A WORD OF WARNING TO GERMANY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 780, 23 February 1871, Page 3

A WORD OF WARNING TO GERMANY.

(From the Times, December 22)

The Due de Fezensae. in his "Military Keminiscenses," describes his impressions ou being appointed, after long service on the Staff, to the command of a regiment, on the ere of the First Napoleon's triumphant entry into Moscow. "I was struck," lie says, " on the very first day with the exhaustion of the troops, and with the falling off iu their numbers. At the Emperor's Head-Quarters we only took note of the results, without considering the cost, and we had no idea of the real condition of the army ; but when I took the command of a regiment, I had to enter into all particulars, and then I became aware of the extent and depth of the evil. The 4th Hegiment, which mustered 2,800 strong when it crossed the Ehine, was now reduced to 900 men, and its four battalions only counted for two in the field, while each company had a double cadre of officers and non-commissioned officers. All their garments, and especially their shoes, were mostly worn out. We had still flour enough, as well as herds of cattle and flocks of sbeep, but such resources were waning fast, so that to eke them out we had to shift our qua: lers incessantly, for iu twenty-four hours the districts we crossed were utterly ravaged. What I say with respect to my own regiment applies to all them of the 3rd Corps, and more especially to the Wurtemberg Division, which was nearly destroyed. Out of an Army Corps of 25,000 men, 1 can state with certainty that there were scarcely 8000 combatants left. I noticed the absence of several officers, wounded in the late encounters ; among others,the colonels of the 46th, 72nd, and 93rd. Never had we sustained such grievous losses never, also, had these exercised so strong an influence on the morale of the army. The fine spirits of our soldiers flagged ; a sullen silence had succeeded to the gay songs and lively tales with which they were wont to while away their long marches. The officers themselves were no longer hopeful. It was only from a sense of honour and duty that they now fot

lowed their colors. This dejection, which would have been natural in a beaten army, was remarkable after a decisive action, after a victory which bad thrown the gates of Moscow open before us." We recommend tho above lines to the attention of the King of Prussia, and of his military advisers. Officers at Head-Quarters have little else than duluess to contend with, and it would be well if many of the gentlemen of the Staff who live at ease at Versailles wore, like M. de Fezensac, to take their turn in the realities of a campaign at the head of a marching regiment, instead of " the 3rd French Army Corps" in Russia, we have onlv to read " Von Der Tann's Ist Bavarian Corps" in Touraine,'dwindled down not from 25,000 to 8000, but from 30,000 to 5000 affective soldiers. The clothing of the troops under Ney or Davoast could not be in a more deplorable state than that of the soldiers under Mecklenburgor Manteuffel. The German army is no stranger to the sufferings which inclement winter inflicted on the French Army in Russia. The losses which have been reported to King William up to midDecember, 1870, already far exceed those which were announced to Napoleon before October, ISI2 ; yet up to the present date all the triumphs of Woerth, Sedan, and Orleans have not opened to the Germans the gates of the French capital. While we were still hoping that the war-clouds to which the Due de Gramont's declaration in the Legislative Body gave rise might clear off without serious consequences, we expressed our opinion that a conflict between two such nations as France and Germany was only too likely to involve the destruction of half a million human lives. The Prussian report of the killed and wounded in the present war for twelve and a half out of sixteen corps of the German army give a total of nearly 3000 officers, "and above 67,000 men, equivalent to 100,000 for the whole army; and this does not represent the losses, caused either by wounds or disease in hospital, or the consequences of prolonged hardships on the constitution of many among the soldiery. On the other hand, the French, if we may believe our correspondent from Bordeaux, have lost no less than 50,000, between killed and wounded, during the late battles on the Loire, w'thout reckoning the GOOO wounded they have left behind them in their retreat, all along the route between Orleans and Bioi*.

We are not anion" those who think that the King's victorious career might have stopped short at Sedan, for he had to deal with adversaries who would accede to no reasonable terms, and who made no intelligible proposals. M. Jules Favre and M. Thiers only told us what the)' would not consent to. " They would not give up one inch of their territory ; not one stone of their Ibrtresses; they would accept no armistice except on the condition of the revictualling of Paris." But the King of Prussia must begin to fev-1 that it is extremely doubtful whether he can effect the complete subjugation of France without the ruin of Germany. Already the symptoms, not of discouragement, but ot weariness exhibited by the French conquerors of Moscow, are discernible among the German besiegers of Paris. King William may have no calamities to apprehend, but somehow, iPs of despondency often assail us, even in the full tide of success. Nay, danger sometimes arises from the very confidence that uninterrupted prosperity is apt to inspire. If the King of Prussia would go forth from Versailles and look into his soldiers' faces, as wet and cold are wasting them almost as murderously as the enemy's shot and shell, be, who is described as a man naturally humane and sensitive, might be moved by their sufferings to consider whether what he claims as the "just prize of victory," might not be submitted to negotiation. We would not venture to suggest by what terms should be insisted upon as reasonable. AVhat i s wanted is that one of the parties should proclaim its reudmess to come to an arrangement, and the advances might proceed with the best grace from him, to whom such a step would cost the least sacrifice of pride. No matter on which side the fortune of war may hitherto have declared, weariness of the strife has already set in equally upon both the belligerents. The one of the two who thinks he has the best of the conflict can best afford to show his anxiety to put an end to it. It is for Germany to name her terms. Whether or not these terms can be made acceptable to France, it will always be something, at least, if they be such as would seem fair and equitable to the rest of the world.