THE EARLY WARS OF FRANCE AND PRUSSIA.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 773, 7 February 1871, Page 3

THE EARLY WARS OF FRANCE AND PRUSSIA.

"AVhat a war," exclaimed one of Jfapoleon's marshals in the Prussian campaign of 1814 ; "it will make an end of ub all." For the battles between the French and Prussians have been amongst the most bloody in history, and deserve at this juncture to be recalled. Before the first Napoleon appeared on the scene the Prussian soldier withstood with success the rush of his fiery antagonist as Malplaquet, Bossbach, and Crefeld bear witness. And in the earlier campaigns of the present century, when the genius of the Corsican overpowered all, until, like the Spartans, he taught his enemies how to fight, the Prussians were the first to learn. Jena was, perhaps, the most decisive of Napoleon's victories. The combatants numbered —the French 90,000, and the Prussians 70,000, and 34,000 dead and wounded lay on the field at the close of the day. On the same black day for the Prussian army, that brilliant tactician, Marshall Davoust, with a single division not exceeding 27,000 mer, totally routed the Duke of Brunswick and near 70,000 troops. But at Lutzen, though Napoleon achieved a victory, he left 12,000 men on the field to his opponents' 14,000. At Bautzen again, though he brought 140,000 in the field, against 90,000 Prussians and Russians, he fought for two days before he could drive them from their position, and was left to cry at the end, " No guns, no prisoners, no results from such a butchery !" Dresden and Leipsic were fought by three allies against France; but at the Katzbach, previously, Blucher had totally routed, with equal forces, the French troops underMarshalM'Donald. In 1814, at the successive battles of Montmirail, Champaubert, and Vauchamps, Napoleon defeated the superior forces of Blucher. At Laon, in 1814, Blucher defeated Napoleon, the allies numbering 104,000, the French 52,000. At Ligny, in 1815, Napoleon defeated the Prussians under Blucher; the French Lumbered 73,000, the Prussians 84,000 —all of these being terribly contested actions. How the French could have underrated foes who had always pressed them so closely must ever remain a mystery. A Prussian proverb describes a Frenchman as a being with a moustache, and without any knowledge of geography. But the Frenchman who anticipated a " military promenade to the Rhine" must have forgotten history.