The Burning of Moscow.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2939, 2 July 1888, Page 3

The Burning of Moscow.

; In liia book 'VNapoleon and tlio Kussian Campaigni". ■ which is just : for English readers, Count : Tolstoi -says of. the burning of Moscow: • : >~"Tlioferooib^is '-patriotism of Rostopkhin .aml.ljjio. savngory of tho French had nothing to do with the ';. event. Thehujping of Moscow was ;.; duo to tllO RoMhVs pinpfl. In till) fiiw used in cooking food,'to tho piles of •/ wood, and to the ncgligonco of bostilo troops when life inhabitants were replaced by foreigners. It is in vain I tho Frmch-to condemn tho sidiiß of Rostoplchin, or ;he Eussiaiiß to blamotho male--3r Bonaparte' for placing the heroic hin the hands of tho people. We forced to acknowledge that i causes Jiavo no real extisb, Moscow was burned ns any i would be burned when the houses ibandoned by their legitimate ocnts, and when strangers enter and «■«« possession of tho cuisine. Wo may truthfully say that Moscow was burned by its inhabitants—not, how- .' ever, by those who remained, but by it thoso who rwent away. Moscow, when ' occupied by the enemy, did not remain like Berlin, Vienna, and oilier B tho inhabitants did " not saljy forth to greet thaFrench with bread and salt and the keys of the city —fbey preferred to abandon their bouses to the enemy."