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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 854, 29 October 1870, Page 2

The sftrtitttfal Ootfneil of lafanaki has, by a ttiajoritj of 9 fcct 5, adop&ed tbe met&drtal asking the Getter*! (atoferntaettt %& taafce teitttts with Titofcovfartt, which was prepared by the committee appointed qn M* W«*tta!ttt

mm mmm nm mm mrnvtm. A& American paper writes s~-Ie is related ei the tor Mkbolas that, Gorily after the Crimean war Woke out, he was strolling through the arcfaanee yard at Sehas* tepol, surveying with pride the pyramids of emtio® ball's piled sp them, "when he idly ehanced to strike one ei them with iris walking-stick. If gave batek a strange dull sound. An examination rWe&hi that it was made el weed, sod the same exaggerat&T wooden nutmeg imposture bad been practised by the contractor in supplying all the. balls there stored away. Following up the clue the Czar ascertained that fraud pervaded! all departments of the army service, and that, except en paper, bis empire Was in no Condition to contest with the allied Powers, sapo* leon's army and military equipments and, , provisions are net deficient and delusive as them et Nicholas, bat they fall far short of what he and the world expected < them to be, We question, in the firsts place, whether the* active army was any* thing like 400,000 strong. We hat© never been able to figure up more than 250,000 et 270,000 regular French troops in the advance on Prussia } and we believe that the actual enumeration of the men at his command was the prinei* pal reason that induced Hapoleon to. stand on the defensive instead of attempt* ing an invasion of Prussia, Somebody—* or some military been deceiving the Emperor, and getting rich out of the rations and supplies of a paper army* Then, the reserve of 400,000 men, whowere supposed to be capable of taking the field at short notiee, why have they not been available to reinforce f Because, we venture to say, the War Department was unable to furnish them with rifles or muskets of any description, to say nothing e( chassepots, equipments, and uniforms. More than a year ago we read the state* ment that France had over a million chassepots in her arsenals, and the Gevern* ment factories were said to be still turning them out. Immediately after M'Mabon'a defeat, complaints began to be rife tbafc France was short, not only of chassepots, but of arms of every kind. The French commissariat is worse, if possible, iban any other branch of the service, if wo may believe a tithe of the statements made hy correspondents, M'Mabon's army was represented to be almost starv« ing for some days, and that, too, in a region in easy communication with the capital. All these deficiencies and weak* nesses in the French army, disclosed by the light of events, astonish those who believe that since 1863 France has been making unremitting efforts for a war with Prussia, Either she bad no serious in* tent of fighting Prussia in all that time, or the Emperor has been grossly duped by his favorites, who have deluded him into the belief that France was prepared to confront •• every eventuality " (to quote from his speech to the bodies of State, January IS, ISG9), and have profited by his credulity to amass fortunes.