RESULTS OF A BOMBARDMENT.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 777, 10 January 1871, Page 4

RESULTS OF A BOMBARDMENT.

[times' corkespondment.] Berlin, October 25. The Frankfort Society for the Relief of the Strasburgers has sent some of its members to the unfortunate city to inquire into the condition of the inhabitants. Their report has been printed, and the details contained in it exceed all the harrowing descriptions we have already received. According to the official statistics, Strasbnrg had 3598, or, including the suburbs, 6150 houses. Of the 3598 structures of the town proper, 448 are entirely destroyed, and between 2000 and 3000 more or less injured. Those which Aave remained uninjured count only by hundreds. In many cases houses apparently intact have only a few habitable rooms left, bombs having fallen upon the roofs and burst inside. The value of the 448 houses in ruins isestimated at 16,500,000 f., and the damage occasioned to the others at from 3,000,000 f. to 4,000,000 f. To the loss inflicted upon private persons must be added that sustained by Corporations. The devastation caused to churches alone amounts to 4,000,000 f. To repair the schools 400,000 f. will be required. The Museum originally cost 500,000 f. ; the Prefecture, 50l),000f. ; the Court of Justice, 500,000 f. ; the Theatre, 875,000 f. ; the shattered bridges and the torn up roads and streets, 2000, 000 f., &c. Most of the gates are impassable, the gasworks destroyed, and whole quarters of the town such a complete hean of rubbish that it is impossible to distinguish the limits of the individual houses. Before the people in the Quartier National and Stein Vor*tadt can rebuild their homes the law will lv«ve to decide their l'espective allotments. The list of damages is further swelled by the hunrnof and demolition of many stores, magazines, and warehouses. When, a few days after the conquest, the sufferers were called upon to hand in an account of their losses, the 756 statements received un to October 3 amounted to 7.253,782 P. Of this total, one-third referred to buildings, the remaining two-thirds to goods and furniture, the average sum declared by each sufferer bpin? 9. 197 f• It was expected that the number o p such statements would he made nn to 4,010. which, at the rate of tho«a a'readv delivered, would <?ive a total of 39,380.000 f. In this sum the public bu : l HnL's, as mentioned above, are not included. Obvionslv these ficrnres are too Wore for private charity, in behalf of the victims to he of much avail, and it i<» probabiv owin<? to this hopelessness of ♦he ense that, the mbscrintions oTtfined by the Town Council of Berlin have thns fir yielded bnt a moderate result. However, as the King takes a warm interest in the. f-i+e of the: niacft, it is exnected that it will Ye rebuilt nut. of t l^ nennnin^' in^< mnity to b« enacted of France. For the present, the snvirer tradesr>e'>"l^ amongr the inhabitants are wor«e. off than the laboring rtOTu'Mtinn. Tho In+ter earned a frond 'leal of money d minor f.Tie. sice by wa'c* linqr houses, nueneMn<? fires, res^nn? f'trnit'irw, nndgen'T'iUvassisHn'Ttbe wealthy; but the former, who livp, hv +heir handicrafts, have ha 1 no employment for some time nas*\ and, besides, in man? phs u s oannot get n.t, the smnll sums they have l:iid by. Nof many weeks after tb« be?inn?n<r of the siesre 'he Savings Bank was obli"ed to ston navment, the greyer nart of its funds h<"'ing plac Q d at the. disposal of the Govern mm*, which, at such a juncture, as a matter of course^ mvs no interest, and returns no capital. The members of the Frankfort Committee sneak in terms of unqualified admiration of the fortitude with which the inhabitants bear up against the miseries oppressing them. They say there is an earnest selfreliant, tone in the city, far removed from despair, though seasoned with intense hatred to the Imperial Government, whicn is denounced in unmeasured terms. The hatred they bear to the defunct regime is so vehement that, for the present, at any rate, it outweighs the ill-will with which they canriot help looking upon the destroyers of their goods and chattels. The catalogue of ihe guns employed and shot fired in the siege for more reasons than one deserves to be generally known. There were 241 pieces placed in battery outside the walls. During the 31 days over which the regular operations extended these fired 193,722 shot— that is, an average of 6249 per day, or 269 per hour, or between 4 and 5 per minute. Of the total of the shot fired. 45,000 srenades came out of the rifled 12-pounders, 28,000 grenades out of the long rifled 24-ponnders ; 23,000 7-ponnd bombs, 20,000 25-ponnd bombs, and 15,000 50-pound bomb 3 out of smooth-bore mortars ; 13,000 shrapnels out of the rifled 12-ponnders, 8000 grenades out of the. rifled 6-ponnders, 5000 shrapnels out of the rifled 24-pounders, 4000 shrapnels out of the rifled 6-pounders ; 3000 long grenades out of the 15 centimetre guns. Are we to witness a repetition of the same sorry spectacle in the case of the gay capital on the Seine ? Are 8 weeks hence thousands of curious travellers to pour into Paris as they are now doing into Strasburg to viewthe devastation wrought? Is the aspect of a ruined city, one of the rarest sight* to be met with in our civilized age, to be really enjoyed in a locality, the home of so much beauty, taate, and pleasure for centuries past? In a few days Colonel Rief, the greatest artilleristic scholar of Prussia, who directs the siege, will, I am afraid, give a stern answer to our anxious questionings. The 48---ponnders, 72-ponnders, and 96-ponnders, which fire grenades of respectively 1 cwt., liewt., and 2cwt., at an elevation of from ' 30 to 40 degrees, have a range exceeding five milea, and can even now lay "waste Paris. Up to a few days ago. the number of

French unwounded prisoners in Gernvmv amounted to 123,700 men and 3577 officers. In addition to these, a lime number of wmnded prisoners, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 60,000, are either in German hospitals nr on French territory occupied by Gwman troops. Each successive hattle has yielded its contribution to the plenteous harvest. In ronn 1 numbers, 1000 were taken at Wissembourg, the first eniia^ement of the campaign ; 6000 at Woerth, 2500 at Spicheren, 1377 in consequence of the two precidinir battles Saanremnnd, Haguenan, and Lichtenbertr, 2000 at VmnvilV, 3000 at Gravelmtn, 850 in Vitrv. 5858 at Beaumont, 84,450 at Sedan, 2080 in Laon, 2240 in Tonl, and 15,347 at Strasburg. Thus there is not an action, from tht» beginning of the war down to its present sta<j;e, in which the French have not left more or less considerable portion of their troops in the hands of the victor. The last few days, which are not included in this list, have brought a fresh batch of captives, and increased the sum total by some SUOO. The cannon taken reaches thp fabulous figure of 2500 ; the horses exceed 30.000 ; the eagles and standards must be not a few, but, to spare the feelings of the French army, they are, it seems, as a rule, passed over in the official statistics. Contrasting this enumeration with the fact that the French have not captured a single German gun in the entire course of the campaign, and that the few prisoners they have taken almost exclusively consist of outposts or patrols, and of detachments surprised in exposed positions at the beginning of an engagement, it is impossible not to arrive at the conviction that there must be something rotten in the state of France. Yet not one of the prisoners, amid the thousands sent to this country, will admit this. Instinctively confiding in the invincible qualities of their race, they are as proud as ever of the army and country they belong to and fully account for what has occurred by reference to the chapter of accidents. One will say they happened to be short of cartridges just at the decisive turn of such and such an engagement ; another asserts that having fortuitously marched i too far the day before lost them the battle ; a third assures that Strasburg i would not have been conquered had it not lain in the French plan of campaign to remove the besieging army from Alsacs; a fourth — aud the number of these fourths is legion — swears that it is all owing to the treachery of thn commanding Generals, who, by some unintelligible mental aberration, have all turned traitors, the rest of the army remaining entirely free from the taint. As to the Germans ever getting Metz, the mere idea is ludicrous. It is different with Paris, which is as brave as it is clever, as gallant as it is deep. Paris may have a purpose in admitting the Germans — mais site antrent, ils rten sortiront pas. The German burghers, who, after so many crushing defeats, hear their prisoners talk in this vaunting way, shake their heads, and are confirmed in the conviction that they had better keep Alsace and Lorraine.