The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-06 00:00:00

TiJL SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY MORNING, A [TO UST (-1 1870.

WAR MAP

THE WAR.

them as it were into the hands of aliens ?—Shdield
Telegraph,.

PRUSSIAN FORTRESSES.—CobIentz, when we
reached it, was full of Landwehr, mixed with a few
soldiers of the line. On the fortifications many trees have
been felled, and more are now falling under the axe to
make ready for an attack. Everything of course rings
with preparation. Even the Rhine steamers are
deprived of their usual peaceful freight of tourists,
and bristle with bayonets and brass-spiked helmets. On
application to General von Sperling, Head of the Staff
of the First Army, for a pass, he referred me in a
polite note to General von Moltke, the Commander-in-
Chief of the armies of Prussia. I have at once written to
Berlin, and shall, no doubt, soon receive a favourable
reply, Coblentz, it is needless to point out, is a most im-
portant stragetic point for the Prussians. It is very
strongly fortified, and could shelter easily 100,000 men
in case of a defeat in the field. Ehrenbreitstein is still
called the Gihraltar of the Rhine, but since the invention
of rifled cannon its importance is diminished, as many of
the hills round it would render it indefensible if held by
an enemy, provided with heavy artillery. All the com-
manding points, however, are strongly fortified, and
earthworks are even now being thrown up on the forts
towards the French frontier. —Daily News letter from
Coblentz.

THE ENGAGEMENT AT SAARBUCK.
PARIS, WEDNESDAY.

At length we are favoured with something like a
rational account of the Saarbriick affair. The Minister
of the Interior has published a plain official statement,
devoid of all tawdry ornament, and having a
business - like air. It says that on July 31st
General Frossard, whose head - quarters were
at Morsbarch bad his forces concentrated at two or three

places on the frontier. The first division, under General
Verge, was at Bening ; the second, under General
Bataille, at Forbach ; and the third, under General
Laveaucoupet, at Oeting. The next day all three divi-
sions had been drawn together about Forbach, opposite
Saarbruck ; and on Tuesday the second division
moved forward towards the Prussian town. The
action on that day is described as a reconnaissance
offensive, having for its object the occupation of the left
bank of the Saar, which runs before Saarbruck. The
Prussians did not at first appear to expect this favour.
An advance guard who were posted in an inn, were come
upon unawares. They bolted,leaving one man dead. General
Bataille moved forward by the line of railway which runs

A PLEASING INCIDENT.—A young and thriving
merchant of Saarlouis was to have been married at Saar-
louis to a young lady from Schleiz on the 16th of July.
On that morning came the telegraphic order of mobilisa-
tion. The train carried off the bridegroom a quar-
ter of an hour before the time fixed for the marriage.
He, like thousands of other men of an equally good
position in life, took his place as a private in his
regiment—the 40th Hohenzollerns—and cheerfully ar-
ranged with his bride that the marriage should take place
as soon as his battalion reached Saarbruck. 'He would
then go off to the war and she would return, as his wife,
to her home. The bride came yesterday with her
! brother to Saarbruck. I had the pleasure of
walking up with them this afternoon to watch
the battalion in which the bridegroom was to appear,
pass from the high road into the bivouac-field. The bride-
groom who was there in the thick of the-helmeted stream,
ran from the ranks, and kissed his bride with German fer-
vour. The men marching past looked at them with sym-
pathetic admiration, but with no sign of wonder, much
less of coarse derision. Then the bridegroom ran on to
the place he had left, and the bride went to an
officer and begged a few hours' leave for her
bridegroom, that they might be married. The
officer, of course, was only too glad to listen to such
a request from the lips of such an applicant,
and escorted the bride to the colonel of the regiment,
from whom leave had to be obtained. We saw the bride
with dark eyes more expressive than ever, and a shadow
of apprehension over her broad forehead—not too German
for perfect beauty—repeating her request to the colonel
and winning from his lips of discipline the gentlest
answer. The bridegroom was sent off on leave
till midday to-morrow. The marriage will be
a few hours earlier. I do not think that
any Englishman could have witnessed the scene
without the thought crossing him that it implied such a
society in the army and such a noble simplicity of life as
we in England hive not yet learnt even to aspire to. How
extraordinary, how outre would it seem in England if we
were told that a gentleman serving as a private in the
army ran from the ranks and kissed his bride, and then
that the bride went up before half the regiment to the
officers and made the request which I have recorded!
—Daily New Correspondent at Saarbruck.

from Forbach to Saarbruck. and found several batches of
skirmishers posted about a stone bridge which crosses the
river. (Saarbruck itself is on the opposite 'side of the
Saar, furthest from French territory.) The presence of
these gentlemen was considered a most favourable oppor-
tunity for trying the mitrailleuse. The grinders commenced
to turn accordingly, and soon the most utter disorder in the
enemy's ranks began to be manifest. Twelve dis-
charges were made in all with tremendous effect. A
few cannon shots then sufficed to put an end to the rifle
fire which was kept up from the houses in the town.
Whilst the " principal action "—that is the peppering of
these mitrailleuses, &c.—was going on, a column composed
of one squadron of cavalry and two battalions of infantry
scoured the country to the left. It exchanged shots with
some sharpshooters, and suffered loss of two or three
wounded men. Further to the left still a detachment of
Marshal Bazaine's corps reconnoitred the country bet Ween
Saarlouis and Saarbruck in front of Verden, which is in
the centre of that line. The enemy was not found in
great force there. It seems then that three operations
were undertaken ; that against Saarbruck itself—which
ended in the small Prussian force falling back, and the
French getting the heights opposite the town ; the "scouring
of the country "to the left; and the reconnoitering on the
further left. The general result of the day's work is that
the railway between Triers and Neunkirchen has been
occupied and the communication cut off.

There is a report to-day that Saarlouis, too, has been
taken ; but sure news of this great advantage is not yet to
hand.

DOINGS AT CHALONS.

There has been a slight disturbance in the camp at
Chalons, owing, it is said, to the discontent of some of the
troops on finding themselves without either shelter or pro-
visions. There was a grand review by Marshal Canrobert a
day or two since, when the commandant of the 6th Corps of
the Garde Mobile paused in front of each company to ask
if they wanted anything. When he put the ques-
tion to the third division he was met, to
his horror, no doubt, by shouts of " A Paris !"
" A Paris !" "You are unworthy the name of Frenchmen,"
cried the Marshal in a fury, and the officers flung them-
selves among the brawlers, and tried to pacify them. One
of them was slightly wounded, but they succeeded in
restoring quiet. The incident produced great excitement
in the camp.
.Several companies afterwards presented
addresses to the Marshal, assuring him of their loyalty
and patriotism. In the evening three men were arrested,
two of them being, it is said, Prussian spies, and the
other a manceuverer, sent from Paris with the express
object of spreading disaffection among the Garde Mobile.

PRUSSIAN NOTIONS OF SAAILBRUCK.—We' have
received from an authoritative Prussian source the follow-
ing details about the engagement at Saarbrucken :
" Three companies of the 40tti Regiment defended them-
selves bravely for several hours, and obliged
the enemy to deploy his whole force, and not
only a few battalions, as the French reports
maintain. Not till then did these companies retire
behind the Saar to a position which had been prepared for
their reception. The enemy did not attack this position,
and did not cross the Saar. If the spirit of our troops
was capable of great encouragement the " engagements up
to this moment would have had that effect. BAtalions
of the enemy were brought against single peletons, with-
out, however, forcing them to retire, or inflicbing great
losses on them."—Pall Mall Gazette.

A LESSON.—Our Birmingham correspondent sup-

plies a piece of information from which an important
lesson may be drawn. Two local gunmakers some time
since hit upon an ingenious plan for improving upon the
Prussian needle gun. Recent experiences of the conduct
of the English authorities with regard to inventors of
improved arms led them to choose France rather
than their own country as a market for their
mechanical contrivance. At Paris they succeeded in
getting their suggestions brought under the notice of the
Emperor Napoleon, who at once recognised their value,
and ordered 1.000 francs to be paid to the inventors. So
the Chassepot was improved by the addition of the small
steel case, in which the needle is now enclosed, through
the ingenuity of Englishmen. When will England learn
how to appreciate her own advantages instead of forcing

THE WEISSEMBUIZG AFFAIR.—The Weissemburg
engagement seems to shew that the Prussians, under the
Crown Prince, made independent action against the
weakened French right. - General Douay had apparently
a detached command, MacMahon himself being
elsewhere. We may learn more of the sig-
nificance of this movement on the part of the
Prusians when we know MacMahon's where-
abouts. The reported advance of the French on Saar-
louis probably indicates a massing of their troops upon
their left, to meet or to anticipate the threatened attack
from the Prussian right. If so the weakness of the French

Shelving present positions of French mad. Prussian Armiers, with the loeV,ities of recent engagerneutt.

right, and the attack of the Crown Prince both as a blow
and as a diversion, are accounted for together.—Pall Mall
Gazette.

AUSTRIAN ViEws.--The publication by the Times
of the secret treaty of 1866 between France and Prussia
has had an immense influence over the minds of Austrian
statesmen, and put an end to all thought of a French
I alliance. Up to the hour of this disclosure there was a
large party in Austria well disposed towards
France, and the army, still smarting under their
defeat in the late war, is almost unanimous in dislike to
Prussia. It is said, I know not with what truth, that the
' Emperor himself leaned to a French alliance. A cordial
assurance once given by the King of Prussia before the
war, at a Bohemian watering-plade, to the Emperor of
Austria that " under no circumstances should Prussian
be found opposed to Austrian in battle," is believed to be
, be -the source of a dislike and mistrust never to
be obliterated. In this day of ugly recriminations and
evil reminiscences the story has again Wen revived, and
is widely circulated through the army. With all this,
the national feeling is not with France. Hungarians and
Slays, whatever their grievances with Austria, are ready
to stand by Germany if they should be• forced out of their
' neutrality.—Vienna Letter of Pall Mall Gazette.
FRENCH ENTHUSIASM AND THE GARDE MOBILE.
—Authentic information reaches me of the readiness with
which the military portion of the French nation is coming
forward to share in the war. Besides the mass of volun-
teers, which includes not a few old soldiers and numbers of
young men of the higher classes, whose education and
intelligence will greatly facilitate their conversion into
efficient soldiers, a great many officers of subaltern rank,
who had left the service from various motives, now step
' forward to resume the epaulet, to assist in the training of
the Garde Mobile, to offer their services, in short, in any
capacity in which they may best be found available.
If in the Garde Mobile there are not a few
unwilling soldiers, it is expected that their re-
grets and repugnance will soon disappear under
the potverful influence of esprit de corps and of the
military ardour innate in Frenchmen. Within the last
few days we have witnessed the departure of several bat-
talions from Paris, and, surrounded, as they were, by
weeping women and dejected relatives, they nevertheless
went off resolutely, if not cheerfully. It is certain that
this new institution of the Mobile, as it is called, presses
very hard on all classes. Money cannot buy exemptions
except in certain very i3pecial cases, when a substitute is
allowed. Young men who in all probability would be
have been rejected by the medical examiners as too
weakly for soldiers had they been drawn in the conscrip-
tion for the line, are compelled to form part of this army
of reserve. Of course there is mubh wailing and misery
among widows and needy families at the departure of an
only son or brother, on whose labour they mainly
depended. There are many sad hearts and tearful eyes
in Paris at this moment. The 18 battalions of the depart-
ment of the Seine will soon be all collected at Chalons. They
form a medley of young men of all ranks, and dandies
from the boulevards, whom we have daily seen caracoling
in the Bois, are liable to find themselves in the same
squad or associated in the same irksome fatigue duty
with their servant, their barber, or their shoeblack.

One of the young Rothschilds is a corporal in the force.
The spirit of equality, so strong in France, will be severely
tested under these circumstances ; but if we may believe
letters from the camp, the fusion is easily effected, and
the natural lightheartedness of the French character soon
chases away sad thoughts of home.—Paris Correspondent
the of Standard.

CASUS BELLI OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.—
We take the following from the London telegraphic
correspondence of the Birmingham, Post ;—No doubt is
entertained that the English Government have virtually
laid down a casus belli to France and Prussia. The modus
operandi has already been concerted between the Belgian
and English Governments. In the event of the
neutrality and independence of Belgium being violated
by either of the belligerents, King Leopold 11. will form-
ally demand the performance by Great Britain of her
treaty obligations. It will then be the duty of the British
Cabinet to call upon all the Powers who signed the Treaty
of 1839, other than the actual offender, to assist her in
Performing their mutual engagements. But Great Britain
will not wait either for the collective or individual action
of her allies. If the preliminary negotiations now
going on shall indicate any confirmed backwardness
or indecision on the part of these Powers, as soon as
the casu.9 belli just laid down by the English Cabinet,
has occurred, a British expedition willsail for the Scheldt,
and British artillerymen and infantry will assist the
Belgians to garrison and hold Antwerp. It does not, how-
ever,
necessarily follow that if we assist our Belgian
allies to hold Antwerp, we must therefore declare war
against the Power which renders this measure of precau-
tion unavoidable. Upon this point it has not been neces-
sary for the English Cabinet to take any resolution at
present. Unofficial notice has been given to the whole
brigade of Guards, and they are now ready to "go
anywhere and do anything" at the traditional two hours'
notice. It is the privilege of the Guards to be " first '
out" and " first home ;" or " first out" when the sudden
exigency arises, and the country demands their services,
and " first home" when the necessity for a military force
has ceased.

THE FENIANS AND THE POPE.
Fenianism is a funny institution, and the Fenians are
funny fellows, but both will be much queerer than they
are before they come to the rescue of the Pope. That
they hurrah for Louis Napoleon in Dublin, and blend the
tri-colour and the green as a sign of their faith in the
source of Ireland's deliverance, we are quite prepared
to believe. Their hope rests upon the possibility
of a quarrel between England and France ; when
that occurs the world may look out for a Fenian
row of a higher order than Smith O'Brien's cabbage-
garden battle, or the heroic O'Neil's invasion of Canada.
But only a miracle can rally them to the relief of Rome,
whose authority has been vigorously exercised in Ireland
and other parts of the British dominions to repress Feni-
anism and frustrate its designs. The Tory Castlereagh
understood the value of the Pope as a political ally
in Ireland, and the English Ministers of the present day
are not altogether ignorant upon the same subject.—. New
York Times..

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