NOTES OF THE WAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 166, 13 April 1871, Page 6

NOTES OF THE WAR.

The following extracts are from the letters of " The Times " special correspondents ": —

A certain sensatiou has been produced, I am told in England by tbe statement that Prussian officers discuss the question of an invasion of the British Islands as a possible operation. Captain Hozier, however, will doubtless inform his Government that it is a common practice for officers of the Prussian army, as a part of their military education, to devise plans of campaign in all accessible countries — that they project a campaign in Russia, or in Turkey, on the Danube, on the Po, or in Spain with professional interest. It would not be surprising if a campaign in England and the way of opening it came within the scope of their interesting problems.

Bombardment with men, like skinning with eels, is, I suppose; " nothing when you're used to it," for tbe officer who was taking us over the fort was coolness itself. Before we had gone many yards the usual unmistakeable whizz told us that a shell had just left the Prussian batteries, aud I looked eagerly to see what tho officer was going to do, and whether by dodging round a pallisade or rushing into a casement I could save myself and my clotbes tho undignified ceremony of prostratiun upon the stomach. He did not, however, look up. His practised ear had told him that the shell was not coming in our direction. It was a pleasure to find oneself with so experienced a guide, but unluckily the pleasure was short-lived. A. sailor came running after us to say that our patient was ready waiting for us, so we were obliged to turn back.

I have a bit of news which may be grateful to the augus of the Bonapartist party— if there is such a party stiil. An eagle of Imperial dimensions, not a black eagle like the Prussian bird, nor oue with two nocks like that of Austria, but a typical French eagle, is at this moment hovering over these headquarters. Behind and around the chateau in which Prince George and his Staff reside is an extensive wood, full of pheasants, hares, and other game. Within the last two or three days this noble-looking eagle has appeared in the covens. Whence he has come we know not ; but hero he is, taking majestic Sights into the clouds, and then swooping down and making tho circuit of Lo Vert Galant. He keeps rather above gun range, but occasionally he alights on a tree. There are many eyes upon him, and I think ho will before long figure as a stuffed .specimen in the ornithological collection at Dresden.

[ saw an old peasant woman iv a field, upon which we could see the shells every now and then drop, trudging along as composedly as if they had been fireworks. She was a Bretonne, we thought, from her appearance and accent; and as she passed she remarked, " Ca tombe forme" but did not coudescend to quicken her pace. Another lady ; , the mistress of a wiueshop, was quite indignant when I ventured to hint my surprise at her having stopped in so perilous a position. "Did I think she was afraid of the shells ?" Of course I said " No," aud with good reason, for if she had been afraid she certainly would not have been there. A huge hole in the wall opposite was a tolerably plain indication of what she might at any moment expect, and a shell would have knocked her own small house pretty nearly to pieces, making sad havoc among the glasses she was filling for a party of Mobiles engaged in giving an animated version of a recent reconnaissance to the Plateau d'Avron, of which we had just heard from another party an entirely different version.

At present Paris suffers much more from want of fuel than from want of food. Bread is good and wholesome, though not white, and is not allowanced,* and there are still plenty of horses to eat ; but wood, even green wood, if scarcely to be had. Coals belong to an extinct period, and are not to be thought of. Government is cutting down wood at Vincennes aud the Bois de Boulogne very fast, but too late. There has been a great want of forethought in tin's matter, for cold weather was certainly expected in January. The fuel which has been wasted in casting guns (which were not wanted find will never come into use for th defence of Paris), in order to satisfy the vanity of patriotic subscribers to this voluntary artillery, in sorely wanted now to cook our food and warm our chilled limbs. As to food, from all T can gather from competent authorities, we have horsefisb, bread and wine up to the end of the first week in February ; and we may go on till the Ist of March if we eat up the horses of the cavalry and artillery, and make bread out of the oats which should have fed them. 'Phis calculation makes no allowance for the reserve of food which will be required after the gates are open, and before Paris can be revictualled.

The following extracts are from a letter written on Christmas Eve by a lady who, with her family, was shutuu

in Paris: — "As to food, it is daily shrinking from every one. We were rationed in rice about the 15th — sd. worth for three — to last three days ; the variety, three herrings or some stock fish. . . . It is now so long since I tasted animal food that I forget the date. You will imagine that I cannot avail myself of the loathsome substitutes which are now quite common, and this fact of itself shows to what a pass this city is brought, though all is done to put a good face on it to the enemy, and rightly ; but the suffering is great, and I see many proofs of it. I have still that something called milk, which helps me to swallow my morning cafe. With this I have half a ship biscuit, steeped in water first, and with it some grains of salt Breton butter. Many days this lasts me till 4 p.m., when I dine. If I feel unusually weak I take, in the interval, a cup of chocolate with gruel. For a dinner, sometimes very weak vegetable broth, a sort of julienne; but vegetables are not exceedingly scarce. Tou may buy one leek dear, and the two servants eat mangoldwurzel as salad. Sometimes, as to-day, we have a wonderful find — pea soup ; sometimes tapioca bouillon ; then, occasionally a dish of mushrooms, and these fungi have served us in good stead ; they make quite a meal, well stewed. T^hen a pudding (usually a wolld pudding) with sweetmeats, very small, for grease of any eatable kind is a great luxuay. You see, if it is little it is often, and somehow I keep up pretty firm. The servants might have chocolate, but prefer a bread soup with wine ; and, above all, salad contents* Marie, though it be made of mangoldwurzel. Then we have a small quantity of preserved vegetables iv reserve for treats, such a3 asparagus, in tin boxes. But as to potatoes, they have long disappeared. One day lately one of the servants found five or six very small ones in the bottom of a closet. It was an event."

The woman in whose house I am quartered entered into a long history of her misery before I had been five minutes in the smoky little room which she provided, but on hearing that lam an Englishman and ready to pay for anything, she provided from her stores everything that hungry people could wish to have. When, later, soldiers came thundering at the door seeking lodgings for the night, because the place is oi-ammed wiili troops, she took me confidently into a room supposed to be sacred to an old aunt, and behold a store-room, the floor strewed with delicious apples. The stable-keeper, in whose shed my horses were, said that he could not get a sack of oats for lOOf. A Prussian officer came in, insisted on examining the lofts above, and the result is that my horses have hay and oats enough for several days. It is the same in every town we pass through. The people complain of their wretched destitution, and when: search is made turn out to be provisioned for the winter. The requisition system of the Prussians is, lam sure, a mistake. They could get anything by paying for it, and would not then cause such undying hatred among the French people. My landlady is a staunch Republican, and replied, when I asked her, " Why does not M. Gambetta make peace?" " Monsieur, M. Gambetta cannot make peace without the permission of the French Republic." When the sound of many German batteries at her door was heard I think she looked upon the peace question in another light.