THE WAR IN EUROPE.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 778, 12 January 1871, Page 4

THE WAR IN EUROPE.

NOTES AND INCIDENTS. The ironworks and dockyard establishments of Marseilles and Le Seyne have ceased ship-building, in order that the workmen may be employed in the fabrication of guns and mitrailleuses. Contracts have been made to deliver 120 rifled guns of eight centimetres and mitrailleuses. '; A Prussian infantry and ca /airy column attacked a French reconnoitring party on the left bank of the Loire on October 23. An advanced detachment of Chasseurs opened fire upon the enemy's cavalry at a distance of 100 yards ; after which both sides fell back. On October 27, inhabitants from "V ouzieres and Grand Pie state that a provision train, escorted by seven Prussians, was surprised by Francs-Tireurs, by whom I the escort was killed. They also assert that on the same evening 30 White Cuirassiers, making a reconnaissance in the neighborhood of Olizy, were killed by Francs-Tireurs. Major Scheiblin, the German Commander of ' Wissemburg, has announced, in accordance with the orders of the General of the 3rd Army, that henceforth every train proceeding thence into the Ulterior of France will be accompanied by influential inhabitants, who will be placed on the engine. This regulation, he says, is necessitated by the frequent injuries to the railways, and he wishes the people to understand that their countrymen will be sufferers if trains go off the rails. The French and Italian lodges of Freemasons, imitating the example set by their Belgian brethren, have forwarded circulars to the German lodges, begging them to use their influence for the purpose of effecting a speedy peace, and of deprecating any territorial cession by France. " This," remarks *he Allgemeine Zeitung, "is another proof of the danger of cosmopolitan societies being misled in national concerns." The Pays gives the following estimate of the expenses and losses of France in the present war : — " War armaments from 1868 to 1870, L 40,000,000 ; fortifications destroyed, which will have to be rebuilt, L 60,000,000 ; losses of muskets, cannons, and other war materials destroyed or captured, L 60 ,000,000 ; destruction of buildings and fields by both sides, L 80,000,00 0; total or partial ruin of manufacturers and other proprietors, L 40,000,00 0; war indemnity to Germany, L 100,000,00 0; losses ,in consequence of the influence of all I these disasters, L80,000,00U-- total loss, L 460,000,000. The SuddeutschePostoi Vienna expresses the opinion that the organization of French bodies of Francs-Tireurs should not excite indignation in Germany. After showing that the Prussian regulations applicable to the Landsturm proscribe to Germans the same duties as those at this moment imposed by the French, it adds that if the fortune of war had turned against Germany, and if Germany had been invaded, its inhabitants would have done exactly what the French have done. The country people would have risen, and, if possible, prepared a second Moscow for the French ; and the nation, far from blaming acts of resistance, would have approved and afterwards reconrpensed them. The King of Prussia has sent the following telegraphic order to General Yogel von Falkenstein, under date Oct. 27 : — " Since the continuation of the war will not allow the state of siege to be raised, and since it is the desire of the King that during the preparations for the elections no hindrance should be placed in the way of the expression of their political opinions by the voters, His Majesty has ordered that in those districts now in a state of siege, until the termination of the elections, the legal authorisation, suspending Article 30 of the Constitution, relative to the right of public meeting .and association should not be put in force ; and that all those persons now under arrest or confined provisionally on account of pending legal proceedings should be set at liberty." A letter in the Allgemeine Zeitung notices the difficulties under which the government of Lorraine by the Germans is being carried on. A police commissioner, who has thirty villages under his control, has to make a daily circuit of 18

or 20 miles, and can go nowhere without an escort of Uhlans. The German officials in the occupied departments are quite cut off from political news, English newspapers have hardly been seen in the Upper Rhine for three months, for the post offices did not know where to order the Times, -for instance, except of Alexandre, of Strasburg, to whom they of course could not send. The editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung. remarks in a note to this letter that he has been for some time deprived of the Times for the same reason. The Garlsnihe Gazette says that a soldier of the Wurtemburg field division, who is a tanner by trade, wrote the following letter, dated the 16th inst., from Noisiel :--" You see I am back here, but, thank God ! not as an invalid, but to work at my trade. Our regiment had made use of more than 200 sheep, and in order not to lose the skins I was consulted. I told our commanding officer that the thing could easily be managed, and I received orders to do what was necessary. We have already got so far on with the work that seventy skins have been dressed, and they will be ready next week as rugs and coverings for the wounded in the hospitals ? It will give the French something to speak of if the German soldiers at their leisure can make things of this kind quietly and heartily, and work at their trades as in time of peace." Felix Dahn, in an article in the Allgemeine Zeitung, insists that Prussia must onnex Alsace, German Lorraine, and Luxembourg, as a preparation for an inevitable war with the united Latins and Sclavonians. France will certainly thirst for revenge, aud Rossia's favorable attitude towards Prussia, which is based on personal feeling and on a transitory weakuess, will be reversed. The struggle will be a serious one, and Germany must therefore enter upon it with a strong western frontier. Its "natural boundaries" will, in his view, include Sierck, Thionville, Metz, Mars-la-Tour, Gorze, Courcelles, Salzburg, Dieuze, Marsal, Phalsbourg, Bitche, Lchelestadt, Colmar, Breisach, Mnnster, Mulhausen, and Belfort. The feelings of the population must yield to strategic considerations, and the limits must be such as to produce a feeling of security, otherwise the inhabitauts will regret the change, and fear — perhaps desire — restoration to France. Longwy, Pont-a-Monsson, Nancy, Luneville, Epinal, Plombieres, and Montbeliard will be retained by France. The colonel of a Bavarian light cavalry regiment recently said to me : — " During the whole of this war my regiment has not made a single useless march, so excellently is everything foreseen and so exactly guided, whereas in 1866 I hardly ever made a useful march." These few words, I believe, contain the most searching criticism of General Moltke's operations, and those of his general Staff. The writer proceeds to notice the deserted and devastated state of the villages he passed through, most of the cattle having been taken south, and those which remained having been " requisitioned " and slaughtered for the troop 3. He frequently met detachments bringing in a dozen oxen or sheep which they had discovered concealed in some wood. At least 3000 provisiou columns a^e daily occupied in collecting everything eatable in the neighborhood of Paris, though interminable provision columns are sent from the railway stations at Nogent and Nanteuil. Iv making requisitions there are frequent fights with Francs-Tireurs, a band of whom attacked his expedition from a wood. After firing a few harmless shots they fled, but some were overtaken, and a dozen who still offered resistance were cut down by the troops, " who always fight with justifiable rage against such freebooters ;" the rest escaped. In the next village a half-starved sheep was found in a garden, and a cask of wine in a concealed cellar, which, with bread they had brought with them, served for a dinner. A Rhenish Courier states that General Bourbaki's departure from Metz happened after this fashion: — "Since the commencement of the seige eight Luxemburg surgeons had been in the place, who had recently expressed a great wish to return home. After much trouble they obtained permission from the Commandant, aud they were directed to hold themselves ready for the journey, with the information that a ninth Luxemburg surgeon would accompany them. This they could not understand, as they had not known of the preseuce of any colleague in the fortress. The unknown joined them on their departure, and they passed the Prussian outposts without hindrance. They were, however, not a little astonished at finding in the Prussian linos two four-horse carriages, with footmen before and behind, and at being invited to enter them, with the remark that they were Prince Frederick Charles's equipage. Away they went with a brilliant escort of Uhlans to the nearest villiage, and the young surgeons were extremely delighted with the attention paid to them. In the village inn they found a capital breakfast prepared. Everything was very relishing after their

diet of horse steaks, bub they noticed that a Prussian General entered, greeted their unknown colleague very cordially, and shook hands with him. After breakfast an extra train conveyed them by Saarbrnck to Luxemburg. There their companion allowed himself to be recognised as General Bourbaki, at which interesting discovery they were a little disappointed, as they had supposed themselves the objects of all these attentions. This story ia given on the authority of two of the surgeons. The semi-official Provincial Correspan-, dence of Berlin explains the reason why the original calculations and premature expectations as to the bombardment of Paris have not been realised. It was thought, particularly after the fall of Toul, that the requisite supply of guns and |am munition would be speedily brought up, and that the Parisians would probably, in prospect of a bombardment, be induced to surrender ; but the attitude they adopted necessitated elaborate and energetic, operations, and the idea of terrifying them by a partial cannonade was abandoned as not likely to be of any effect ; the preparations which thus became necessary have occupied longer time than was estimated, the difficulties of transporting such enormous war materiel being greater,thanhad been reckoned upon . After the fall of Toul, the railway only became available as far as Nanteuil, near Meaux, owing to the blowing up of a tunnel, and everything had consequently to be conveyed 60 or 60 miles by road, which the scarcity of horses and vehicles and the destruction of almost all the roads for a wide radius round Paris ren dered very laborious. The delay has been solely caused by these difficulties, and not by any political considerations, for there can be no hesitation in prosecuting the war, forced upon Germany by the present French Government and of the people, until France is entirely overthrown. The commanding position of Paris over the rest of the country renders a termination of the war without its subjugation impossible, and the responsibity for the dangers and horrors of the siege rests with those who turned Paris into a fortress, and with the present rulers, who made it the last refuge of their unbridled defiance and arrogance. Only at Paris can be found the definite recognition of the German victory and the guarantees of peace, and as soon as the attack commences a speedy success will crown this great undertaking, and therewith the entire work of the war»