The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2390, 29 November 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1870.

So far as the main features of the war are concerned, but little change appears to have taken place—the Prussians are still victorious, the French defeated. Metz, a fortress of the first class, has surrendered, and with it an army of

170,000 men. It is nearly inexplicable on any known principles that such immense forces as have been captured in Sedan and Metz should have been so hemmed in as to find no way of escape, or that there should have been so little forethought in planning the campaign as not to have provided for falling back upon certain lines of defence in. case of reverses. Either the Prussians must have struck out a new line of tactics, or the French have been most unskilfully handled. This, however, is not to bo wondered at when the chief directing mind was gone. It must be remembered, too, that French soldiers were servants of the Emperor sworn to obey him ; the country had deposed him, and Avhat were they battling for ? Possibly republicanism may be distasteful to them—and, for aught we know, this may bo the secret motive of their giving up the defence of the country. The rest follows as a matter of course. The French army destroyed, the country is practically defenceless. Accordingly wc find fortress after fortress surrendering after a mere show of defence, and the Prussians reimbursing themselves for their risk and sacrifices by levying black mail upon the dliferent towns. However willing the people may be, they are not trained and armed to resist organised armies. They have no common plan of defence, and their fitful efforts are met and defeated in detail. It must be evident that all farther resistance is useless ; for in the movements of the Prussians there is unity of purpose and a steadily pursued design, while on the part of the French there is division, and consequently disaster. Lord Wellington used to say that the next great calamity to a defeat is a victory. His Giace looked at it as a soldier, and counted the cost in the loss of men and the materiel of war. He counted the killed and wounded, and found that the victory was purchased at the cost of losing one-eighth or one-tenth of his men. Put the bearing of this apophthegm is wider than its immediate application to the armies engaged. It must not bo supposed that Prussia, though victorious, will come off scatheless. Could franco have made peace with the loss only ot her army, and a few millions for the cost of war, she would have been far the better off of the two. The army of France was distinct and separate from the people, having nothing in common with them but the name of Frenchmen. They were consumers, not producers, and were not mixed up with the everyday life of society. But with the Prussians it is different. The Prussian airmy comprises men drawn from every rank and occupation in life. Manufacturers must leave their factories, farmers their homesteads, artisans their workshops, tradesmen their counters, merchants their counting-houses. Every man that falls is not merely so much bone, muscle, and soldierly skill, but a useful man lost to society—a father, a brother, or a youth, who but for the ball that laid him low might one day have aided in achieving social triumphs of a higher order than Avar’s most brilliant victories. If a soldier falls, his place in society is not felt to be a vacancy that cannot easily be filled up ; but if a citizen soldier falls, there is a void in the social circle —he is so much withdrawn from the civil well-being of the State. Viewed in this light Prussia suffers heavily, apart from the distress that every death carries into different households. It is time that war was looked upon as an unmitigated curse—an evil that must bo met if forced upon us, and prepared for, because not banished from the earth ; but not the less a curse. So all-absorb-ing is the theme, that all other passing events seem light compared Avith it. The Colony is affected by it, in the prices of its produce and the limitation of demand. The avoo! markets Avere fairly attended by Continental buyers —which interpreted means manufacturing industry is paralysed on the Continent. It is avoll for England that it is an island. Nows from other parts of the world is scarce. Spain is still unsettled; Turkey on the look-out against Russia. The only reason appears to be that the Russian CoA rernment is massing troops on the frontiers. Perhaps, after all, England’s chief danger lies in that quarter —and that, mainly through the necessity for acting up to treaties ; for the supposed necessity to maintain the independence of Turkey on account of ouv Indian possessions has long passed aAvay. For Russia the time is opportune. France cannot help England if she Avoubl. The only dnvwback to Russia s quarrelling with England is that she would lose her best customer. Such a quarrel cost the Emperor Paul his life in 1801, and would be seriously to the disadvantage of both countries now. Perhaps self-interest may keep them quiet.