LECTURE ON THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 217, 19 June 1872, Page 3

LECTURE ON THE FRANCO-PRUS-SIAN WAR.

Mr Lechner last night delivered his lecture on the late Franco-Prussian war, at the Academy of Music. The frightful state of the weather prevented many attending who would otherwise have done so, and consequently there was but a small audience. The Volunteer Band were in attendance, and opened the proceedings with an overture, -which it is needless to say was well executed. Major Cooper occupied the chair, and introduced the lecturer with a few remarks.

Mr Lechner, in coming forward, said that in order to thoroughly explain the origin of the late war between the two nations it would he necessary for him to go back as far as the first century of the Christian Era, and give a description of the two races, the Teutons and the Celts. Ho then proceeded to enlarge on the various wais in which the Teutons had so successfully fought against the ancient Romans, the then strongest nation in the known world, that it was with the greatest difficulty they had been conquered,and gave a resume of their history up to more modern times, describing how they had fought against the French with varying success up to the time of Napoleon 1., who had fairly beaten them, after many severe fights, finally worsting them in the battle of Jena, when he marched in triumph into Berlin, and sat upon the throne of their King. Napoleon I. then forced them to sign a treaty limiting their standing army to 42,000 men, and from this very circumstance the lecturer contended it was that the Prussian army had attained its present state of efficiency; for they then made such arrangements that, although the army never actually exceeded 42,000 men, by annually sending to their homes all efficient soldiers, and training in their room an equal number of recruits, at the time the battle of Leipsic was fought, they were enabled to bring into the field a force of 200,000 armed and thoroughly disciplined men. He then went on to describe the wonderful manner in which the German armyhad been organised of late years, *nd the perfect plans of mobilisation which had been enforced by means of which, in a few days after, the declaration of war, an army of nearly half a-million of men had been thrown forward on to the enemy’s frontier, and were kept well supplied in all the necessary munitions of war, and at the same time strong supports were in readiness to advance. He also gave a comparison as to the destructiveness of the weapons employed on both sides, showing that the superiority lay in all cases with the Germans, and he then brought this the introductory portion of the lecture to a close, saying that the Volunteer Band would play “ Der Wacht on Rhein” in the interval, and that the second portion of the lecture would consist of a description of the late War. The Band played the piece named in such an excellent manner as to elicit a unanimous encore, to which they responded. The description of the war is so well known that we will not recapitulate here ; suffice it to say that the lecturer described the various phases in a very lucid manner, from the first battle up to the actual siege of Paris.

Mr Lechner in his introductory remarks said that he must be considered as a totally disinterested individual, as ho really belonged to neither nation, being a Saxon by birth, but after hearing his lecture we must confess that he showed a very decided penchant for the German side. In fact, with him the French had “no show l ’ at all, and had he not said anything at all about being totally impartial it would have been much better. Altogether the lecture was very interesting, and was listened to attentively, though, perhaps, history was too often introduced in the course of the delivery. At the close, Mr Fitzgibbon proposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer, and made a very humorous speech, in the course of which he gave some well-kown lines relating to the battle of Waterloo, and the vote was carried by acclamation.