The Evening Star:
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1870.
The news which, .arrived yesterday from Kurope, and portioii^of which,we pub*, lished in an extra^'will* scarcely., E^ye taken anyone by surprise.. The corityjued success of thepeirnjan aunties might; have, been .anticipated, though we were hardly^ prepared for,'so^criishing victories... The battle of Sedan will live among->^hose r crises in nations' histories the navies oft which become:, familiar in our mouths as "household words;" and tlie carnage, attending the action of arms of precision, ,and i4ie-;va-rious appliances of modern war on the 'field toffhis^secdivd* Waterloo;-' will-make its. memory-one of horror in the annuls of Europe. The 1 crushing nature.of the defeat was quickly followed by its natural coh¥fquehces, "arid the' following morning saw the Prussian eagles on the way to Paris. By rspid marches the victorious troops were pressing onward. Diplomacy in a state of frenzy, was snggesting;terms of arrangement ; Russian armies were massing on the frontier in the direction of the seat of wnr. -Italy and Austria were exhibiting symptoms of sympathy ; England wMi her hand, on the sword-hilt, watching, and still the Prussian, armies hurrying on, regardless of % anything hut, the fact that Franca was prostrate, and the -walls of Paris befure them ; when, with the army within a day's march of the once proudest capital of Europe, the curtain falls .oh us, in the departure of the mail; and for weary weeks we must wait in total ignorance of the thrilling and momentous events that must have immediately occurred' under the walls of Paris. The sirange events that have passed before tho eye with startling rapidity have bewildered statesmen and stultified t!;eir sagest anticipations. The first successes, tho continued successes of the Prussian King, the capture of the !• tnperor, the flight of the Empress Kegent, and the banishing of imperialism have not been more startling than the unexpected action of the German King in refusing to acknowledge the popular Government that his cwn success has given to tho people of France. And'his adoption of the cause of his captive, and non-recognition of anything but the Imperialism against which he had fought and won, is one of the singular episodes of history at which the world may well wonder. To see the Prussian armies fighting for the restoration of the dynasty of the Bonapartcs, would be but one of a series of transformations or dissolving views, that have constituted the p"rts of this " strange eventful history." Aud the Emperor seated ou the throne of France, propped up by Prussian bayonets, would make an admirable closing scene for the tableaux vivant -that have been dazzling the eyes of Europe. . .
The Evening Star: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1870.
Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 242, 18 October 1870, Page 2
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