WAR ITEMS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3102, 19 January 1871, Page 3

WAR ITEMS.

♦ \ The municipal elections at Marseilles Mi November have resulted in a republican 'triumph. The results asfor as known, are 21,000 votes for thcNepublican list, Mid 7000 for the Kevojuionary list. M.Esquiros has undertHcen the chief editorship of the " Journ^j'Egalite." From JDjUe the news ccmeson Saturday that fye Germans are making heavy requisitions in St. Quentin and olher places. The German Prefect at Laon has just levied a war tax on Nouvion, La Capelle, and Hirson j\ 27,000 francs on the firsfc, and 25,000 francs on each of the other towns. The money has heen refused ; and at an attack is expected, application has teen made to the prefect of Av-ssnes for arras anci ammunition, which have been sent. In reference to the arrival of English refugees from Paris,' the "Daily Telegraph's" correspondent at Versailles says :— -200 more will abandon the sinking ship whenever they can get their passes, but are at present detained by ceitain official formalities. Those who have come in to-night received, on le&ving Paiis, 100/ a piece, six biscuits, and half a pound of chocolate from the charitable' fund, but nothing from the British Embassy. Many of those left behind are in sad straits. The " France" publishes the following £ cry of despair :— " We are no longer Vr Frenchmen, for our soldiers accustom themselves to being made prisoners, oar armies capitulate, our generals have for* gotten how to conquer. We arenolongei Frenchmen, for atParis a regiment flies from the 'enemy without firing a shot ; at Orleans our soldiers, who were considered tho hest in the world, run away ; only the Mobiles and the Volunteers of the west show a good attitude and

set an example, which was not followed. We are no longer Frenchmen, for our officers do not study war, and consequently understand about it. Tho great art of war which our fathers brought to such perfection, they have forgotten. Our military prestige is lost. We are now only a people of chatterers, sybarites, and orators, who, making .demonstrations in the theatre and in the public squares, resolve on changes in the form of Government, engerly finding fault with one another, and dividing us when the enemy puts the sword to our throats. We are no longer Frenchmen, as the Greeks in Philip's time were Greeks, as the Romans in. the time of the Goths were Romans. The modern Macedonians will treat us as Philip and Alexander treated the Greeks or rather as Alaric treated tho Romans ,and as the Turks treated Con stantinople. They will not only accomplish the unification of Germany, hut bring Europe under tbeir yoke, without ■us, in spite of us, and against us." The " Vienna New Fiee Press" published a sensational account of a serious and bloody conflict between Prussians and Bavarians before Paris. The " Wurzburg Zeitung" publishes a letter from a Bavarian soldier who was present, and which runs thus— -" The Prussians and Bavarians were fighting together against the French, and in the engagement a French cannon was captured. The Prussians planted their flag on it ; the Bavarians insisted that they had the same right to the cannon, and demanded the planting of a Bavarian flag also, or, to show the mutual ;conquest, a black, red, and gold flag. The decision was left to the colonel commanding, who ordered that no flag at all should be planted, with which dcci sion both pa- ties declared themselves satisfied. The " dead and wounded" consisted in a considerable number of wine bottles, which the two parties emptied together on the head of their mutual victory." ' - The " Times" says :— " The French j bear a social reverse easily. They are j an economical race, living on Httle I when they have something, and on nothing, it is added, when they have little. This last act will have to be severely tested now, not only in the .capital, but throughout the whole ofthe vast area ravaged by war. Of course, the import of the expression is terrible when it is applied indiscriminately to all classes, conditions, and varieties of physical constitution. It really meauas death, or the seeds of premature decay, to all but the strongest and hardiest. In this country the succession of bad harvests soon after the beginning of this century told on many constitutions. The poor or low diet, as well as the climate of France, dispenses so far with the necessity of reserved resources. The corn reserves compelled by law in the metropolis, testifies to tha .absence of a natural equivalent. Thus France is always nearer starvation than we are, and just now trembles on the very verge. It trembles on the verge of the direst of miseries, aggravated by every calamity, every disorder, that can render it desperate and irremediable." The great Strasburg Cathedral has escaped better than any of the buildings near it, but it seems to have been considerably injured, nevertheless. The minute ornamentation of the spire has suffered sadly. The balustrade round the western side of the platform has been carried away, and a section of pillars fallen upon the equestrian statue of King Clovis, reaching from his bridle hand up to his chin, and making him look like a " clerk carrying an overload of ledgers." One shot had entered and injured the organ. The cross at the top of the Cathedral had heen bent, and there is a good deal of minor injury, but nothing irremediable. The old stained glass was removed and packed carefully away, when the siege became a matter of certainty. The strange old astronomical clock has quite escaped. Count Bismarck is evidently restless under tho defence of Paris. Should the defence be protracted to the last, there would be danger of a catastrophe which would overwhelmn all Europe with horror, the death by starvation of two millions of human beings in a single week. Suppose Paris to fight till it had only, one day's rations left. It wouid take a week to supply it, for I the nearest point is Havre, the railways being cut, and the belt round the city stripped bare. The Germans could not supply it, for they have barely enough for themselves; and even if London were permitted to make the effort, it could not be accomplished under a week. Count Bismarck,* forseeing that so awful a catastrophe, produced by Germany in order to gain a province, would permanently alienate the sympathies of mankind, has accordingly embodied all the facts in a circular to the foreign agents of Germany, which ends by declaridg that the responsibility rests with the rulers of France, — an assertion which, true once, is not true now that France has. offered peace on any terms except the cession of unwilling citizens. The despatch in no degree lightens the responsibility of the besiegers, while it ought to stimulate the Government in Tours to frantic efforts for relief. \