A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE STATE OF WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 727, 21 September 1870, Page 3

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE STATE OF WAR.

A v Holiday Correspondent " of the Times contributes the following :— I was in Munich on Friday (July 15), when ...the news arrived that France had resolved to 'go to war with Prussia. It was received with astonishment and regret, and every one spoke of it as a calamity equally unexpected and deplorable. The conduct of the French Government was loudly condemned, and although the Prussians are not liked in South Germany the universal hope and belief was that Bavaria would range herself on their side. Late in the evening a report spread tbat orders had been issued to the troops to prepare for the field, and great was the satisfaction expressed at the determination of the King to take a foremost part in the defence of Fatherland. Among the English visitors the most pressing question was how their communication with home would be effected, and some of them resolved to depart at once. The railway people stated the line to Paris via Strasbourg to be still open, and. at 11.20 p.m.

there was quite a rush to obtain seats in the express from Vienna to London. We passed through Augsburg and Ulm during the night, and it was not until we got to Stuttgart, which was reached early in the morning, tbat we could observe how things were going on. There were a great many people about, and all their talk was of the war and of the unwelcome, yet necessary and patriotic duty it imposed upon every true German. On the whole, however, the tone here was depressed and sorrowful, though it doubtless grew more hopeful and buoyant as the day advanced. . On entering Baden we found matters more lively. Soldiers began to appear at the stations, and the people were more eager in their inquiry for news. As we approached Carlsruhe the reality of the war impressed itself upon the most incredulous. Whole regiments were eeen marching along the roads visible from the railway, and at several points we passed trains loaded with guns and other warlike material. The station at Carlsruhe was filled by an anxious and excited crowd, and the movement of troops was incessant. But there was no bustle or confusion ; no singing or shouting such as we heard fuither on ; the soldiers, though most of them were very young, had the quiet, steady demeanour of veterans, while the civilian on-lookers seemed deeply conscious of the extreme gravity of the crisis, but, at the came time appeared ready to face the worst. Rastadt was passed with speed; but at Oos, the point at which the line to Baden Baden branches off, we stopped to take up a small army of Frenchmen and Frenchwomen in full flight for Paris. The ladies were distracted, and the gentlemen rather cowed, nor did they recover their spirits as long as they remained on Germanground. Between Oos and Kehl the country was literally up. The Baden and Prussian uniforms were seen on every side, and the eyes and thoughts of all were turned towards the Rhine. We foreigners felt rather doubtful whether we would be permitted to cross over to Strasbourg, while our German fellow-travellers going to Strasbourg were almost certain they would not bo allowed to return home again, and such, indeed, was their fate. The scene at Kehl when the train came to a halt was impressive, from its quietness and the contrast it presented to what we had witnessed elsewhere. Not a single soldier was visible. The only people we saw were the ordinary railway officials and a few simple country folks bound for Strasbourg market. Five minutes and we were on our way again. In passing on to the bridge we caught a glimpse here and there of a sentinel pacing his rounds, but nothing more. It was a beautiful day, and everything seemed quiet and peaceful. Yet the train had no sooner reached French soil than the German end of the bridge was crowded by Prussian or Baden soldiers, and in an incredibly short space of time communication between the two sides of the river, at all events by railway, was rendered impossible. Our train crossed about 1 1 o'clock on Saturday, and it was the last allowed to pass. How the Kehl people got back to their homes I know not, but some hours later I siw many of them wandering about Strasbourg in tears. ' Strasbourg was in a fever of excitemen and the same may be said of all the towns through which we passed on our way to Paris* I noticed, however, that the streets and excitement were both given up to the military, the lower classes of the population, and the Government officials. Few of the better sort of people were to be seen, and of these none seemed particularly elated or excited. But tbe soldiers were brimful of enthusiasm, and also of drink. During the night we passed a great many long trains filled with men hurrying forward to the Rhine, and speaking broadly, I should say nine-tenths of them were drunk. On the whole, however, they were tolerably good-humoured, and if they had not consumed bo much liquor and had boasted rather less of what they would do with Bismarck and the Prussians they would haveTnade the time pass pleasantly enough. The up-train was a very long one, and by the time it reached Paris — long after it was due, of course — it carried some hundreds of conscripts called in to join the standard. All were in blouses, and most of them were in the same happy condition, as the more advanced aspirants going eastward. They invaded first and second class carriages at their good pleasure, and paid no attention to the rights or convenience of the ordinary passengers. For several hours I was favoured with the company of no fewer than eight of them ; but, fortunately, they were from the neighbourhood of Strasbourg, kept tolerably sober, could not speak French, and contented themselves with singing German patriotic songs. Of the war, they either could not or would not speak, and the thing which appeared chiefly to occupy their minds was the thought of seeing Paris. Every little town we came to they were sure was Paris, and immense was their delight when they first beheld the great oity itself. At the terminus they were carried off by people who had evidently been waiting for them, and I saw them no more. What struck me most was the contrast presented by the two Bides of tbe river. In Germany the people were grave, anxious, but resolute, and everything was done quietly. In France there was much yelling, drinking, boasting, and boisterous merriment on the part of the soldiers and lower classes and extraordinary activity among officers and officials of all grades. The Germans seemed sorry to be obliged to fight, whereas the French longed to be at it. But it is worth repeating that so far as I could see the well-to-do classes do not share tbe enthusiasm of their poorer countrymen. The French preparations are in a much more advanced Btate than those of the Germans. For one German soldier I saw at least a hundred French. The Strasbourg line was almost jammed with men, guns, and stores. On the other side of the Rhine there was not much being done except between Carlsruhe and Kehl ; but matters will doubtless have changed by this time.

THE CHASSEPOT AND NEEDLE GUN. Some account iB published in the Birmingham Gazette of the two weapons which are in the hands of the belligerents on the Continent. The " Zundnadel-gewhr," or needle-gun of the Prussian service, to which the victories of the Prussian arms in 1866 have been attributed, appears to bave been originally patented in England as a muzzle-loader in 1831, by aMr Moser, of Kenington. The invention came before its time. Its cold reception in England drove tbe patentee to seek foreign patronage for his novelty, and Prussia was lucky enough to appreciate and to adopt the new weapon. Dreysa, a gunmaker of Somala, applied the breech-loading principle to Mossr's patent, and thus amended, the arm, ten years later, was in 1848, introduced into the Prussian service. The principle, briefly stated, is the driving of a pointed piston or " needle," by the action of a spiral spring such as is used in the manufacture of children's toy guns into a small case of fulminate, contained in and situated between the powder and the bullet of a single cartridge. In the action of opening the breech, the spiral spring is set by the trigger, and thus the trigger, when pulled, releases into operation this spiral spring, which, in its turn, forces the needle into tbe cartridge, and fires the piece. Upon this oldest form of the Prussian needlegun improvements have been made, the chief effects of which have been a reduction of tbe mechanism of the needle of 1848, and a general lightening of the entire piece. None of these alterations, however, have touched those two apparent evils in the old form of this arm which militated against its adoption by England in 1850. These are the position of the fulminate in the interior of the cartridge and the looseness of mechanism, involving possibility of the escape of gas, round the needle and at the base of the plunger. To these two particular points France mainly devoted herself in seeking a superior needle rifle to that of Prussia. In the Chassepot such an improved arm has been found. A triple wad of vulcanised indiarubber placed round the axis of its plunger, and with a steel plate a cushion to receive the force of the rebound, is intended to render the breech gas tight, but has been found in practice only partially adapted to that object. An ingenious arrangement of notches on the outer guider of iron, before described, enables the gun to be placed at half cock. The needle is lighter and smaller than in the Prussian gun, and, above all, the cartridge contains its fulminate at the base of the powder, instead of at the base of tbe bullet. A vacuum, left when the gun is charged, between the base of the cartidge and the front of the plunger is intended to effect the combustion and removal of any portion of the cartridge cases that may remain after firing. As compared with the Prussian gun, this weapon possesses, besides the specific improvements mentioned, other advantages of superior manufacture and finish. Its cartridge, besides admitting the altogether different principle of firing, contains a larger charge of powder than the Prussian cartridge, with a smaller bullet, which leaves a manifest advantage in carrying to the French weapon ; while the fact that the Prussian bullet is purposely made so small as not to touch the barrel in its passage, while the French bullet is of the ordinary size to fit the rifle barrel, would point to the conclusion that the Prussian marksman is at a disadvantage over the Frenchman in respect to his aim. The number of times of firing per minute is about the same in both cases. The cost of the French weapon considerably exceeds that of the Prussian, and the Chassepot is, in addition, a more difficult gun to make. To all the comparative information which has been published about the French and Prussian guns must be added the following from the Journal dv peupte: — " At 500 metres the Prussian weapon gives only negative results, while at 1000 the Chassepot, in the hands of good marksmen, hits the target with great force. We oall attention to this point, for in the war of large bodies of sharpshooters (the only system which we ought to adopt), an arm which is not reliable over 500 metres cannot reach the reserves of the first front which escapes the effect of the enemy's fire. The drawbacks of large bullets have been noticed, the principal being this, that with needle-guns, the firing is rapid, and, therefore, a great amount of pow ier is burnt ; consequently, the cartridge-box must be well stored. Now, there is In the weight of ammunition allotted to a foot soldier a total which cannot be exceeded — namely, 101 b. What will happen ? With that weight of cartridges, the Frenchman will have twice as many shots to fire as the Prussian. Nothing is more difficult than to replace during fire the ammunition by a fresh distribution. Thus, the retreat of a division may depend on its finding itself in face of an enemy which had still 20 or 30 cartridges a head to fire. It will be seen that the winning of a battle may depend on the projectile adopted." The Times, in its report of the annual Wimbledon meeting, says : — A point of attraction quite equal to any other in the camp at present lies in the exhibition tent, where a Prussian needle-gun and French chassepot are displayed side by side. A large number of men belonging to the regulars have been in camp for the last couple of days competing or preparing to compete for the army prizes, and Mr Townsend, who has charge of the arrangements in the exhibition marquee, has so managed matters that these weapons have found their way into the hands of some of the steadiest and most careful of the non-com-missioned officers. After careful examination of both the foreign pieces, these men one and all declared that, in their opinion, the SniderEnfleld was a weapon very much to be preferred to either. A correspondent of the Times, who signs "Your Constant Header," says:— Now that war is declared, a small contribution to the stock of knowledge your readers may possess on the subject of the military preparations of one of the belligerents will, perhaps, be aci ceptable. In the early part of the present

year a contract made with a London houst in the neighbourhood of Fiusbury for 50,000 Chassepot rifles was completed, and the weapons delivered. A sample of this formidable instrument was exhibited to me by a French officer of Engineers, and its capabilities explained. Ten shots per minute can be discharged from the piece, time being allowed for raising it to the shoulder ; twelve, if th*' movement is dispensed with. I know no' how many more thousands of reasons France may have for attacking Prussia, but can vouch for the 50,000 referred to. Well may Horace say, " Bella matribus detestata."