MARSHAL BAZAINE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 143, 3 November 1870, Page 7

MARSHAL BAZAINE.

The Paris correspondent of the "Times," writing on the 14th August, says : — " People are disposed to tliin'v well of Bazaine. They perhaps exaggerate the importance of his Mexican experience as qualifying him to command vast armies on an extensive line of operations, but they may justly credit him with sufficient capacity to discern and avoid the errors of his predecessor. The more the facts and details of the three unfortunate engagements become known the stronger grows the convictions that, with better generalship, the campaign so badly begun may yet have a successful and glorious termination. The heroism of the French troops may not always be rendered unavailing by the weight of immensely superior numbers. More caution will be shown in future. 'Marshal Bazaine,' says a recent letter from Metz, 'is a man to be depended unsn. He knows the Prussian tactics^Sthat they do not venture into the plain ; that their system of scouts is perfect; that they lie in ambush in our forests, of which the smallest paths are as familiar to them as to the goatherds and woodcutters of the Department, for they have beeu studying our map for the last 20 years ; he knows that they proceed by enormous concentrations, and he will act in consequence. He is able to repair b) r a single blow the faults committed, and the army is convinced that he will do it.' This is the language one hears in many mouths. It seems imposible to the French, now that they are recovering from the first panic (for such it really was), that they should be finally beaten, even by superior strategy of the Prussians, and the hope is that Bazaine will prove a match for them in this respect."

The sequel has in a great measure justified these expectations, for although Bazaine has not succeeded in escaping from Metz, he has held his own with the Prussians, and according to all accounts has inflicted very heavy losses upon them. His appointment to the chief command was not, however, viewed with such satisfaction in Austria as in France. A Viena correspondent says : — " The nomiation of Bazaine to the chief command is particulary distasteful to the Court party here, where his name is actually odious, from the part he played in Mexico with reference to the Emperor Maximilian, and the infamous character which all Maximilian's followers gave to the Marshall and his conduct in the Mexican war."

The Patrie tells the following story, for the accuracy of which it vouches, regarding the Marshal and his wife : — "Some days ago Marshal Bazaine had gathered together at his dinner table at Mets the members of his family, of whom several are in the army. They were waited upon by a servant of remarkably good appearance and manner ; so good, indeed, that the Marshal's wife was struck with it, and expressed her astonishment on leaving the table. The Marshal at first laughed at his wife's remarks, assuring her that the

servant was not a grand seigneur in disguise, but a valet de chanibre. Nevertheless, as a woman is always cleverer than the cleverest man, the Marshal's wife insisted so strongly, that the handsome looking servant was arrested. He turned out to be«a Prussian officer."