The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-22 00:00:00

THE SPIRIT OF THE EPUSSLIS TROOPS.

liver Wickede writes in the Co fry. Gazette A high
Priest. General recently told me teat he had begged the
King of Prussia at Commercy to grant him a squadron of
cavalry for service In the chief town of his Government. The
King laughing 4 replied, ' My dear General, you must apply
there,' pointing to Moltke, •he alone disposes of all our
troops, and I ought to be glad if he only loaves me my body
guard.' This answer, I think, is equally honourable for both
—for our King, In that he recognise. Moltke'. strategic
genius eo Joyluily and willingly defers to him, for the latter
in that he publicly receives such • recognition of his worth
out of the mouth of his King and master. The genuine
military spirits of all the Prussian troops is astonishing. A
few days ago I was with Prussian ~dicers of all kinds, two
belonging to the Line and nice to the Lantiwehr. The
various provinces of Pamela were represented. Two were
scions of the strict Catholic and exclusive Weetphalian
nobility, other merchants and young lawyers from Berlin,
farmers from Pomerania. a manufacturer from Schleswig,
an architect from Cologne, ticc. All thew men are no dif-
ferent in their social habits, their political and religious
views, their friendship, and inclinations, that in time
of peace they certainly would not come much in con-
tact, and would regard each other with Indifference and
occasionally with animosity. hut all these differences dis-
appear as soon as they have donned the officer's uniform,
and are under arms as the King of Pruseia's officers.
Their only thought then 1. 01 doing honour to their position,
and they are impressed by the most thorouxh v,prit de
ail',. Their common wish Is to fight for the honour of the
Prueslau flag, to conquer, and, if It is God's will cheerfully
to die, and this animates them all In equal measure.
Among the Landwehr, the very men who at home over their
beer and in popular aesemblies loudly apt laud the commu-
nistic and democratic orators, are now, when they wear the
uniform, obedient soldiers, showing the greatest respect to
the youngest officers, and bewaring of the slightest insubordi-
nation,"

CANNONADING BOCGIVAL AND MALMAISON.
The Stasis Anzeiger describes the cannonading on the
7th by Mont Valence of the intrenchments at Bougival and
almalson. The latter is where the first Napoleon ran the
risk of being captured by lilucher in ISIS. The earthworks
erected there for the investment of the fort had been com-
pleted, and had become embarrassing to the garrison_
When the bombardment began the German outposts were
drawn hackywnereupon the French, taking this fora retreat,
made a sortie, which, however, only resulted in a very par-
tial destruction of the stone wall belonging to the enceinte.
The cannonade on Gingival failed to destroy a Germany ob-
servatory, and only accomplished the burning of two soon.
try houses. The German officers kept to the defensive,
which is prescribed to them at present as a principle of the
Investment operations, and is only deviated from when the
enemy makes an aggressive onslaught. The system pursued
Is that of sparing their own people, tiring out the enemy,
making communication with the outside world impossible,
acid thus gradually causing an inevitable famine. When,
however, the French make a sortie they are vigorously
repulsed.

1 E
_BALLOON TRADE I PROV IN..

- --
The Journal Officiel of the 4111 inst. says (fa the lerd
inst. flee balloons (halloos moot.he), In the service of the
French Post Office, left various places in Paris, carrying up-
wards of 100 kilogrammes of despatches. Not one of these
up till now haa ems down within the Prussian Ilnr .. The
balloons employed were all the old ones exist', e; In Perli, and
In order Co he used they had to undergo the necessal.i re-
pair,. They belonged to the l'ost °lnce which had bought
them In the meanwhile new balloons are being made both
for the Post Office and for the Telegraphic Department.
Orders to construct five of them with a cubic area of 2,000
metres have been given to M. Euahne Godard, who will hand
them over shortly. lae first well be ready to be sent off on
the Bth inst. New orders will be given when necessary.
There Is no want of seem:lent.. They have come forward In
large numbers. Messrs. Darned, klaugin, Jules Godard,
Gaston, and Albert Tiessandier have already left. The others
await their turn with impatience. A school for aeronauts Is
being organised, which promises to supply men who may
he railed on."

WASHING THEIR HANDS OF THE BONAPARTES.
A letter from Corbel] In the Cologne (lazelle remarks on
the chaos of opinions and hopes which prevails Montt the
provincial population In France. Those who have suffered
moot heavily through the requisition. and demards of the
German troops manifest a single feeling, which is cusun,m
to all—hatred of Paris ami the Parisians. In the districts
occupied by the Invaders dealres for peace are everywhere
expressed, every Chauvinistic feeling of former times Is re-
pudiated, and the whole blame is cast on Napoleon, the
betrayer of the country, and the Parislane, "who wished for
the war, and now unnecessarily prolong it, without caring for
the miller-tugs of the provinces." TMs, however, indicates no
decentralizing movement, for at the same time people expect
deliverance solely from Paris, a:A persons otherwise intelli-
gent are convinced that the Gerrnau armies will find their
before it. In their attributing the whole fault to the
Emperor, the French do not show their boasted maguaril•
mity and chivalry. The peasantry even, to say nothing of
the towns, wash their hands of Bonapartism. N opoleon and
his family have nothing more to expect from the present
generation in France. The troubled sea of public opinion
Insists on having its victim, and this victim is at present
Napoleon 111, and the Empire Not that the French pro.
locials have a special preference for Republicanism
au general, WM the Republican rnlers at Parts and
Tours in particular ; far from it. An Intelligent
Frenchman said to me with a deep sigh " Believe
me, the Republic can only serve es a transitional
stage. We have Republican idea, and word., indeed ;
but we have nothing, alas ! but monarchical manners and
traditions." tie was certainly right. All France, with the
exception of the large town,, is lull of monarchical reminis-
cence., which have so little force only because there Is no
item central point. Politicelly, the French hare no moral
courage. The noisy minority will always frighten the timid
majority and lead them like all eck of sheep. 111., there-
fore, mere than probable that for some time after the end
of the W. Republicanism will retain the upper hand,
only, however, for a time. The election of the Due
d'Aiunale to the Constituent Assembly is not ouly certain
but people already begin to see in him the future Preaideot
of a French Republic, which would scarcely lie anything
else titan the culanencenient of is Constitutional Monarchy
nudes. the 'glean, dynasity. The peasants are longing for
peace, they know they have mOOl to suffer, that :44 yeses and more will be required to recovea their losses, and, as
things are now going on, i he heroism of which Paris and the
large towns boast I, wanting to then:. But though repre-
senting the niejority of the cmintry, th.lr opinion Is of little
account in a buiii of wavers ii suffrage, and they therefore
resign themselves to their powerlessness, curse the Parisians,
who have always brought every evil on them," and try as
well as they can to conceal their supplies, until a malicious
accident brings the requisitioning troops on the track, and
make the poor still poorer.

Lo,KING AT THE BATTLE•I'IITI RES.
Letters from Versailles in the German papers stnte that on
the 10th the King of Preside visited the picture gain:llea, the
Crown Prince, alio had been • frequent visitor conducting
The Xing Mopped a long time before the Crimean and
Italian (1880) battle piece,. General Moline, on awing the
AN MINA if *AMAIN and &able, remarked ;-;" We

as these gentlemen, but people will never place memorials
of us In • Valhalla at Berlin." Two days previously Fib
Majesty reviewed the troops patted on the north of Paris,
and from the terrace of St Germain, had an extensive view
of the whole valley of the Seine. lie visited the old chateau,
which the Emperor Napoleon emiverted into a museum of
It 'man and Gall:c antmulties, the stop of which occupied
bin, during the co Aposition of his Lie of Or3ar. The
collection is a valuable ,me, but the r. storation of the
chateau Is incomplete, and it is not now likely te be tinialud.

AWAKENING AT LAST!

The defeat at Orleans seems at last to have awakened
the French press to the evils arising from the publication of
false despatches. The laber te of the 14th lust. contains the
following article Tours, 12th of October, 11 o'clock.—
Beaten ! Yes, we have been beaten: for our troops have
not been able to keep their ground at Artheney or In the
forest, which the Gee eral said he Ise, resolved to de-
fend at any cost nor yot in the neighbourhood of
Orleans or In Orleans itself. The official deepatches,
since the beginning of the war until now, alike under
the 011Ivier Empire, the I) nit! Empire, and the ere.
admix Republic—the official dispatches for three months
have all succeeded each other without improvement. They
are all alike. They will announce, pesh,ps, to-morrow to
France that our troops hove fallen bock on some bill or
other In some unknown valley, or to the banks of some flyer
hut, heartrending as the facts are. we shoat have the honesty
not to disguise the truth. Our troops falling Lack on the
left bank of the Loire, as they have fallen back, means simply
that they have abandoned to the enemy the whole of the
that line of the military opere.tlone of the Army of the Loire.
We desire most ardently to Mid that we are deceiving our-
selves. flow can one help being deceived? The system of
secresy, or of half avowals of the truth, Is, in short, still
maintained. lt cmtrols us all, such as we are, and by pre-
venting an from seeing things as they are it makes it the duty
of men of sense to entertain all sort. of fears, as much as it
encourages fools to foster every illtuion."

A TALK WITH THE BUTLER!

The correspondent of a German paper says it haii proved
an easier matter to supply a good fare to the Ilead•Quarters
at Versailles than at Ls ierrles, where Baron Rothschild,
although up to the time of the war he had been North
German Consul-General, proved very inhospitable. All
eatables and drinksbles had been carefully concealed. and
although every thing would have been paid for, no pro,vb ions
could be had Irons the servants at tile Rothschild family.
At last the Chancellor of the Confederation could contain
his patience no longer. Ile had a talk with the butler of
the external General, and showed the latter he would not Ito
Imposed upon. Then, wonderful to narrate, wine, eggs, milk,
cettee, meat, vegetables, fowls, in short, creature comforts of
all kinds 'were proauced, which my lord steward conde-
scended to sell to those at Ilead-quartera As may he sup-
posed, the castle and park, in consequence of the presence
of King William, were otherwise well protected and pre-
served from waste. Of the diplomatists who remain In
Paris, the secretary of the Greek Embassy, Herr. Phoclon
Roque, and the Russian Military Envoy, Prince Wittgen-
stein, have recently been allowed tole.. Monsignor CIAO.
the Papal Nucclo, who appears to be chiefly concennd iramt
his well, fed carriage horses, because he believes that they
will be taken and killed, Is negotiating for permission to
quit. This has happened also with several South American
diplomatists. Only the Swim Ambassador and the Envoys of
Belgium and the United States seem resolved to remain shut
up with the beleaguered citizens.