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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1452, 11 October 1872, Page 2

Those (says the London Daily Tele* graph) who fancy that the National Assembly will patiently listen to nothing which touches the honor, the grandeur, or the glory of France, will be agreeably surprise.] by the speech in which General Trochu has advocated the bill for the reorganisation of the army. No Englishman and no German could have more plainly told the French people that they => had been smitten to the dust because they had allowed themselves to be demoralised by vain glory, by the habit of boasting* by their false trust in the traditions of a great past, and by the reckless disregard of duty which had been the bane of all their Government?. The frank Brilon did not spare even the first Emperor, for he declared that the Gteat Napoleon had destroyed the spirit of heroism and abnegation which had distinguished the armies of the Republic and the Directory. I s -'ay, the great conqueror was accused of having tolerated laxity of discipline. And of course the nephew of that gn»*

potentate was not allowed to go untouched. The ex-Emperor, said the General, had begun to demoralise the army even before the coup d'etat, and had continued the work throughout his reign. Perhaps the boldest and most telling passage was launched against the vanity which fills the French with a passion for decoration. All Frenchmen either wear the red ribbon-of the Legion of Honor, or they try to get ic. Xhitie-fourths of the Deputies, perhaps, are thus decorated. All functionaries, from Ministers of State down to police spies, are proclaimed by a speck of red to be " honorable men." It would be difficult to exaggerate the mischief which is done to the manliness of the people by a Government which scatters the decorations broadcast. Every Frenchman is trained to expect that the State will reward him for writing a clever book, for painting a line picture, for leading a regiment into action, for passably managing a small Government oilice, for having the honor to belong to a good family; and, indeed, for doing anything, or beiug anything. The vanity which craves such a symbol is one of the many tokens of national weakness that the si rong probe of war found at Sedan, Metz, and Paris. A very close tie binds together the passion for the red ribbon and the want alike of physical and moral backbone which appeared during the war. Few speakers would have been so bold as to proclaim the fact; but General Trochu did it in words of contemptuous plainness, and the audience cheered him. We know few healthier signs of an awakening manliness in France than the applause which greeted denunciations of the vanity of ribbons.