THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 738, 11 October 1870, Page 4

THE WAR IN EUROPE.

NOTES AND INCIDENTS. Lord Charles Hamilton has enlisted in a Prussian cavalry regiment. The Italian Government is increasing the army. Major Pemberton represents the Times at the head- quarters. The French officers have removed their epaulettes, which rendered them far too conspicuous. A correspondent writes from Hamburg that the inhabitants of the little town of Osterode have offered a reward of 10,000 thalers to whoever shall take the Emperor of the French, alive or dead. M. Rodelbertz, a German naturalised in Paris, who is worth 60,000fr a year, has informed the Government that he gives half his income for his life to the sufferere from the war, and that he has devised the whole by will to the poor. Several of the Paris journals have opened subscriptions for the Association for Succouring the Wounded on the Field of Battle. Considerable sums have already been announced. M. de Girardin alone has given 10,000fr. All the steamers of the Hamburg Mail Company which have been accustomed to run between England and America are now off their course, and are safely moored at New York, Southampton, or Hamburg. A temporary arrangement has been made with the Inman line. The effect of the continental war upon English shipping freights is already perceptible. The withdrawal of so large a number of German and French merchant ships from the seas necessarily places, neutral vessels at an advantage. Steamers are already in brisk demand, and the rates of freight to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the Black Sea, are advancing. A corresponding movement in the terms of insurance for war risks has taken place at Lloyd's. Amongst the distinguished Germans who have been summoned to take up arms on behalf of their country are Prince Pless, the purchaser of Blue Gown, and M.

Andre, who some time since bought the Colonel. M. Andre has, with praiseworthy patriotism, made a present of the son of Knight of Kara and Boadicea to the King of Prussia, with the hope that he may become his majesty's favorite charger. The double winner of the Grand National will soon be called on to give proof whether he can behave as well under tire as across a stiff line of country. The correspondent of a French paper, writing from Thionville, says that while travelling thither from Metz he saw a peasant crouched in a field digging at the root of an old willow. "He is burying his money," said the guard ; " the peasants of Lorraine have always done so in time of war." The Dover Clironich says that to provide against any contingency, the King of the Belgians has forwarded all the more valuable of his plate to England. It was brought over to Dover in the Belgian mail packet, and was at once forwarded to London, where it will be deposited in a place of safety. The three most prominent French officers and corps commanders in the present war— M'Mahon, Bazaine, and Canrobert — are all over sixty years of age. The three leading commanders in the Prussian service, besdes the Crown Prince — Von Moltke, Manteuffel, and Von Roon— are all over sixty, and the first-named is seventy years old. The King of Prussia is seventy-three, and the Emperor of France sixty-two years of age. Captain Sherard Osborne, in a letter respecting our ironclad navy, urges that the safety of the State needs there should be no longer any delay in providing our navy with at least a dozen turret-ships of moderate size and draught of water, capable of carrying the heaviest cannon. He appeals to our contemporary to insiit on our navy being at once reinforced by at least a dozen formidable low-sided turret-ships, constructed under Captain Coft'per Coles' supervision, and that the ignorance of a department be not permitted to produce more burlesques of a sound principle. " Had Prussia to-day," he says, "six such ships as the razed Royal Sovereign instead of her much belauded Kron Prinz, it would be an evil hour for the proudest ships of the French fleet if they were caught some breezy day this autumn off the Elbe or in the Baltic." As the tide of battle rolled away, many instances occurred of that loving sympathy of the German people for their wounded kindred, which promises to be the bright redeeming spot of this most hateful and wicked war. If aught were wanting to show the uttej hopelessness of this attempt of France to trample Germany under foot this would alone suffice. A military correspondent writes : — "I saw whole waggons full of women and girls moving on the battlefield, heedless of the bullets still dropping around, busied in refreshing the wounded and in assisting to help and to bind up their wounds." The news of the Crown Prince's victory arrived on the battlefield, and greatly inspirited the attacking force. Wissemburg, the scene of the Crown Prince's first victory, has been the theatre of many military struggles between the Gaul and Teuton. The lines along the chain of heights, erected in 1705 by order of Marshal Villars, extended for upwards of nine miles in a continued series of trenches, walls, and redoubts. It is remarkable that its loss by General Beauharnais, the maternal grandfather of Napoleon 111., in 1793, was expiated by that unlucky servant of the Republic on the guillotine. Durinsr the first fight at Saarbruck it was observed on all sides that the French threw themselves down to escape the Prussian shots. An Englishman who remained in Saarbruck behaved in a much bolder manner. Marching against the enemy with Lieutenant Goldschmidt, he stood erect, whilst our men lay flat on the ground to fire. It was in vain that Lieutenant Goldschmidt signed to him to lie down. He was exposed to many volleys from the enemy whilst standing up, till he received a shot in his side — a flesh wound. Wounded as lie was, he seized the rifle of one of our men who was disabled, fired four shots at the enemy, and retired without allowing his w:>nn<3 to be attended to. ' A ghastly though very practical little order has been published to the Prussian army. Every man of the regiments ordered into the fight has to wear round his neck, underneath his clothes, a ticket with a number corresponding to the one standing against his name in the lists, in order that this might bo ascertained in case "of death, without delay ; while the officers are furnished with diaries containing their designation in French as well as German. The soldiers have already found a name of their own for the above appendage. They call it the little death-bell. It is astonishfng how quickly the army, high and low, have developed a special slang. To have got into good quarters is called to have gone " by first special," the reverse " fourth- class smoking carriage," and so forth. Few things, indeed, are called by their right names, and if the humor of all this be small it keeps the men alive. — Pall Mall Gazette. The Bullionist considers it a severe test that, after a long period of depression, and just as an opening of renewed life and activity had come, this war, upsetting everything, should have come down like a thunderclap. But the credit of England can bear the blow. Nay, more ; it will make profit out of it. The capital which our country has at its disposal is coveted by, let us say without invidiousness, at least one of the belligerents ; and to get it they must pay for it. So out of evil comes good. The money market, with the exception of those on it who do not well know their business, will not suffer. Affairs may be restricted, but, under the control of good sense, they will not be altogether disastrous. Just at the present juncture, remarks the Globe, the Prussian War department are engaged in making some important improvements in the celebrated needle gun. These alterations are confined to a simplification in the breach-loading mechauism of the arm, and certain modifications in the shape of, the bullet 'and amount of the charge. The advantages expected are a greater rapidity of fire, less liability to get out of order, increased accuracy, and a flatter trajectory. We do not believe that any issue of the new arms has yet been made, but their preparation may have been one of the inducements that induced the French authorities in hurrying on the war. The following petition was presented to the Corps Legislatif by M. Gambetta : — When the country demands for the de-

fence of her soil the voliant arms of all her children, the undersigned, who abandon without murmuring, their wives, their children, their homes, and their positions, protest against a law which leaves inactive in their seminaries and convents, thousands of young men who have long reached the age of manhood and for military conscription, and whose presence is not indispensable to the service of religion. They, therefore, ask that a law be voted immediately calling together those young men from their seminaries for the defence of the country. (Followed by more than 300 signatures.) The law was voted on the same day. According to the Berlin correspondent of the Florence Nazione, the Prussian police have discovered that the French Government for the last twelvemonth has had a thoroughly organised corps of spies in Germany. The whole of the country was divided into districts, each of which had its inspector and its two sub-in-spectors, who were in direct communication with a director-general in Paris. Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden were the head-quarters of the spies, part of whose duties consisted in establishing military and political relations with the malcontents in the annexed provinces. The Prussian police have furnished to the Government at Berlin official proofs that France has been for a longtime preparing for this war, and only awaited a convenient pretext. It now appears that the great victories gained at Wosrth and Spicheren are not alone attributable to the successful overwhelming of the French by superior numbers. Well understanding the nature of the French attack, the Prussian generals suffered their enemy to expend the clan in which he trusts so much, in fruitless efforts to pierce ever increasing masses of men armed with the deadly needle gun, and supported by an artillery magnificently served. Repeatedly charged and broken, the first Prussian lines gave way, only to disclose to the exhausted French fresh bodies of opponents, who, aiming with extraordinary precision, decimated their assailants. It is not alleged that the needle-gun is superior to the Chassepot, but the events of the war clearly show that the modern arms of precision can be used more effectively by the cool and sagacious German than by the excitable and impetuous Gaul. A newspaper correspondent writing from Paris says :— "lt is useless detailing the variout { military orders' now being enrolled — sufficient to say that the fighting population of the country up to 50 years of age is armed, and off to the wars, the married men remaining to defend the cities. To defend France no force is necessary to make her sons do their duty, the only difficulty is to arm and equip the thousands who voluntarily come forward — all classes, without exception, determined, like Caesar's soldiers, that if heaven would fall they would support it on their lances. Mitchell, brother-in-law of Offenbach, the composer, and chief editor of the Oonstitutionel, and Cassagnac, junior, tKe fire-eating editor of Le Pays, have joined the Zouaves as simple soldiers. Divinity students have fallen into line also, but the 40,000 Christian Brothers, not having shown any sign to ' move on,' a deputy proposed to compel them. Napoleon the First would have brigaded them by a decree in five minutes."