The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-18 00:00:00

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

Mltwerp and Rotterdam .. 52
Austrian B2B
Belgian Fiastern Junction 264
Buffalo and Lake Huron
Detroit and Milwaukie ..... 186'
Dutch Rhenish lOBl
Eastern of France .... 1078
East Indian
Grand Trunk of Canada lO9O
Great Indian Peninsula 4371
Great Luxembourg 134
Great Western of Canada 345
Italian Junction 4O
Madrid, Saragossa &Alicant 4J9
Northern of Canada
Northern of France 7Ol
Ottoman
Paris, Lyons, & Mediterrn 1491
Paris and Orleans 1340
Pernambuco 6O
Royal Danish 69
Sambre and Meuse 6B
1294
South Austrian
Southern of France .... 777
25
Welland.
..
.
"a

West Flanders
W. and N.W. of France 758

1354
1204

FRENCH GYMNASTICS.

A steady moderate run improves the soldier's wind, and,
by practice, can be kept up for a long time. It enables
bodies of infantry to transfer themselves, in action, to any
part of the field where they may be needed in an extremely
short time, arriving in good order and in good wind. There
can be no doubt of the value of this kind of exercise, but it
smust manifestly be constantly kept up, in peace time as well
a
in war, since a few months' discontinuance would neu-
tralise much of the benefit of previous training.
The bayonet drill, by giving the soldier confidence in
his weapon and teaching him to handle it adroitly, furnishes
him with a powerful meansca of attack,. as well as
ea precious
means of defence in the of law finding himself sur-
rounded by several adversaries.se Considered,h finally,. as the
bases of the instruction of the recruit,
oerigriamlnasltic step
and the bayonet fencing rid him of itlet
and want of agility of the peasant who is beingg transformed
into a soldier. The two great principles established aree
the development of the agility of the soldier, and the
mobility of masses which is attained as its results. Thus
is all.our infantry transformed into light infantry, apt for
rapid movements, the which, joined to the national dash
(clan) of our troops, may produce the greatest results.
The improvements introduced into the army of so belli-
cose a nation as the French cannot but be of interest, and
worthy of noting by all other European Powers. The tac-
tics of the Zouaves especially—a branch of the French in-
fantry, which, in case of a long and serious war, would be
likely to be largely augmented—are of a particularly for-
midable nature to troops that are not prepared for them, or
which do not possess in perfection that calmness and soli-
dity which high discipline and long service alone can com-
pletely bestow. And France has always in Africa 40,000
men, whom it would take little more than a change of uni-
form to convert into Zouaves. A recent writer on the Alge-
rian army made the following remarks on the Zouaves :
" The superiority of French soldiers is in a great part to
be attributed to the intelligent manner in which they fight.
Among them the Zouaves have acquired a special reputa-
tion for spontaneity of action ; they are the artists of the
battlefield. The part they play in an engagement
necessitates particular qualities ; they are specially apt at
surprises, coups de main, and in those acts of daring which
often decide the fate of the day. They are the advanced
guard, the heads of columns of an army. Their favourite
arm is the bayonet; in musketry they have but moderate
confidence; so many balls have whistled harmlessly by them
that they despise lead and give the preference to steel.
With the bayonet one is surer of the result. The favourite
tactics of the Zouaves have been thus summed up by
General Cler (a distinguished French officer who com-
manded a regiment of Zouaves at the capture of Sebastopol) :
- i
--4 They spread themselves in skirmishing order, get as near
as possible to the enemy, bewilder him by one or two close
volleys, and attack with the bayonet, turning his flanks at
the same time. Success has almost invariably crowned this
manoeuvre, although there might be serious objections to it
with other men than Zou
Zouaves. In fact, when they thus
dash forward they are dispersed in disorder, and it seems
impossible to rally them in case of an attack by cavalry. But
these regiments
possess such an intelligence of war, such a
surprising rapidity of evolutions, so great an individual soli-
dity, that a line of skirmishers, scattered over a considerable
extent of ground, transforms itself into a square in the
apace of a few minutes. The officers who have tried their
Men and know their value leave them the utmost liberty