THE ENGLISH MAIL VIA SUEZ.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4180, 6 January 1871, Page 5

THE ENGLISH MAIL VIA SUEZ.

(FROM THE "HOME NEWS," NOVEMBER 4.) We have important news to send out, but "the end is not yet. " Victory has remained constant to Germany, and the greatest prize, save one, has fallen into her hands, for the grand fortress of Metz has surrendered. Her armies still invest Paris with a ring of iron. While we write the bombardment has not commenced, but it seems to have been understood that the fire would begin this week, and our latest page may record that it has begun. . The final resolution of the Germans has been officially announced, and it is that peace shall be made only when they are in Paris. Not only has Metz Mien, but Orleans, Soissons, Dijon, and various smaller places have been captured, and others are threatened. General Bourbaki is persuading himself that he is raising an army in the North, and Paris is always ready to believe that the provinces are rising in her behalf. But such hopes are vain. A general may even manage to get men together, but they will not be soldiers, and the Germans can afford to throw away lives in crushing opposition. The war, however, is assuming a sterner character. We learn that the Landsturm (the solid, honest men who have been called from their homes and their work to war) have conceived a deadly hatred for the French, especially the new recruits, and give no quarter when they can help it, clubbing their guns, and making short work with their foes. They are said to be content to spend Christmas in France, if it must be so, but they will do everything they can to shorten the war, and their directest method is to leave as few as possible to carry it on. In the same spirit is conceived a circular which has been issued by Bismarck, who vividly depicts the horrors of starvation to which Paris must be exposed, and declares that there tests no responsibility with Germany, which only asks just terms, compensation for the war, and .cession of territory. Of theso two things, the first France is not indisposed to grant, though men ask how she is to raise the frightful, sum which is already demanded, and which every day increases. But on the second, she had resolved as when we closed our last summary by citing the words, "Not an inch of our land, nor a stone of our fortresses." Yet the enemy has taken all that he asks. He has the country which he insists on, and has so far taken possession that all the old German geographical names are restored to Alsace. In Paris, he intends that his title to them shall be confirmed, and the French Government is as resolute in declaring that this shall not be. So far as we can see, it will have to be, nevertheless. Government is considering a plan of national defence, on the principle proposed by Lord Elcho: Mr. Cardwell promises such enlargement of the army as to prevent periodical panics, and says that breech-loaders will be issued to the volunteers at the rate of 30,000 a month. Mr. Trevelyan is labouring for the extinction of the purchase system in the army, and for the reconstruction of the Customs department, and a thorough revision of the tariff.

THE EMPEROR'S FORTUNE. Various reports are current as to the extent of the fortune accumulated by the Emperor Napoleon, some of these saying that his accumulations were very small, and others that they amounted to £6,000,000 sterling. Among the secret papers of the Emperor published by the new Prefect of Police, as noticed by the Paris correspondent of an English journal, are yearly memoranda of the balance of the Emperor's account with Messrs. Baring since 1852, and in particular a memorandum left in the account of December, 1866, and drawn up in English, which appears to show that the Emperor held foreign stocks, shares, and property worth £933,000.

PEODIGALITY OF THE FRENCH. Herr Wickede, writing to the Cologne, Gazette, thus comments on French militaryprodigality: — "If the heavy war costs necessitates more frugality on the parb of the French, it will not be amiss. How lavishly the public money has hitherto been spent anybody in Nancy can easily perceive. The old palace of King Stanislaus of ' Poland was the quarters of the marshal commanding there. It is a very stately castle, situated on a broad square planted with trees, such as no prince even now would need to be ashamed of. A lofty portico with marble columns forms the vestibule, whence splendid broad marble steps lead into the inner apartments. The fittings and furniture, provided at the expense of the State, are princely throughout. Everywh&re costly carpets, silk window blinds, velvet curtains, lofty pier-glasses, magnificent lustres — in short, the most refined luxury. In one room the seats and couches are of purple velvet, with gold borders ; £no&£ in a sfifloud ays of blue silk, iii a third of another costly material; and the marshal's entire residence is equal to the most famous princely castle. The table, moreover, of such a marshal, whose salary was £4,000 to £5,000 per annum, was quite princely. We have found here the menus of General Failly, who commanded here after McMahon, who every day had a dinner of eight courses, and dessert with champagne and four or five other kinds of wine. The servants, the horses — in short, the whole household — was quite on a princely footing. How shamelessly, too, the State was saddled with ' extras,' is shown by the accounts which have been found, and which prove, for instance, that when General Failly held a review in the neighbouring town of Luneville it always caused the public an additional expanse of £32. Luxury, frivolity, aud prodigality reigned everywhere) and shameless cheating of the State likewise prevailed in almost all the higher military circles. The military governor of Lorraine — General Boain — is now living here, although at French cost, in infinitely simpler fashion than was the custom of the French marshals even in the time of peace. He contents himself at dinner with simple wines and Bordeaux, and scorns any degree of luxuiy, though so easily obtainable. His dinner is supplied at the cost of the town from an hotel, and the landlord had even at first the impudence to expect that the General and his staff would dine at the hotel, instead of in the palace, because this would Ibe more convenient to himself. I should I like to know in what manner, if a Palikao or Bazaine had become Governor of Silesia, he would have been entertained by us."