WAR ITEMS. CHINESE SUPERSTITION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 883, 3 December 1870, Page 2

WAR ITEMS.

CHINESE SUPERSTITION.

CHANGE—WHOM CAN SHE COUNT UPON ? Esmond ApouT, ia one of his letters, says:—We have not a solitary ally, for what is left of poor Denmark, brutally dismembered as she is, represents nothing but moral force, and we have as much of that as we want. England, side by side with whom we fought in the Crimea and in whose political and commercial interests we have served so disinterestedly, wishes the success of our enemies, Jf the Times really express the opinion of the city of London, and if the merchants of the city represent in their wealthy persons the public feeling of Great Britain, we have nothing to hope from the English but treachery and lying. It is very little matter whether M. de Bismarck has, or has not bought up the principal London journals ; whether they are sincere or are mere hirelings. They make open war on us, and the nation visibly sympathises with them. English writers and readers long for the abasement of France, without understanding, unfortunate men, that it would bring with it their own degradation and that of the whole of Europe, They make the victories of Prussia to be more than they are, they conceal her defeats, they want to see the Crown Prince in Paris, they decree 4lsace to the stupid Grand Duke of Baden, and Lorraine to the idiotic little friend oi Wagner the composer, They show a cold and brutal excitement when they talk of all the generous blood which our soldiers have poured out on the battle field, and they think neither of Belgium nor of Holland, nor of the Dutch colonies, nor of the maritime rivalry which would avenge our defeat on them, if the. fate oi arms should condemn us finally and beyond appeal, The Belgians, calling themselves neutrals, are fighting with all their journals against us poor sheep that have risen in insurrection against the dog that guarded their independence. Holland, which will be just one mouthful for Jung William's heavy jaws, is delighted to see that oui enemy has us on the hip, without remembering that, if we perish to-day she will be eaten up to-morrow, The Emperor of Russia —there is nc longer a Russian his compliments to King William every morning, He bore a spite at us for Sebastopol, that magnanimous Alexander. May much good come to him J Reflect, stupid Sire, that a great German empire, founded in spite of us and against us, would isolate Russia from Western Europe for ever, and fliog you back into Asia far more certainly than all the victories of the first Napoleon. Spain, which is the cause of all the mischief, with her miserable intrigue, and the kingdom of Italy, which owes to us its existence, shut themselves up in a surly neutrality. These two nations—rour own neighbors, our brothers in blood, our natural ought to form with us a Latin Confederation, discount our downfall as an accomplished fact. Poor Spain J Poor Italy j What would you be in Europe without us ? Austria, whom we defeated at Magenta and Solferjno by our arms, and at Sadowa by our nonintervention, fancies she is taking her revenge by leaving us alone in the face of her enemy and ours. She has men enough to make a diversion in our favor, which would make us her allies and her debtors for a generation, and she folds her arms. What is it that she hopes ? Does she want to have us for her companions in misfortune ? I hope that that wretched consolation will be denied her, and whatever happens to us we shall never, I am certain, he companions in her degradation, A few days after Sadowa, when the Emperor of Austria wanted to fight a last battle of despair under the very walls of Vienna, the citizens crowded in deputations to entreat him, " Qo and %bt elsewhere, if you must fight, but spare us the horrors of a cannonade which might damage our houses and sour our beer." Paris is preparing to show, by a heroic defence, her superiority over Vienna. It is clear that we have not an ally in Europe. Neither small states nor large ones will make common cause with France. T ne friendliest diplomatists are waiting in, their cabinets, for another Prussian victory, to enable them to ask for us, and to limit, in tin? interest of the European equilibrium, the precipitate

annexations of Bismarck. Thank you, gentlemen, France will work out her salvation by herself, and will hare nobody else to thank for it. She is strong enough still to say, with Corneille's Medea, " My* self, and that is sufficient." THE PEJTSSIAN ABMT. It is the admirable organization of the German army which has so much contributed to its triumphs. As it was in America, whole regiments are made up from the same district, and thus it is that not only the reserves can be formed with a celerity and ease unattainable by any other system, but the men gaia a reliance in each other and an esprit dy corps from the (act that they fight side by side with their townsfolk and friends. But, while it makes a soldier more valiant and wellconducted since he kuows that his deeds of good or ill will be related at his home, on the other hand a crushing loss inflicted upon any corps will be felt most terribly in the place where it has been raised. The great majority of the Prussian serves are married men, and whole districts must have been plunged in mourning by the carnage of the last fortnight. If the war continues, jts effects, even should Prussia's career be one of unchecked victory, will be far more severely felt by her people than in France, where the loss, though numerically greater, will be diminished by its wide dissemination. Some loved ones will at least be spared, but in Prussia the whole male population of a village, between the ages of twenty and thirty, are ranged side by side, and their destruction will deprive half the families of the place of their support, and throw them upon the country for subsist tence. A paternal Government has made a provision for the widows and orphans of those who fall for the Fatherland; but this is poor consolation indeed to those who are left utterly desolate, This is, perhaps, the only defect in the Prussian, system, which in every other respect is as near as possible to perfection. There is. a thoughtfulness and care in the most minute details, unknown elsewhere. Each. soldier carries a supply of lint and bandages in his knapsack; every non-com-; missioned officer is furnished with a number of t urniquets, so that, even in the heat of an action, the surgeons are able to apply relief to wounded men who would .otherwise bleed to death before they could be removed to the ambulance, Every man wears around his neck a cord inscribed with his name and the number of his regiment. If he falls, the first surgeon who comes to his assistance writes down upon it whether he is to be taken to the nearest or to that in rear of the army, so that when the stretchers and wagons come up there is, no confusion; while there is none of that heart-sickening anxiety among friends and relatives at home, as to the fate of those they love, which is more dreadful than would be even the knowledge that the worst had happened.