LOSS OF LIFE IN THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 809, 4 May 1871, Page 3

LOSS OF LIFE IN THE FRAN-CO-PRUSSIAN WAR.

Few persona are aware of the enormous sacrifice of human life in the recent European war. The Philadelphia " Telegraph " estimates that up to the Ist of January, 11,160 French officers and 333,385 men wero held as prisoners of war in Germany. In the twenty-nine battles and sieges previous to the fall of Paris, it is estimated that the Gernmis captured in all 396,810 officers and soldiers, not including such as were wounded. The killed and wounded are set down as follow: In the battle and retreat from Weissenburg to the Moselle 30,000 In the battles around Metz... 25,000 'ln the siege of Metz 15,000 In the battles around Sedan... 40,000 In the battles around Orleans 10,000 In the battles around Amiens 6,000 In the battles around Belfort 10,000 In the battles around Paris... 10,000 In the different sieges ... 10,000 Total 156,000 Estimating the prisoners at 390,000, not including the nominal prisoners taken at the capture of Paris, and the killed, at 156,000, we have 546,000 men who make up the sum total of French losses for all purposes of defence. The total estimate places the German lossos at 150,000 men. The German prisoners are not enumerated, but they bear no comparison to the number of French prisoners. Adding together the total losses, the result shows 300,000 killed, and we may suppose, without exaggeration, that 200,000 more have died from exposure, accident, and disease resulting directly from war. Half a million lives havo been stricken out of existence during the few brief months since the war commenced ; and were it to be continued, the decimation of human lifo would probably be as frightful ior months to come.

"A singular instance, writes the Ger. long Advertiser,' has been mentioned to us of tho changes of fortune which sometimes occur in this Colony. A few years ago there was an industrious woman on a diggings not a hundred miles from Ararat, who made her living by washing fur the diggers. Sometimes they paid in money and sometimes in scrip, and sometimes accepting a good hint from her clients, she invested in shares from time to time, and these investments have turned out so successfully that she now keeps her carriage, and with a pair of prancing horses drives through tho pleasant streets of the pretty township in which she has made her fortune." Why are ladies the biggest thieves in the world 1 Because they steel petticoats, bone stays, and crib babies. Why is a married man like a candle 1 Because he sometimes goes out at night when he ought not to.