THE FRENCH REVERSES.—A. CRUMB OF COMEORT FOR THE DEFEATED.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 827, 28 September 1870, Page 2

THE FRENCH REVERSES.—A. CRUMB OF COMEORT FOR THE DEFEATED.

The despatches of Sunday evrning, detailing the success of the Crown Prince of Prussia over McMahon and his command, created among our French citizens the most profound astonishment. Napoleon was believed to have been fully prepared for the war which he so earnestly invited. McMahon was one of his most trusted Marshals, and everything promised that the opening of the campaign, at least, would be a brilliant one for the Grand Nation and her armies. Constant reference was made to the elan of the French troops. They were to carry everything before them as usual, at the first dash. If the Prussian troops were to be successful at all, it would not be on the first, second, or even the third battle. The proverbial Grerman obstinacy was to be their salvation; and as the campaign advanced, this quality would assert itself, and Napoleon would find perhaps the stubbornness of the Germans more than a match for the brilliant but effervescent courage of the mercurial Gaul. Such were the conclusions arrived at by many. But Thomme propose, et dieu dispose. The Prussians are on French soil, and a portion of the Grand army, commanded by the veteran McMahon, is flying before thorn towards Paris, which is only one hundred and twenty miles from Metz, the last point threatened. Napoleon, while admitting those disasters in his despatches, adds " all this may be retrieved." How ? Casting about for some explanation of this extraordinary state of affairs, they feel disposed to advance a theory which grows naturally from the situation. They feel convinced that Napoleon knew when he left Paris, he left behind him the people divided in the opinion on the justice and necessity of the war. The Thiers, or peace, party, was. stronger than their advices from Paris gave them to believe. The tone of Napoleon's. ante helium proclamations, the processions of the pacifically disposed in the streets, the visit of the Empress Eugenie to M. Thiers, immediately after the departure of her husband for the front, and lastly, the murmuring and disaffection of the Garde Mobile at Chalons, is strong evidence in support of this position. The lack of unification among the French people, explains also the hesitation of the troops on the frontier. Under other circumstances, the aggressive was the plain and rational policy for the Emperor to pursue; but this policy would not do while disaffection prevailed at Paris. The people must be compacted as a unit in his favor before the Eagles crossed the Rhine in fores. They think ha has succeeded, by the aid of the Crown Prince, in accomplishing this. McMahon's flyir.g legions are the idee Napoliene to fire the national heart of France. "The Garde National and the Garde Mobile have hushed their murmurs, and have asked to be allowed to join the army at the front." " The patriotic excitement, which had subsided, has been revived, and the national sentiments now are vengeance for slain brethren." " Tho Prince Imperial has been sent back to Paris," and, as. one of the Government papers significantly observes, the " camp w iU n 0 longer be a Court out of place." Such is the tenor of the latest dispatches, which they think show that a little French blood has healed French dissensions, and indicate that the heroic Germans will soon find the foemen to be more worthy of their steel than they have proved themselves, since the opening of the campaign. San Francisco Daily Call, August 9...