WAR NOTES.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 761, 10 January 1871, Page 2

WAR NOTES.

The "Times" correspondent at Tours write:— " General Bourbaki prefers the command of the Army of the North—that is to say, of all the forces scattered hetween Normandy and the Belgian frontier—to that, of, the centra! anny. ;'ri It is reported that he has had soine disagreement. with the Tours Government, whose measures he did not in all .respects approve,, and that ho expressed his sentiments with considerable bluhtness, as might be expected,' perhaps, from the char- 1 acter of the former' Colonel of Turcos. The Government, however, could not afford to quarrel : with' mm' and it may' bo presumed to have 'pocketed 1 the affront, if affront there really was, ahd to have consented tb any arrangement he chose, tq make hi the way of distribution of commands. general d'.Aurolles, the .present.commtvnder of the army operating'against the Prussians between Tours,and Orleaus, ,is thought by Bourbaki to be the right man m the right place; and the late chief of tho .ImperialjGuacd will not supplant' Mm, but will soon leave, it is expected,- for Lille. • Perhaps he'is, not sorry io get away from the vicinity of the Tours Government."

Tito " Times " correspondent with the Gorman army before,Paris,.says: —"lam, tolu that a complete underground electric telegraph waa discoveredin one of the; collars at Moudon. Underground passages too have been discovered leading from the interior of Paris into the open." The days and doings of Mrs Baddiffe's heroes, and of the persons of the Castle of Otranto and of the Old English Baron, are re-

in strangdius'ea and associatiftris. .'days, fno [ttpoonscipua,,', were, sending uiepsages jwhioh jtjffte 'tipped' by to nftgreat use, as they Vwere generally in-cipher. There have b'cjen, successful fishings iu the Seine for telegraph wires. Borne codes of signals have also been discovered." It is stated that within a fortnight . 100,000 stand of arms reached the French from America: ~., Jsj,sma 4 rck, is reported to that " it: ia easier to bombard th*e/ .. stomachs of tho Parisians than thd I walla." The (xauloia states that; since;,the investment of the city a large number of Cbassepola hare been manufactured of aluminium in Paris. Herr 'Wickede, in a letter to the 1 Cologne '' Gazette," says :-,-" The whole region round Paris has' become an immense camp of 250,000 men. In the immediate neighborhood of Versailles one first remarked old women sitting before the houses, orsaw iirthy street a small group of children 'at play. I was two whole days travelling without seeing a singlel'emale form, a child, a domestic animal not belonging to the army, or a man without 5 a uniform, or who did not belong to the troops. And this in one of the most , populous, active, and affluent districts f in all Europe!" A writer in the " Wiener Presse " says : —" I can assure you that the sanitary condition, of the German army is very bad, and is becoming daily more and more deplorable, and I have had ainple proofs of this at the different places where . I was obliged to halt on account' of the passage on the military,convoy's.' There is a tremendous amount of dysentery and'' typhus amongst the men, . and an, enormous number of them have succumbed to fatigue, and are suffering most acutely from rheumatism." The Parisians'declare that S.t, ; Cloud was set on fire to show the Germany , that no consideration will be allowed to interfere with the defence of the capital. The town theatre ; of Magdeburg gave an original representation the other evening for the benefit of the troops now garrisoned with the beleaguering army before Paris. No actual cash'was paid for the seats, but tickets were purchased with cigars; thus, a place hi'the front rOw of the boxes- cost 25 cigars, the second row 12 cigars, and the third six, and so on, the gallery being only estimated at three cigars. •'

The 61st Pomenarian (Prussian) [Regiment has , a private only nine years of age. ' He is fully equipped, with the exception of a needle-gun, which he is unable to carry. AV r ith reference to the Bourbaki mystery a correspondent of the " Times," writing from Wilhelmshohe, says : —" The Emperor told me that the story of General Bourbaki's, having been requested to conduct; * the Prince Imperial to Metz, there to be proclaimed Emperor under the ;: title of Napoleon IV., is a mere invention from beginning to end; and he further declared his conviction that the person who was instrumental in bringing General Bourbaki from Metz was a Prussian agent, who employed an ingenious pretext to see what-was the real condition; •of affairs within the fortress." • ■ ■ , •■ . General Von .Blumenthal, chief of the Crown Prince of Prussia's staff, is described as " a short "man, nearer 60 than 50, with a bright, kindly eye,, a friendly voice, and geutle mien." . A letter from Alsace in the " Allgemeine Zeitung," expresses a fear that the communications of the German troops between that Province and Paris will be increasingly exposed, as time goes on, to attacks by bodies of" Francs-Tireurs, especially in the. vicinity of Nancy, where there are many woods. ■ •

The Berlin manufacturers are busily employed in providing winter garments for the troops. Large numbers of woollen shirts are continually being made, as well as caps, furs and clothes of all kinds. Late telegrams informedus that ! t!he Prussian forces before > Paris had been greatly hampered in constructing their field ivorks by the accuracy of the fire from the Prench forts.B Wer learn from the English papers that a large share of the credit given to the fPrench artillerists on this score is due to a gunner named Christian, a native of Alsace, who is described as having pointed the s;uns with "extraordinary accuracy." The flat contradiction given by Bismarck to Dr Russell's account of the interview between King William, and Napoleon was subsequently smoothed over by an. explanation in.a> German organ. Commenting on this explanation, the ">Time ; s" says ( ur (r owfl opinion is that in Count Bismarck's note we have only an instance, of, the tendency of public men to give off hand denials of anything that is inconvenient. In our own House of Commons it, often..happens that aimember will coolly write to deny having said something which the independent,, sq. ports of half-a-dozen papers describe him to have said, and will of having been " misrepresented." Under the new regulations.,in..the Prench army of the north, all superiors, from a corporal .upwards, have abs6luto power of life and death over their inferiors, and may shoot them down there and then for the slightest word or sound. . . . . . ; . ~ General Trochu, in a recent"'letter','' says :—" The sad events which have, befallen the army of the Rhine shoflr that no infantry, however firm, can

with safety engage the Prussian army unless it is accdmpanied Vby artillery proportioned . po tljiat, of the, enemy; and 'it'is ; tb ! the formation" of this artillery that.l am devoting all my care," , Garibalcifs'couiuiahd'is not quite so extensive as at l first' reported. 'He is not placed at the head of "all" the irregulars ; in France, but only of those in the; t'lregion of theVosges" (rather; a vague definition), and of a brigade of Mobiles. ;■ r- j|; :• .: / A number of Bavarians, who were takenprisoners in a sortie from Paris,' are said to have declared that the Prussians treated them so unfairly, always imposing upon them the hardest work and thrusting thuin' in to the hottest part-of the battle, that they were by no means sorry' to be made prisoners. 'A corps of Amazons, to be paid by the State,, and armed' with a' light musketj is in process of formation' in Paris. Women of all classes seek to bo enrolled in the corps, which is, horribile dicfu, to wear trowsers, and a sort-of • uniform. They are' to fight on the ramparts, and also to give the first care to the wounded.