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

to Stourtribit Ohstrtitt.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1870.

FAILURE OF TIM ARMIETIOR

Although the progress of the Franco-Prussian
war has been marked by a continuous series of
successes for the German arms, it has been clear
to most observers, for some time, that the Ger-
mans no less than the French have desired
peace. The Prussian army is so constituted
that it is, so to speak, personally unadapted for
a long war. It is formed of citizen soldiers,
with whom warfare is an exception to the cur-
rent of their life, and who have their trade,
their homes, and their political and social affairs
at heart; so that the Prussians now in France
must have long since become weary of a strug-
gle which can bring them no more honour or
glory than they have already acquired. If the
capture of Paris be regarded as an object of
ambition, they must feel that it would really be
going beyond honourable warfare; it would be
but securing a prize which is within their grasp
and which all the world knows they can seize
sooner or later, for it can but be a question of
time. And so with heaping further misery and
ruin upon French towns and villages. This
would not bring glory to the Prussian arms; it
would be overstepping the bounds of civilised
war, and reducing it to barbarism. "It is noble
to have a giant's strength, but it is tyranny to
use it as a giant." It is easy to believe, there-
fore, that the Germans themselves are anxious
that this cruel war should cease. As to the
French, they have undoubtedly been long desir-
ous of peace, for the best of all reasons—that
they must be convinced that their cause is hope-
less. The strongest fortress in France fell a
prey to the horrors of threatened starvation,
add minor fortresses have, one after the other,
fallen before the Prussian arms; while Paris lies

hopelessly besieged, numerous other towns
threatened with destruction, and all this while
France raises no army that has any chance of
turning the tide of misfortune that has been so
steadily flowing against her.
That efforts were being made to procure an
armistice was therefore intelligence that could
take no one by surprise; but it was soon felt
that there were immense difficulties in the way.
One section ot the Government conflicted with
another section. and when the Paris Government
proposed that an armistice should be agreed to,
forthwith there was excited a spirit of insurrem
tion which at one time threatened to overturn
the Committee of National Defence, and to sub-
stitute what Count Bismarck would call " gen-
tlemen of the pavement," of the most extreme
views. This one fact illustrates the many ditli•
culties with which France has had to contend
throughout this war. She has indeed found it
hard to wage war or conclude peace. She went
to war before she was prepared for it; she found
that her army was badly provisioned and badly
officered; the generals on whom she had relied
had failed her; and when the proposal of an ar-
mistice arose there was neither a Government
with whom it could be concluded, nor any public
men who by their power over the people could
induce them to accept it. But there have been
iiisuperable difficulties in the very conditions of
the armistice itself. M. Thiers, after going to
mil fro from one section of the Government to
the other, and after futile efforts at an arrange.
!tient at Versailles, was ordered to break off ne-
gotiations and quit the King's headquarters
The question of the food supply of Paris lui
been an insurmountable obstacle to an armistice
Count Bismarck insisted on terms to which M
'riders could not agree. What these exact terms
were are at the present rather doubtful. It is
said that the Prussians insisted that there should
be no provisioning of Paris during the 25 days
of armistice, and it is also asserted that lie would
only agree to such a supply as would have been
quite inadequate; and in either case the condi-
thin of the Parisians would thus hare been worse
at the end of the armistice than at the corm
iu neement. lie this as it may, the Prussians
have naturally taken a selfish view of the ma.-
ter, knowing that they themseh es may have
great difficulty in obtaining suilb•ient food, and
have insisted on conditions which have produced
a rupture iii the armistice ileg.ti &Una And so
tid fu! wee :mist go iii to the bitter end.
Vu d, epl) deplore thi, immediate result of all
toe efforts that have men made towards obtain-
ing peace. But it may fairly be hoped that we
have at last arrived at "the beginning of the
end." Germany will fight relentlessly to bring
the war to a close, and have a treaty of I ewe
i ;lied in Paris ; and France will tight with all
the energy of desperation. We cannot have

Prussians