NOTES ON THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3058, 29 October 1870, Page 3

NOTES ON THE WAR.

The following notes are principally from the Times correspondence;— As an instance of the demoralisation of the French army, it is stated that a complete train of bridge construction materials, consisting of 40 carriages, was abandoned. Reports of great cruelties practised upon the wounded by the French peasants are rife. It is stated by German military correspondents that at Woerth 26 peasants have I>6GD tried by court'inartial shot, 18 of them from one village. Th Gazette de Franefort of the 10th of August says:—“ The inhabitants of Woerth having fired upon the Prussians, and been guilty of cruelty (exercedes cruautes ) towards the wounded Germans, their town has been treated in hostile fashion. Twenty of the offenders were shot upon the spot.” Are German soldiers made of tougher stuff th«h their English bi others in arms, or have the, latter only degenerated of quite late years? Before the battle of Weissembourg some of the German troops had only a three hours’ rest after a seven hours’ march before going into action. Before the battle of Woerth, when the alarm came at midnight, they had to march until 11 a.m. At this time, without pause, they joined the fight. No friendly conveyance eased them of a single ounce weight of the load they had to bear. But “comparisons are odious.” The Pafrie states that at the time the town of Strasburg was invested it bad been completely provisioned both in respect of food and ammunition. The number of guns mounted on the batteries is much larger than has .been stated. These guns are of heavy calibre and of immense range. Moreover, the powder magazines have been protected, as have also the hospitals and the buildings necessary for defence. Many families had quitted the town before the investment, and during the three days which preceded the arrival of the Prussians a large number of persons, useless for defence, embarrassing to provide for. Strasburg can only be reduced by starvation. Yesterday a shocking event occurred in a railway train carrying prisoners from the Rhine to one of the Eastern fortresses. In a van, containing some 20 prisoners and a Prussian private, acting as guard, the latter was murdered while asleep. The crime, being perpetrated while the train was in motion, was discovered only on its stopping at Wittenberg, and easily traced to a ferocious Zouave, who, it appeared, had stabbed the victim without the participation of his fellowprisoners. The murderer was brought before a court-martial and immediately shot. The placing Prussian and Bavarian regiments side by side at the storming of Weissembourg evoked a rivalry in daring most honourable to the latter. The Bavarians are armed with the Werder rifle, which is said to surpass the needle-gun in precision. The Prussian artillery was splendidly served, chiefly heavy guns fired with 13-pound grenades and 15-pound shrapnel shell, the latter containing from 88 to 92 carbine bullets. The Chassepot, though pronounced equal in many respects to the needle-gun, is described as not keeping up the intensity of its fire for any length of time. The story goes that the much-lamented and gallant General Colson, chief of M’Mahan’s Staff, who was killed at Woerth, fell by bis own hand. It is said that the Marshal had desired him to explore a wood in which he thought the enemy might lurk, and that Colson, having reasons of hia own for thinking the wood unoccupied, neglected to do so. Iu the engagement a heavy fire was poured upon the French from that very spot, and M’Mahon reproachfully called the General’s attention to the fact. It is related that Colson shot himself with his pistol, but I do not vouch for the truth of the story.

The following letter has been addressed to the Maire of the sth Arrondisement of Paris by the well-known preacher. Father Hyacinthe : —“ Monsieur le Maire, —The spirit and the law of the Church forbid the priest from taking up arms except in moments of extreme danger to the country. That danger if France should not be spared from it—will certainly find all those who are not bound by the obligations of the sacred office faithful to their duty as citizens upon the ramparts. In the meantime there is no reason why we should not assist in the national defence by use of the pick and shovel. Please to direct me to what place I must go, in order to take part in the earthworks and fortifications now proceeding for the defence of Paris. From to-morrow, after mass, I hold myself at your orders.—Receive, &c., L’Abbe Jdles Th. Dotson, Professor of Sacred Eloquence in Paris. —Vive la France I” I think anybody who has attentively read the history of the campaign, so far as it has yet been disclosed, will admit that on equal terms of position and generalship, and even though the odds in number were somewhat against them, the French would beat the Prussians. <in this side the war as yet has been a series of blunders. The Prussians have fought where t iey liked and when they liked, and always with treble forces. This is more creditable to the Generals than to the troops. It may he questioned whether the French have not gathered more real glory from their defeats than the, Prussians have from their victories. Greater self-devotion was probably never witnessed in any war than that of certain French regiments which rushed, at the voice of their General, upon inevitable destruction. The successful strategy of Moltke, and the rapidity and secrecy of movement of which the Prussian armies have set so many examples, teach us to be prepared for any manoeuvre or surprise on their part. The behaviour of the Prussians in such inns and hotels as are still kept open, and still .devoted to their ordinary purpose, is studiously courteous; but we are still only seven miies from Saarbrucken, and Forbach has only been in the hands of the Prussians for the last three days. Already I hear of a French peasant havi g fired at a Prussian soldier ; and a proclamation in the usual form, signed by General Zistrow, has been issued warning the French of the penalty with which such offences, and all offences of a lesser degree, but of the same kind, will he visited. Troops are still pouring in, as they have been doing incessantly since Monday. But for the admirable organization of the Prussians there would be a famine both here and at Saarbrueken. But at Saarbrucken everything can be had; and Forbach, now that troops have passed through the city by tens of thousands, by myriads, has only been exhausted of Seltzer water and cigars. The army carries its own provisions, and I observe that in some cases the provisions carry the clothes. The military butchers in charge of oxen have folded their great coats, after the regulation method, and hung them, like horse collar , over the necks of the unhappy beasts. Sic vos non vubis, indeed 1 The Prussian spy fever, as it may be termed, still continues, and one daily hears of arrests, for the most part of entirely innocent persons, which supply the papers with romantic incidents. One can understand spies in the lines of an army, but it is hard to say what bo many of them hud to do in Pans, Some of the p ipers advocate the most rigorOU3 measures. Of the many persons taken up. probably the majority are quietly released, with or without an apology for an unfounded arrest, and perhaps with a caution not to do it again.” A foreig > appearance or accent seems sufficient grounds for suspicion. -It you approach the tonifications, you are pounced upon by <he police; if you are seen giving anybody money, you are buying information. If a foreigner wishes to escape annoyance from the police, so vigilant just now in Baris, he had better keep away from rampa'ts, hold his tongue, and employ a French tailor. By those means he may hope to avoid molestation. From Metz we u-ain that they continue to arrest spies, and to interrogate all persons not known to belong to the place. ‘‘Journalists coming from Baris or elsewhere,” says a correspondent of the Debate, “ are particularly annoyed, although at the affairs of Forbach, Weissembourg, and Freichsweiiler three of them were made piiame s and two were killed when taking note-.” This may certainly be called journalism under difficulties. Risk from the enemy’- shot, in these longrange days, a newspap-r correspondent must be prepared for, but it does seem rather a hard case that, whi p not under the fire of the foe he is at any moment liable to be locked op by his friends.

The Vienna correspondent of the Times writes :—Every one ; who is not already -drawn into the vortex of war wants to be in the first place, and Austria wants it no less than England. The three years which have passed have, in spite of all exertions, not been sufficient to cure the wounds caused by £0 years, of maladministration, topped by a catastrophe. We were only just recovering from these blows when this crisis came up*on us. All is as yet in a state ot transition. There are political questions pending, our finances only just beginning to recover, our army in a state of transformation from one system to another, A war would destroy all that has been done, and throw us back for years. Of course, were any one directly to attack us we feel strong enough to make a fight for it, but we must do all in our power to avoid such a calamity. The people and Government of Italy are equally anxious to keep out of it. All is unsettled 1 there likewise, and any participation with France would be the signal for renewed and more powerful action of the Republican party, supported, as it would be, by Prussia. Even Russia wants to keep out. She wants at least two years to complete her railways, and arm and reorganise her army. She has just now given orders in America for 1,000,000 breechloaders, of which she has not more than 140,000 as yet. Krupp was busy making guns for them, and they have no end of trouble with their new levies, who since the abolition of serfdom have become tainted with democratic and Socialist ideas, and are not so easily amenable to discipline. When the news of Prussian victories and French disasters reached Paris, and all Frenchmen seemed determined to make a bold effort to stem the tide of military adversity, one name was in everybody’s lips. “ Where is General Trochu ? How comes it that he has no high command ?” The reasons for his being passed over were twofirst, because he is not a strong Imperialist: second, he had written a book on the French army, in which he dared to tell his comrades that for all their dash and gallantry they had faults of so grave a character as might not improbably some day compromise the success of their anna and the honour of France. He wrote in the best spirit, but be criticised, and at that time (1867) the heads of the army refused to submit to criticism either upon themselves or their subordinates. This determination to keep their eyes closed to their faults—this exaggerated military conservatism has at last borne bitter fruits. It is only too manifest at present that, while the men have fought splendidly against overwhelming odds, neither the Generals nor the Staff nor the mounted officers generally have known how to perform their duties with intelligence. The cavalry has not fulfilled its chief function, that of being the eyes and ears of the army. It has sacrificed itself most gloriously, mais ce n'etait pas ia guerre. The infantry has been led close up to the enemy sheltered in woods. Do not we now for ever hear that old despairing cry of Benedek’s foot soldiers, “We can’t get at the Prussians; they are always concealed ”? The artillery have been thrown away by being brought close under infantry fire. And now at last men exclaim, “ Give us Generals who have tried to correct our faults instead of flattering us. -Let those lead us who know wherein we have erred.”

The “ Route Imperials de Strasbourg ” on which we were travelling runs through a charmingly-wooded undulating country by fields of corn and hops, potatoes and cereals of all sorts still uncut, now never to be gathered in this year. About the stone which marks the 50th kilometre from Strasburg began the signs and tokens of the revere combat of the day before yeste day, which I was not so fortunate as to witness. The fields were all trampled under foot and covered with a prodigious quantity of gutted knapsacks, French laced boots, shakos and cavalry caps, jackets, tunics, and mess tins for miles on both sides. Here and there la / a dead horse, and burial parties were still busy in the fields. Overturned baggage cars, empty canteen boxes, broken Chassepots, sabres, bayonets, c., were strewed by the road-side, and now and then a waggon Came along from the south filled with prisoners—men with pale faces bound in cloths stained with blood, broken limbs, soiled, and miserable-looking. In the two or three villages on the road the windows were broken, the doors, walls, and roofs pitted and perforated with shot and shell, Rudeltz is the name of the last place where the French made a stand. The houses were shut up. A few women, children, and old men haunted the doors of these shattered dwellings. One village Restaurant was a specimen of all. “We have nothing,” said the old man; “ no bread, no wine, no meat, no corn All is gone. God help us !” He said that the French drew the plugs out of the casks when they had drunk enough to prevent the Prussians refreshing themselves in pursuit. Everything confirms the impression that the great battle of Woerth was an accident, and the belief gains ground that M’Mahon, like Douay, had no idea of the force to which he was opposed when he attacked it. At the Prussian Headquarters it was a surprise, and the outpost firing, which extended along the ridge over the Woerth rivulet (a few yards broad and a yard deep) was not considered serious till the French displayed a great line of artillery on the ridges, and opened a furious cannonade. Had the corps on the Prussian left kept more in front, and had the Bavarians coming from Wissembourg pressed on more rapidly and come on the French left, their escape would have been almost impossible. As it was, when the heavy cavalry repulsed in their charge round through the battalions in the rear, masses of men threw down their arms. Their fighting at Nechwiller was grand. The Prussian Generals say they never witnessed anything more brilliant. But the Prussians were not to be denied. With tenacity as great, and a fierce resolution, they pressed on over the rivulet, up heights where the vineyards dripped with blood, and, checked again and again, still pressed on with a furious intrepidity which the enemy could not withstand in that desperate fight of six long hours, during which the battle raged in full vehemence. It lasted, indeed, for 13 hours, and at one time the French gained ground and got down on to the ridge on the left; but the main stress of the day was on a narrow front of some two and a half miles along the stream at each side of Woertb, and the final stand was made by Reichshofen and Nechwiller, from which the French retreated by several roads through a very difficult country, by Neiderbronn, &c., on Bitsche.

The Yienna correspondent of the Times writes ;—lf , then we and Italy went with France, Russia would immediately step in. We should of course stir up the Polish question as the most vulnerable point; Russia would take her revenge on the Danube. This would drive in Turkey, and ultimately you. I have proofs that this is not imagination. Since the arrival of Latour, the new French Minister, the French play the part of tempter. “ Everyone knows the schemes of Russia,” says the tempter ; “ you better than tiny one* You know th&t till the Slavonic populations have been worked upon for years, and the Muscovite party make no secret of it that Austria and Hungary are the real obstacles to the union of ail Slavonia now under Russia, If you wait till Russia is prepared you will not be able to resist, single-handed as you will be. Don’t imagine that France, or any one else will make war pour vos beaux yeux. Now is the time to avert this danger for ever. Russia is unprepared, we hold Prussia in check, Turkey is ready to join, Italy will come up in line we can checkmate the whole PrussoRnesian combination for years to.corae. You are close to Poland; have mean, of action; we restore old Poland, which united with you will be a permanent- cheek to Rusas well as to Prussia; we make a Southern German Confederatlon,_and there is an end to all your troubles.” It must be allowed that this sounds plausible enough, and if Italy yields we can scarcely do otherwise. Besides Latour, there are o?he°runofficial Italv in the same direction. If they sucoeen, “r."d ß ooa, «.»•■ Ss»’•JfgM to set matters going, are tqe x u emigrants in Paris. we do we shall not be able to prevent !“ el ' partin Poland. Remember that we are a

constitutional country, and that wa carmot have a soldier and a policeman all along the frontier line which separates Galicia from Russian Poland. Bands of 20 to 30 men are easily formed and can easily pass the frontier before we know it, and then the row with Russia is at hand. The work at the fortifications of Paris continues, and the papers say that the Ministers have decided to take it in turn to visit them. Every day one of them will make the round, accompanied by competent professional persons, and satisfy himself that the utmost is being done to accelera e their completion. So far as I can judge, this measure is not supported by public opinion. Nothing could be better devised to alarm the Parisians than the threat thus conveyed of a probable siege. I have not been there to see, but I believe there ia not the slightest doubt that the axe was yesterday at work in the Bois dm Boulogne. Now, if so, this really is an absurd and odious proceeding, against which it is to be hoped the Paris Press will lift up its voice loudly. It is ridiculous to suppose that Paris will ever stand a siege. To say nothing of the impossibility of provisioning it for any length of time (how are stores to be laid in for two millions of people when it took so long to collect supplies for an army of 300,000 men ?), how long do you suppose the Parisians would endure a siege ? As soon as the enemy got near enough to throw shells into the city there would be a panic and a clamour for surrender, and if the authorities resisted a revolution would certainly ensue. Moreover, it is not believed the Prussians will come here, even if victorious. Faith is placed in the intervention of neutral Europe. It is folly to allow the corps du genie to deprive Paris of its greatest ornament and chief attraction. The Bois de Boulogne, as it now exists, is one of the most beautiful features of this fascinating capital, and certainly largely contributes—more so, perhaps, than anything else—to attract hither and retain here the crowd of wealthy and pleasure-loving foreigners who annually spend so many millions in Paris. To destroy a thing which it would take scores of years and enormous sums to re-establish in its present state, and of which the destruction would positively be an annual heavy loss of revenue to the city and trade of Paris, and to do so for strategical reasons on the chance of Paris standing a siege, is perfectly monstrous. At Strasburg and Metz, frontier fortresses, one can perfectly understand that they are pulling down houses and cutting down trees and making the inhabitants lay in six weeks’ stock of provisions, but here the case is very different. When the fortifications of Paris were constructed there may have been reason for supposing they might one day offer effectual resistance to an invader, but none then foresaw the improvements that have since been made in artillery.

Under the heading “ Seizure of Arms,” the Figaro gives the following details “ About 3 o’clock in the afternoon a man was passing along the Rue Poissoniere, apparently bending under the weight of a box resembling a hatbox, which he carried by the handle. Passersby noticed his movements with some curiosity. A police-officer approached, asked him what he carried, and on his hesitating to reply took him by the collar. But the man who was young and vigorous, shook himself free by a sudden movement, and, dropping his load, made his escape. A baker, however, threw himself upon him, and notwithstanding his resistance and a horrible bite on the cheek which the fugitive gave him, succeeded in keeping his hold till the arrival of the police who took him to the station on the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, to which the suspicious box had already been removed. This was openedin presence of its bearer, and found to contain 12 daggers, 12 revolvers, and 600 cartridges. On being questioned, the prisoner stated that his name was Larguien, that he was 23 years of age, and lived at Belleville. During the interrogatory M, Fouquetol, a peace officer, remarked that an individual who had slid furtively into the station was taking down the name of the man who had been arrested. He was at once asked Who he was, and what he did there. ‘ You are taking the name of this man” the officer said; ‘are you a journalist? If so, I shall march you back between four soldiers to the office of the newspaper.’ As he refused to answer, M. Fouquetol gave orders for his arrest, and it then appeared that he was a valet de chambre who had been out of situation for three months ; that was all that could be extracted from him. He was sent with the first prisoner to gaol, and meanwhile, upon a report that other arms were concealed in the same neighbourhood, a rigid search was instituted. In a few minutes afterwards, in a courtyard in the Rue d’Argent, a second case of arms was found, and at the moment that it was being carried off a man said that the box had been brought out of the house where he lived, 37, Kue d’Aboukir, and there might be others there stiil. And, in fact, M, Fouquetol discovered before long, in a room in this house, belonging to a lodger who was absent, a third box, filled, like the two others, with daggers and revolvers. These revolvers are of Belgian manufacture, and seem to have been made for importation. They are six-barrelled and of the same calibre as the pistols with which the cavalry are armed. As to the daggers, in a strong hand these would form a most terrible weapon, and it is easy to see that they have been made by clever and expert workmen. The blade, which is triangular and about a foot in length, is one with the handle, which is round, unpolished, and made with a hollow, so as to give it a better grasp. The top is pierced with a hole intended for the reception of a strong cord to be rolled around the wrist. Without other eommentaiy upon the seizure of arms, which shows too well that our most implacable and most dreaded enemies are not those with whom our soldiers are fighting, we shall content ourselves with reproducing the cynical answer given by the man who was stopped and made prisoner—‘We know well that the National Guards will not dare to cross bayonets with us. With this dagger we ydll settle them (nous leur ferons lew affaire !) ’” The tables have been turned upon the French. A nation which for two centuries has considered it as a natural right to invade and ravage the divided States of Germany is in turn overrun and defeated by its neighbours, united at last. A race which has long regarded it as one of its legitimate prerogatives to interfere with the concerns of this pacific country finds the scorned foreigner established on its soil and about to dictate the terms of peace. A people whose vanity overlooked the accidental circumstances which at different periods had given it a temporary preponderance have to encounter defeat as sudden as it is signal and likely to be complete. The consequences of this tremendous catastrophe will probably be no less notable than the primary reasons which have brought it about. If Napoleon 111. is not the strategical genius his uncle was, if the Germans in 1870 meet the enemy in a body instead of allowing themselves to be individually crushed as in 1800, and if patriotism, liberty, and self-government are to-day more potent and inspiriting agencies in this country than in France, it follows that the results of the present campaign must be very different from the achievements of the French 70 years ago. For this bitter disappointment the French have to thank themselves. Blinded by extreme self complacency, they have never cared to inquire whether the Germans, whom they affected to look down upon, were not morally, intellectually, and numerically, to say the least, quite as strong as themselves. Because it suited their favourite conceits to fancy the Germans a mass of mutually hostile tribes now, as formerly, they have, on the contrary, clung to the traditions of the olden time, ignored all the changes that had happened, and ultimately attempted to hector a great and united nation as they did its petty principalities in periods gone by. They knew little of German literature and nothing of German life as they had developed in the last few generations; they never travelled in Germany to probe the morals and test the general acquirements of the inhabitants; they solely relied for their knowledge of Germany upon the remembrance of the obsolete Rhine-Bund epoch and the reports of a dozen purblind diplomatists who thought they knew the Courts, but could not even pretend to say they knew the

people. ~’lgnorance, superciliousness, andihe unreflecting levity of their race at length combined to create that morbid disposition of the public mind in France which encouraged her Imperial master to try and his subject* and curry favour with his army by a sanguinary promenade on the other side of the frontier. So the trip to Berlin was undertaken. Like other autumnal excursions, it was to combine pleasure and iovigoration. It was to be sport, agreeable and wholesome. Of course, those Prussians could not prevent it. But what occurred? To-day the august traveller and those that accompanied and advised him are already arrested In their progress, and likely to pay the , penalty of the rash journey before long. I say to pay the penalty. Though the Germans are too sensible to interfere with the domestic politics of their neighbours, and are sure not to imitate the Napoleonic example of attempting to remodel foreign lands, it is probable their armies will not leave France until some sufficient guarantee has been exacted against the periodical recurrence of these wanton attacks.