FARCE BEFORE TRAGEDY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 7, 15 August 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

FARCE BEFORE TRAGEDY.

' ■ (From the Saturday Review, May 4.) We have often admired the modern French con* trivance for fighting duels without serious danger to fto human life. Honor, of course, is beyond all /things precious, but at the same time it would be / disagreeable either to lose one’s own, or to take / Another’s life in vindicating it. The French have I .been at all times famous for their skill as fencing I .masters, and they proved them selves, ns might have been expected, equal to the new conditions of their art. A system of instruction has been contrived under which two well taught pupils may engage with abundant fierceness of look and energy of action, while the spectators feel a reasonable confidence that the “ thirsty swords” will be content with drinking, at most, a moderate draught of blood at the furthest possible distance from any vital part Experience teaches even children who are taken a second time to Astley’s, that the most desperate looking ruffians thrust their daggers with strong hand and ruthless heart into empty air; and experience has also taught the waiters at certain suburban taverns in the French capital that, when a duel is going to be fought in the neighborhood, their own most urgent duty is to prepare a champagne breakfast. When honor has been satisfied and nobody has been killed, early rising, air, exercise, and excitement may be trusted to produce their natural effects which are an unusual readiness to consume and pay for food and drink. The comparison of the earliest action of the civil war in America to one of these harmless and appetizing displays of French swordsmanship is really quite inevitable. There has probably been a lu;dicroUs side to all great calamities, and we know ‘that it has been the fashion to prepare the audi- : ence for tragedy by a farce. The siege- of Fort ; Sumter resembles modern French duel, not only in its happy ending, but also in the cause which has produced its bloodless character. A hundred years ago, it would have been thought very strange that two men one of whom was incensed by suffering, and the other even more by doing -wrong, should be able to engage with naked swords without any apprehension of the pouring forth of any other fluid than rosy wine. In the days- when “ coffee and pistols for two” were a common order at a tavern, it was we believe the waiter’s custom to bring the coffee first, under the apprehension that if he did not do so, it was likely neither to be drunk or paid for. But the Parisian garqon lays his cloth for a certain number of guests under a well grounded reliance on that skilful and self controlled use of the sword which is amongst the highest attainments of the civilization of the very same age which has now seen Fort Sumter taken without loss of life. The American newspapers explain to us that it is to science we must attribute the bloodless character of this terrific bombardment, and not to want of skill in the use of the guns. The experience acquired in the Crimea has not been lost upon our acute cousins. Neither ourselves nor our allies had quite reached the point of conducting seiges without loss of life, but a more ingenious people took up the study of the problem 'where we left it at the peace with Russia, and behold! their solution of it is before the world. The defences of Charlestown “ were constructed with the intention that the artillerists should not be killed at their guns, and it appears that they accomplished this purpose”. It is admitted that there has been a good deal af surprise manifested at the fact that nobody was killed on either side during thirty hours bombardment of Fort Sumter. The firing of all the batteries vfas excellent from the beginning to the end, and the guns of the fort were worked in the most splendid manner. The garrison on its surrender were found to be tired, thirsty, and dirty, but none of them were dead, This can only be accounted for by the superior skill and science of accomplished officers. European war observed by American sagacity, has shown how the effective working of batteries may be rendered comparatively safe. We are reminded that the Americans found out some time ago how to make one out of two contending armies tolerably secure ; and now, in the natural progress of military science, the same immunity from wounds and death is to be enjoyed by both. The example of General Jackson at New Orleans has been studied by the tacticians in the North and South, and therefore the fact that no life was lost during thirty hours’ heavy firing need hardly excite much astonishment. The early success of the Americans in war, howsoever gained, have combined with their extraordinary talent for self laudation to produce in the mind of Europe an impression winch neither sober reasoning nor ridicule has hitherto dispelled. When it was noticed lately that the Americans were not building any iron ships of war, people were willing to ascribe their hesitation, not to parsimony, but to superior discernment of the future conditions of naval warfare. If a Yankee, after visiting the Wxrrior , had hinted that he knew a trick worth two of that, ho would have found respectful listeners. We had heard of iron faced forts and of Dahlgrcn guns, and of the Niagara frigate, and of many other stupendous efforts of naval and military skill, and we had thought, in our simplicity, that if the Americans took to fighting, then, indeed, we should see what we should see. The strife begins after sufficient preparation. All the new forts, armed with all the new guns, blaze away for thirty hours. Each side is filled with admiration of the skill and heroism of the other. At last Fort Sumter has to shut up. The kind and chivalrous assailants approach to offer aid and brandy. “ How many are killed?” “ None.” “ How many on your side p -: " None.” Major Anderson, who had expressed his hope of meeting General Beauregard’s staff in a better world, is able to thank Providence for keeping him and his friendly enemies in this. The only occurrence which disturbed the general hilarity was the explosion of a pile of cartridges during the salute which marked the evacuation of the fort. Two men were killed and four wounded —not in the siege, but in the ceremonies observed at its conclusion. Both the honor of the conquered and the exultation of the conquerors demanded a liberal expenditure of gunpowder. One would have thought thirty hours’ firing by the most accomplished and resolute artillerists in the world would have sufficed for the noisiest of populations, and that the echoes of Charlestown need not have been reawakened by salutes. But of course, South Carolina is the best judge what , solemnities are suitable to its greatest day. Let

hells chime, guns fire, people cheer, and ladies |vave their-handkerchiefs, to celebrate the victory in which nobody was killed, but many suffered serious inconvenience from the heat and smoke. There has been nothing like it since that Italian battle where the armor of all the knights was found impervious to sword or lanco, but several of them Svere suffocated, or nearly so, trhough getting into a bog. The harbor at Charleston is relieved from the inconvenience of a fort which closed its mouth: and besides, the impregnability of its defences has been proved for the warning of foreign Powers. That which Major Anderson and his gallant band' could not do, can be done, we may be sure, by no one else. This “ practical lesson in the efficiency of coast defences” may moderate the anxiety of the States, whether united or separate, to posess a fleet And when Major Anderson has reported at New York that “ it is preposterous to fight such men,” it may possibly turn out that there is, as the South Carolinians say, “ a good deal of bluff ” in President Lincoln and his 75,000 troops. The contest now beginning in America will furnish opportunities of playing the game of brag on a largo scale. The British nation has a. fair opinion of its own prowess, but it never stood for one moment the smallest chance before the transcendent power of seifglorification which imagined the military history of the United States. We shall look now for our revenge. The pens which wrote Europe down so low, will henceforth be turned against each other. The abundant publicity given to every incident of every day’s proceedings by our own newspaper correspondents is not a little ludicrous; but the leaders of the American armies whoever they may be, must be of super-heroia mould if they can endure the same attention as Major Anderson has been the object of, without becoming the laughingstocks of the world. It is to be feared, indeed, that even Washington himself would not have sustained his reputation under the half-hourly exigencies of the telegraph. The bombardment of Fort Sumter is possibly the opening of a bloody and devastating war. If the combatants were not in earnest in the first day’s fighting, it is only too probable that they will become so. But, however deep the tragedy, it will not be without a comic element. Even battles in which men are killed may be enlivened by the presence of a Falstaff. And besides the fun of the correspondence, there really will be pleasure as well as profit in studying the examples of honor and chivalry which will be shown both by North and South, When Majpr Anderson's flagstaff was shot away, a boat was sent by the assailants, carrying another flag for him to fight under. We think that this incident has been inadequately noticed in the nowspapers. Readers might have been reminded that Ajax threw himself on the sword ofi Hector, and Hector was dragged round the walls of Troy in the belt of Ajax. The gifts ofi of foes haye ever been fatal, and it would have been a plausible suggestion that the surrender of Fort Sumter may have been due neither to the heat, nor the smoke, nor the dirt, nor even to the culpable 'neglect of the Federal Government in supplying /brandy, but to the sinister influence of the flag un:der which its defenders fought.