THE STEGE OF STRASBOURG.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 244, 20 October 1870, Page 2

THE STEGE OF STRASBOURG.

The announcement that a German army is threatening Strasbourg wi' received with incredulous astonishment ,n I'aris, where not a single journal has hinted the possibility of such an event. That the Rhine might bo crossed, that armies might manoeuvre near the fortress, and that its -'prestige might thus be temporarily impaired,/;:was ~:ffco. be accepted as one of the incidents/of unsnecessfuT war; but a summons to surrender will he regarded as a piece of presumption'of wlfijeh only M. Bismarck is capable. Strasbourg~is the ..centre of the defence of the frontier of .the fthirie ; and is usually spoken ''pf as one of the strongest fortresses iia Europe. It has figured in military history from the tivne of Julius Csesar. - It was -Louis XIV, however who first gave it the impotance and rank it has so long held among the fortified places ot Europe, after he had got possession of it when it was a free city of the German Empire, by^-a lawless attack during the time of peace. Nearly two hundred years after its union with France, Strasbourg still retains the appearance of a Prussian town. The situation of Strasbourg, at a distance of about one aud a half miles from the Rhine, on the river 111, is flat. The town, which is irregular in form has a circuit of six miles.. It? is surrounded by a 'Wall, •strengthened -by bastions, ditches and bulwarks, and has its eastern extremity towards the Rhine, a citadel of five bastions, constructed by Vauban, the outworks of whichl'eachto the river. Its defensive system is completed by a sluice, :by means of; which the surrounding country can be-inun-dated. For the defence of the town and citadel 600 guns are required, so that if the besiegers are pertinacious tlie alleged weakness of the garrison may prohe serious. The ordinary garrison of Strasbourg is 6,000, but there is a civil population of 81,000, and in ease of a blockade every one of them will be doing the work of the besiegers by his daily consumption of the strictly limited store of provision. The 'only side of the fortress which cannot be laid under water by means of the sluices where the 111 enters the town, is the Porte dcs Mines, and on that side the glacis is mined. Such is the theoiy of the defence of Strasbourg,,^ut in practice theory often breaks down.. Tbe'safety of the place depends too much upon water to satitfy those who wish to" see it hold out. Water is proverbially a fickle element upon which to depend, and after four months' drought the river is now low; at the landingplace of the destroyed boat-bridge the standard post showed a week or two ago but 70 centimetres, or two feet of wat6r,;While it is constructed to reach 19 feet. The works are of a eomewhat antiquated type. The oldfashioned bastion enciente, which engirdles the town, is in many points approached by woods, by villas, by pleasure gardens,andby breweries, which would probably afford excellent cover to ■a besieging force ;i while, as its works were planned long before rifle or cannon were thought of, its siege would afford an excellent exemplification of the relative values, of old engineering and &t '.modern| artillery.; Thiß Germans' before Strasbourg have the aid vantage denied by some besiegers,. of knowing well what obstacle's they have to overcome. Hundreds of their countrymen have had to. leave the place within the last few weeks, after living and .working there for years: They evidently also know precisely the number of troops within. fSinee with this knowledge they have'undertaken to capture the'placei it is probable that tiiey see their way tcrdbhigijp without loss, of time. ~',";'''. ' '~? ,