NOTES OF THE WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 43, 20 February 1871, Page 4

NOTES OF THE WAR.

{From the Correspondent of a London Paper.) Perhaps you will scarcely believe that the siege can be seriously regarded when I tell you that it is proposed to raise ten battalions of Amazons of the Seine — no less than ten. But, iiuleed, it is because the people are thoroughly in earnest that they go into a ludicrous folly of this kind, and do not see the folly of it. There were placards all over Paris last night, announcing the intended formation of the ten battalions of Amazons, describing what their dress would be, their accoutrements, their duties, and their pa}'. The first battalion is in course of formation ; the others are as yet in the air. The Amazons have a provincial commander, who rejoices in the name of Belly. How long M. Bolly— Felix Belly — will be allowed to command, no one knows ; perhaps they, will soon want a colonel from their own sex to lead them on to glory — or I should rather say a major — for the grade of colonel is as yet unknown in the citizen army. Iv the mean time, M. Belly is supreme over the Amazons. They are to have black nether garments, with an orange stripe, cut, I. believe (but this is not in the anuouncement), after the Zouave fashion; they are to have a black woollen blouse with a hood ; they are to have a black kepi with an orange peak or shade ; they are to have ashoulderbelt with cartridge-box attached ; and they are to be armed with a light musket, good for 200 yards. Each battalion is to have eight, companies, 150 strong. Their duty will be to defend the ramparts and the barricades ; and they demand the pay of a franc and a half a day, allowed to all the other battalions of the National Guard. They are in earnest ; they mean business, and no doubt they will fiud recruits ; but I must say this i'or the Parisians, that while some seemed bewildered as they read the green placards announcing what the femine population of Paris intend, staring in amazement as if they could not believe their eyes, the greater number were consumed with laughter. Immortal hate, will, I fear, be the miserable legacy of this war to France. The animosity which has long existed between the races, is almost, nay quite, diabolical now on the part of the French towards the Germans, and is only abated in the case of the Germans to the French when the strife is over, and the field is left to their undisputed control, There is no use in arguing with angry, very angry meu — n0 U se in asking them to regard the bearings of their acts on the opinion of the world. The Germans regard FrancTireurs assassins; the French esteem them as heroes. The Germans will burn towns wherever they find Franc-Tireurs. The French will send them out to shoot and destroy wherever they can. lam a believer in the power of what is called persecution. Even in religious controversies, long continued, rigorous, persecution has stamped out the life of Churches. But theintenseagonyandfuryofthestrifebefore the conqueror can get his foot on the body of his enemy iv such a fight as that between Germany and France are inconceivable, and cannot be appealed by any sermons. He must be a sanguine German who believes that peace will be for ever secured by the possession of the Vosges and of certain points in Lorraine. " I will leave it as a testament to my children;" writes a young officer to his sister, who is in charge of his motherless sous, "never to think I am at peace till the land which they will take from us is restored. Yes; Alsace will be our bond of union. At this word all feuds must cease and factions die out." These may be the passionate words of the hour. But border feuds and boundary questions live long. The sea washed away a good deal of the ill blood which existed between France and England after 1815. But suppose we had re-occupied Calais ? Germany may fortify her frontier, but unless France ceases to be a nation of more than 30,000,000 of a very war-loving people, the fortresses will not secure peace. Will Belgium he an effectual barrier to French attacks if the French army be ready to make them, and Germany be from any cause placed in troubled circumstances? These uvq not my words; they are but the revering of the ideas of a man of the world vrho tlttnks he is the cleverest man in it. The Incorporation of Southern with Northern Germauy may now be regarded as an accomplished fact. A new Parliament has assembled, and on& of its first acts has been the teuder of the Imperial Ci'owu to the King of Prussia, by -whom .it has been accepted. Exactly 700 years h&ve elapsed since the House of Hohenzolfefn emerged from obscurity, in the person of Conrad, the first Burgrave of Nuremberg, and bis"descendant ia now at the head of -the greatest military empire iv Europe ; thus /jjrnishing ac instance of hereditary tenacity .of purpose, patience, and determiaation Wjhieh is probably unparalleled ia the history fijt mankind.— Araue.

The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Independence Beige writes: — "The Emperor Alexander has received an autograph letter from the President of the United States, General Grant, in which the chief of the Washington Executive congratulates him warmly on his resolution to have done with the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris denounced by Prince Gortschakoff, and proposes formally the support of the entire American fleet in case of conflict with England. The letter says (this is almost textual _) that at the first word of Russia the whole of the arnjy of the United States will proceed u/tbe Mediterranean and aid the Russian*' vessels in forcing the passage of the Uajpaauelles. The existence of President 0-raut's loiter has become known to lhe/Euglish Government. Since then the Cabinet of St James's begins to show itself more tractable on the substance of the question raised by the Cabinet of St. Petersburg." It is stated upon the authority of the Nciv York Standard, that 5000' children are annually murdered in that city. The government of the city — which, according to the census taken, numbers 900,000 inhabitants — is in the hands of "a pang of thieves." Its judiciary cost s £95,000, and its civil service £4,800,000 per annum. Incredible as these figures may appear, they are capable of verification. A police magistrate receives £700 per annum more than the Chief Justice of the United States, and five commissioners of public works divide one million sterling amongst them. " Their fees and pickings," observes a respectable authority, "exceed the whole yearly cost of both Houses of Congress, and are one-sixth of the pay of all the officers and soldiers of the United States army/ At the last election for the city, a number of thieves, pickpockets, and burglars — their names and convictions are given in the New York papers — were appointed "'marshals" and "superiors" to watch the ballot-boxes, while troops were poured in to overawe the voters. — Australasian. A Light Drink. — A debauchee, residing in that classic locality, Little Bourkestreer, Melbourne, at the close of a spree, drained a quart pot filled with kerosiue, mislakiug the stuff for whiskey. A stomach pump " struck " the " He," and he recovered. — Independent. " Pears to me some folks am bery peri ticler," as the darkey said when a lady in the street car declined his request to let him sit in her lap.