The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-02 00:00:00

THE ENGLISH IN PRANCE.

Mr. Thomson Hankey writes to the Times
taking up the other side of the question
with respect to the treatment of English visitors
in France, and feels it simple justice to say
that he believes the stories of the incivilities met
with are most exceptional. He has been in France
with his family since the middle of July, staying
principally at Auvergne, but latterly in several towns
in Touraine, Britanny, and Normandy. He has been
thrown entirely among the French, and has con-
stantly met and conversed with those of all classes,
chiefly on matters connected with the war. He has
heard expressions of sorrow, and heard also that no
sacrifices can be too great to drive the Prussians from
France ; but he has never heard one single expres-
sion of anger or displeasure against England, nor has
he or any of his party met with one single expression
of incivility since their arrival. From the commence-
ment of the war he has heard it declared that every
effort should be made to restore the prestige of the
army, but there was little agreement as to what form
of government wuuld be the best to secure it, although
out of Paris the feeling appears to be pretty general
against a Republic.

WAR AND HUMANITY.

1 i" S. G. 0." writes again to the Times on the sub-
ject of the Continental war, and wishes to direct
public attention to the real nature of the scenes that
are now enacting in France. He is not surprised
that the French should refuse to allow their foes to
take their wounded through Belgium, because the
more that die the worse for the Fatherland. He

asks what England can do, and believes nothing re-
mains but for her to look on, indignant, but compas-
sionate. He considers that we ought, in the name
of common humanity, to put aside all feeling as to
the cause of the awful carnage, and throw all our
energies into the work of endeavouring to alleviate
some of its horrors. The yet alive, to be found in
bruised and battered tenements of mortality,
cry aloud to us. The cry is not one
of tongues, come it in French or Prussian
language, it is the human voice ; let us heed it.

He is acquainted with the working of the National
Society in Aid of the Sick and Wounded, and knows
it is their wish that the help which England contri-
butes to their cause should be received as aid simply
to the sick and wounded, without any reference to
nationality. He earnestly advocates the claims
which the society has on the attention of all who
can promote its success. He would also say a good
word in support of every society which can shew
that it provides those special matters that are now so
cruelly needed for the French and German sick and
wounded.

LORD ELCHO ON MILITARY ORGANISATION.

Lord Ekho is determined that we shall not rest

in false security as to our military organisation. In the
existing state of Europe he thinks it desirable to en-
lighten Englishmen as to the painful fact that itwould
be impossible, under present circumstances, to send
any force for service properly equipped in all details.
When we see in the French army the fatal effects
of such want of equipment and prevision, we must
agree with Lord Elcho that this is not a case in
which ignorance is bliss. His judgment, he tells us,
has been formed after much communi-
cation with military authorities and officials
connected with the army. He is, moreover, entirely
unbiassed by political feelings, belonging to neither
party: Lord Elcho repeats the substance of his in-
formation, which represents our military equipments
to be most imperfect. One of the statements is that
the ammunition for our field artillery is in a most
lamentable state, while when we turn from the
condition of our material supplies to the men them-
selves we find the case no better. We have under-
taken, says Lord Elcho, to make war, if need be, on
one or other of the two great Powers now engaged
in mortal strife, and our total regular force, where-
with to garrison Great Britain and Ireland, and to
assist in expelling either Prussians or French

from Belgian territory, consists of 180 guns, 10,654
cavalry soldiers with 6,539 cavalry horses, and
50,870 infantry soldiers. The flying column from
Aldershot marched into Wimbledon with companies
having a front of 15 and 16 files and artillery bat-
teries at half their war strength, though 39 horses
were borrowed. As for the Army Reserve, only
nineteen men volunteered for it this year, of whom
10 were rejected, and under the new Army Enlistment
Act no men can be obtained. for the Reserve under
three years at soonest, though in the last two years
the War Minister has reduced the strength of the
regular army by 21,000 men. The Secretary for
War has begun at the wrong end, and the way he
has dealt with our small standing army is a
dangerous error in the application of a sound prin-
ciple. The 'limes, in commenting upon this letter,
says it is easier to explain or excuse the policy of our
military administration than to disguise the results
to which it has led, but that no War Minister or
Chancellor of the Exchequer could have kept pace
with the sudden and unlooked for demands now made.