The Times of Thursday published a story by a correspondent
at Wilhelmshithe who had met a Commissioner from Alsace, and 'learned from him that the German Government had offered Bazaine permission to march out with his army, and go whither he pleased ; while the Germans entering Metz would hold Alsace and Lorraine, and leave France to form any Government she pleased. Bazaine would then march on Paris, set up the Napoleonic dynasty, and make peace. The correspondent must surely have 15een hoaxed by some crypto-Imperialist. Supposing Bazaine to be Bonapartist, an assertion of which there is no proof, why should his men be? and if not, how could he hold them together in the lace of a decree dismissing him from his command ? The Germans, moreover, once in retreat, would be pursued by the Army of Paris and attacked by all France, and the war would in fact recommence from the beginning, France having gained many weeks' breathing- time.
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