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

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE

OF LEIPSIC.
From The Times, Tuesday, October IS

To-day is a great day in Germany. Fifty-seven
yeara ago WM fought the crowning struggle of that
!anions battle which destroyed beyond hope of lasting
recovery the power of the First Napoleon. II is the An-
niversaryuf Leipsic. The battle had lasted already two
days when the Ifith dawned. The greateet conqueror
uf his time, despite the terrible Idiom of the Russian
campaign, had a vast host under his command, with
which he faced the Allied Nations. Russia, Austria,
Prussia, Sweden, all poured their armies against
him, but his unconquerable will defied them ell;
he disputed the field ivainst forces that nearly
doubled his own, and there was a moment when
a charge by Murat threatened to confirm his sie
cendency. It was not to be. The tight was too
unequal to admit of victory, and France has never
forgotten or forgiven the treachery that converted
detest into overwhelming disaster. The defection of
the Saxon and Wurtemburg troops completed the ruin
of the French. When they turned agairat their late
ally his poeitiin became desperate. Germany was
united, France was isideied ; and the Empire which
had been built upon victory received its death-blow.
The horrors of the cloning hones of the battle the
fearful disorder of the retreat, the premature blowing
up of the bridge across which the Imperial forces were
hurrying, the wounded, the whole, the dead, and the

dying mingled together in ghastly confusion in the
waters of the Elster—are they not written in the story
of Joseph Broths, which all may read?
It is the Eighteenth of October, and France and
Germany are once more engaged in deadly war. After
th 2 lapse of more than half a century the nephew of
the defeated soldier of Leipsic has renewed the old
quarrel. Nearly sixty years have paesed, and yet it
may be sadly confessed that the struggle of 1870 must
be referred back to 1813, and 1815, if we would taw
its origin and motive. A long interval of peace has
been insufficient to eradicate from the French nation
that passion for military supremacy which the victories
of Napoleon brought to such terrible proportions. New
generations have replaced the old, but, instead of learn.
mg wisdom by the example of their fathers—instead
of being warned by the fact that the military glory
which Napoleon gave the nation to feast upon was
bought at the expense of their political freedom—the
men of today accepted the heir of the man who had
led their fathers to so many triumphs, and resigned to
him their liberties in the hope that the name of
Napoleon would give them back the cup of victory
without the dregs of defeat. It is impossible other-
wise to explain the overwhelming vote which placed
in 1849 a candidate possessing no claim beyond the in-
heritance of a name at the head of the fortunes of
France. It is impossible to deny that three months
since France was intoxicated with the assurance that
the German was to be humbled. It was France against
Germany; France alone—though there was some bete
that the Saxons and the Hanoverians would again
rally to her standard—against Prussia, which had no
longer the assistance of Russia, of Austria, of Sweden,
and of England. The result has been a fearful com-
mentary on the hopes that were cherished when the
war opened; but if those who urged on the attack
have sank into silence after defeat, and those who
protested against the attack appear now to have the
united support of France, it cannot be expected that
the victorious hosts encamped about Paris should for.
get what the mass of Frenchmen would now fain drop
into oblivion. It would be easy to understand the
feeling of the Prussians if they determined today that,
let the jealousy and resentment of the French people
remain as they might, their power to injure or
annoy their neighbours should be once for all de-
stroyed, It would not be surprising if the asso-
ciations of the Anniversary were used by the
Prussian Generals to strike a decisive blow against
the forces that still attempt resistance. There is not •
soldier in the German Army to whom the Eighteenth
of October does not bring its memories of the great
struggle of his fathers. Each of them has been taught
from his boyhood to remember how Germans
together at Leipeic against a common enemy. They
have commemorated its glories year after year in songs
of triumph; and now, when they recall the past and
reflect on the events f the present War, when they
look around and see Saxons and Badeners, Wtirtem-
bergers, Hessians, and Hanoverians, lighting side by
side with the Prussians, and winning victories separately
and collectively, they may well vow that the victory of
1870 shall not be incomplete, like the victories of their
fathers. A circumstance trifling in itself may add
to the enthusisam at Versailles. To-day is not only
the Anniversary of Leipsic ; it is the Birthday of the
Crown Prince of Prussia,, the Heir Apparent of the
renovated Empire. We shall not suspect the strate-
gists of the German army of departing in any degree
from their prearranged plan of operations to imitate
the puerility of a baptism of blood with a birthday
bouquet of fire; but it seems not improbable that the
preparations of the besiegers will prove to be this
morning so complete that a storm of artillery against
the Forts that are marked out for attack may salute
tloi Anniversary of Leipsic and the Birthday of the
Prince.

The satisfaction of the military arm of Germany
ought to-day to be complete. France has dared its
rival to the fight and has been beaten hopelessly
to the ground. Toe German armies may move
wherever they lint, and, although the new levies of
France are numerous enough and braes enough to
hara-s the outlying pasta of the invader, the
want of artillery prevents their offering any
effective resistance in the field. The increasing
evidence that Marshal nazaine has opened nego-
tiations for the surrender of Metz threatens to
blot out the last hope of France and to make the
triumph of Germany complete. If Prince Frederick
Ctiarles and his army were relieved from the necessity
of watching the maiden fortress, the possibility of
resistance would become extinct. Put there must be
many Germans who still deem the glory spread out
before them to-day incomplete. Germany is united.
Germany is victorious over her enemies, but this does
not exhaust the aspirations of her people. In the
poem of l'hland which Germans repeat today
the most famous of the tbrte he wrote in cora•
memoration of the great Anniversary he remem-
bers in the midst of his celebration of their tri-
umph over the foreign enemy, thnt the gift of
freedom was not perfect at home. The guiding
light of liberty did not shine abroad throughout the
laud, and the people were not free, because they had
forgotton to cleave fast to the right. This palatial
drawback still exists. The spirit of civic freedom was
never mare plainly proved wanting than by the im-
prisonment of a man fir advocating a foreign policy
opposed to that of the Minister of the day, and the
defence which has been volunteered for this strange
transaction has only served to make the dot eiency
more apparent Those who repeat Uhland'e poem
must confess that, if the unity of Germany be more
advanced than it was in his day, there is still much to
reek; and they cannot but reflect, from the example of
the people now in the dust before them, that the grafi.
fication of the passion of inilitary glory often proved
fatal to personal freedom. A nation once intoxicated
with military supremacy, once led astray to trample
on the freedom of others, is ready to offer up its own
freedom to the leader who has afforded it the gratifica.
Urn of this powerful passion.