The reply was, that on a subject so important King...

The capitulation of Sedan proved fatal to the Empire. On

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Saturday, the 3rd inst., Count Palikao officially recognized a great disaster, and during a midnight sitting he acknowledged to the Chamber the whole truth, which, on the...

The Emperor's interview with the great Minister who has so

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completely foiled him at his own weapons, and with the King who seems at least as likely to be the first of a new series of Emperors of Germany as Napoleon III. seems likely to...

** The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

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The position of the neutral Powers was changing slightly when

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Napoleon fell, Russia, Austria, and Italy all arming. It is extremely doubtful, however, if Russia will help a Republic which must sympathize with Poland ; Austria distrusts a...

though M. Etienne Arago has been made Prefect of the

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Seine, an office as important as any Ministry ; and the Count de Keratry Prefect of Police, perhaps the most important office in Paris, whose criminals and roughs consider the...

All this is natural, and in its way dignified, but

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opinions differ widely as to the actual situation. Good soldiers, we know, hold that Paris is really an entrenched camp which might be defended for weeks ; but equally good...

General Trochu won. At noon the battalions of the National

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Guard, followed by immense crowds of people, filled the Place de la Concorde, and marched over the bridge of that name towards the Legislative Chamber, then protected by the...

The cloud which settles over German armies when engaged in

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great operations has fallen on them once more, and we do not know clearly even where they are. Apparently they are sweeping on towards Paris, in many columns, the front...

The Provisional Government was at once constituted, and con- sists

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of General Trochu, the only officer whom Paris and the Army alike trust, as President, with full military powers ; of M. Gambetta, the well-known Red, a man of violent oratory,...

The Senate tried to be dignified in dying, but did

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not quite succeed. The Senators cried, " Long live the Emperor !" in a creditable manner, and declared that if the mob invaded their hall their duty would be to remain seated ;...

General Uhrich at Strasburg, with the town in ruins, the

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library burnt, the Cathedral half destroyed, the fortifications shattered, is, by the latest telegrams, inclined to treat for surrender. He demands, however, the honours of war,...

All this while the Empress sat quiet in the Tuileries,

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but the instant the Dicheance was decreed, Pietri, the Corsican Prefect of Police, warned her hurriedly that she was in danger, and fled from Paris. The Empress, who is brave,...

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The report whicb we mentioned last week, founded on Mr.

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'Prescott Hewett's asserted visit to the Emperor, as to the condi- 'tion of his Majesty's health, seems to have been incorrectly given. -Mr. Prescott Hewett has "not visited his...

The proclamation of the French Republic has produced a very

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• distinct effect on the sympathies of the English operative class, 'which were, we take it, decidedly German, but are likely to become decidedly French now that the French...

Sir John Pakington was hardly more instructive the other day

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at Rushook, in Worcestershire, when he said, after referring to the wonderful series of Prussian victories, " these remarkable events teach us how soon a war may spring up, and...

It will be noted that it is the Republican, and

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not the Socialist, party which is in power. M. Jules Simon, Minister of Instruction :and Religion, belongs, in some sense, to that party ; but he is rather an " Owenite " than a...

It seems likely enough that both Mid Surrey and West

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Surrey will return Conservative Members to fill up the recent vacancies, without opposition. Mr. Lee Steers was on Thursday elected M.P. for West Surrey in Mr. Briscoe's place...

Ireland is still going on with its agitation for a

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" home Govern- • ment," but it does not appear to be very zealously pursued. On Thursday week a meeting assembled in the Round Room of the E.otunda to promote the object of...

The election of Professor Jowett to the Mastership of Balliol

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'College, Oxford, is a great event for the University,—not that the Master of Balliol has usually exercised, or perhaps can exercise, ;nearly so important an influence over the...

Au expostulation addressed by Mr. Disraeli as long ago as

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1845 to his American publishers, not for taking his copyright, but for afterwards misprinting his works, has just been published. It is curious, as showing the enormous value...

It is stated that M. Louis Blanc will be French

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Ambassador in London. If England and France are to understand one another, no better selection could have been made. Ledru Rollin is to go to America. Well, there are no...

A terrible calamity has happened to the Fleet. It is

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believed that the Captain, the second greatest ship in the British Navy, a ship by herself equal to many fleets, has foundered in a gale in Vigo Bay. The only evidence appears...

The English in Paris appear to be extremely excited because

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the British Government does not at once propose mediation, but they misunderstand the situation. What is Lord Granville to propose? That France be not dismembered ? That would...

Consols were on Friday evening 91} to 92.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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■ 4111,■. THE REVOLUTION. P OOR PREVOST PARADOL I Six weeks longer of pain, forty-five days more of patience with the Almighty, and his burden would have passed away, and he...

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THE BATTLE BEFORE SEDAN.

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THURSDAY and Friday, the 1st and 2nd September, were costly days for France,—days on which a costly price was paid for the great deliverance of Sunday. Without the .great and...

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THE EX-EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.

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T HE sombre figure of Napoleon III, for twenty-one years ruler, and for nineteen years Emperor of the French, will always seem to have been at once one of the most curious...

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THE POSSIBILITIES OF PEACE.

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W E begin to see light about the possible terms of peace. Two great changes have occurred during the week, both of which tend, in our judgment, to develop moderation, and it...

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THE DECADENCE OF THE FRENCH ARMY.

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N OTHING in the history of this wonderful war has so astounded English readers as the stories constantly received of the decline of discipline in the French Army. It was no...

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THE INDIAN RUMOURS.

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I T is quite impossible, it would, in fact, be presumptuous, to express a final opinion on the news recently received from India, but it is our duty to say that it is...

THE CANADIAN DOMINION. [Br s CANADIAN.] T WENTY-ONE years ago an

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important manifesto appeared in Canada. It was signed by 325 colonists, many of them men who had then or have since made their mark in the politics or the trade of the colony,...

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EDUCATED PAWNS.

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T HERE does seem at first sight a real paradox in the apparent evidence yielded by the wonderful behaviour of the Prussian armies of 1866 and 1870, that the more carefully you...

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THE BURNING OF STRASBURG CATHEDRAL. gm; following, which is translated

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from the Augsburger Allgemeine- Zeitung, will give our readers some interesting facts, and a striking glimpse of German feeling on the subject of the great Cathedral :-1 Before...

WAR CORRESPONDENTS.

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I T is a professional view of the subject, we suppose, but to us there is something very interesting and very far from dis- pleasing in the complete victory of the British...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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(TO THE EDITOR, OF "THE SPEOTATOH." . ] Berne, September 3, 1870. SIR,—S0 the Imperial bubble has burst at last. With the Emperor the captive of the King of Prussia, Marshal...

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BOOKS.

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THE JACOBITE LAIRDS OF GASK.* THIS is not a novel, as some might conjecture from its title ; on the contrary, it has what people enervated by much novel-reading may think the...

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ESTHER HILL'S SECRET.*

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THE secret which is thus frankly proclaimed on the title-page is kept with great success till the third volume is reached, and though the reader begins to guess from an early...

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FLINT CHIPS.*

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FRE-HISTORIC, or rather non-historic, archaeology has had many -difficulties to contend with, but it is in a fair way to surmount them all. For a long while its materials were...

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DR. SYLVESTER ON THE LAWS OF VERSE.*

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TROSE who have never overcome a certain repugnance at the first approaches to mathematics are apt to suppose that the whole study is dry and unpoetical, and that the mind can be...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Contemporary Review, September. (Strahan.)—We specially recommend to our readers Miss Florence Hill's article on "The Family System for Workhouse Children." To give a child...

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The Natural History of Man. Vol. I., Africa ; Vol.

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II., Asia and America. By the Rev. J. G. Wood. (Routledge.)—This is one of the works which a man, himself not unaccustomed to labour, regards with astonishment. There is the...

The Bottom of the Sea. By L. Sourel. Translated and

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edited by Elihu Rich. (Sampson Low, Son, and Marston.)—This is one of the books about nature, partly scientific, partly popular, and not without a dash of romance, which French...

Specimens of the Drawings of Ten Masters. (Macmillan.)—This very handsome

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volume contains twenty reproductions of drawings contained in the Royal collection at Windsor, executed by the photographic pro- cess invented by Mr. Ernest Edwards, a process...

Life Problems Answered in Christ. By Leigh Mann. (Hodder and

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Stoughton.)—We quite agree with Mr. Maclaren, a good judge of work of which he is himself a master, when he says in the preface which he writes for these sermons that " they are...

Thomas Chalmers : a Biographical Study. By James Dodds. (01i-

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phant.)—Mr. Dodd's idea in writing this book is good, though 'some exception may be taken to his way of working it out. It is to give the essence of a biography,—what may be...

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The Coronation Stone, by William F. Skene (Edmonston and Douglas),

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is a monograph on a subject of some interest. Everyone knows that the stone was taken froin the Abbey of Scone by Edward I., and that it now lies under the coronation chair in...

The Illustrated Handbook of California (Sampson Low and Co.) is

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full of information, the accuracy of which we cannot pretend to judge ; but which, at all events, looks like what one would want to have. The writer sets forth in the preface...