The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-11-12 00:00:00

INSIDE METZ.

The following interesting details are from the Special
Correspondent of The l'iones, under date, Adele,
Oct. It":—
Tire Incessant rain, which has never ceased since the lint
French soldier marched out of Mete ma Saturday, has doubt-
less retarded the work of provisioning the town, and has
added very considerably to the miseries of the prisoners,
who are either encamped on the Hooded fields or marching
along the nmddy roads. Yesterday being Sunday, and the
first day of the capitulation, the town wore a thoroughly
aubdued aspect. Yew of the shop. were open, and the
crowd. which thronged the streets were composed almost
entirely of military. To-day it prments a very dament ap-
pearance. Moat of the shops are open, and the towaspeople
are an out in search of provisions the streets are blocked
with country carts full of eggs, cheese, and vegetables;
the mmket-plase, which yesterday contained nothing but a
heap of horse's heade, which had been a'ready partially
picked by dogs, is now teeming with life, and women with
baskets and umbrellas were to thickly packed that IL was
difficult to move among them. I asked some of them
whether they had really been reduced to great straights,
mid I received as as. iuvariable answer that the potpie had
as much as they wanted of the uecesaarles of life, though
they were deprived of umuy of it. luxuries.
Prices had risen so much at to produce some misery
among the,poorest class, but as one buxom lass upon whom
flambe had left no trace whatever remarked, .1f the defence
of Mete had been left to the women It would not have sur-
rendered for a long time." "Look," she said, .at my
cheek.. IF, I look as if I had been starved?" and then she
launched forth to the usual torrent of execration with w inch
the name of Bamine is always coupled. Vilterever I went 1
heard the same story In some form or other. Among the
commoner people the most extravagant reasons are advauced
to account for his suppoked treachery; moue the better
elms a meddled version is given of the sam eid ea, Whether the
cormideration la pecuniary, or whether he was the instill-
ment of a dynastic intrigue, seems to be undecided but
from the very first neither the army which he ;nal-
mended nor the population of Mete seems to have had the
elighteat confidence In biro—indeed, he was so unpopular
with the inhabitants that during the whole period of the
siege he is said never once to have colored the lortrese, and
his life was hi such danger at last that he left his army
secretly the day before the capitulatim was known, for fear
of the personal cooseimences which the publicity of that
dis.ter would entail upon himself. As it was, he was
recoguired as he passed through the video of Are, and
pelted with mud by the pati bile women of that locality.
I was positively informed by the man to whose father's
house Lebient lived during the siege that he had a dairy
and op hltry yard to the very end, and that he. IlJealue,
and the aupertor officere lived in 111.117 to the last. They
paid exorldtant prices for the delicacies of the table, but
alwai a succeeded 'a procuring them, alit I was indignantly
&mum* by • veracious citizeu that only a week before the
eKpitultatien a friend of ii. had sold liazaine a pale de/,riu
pros for WOE
- - -

'the total amount spent by the army in the city was estl-
meted at one handled and twenty million of francs The
debauchery and ext aaaaaa nce of the officers were much
dwelt upon by the townspeople, who, though nut more
particularly straitlaced in certain respects then French
people are generally, were utterly ecsndalized by the
dagrant immorality of their defenders, who seem to
have preferred miles and the society of the demi-
monde to duty in the trenches, and who to the last
denied themselves no enjoyment or luxury which
money could purchase or the town ad ad. Hither-
to public indignation in France has been almost ex-
clusively directed ton few generale who are supposed to
yeas bt en the Emperor's tools, and to have fattened upon
ilitS°l duties;e' ts of their
s position,
tohner;reogr= t
of their
of Mete
whethed the best opportunity of judging, this demoralise,
don erne by no means confined to the higher ranks. Doubt.
lase It Milieu there : but the taint sr... extended beyond the
aild the vices which had become [milkmaid' hi
the Conn giere so n imitated in the camp.

-
It is possible that tkizalue may bathe traitor he Is accused
of being; built seems to me more likely that Ile and ull his
officers, as noon as they began to run short if truffles,
.thel found that their female friends got bored with the
monotony of the siege, determined to bring it ton close. It
Is imposinble to suppose that the army could not have cut
lts way out ht.i it been lu earnest, or that Parable could
have induced 50 genera and 6000 officers to become par-
ties to the most unparalleled military humiliation of all time,
if thote office., end that army bad not become dead to the
set soot honour and patriotic feeling, which would have
reudered such a capitulation intolerable, and completely de-
bauched WM enervated by the vices with which for the last
nal( century Paris, the Mecca of Civilaation," has been
drenching Europe. Judged by these last results, the down-
fall of the Empire and the collapse of Its military glory are
no longer a mystery. Let us hope, so far as riglai.el is con-
cerned, they may ben warning.
When we compare our Ideas of sieges as gathered from the
record. of the past, and remember how our forefathers could
reduce starvation until they were reduced to the most revolt-
ing expedients rather than yield, we are tempted to ask
where the 111,0 15 which divides moral d, gene racy from modern
civiliz Won, and whether, after all, ft be not batter to remain
.• a notde savage' thou to become 'a " A very fat
poodle, who had successfully underacte the horrors of the
si.ge, waddled towards meant thus soliloquized Ile, poor
Scant, was, at all events, a gather by having heel, born in the
nineteenth century.

In making these sweeping allegations against the military
my informants were always careful to make exceptions,
especially in ttie case of three generals, who they affirmed
arranged sachem's by which it was proposed to shoot liszslne,
imprison Lebtruf and Colnolf2re, and take command of the
armies; but this patriotic conspiracy in some way fell
thraugh. flue general, however, and many officers succeeded
in escaping from Mete on Friday night, alter the terms of
the capitulation had become known.

It is remarkable that although we in Nancy knew the
cepitulation was a fait aceortyli on Thur,ilay ,it had neon
dually arranged two days before 6 the population had not the
smalleot conception that such an event was impend b.g early
on Friday mougng. When it was proclaimed, about midday,
so great was tEI indignation that they with one accord rushed
to the Cathed,l, in order to sound the tocsin and give the
alarm, but they found the door, shut and guarded by
military. Some more hardy spirits succeeded, ntvertheless,
In climbing up outside the building, but it was too late.
The hie) or appearekon the balcony of the lintel de Ville, and
told an excited crowd that they could do nothing, that they
had bean sold to the enemy by the men who ought to have de-
(rode I them,that the capitulation had been kept a profound
aecret to the !alit from the municipal anthorities, who would
never have consented to it, hut that nothing was now left
hut submission. The moll, however, were not to he so
easily appeased, stud went in search of General CoMniere,
Commandant del. Place, who seems to have been acting In
collusion with Bimini, throughout. Ile, fearing their ven-
geance. had too well protected Monett wish guards to be
reached, so they seized upon and ill-treated another general
Instead, and covered General Fabert's statue with black crape.
No doubt the exasperation of the peptises against the
military authorities is increased by the fact that Metz is an
Intensely Republican town, and listable would never allow
the Republic to be proclaimed I met one very singular
pence, who seemed to be entirely consoled by the idea that
as hatable hal never acknowledged the Reptiblie his
capitulation was the act of a private individual, and in no
way binding upnn the Provisional Government, by whom it
will not be recognized This is a technical view of the case,
which applies to the very a:Wein° of that Government
itself, and must yield to the inexorable logic of fact.; but
it seemed in some mysterious way entirely to satisfy my
Frenchman that the honour of Meta wadi saved. Another
leas philosophic Individual announced his Intention of
emigrating Immediately to America with his family, rather
than either remain • Frenchman after what hod happened,
or become • German subject....

A very curious incident occurred to-day. When Mr. Bushman,
one of the member, of the National tWelety," was haring oue
of hit weggons unloaded, the people seeing that the bogs con-
tained malt, suadenly rushed for ward and tore open a beg,
when thousands collected to try and get even as much as a
thimbleful to take away with them, and ft was with the
greatest difficulty that Mr. Bushnan eventually managed to
get the remaining I,egs safely away in the More which the
Society have started hire. I have no doubt, however. in a
few days, when the people get settled down, that thing i
will go on as before and that there will he a goodly supply
of eveffi thing, as the market. seem daily tilled with all
kinds of food, and now at moderate prices.