The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-01-28 00:00:00

THE WAR.

Disaster upon disaster fall upon the unhappy
but still valiant french; we lind "horror on
horror's head accumulate ;'' and those whose
sympathies are with the French, and who have
been throughout this war, or even since the me-
morable calltulatiou of Sedan, been hoping for
their success, must experience the truth of the
sacred axiom that hope deferred maketh the
;mart sick. Let us glance at a few recent events
mid accept their inevitable conclusion. The
micron, desperately fighting, but sadly unfortu•
imte Army of the North, under General Faid-
heihe, has been severely beaten, with a loss oh

. , .
.mtout 15,000 men in killed, u °untied, and pi,-
mar, A German telegram from Versailles says,
" General YOH tioeben announces that on tbe
evening of the 12th the railway station at St.
Quentin was strained by our troops; afterwards
imie town was occupied, where 2,000 of the ene-
my's wounded were found. Besides these the
number of unwounded prisoners who have fallen
alto our hands have increased to 10,000 men ;
six guns were also captured. Everywhere time
enemy is showing signs of the greatest disorder."
other telegrams, hum French sources, speak of
General Faidherbe's army being in full retreat;
of his losses being considerable ; of St. Quentin
being bombarded ; and of great consternation
pre% ailing. One French telegram, dated from
Lille immediately after this disastrous defeat,
says, " There is great agitation here; the rail-
way station is crowded with women and children
weeping, and seeking to leave for Belgium. The
sight is most heartrending." Although the
Germans did not gain this victory without severe
loss, that loss was very small compared to that
of the French.

3 he army of the Loire under General Chanzy
had been previously defeated and routed with
terrible loss. M. Gambetta subsequently an-
nounced at Boulogne that that General "has
reorganised his army, and is marching forward,"
but there is too much reason to fear that this is
irie of the many illusions from which France
0,15 suffered so much, and the 'hilly Norx' Bor.
,icaux correspondent says that "the reinforce-
ments recently sent to General Chanzy have
weakened rather than strengthened him."
Hopes for the success of the French in res-
pect to the movements of General Bourbaki—
hopes which at one time were bright and cheer-
ing— have also been shattered. It was announced
hat the General, at the head of an army of
auore than 100,000 men, was marching to cut the
,1 German lines of communication, and to raise the
siege of the fortress of Belfort. But Germans
met French, and though the former at first suf-
fered severely, the French were defeated and
fled before their victorious foes.

Thus the Armies of the North, of the Loire,
and of the East have been successively defeated,
and all hope of relief for Paris was consequently
destroyed. And meanwhile the position of the
beleaguered French capital was becoming daily
and hourly worse. Her food supply had been
so seriously diminished even with every possible
economy, that numbers of the Pariaians are now
in a half-starved condition, while every attempt
to break through the German lines had been re.
pulsed with terrible loss. The sortie of the 19th
was undoubtedly a sad affair for the French.
General Trochu himself, who commanded it,
says that the day did not terminate as he could
; that at three p.m, their infantry began to
give way. " When night came ou," he adds,
" we were able to resume the offensive, but the
enemy's fire continued with great violence, and
We had to kayo the heights. The fighting was
saaauinary, and 1 have ordered General Schmitz
to ask for an armistice of 4H hours." The Ger-
m or account says that "tire sortie was faintly
carried out, and was repulsed with great lose to
the French, 500 prisoners falling into our
hands ;" and it is added that, though the armis-
tice was refused, a "local truce" was granted to
render assistance in collecting the French
wounded.