The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-18 00:00:00

STRATEGY OF THE CAMPAIGN.

We still believe the French will make good their retreat
to Chalons. If for no other reason, because it seems to us
impossible that the Prussians can push on sufficient num-
bers of troops to interpose effectually, because of the ques-
tion of supplies, which seems so tiresome and uninte-
resting to civilian readers, and which our Government
so magnificently pooh-poohs in the organisation of our
reserves, but which is really at the bottom of all military
operations—armies of 400,000 Prussians, or more, cannot
push on into the heart of France at the rateapf twenty
miles a day without a most complete system of supply
and ample means of transport. Unless they
remain concentrated they are useless for offence or
defence, witness the French corps spread over the
whole frontier from Thionville to Mulhouse. If they
concentrate without supplies they starve. "A starving
army is worse than none," wrote Wellington after the
battle of Talavera, when he found himself deceived by
Spanish promises of help, and his men for days
reduced to living on one-third of their proper supply
of rations. " A starving army is worse than none—the
men plunder under the very eyes of their officers. The
officers themselves are discontented, and with the army
that a fortnight ago beat double its numbers I should
now hesitate to attack a French corps at half its
strength." And whence are the Prussians to get supplies
as they advance in such vast numbers over a country
that has been drained by the French of all it possessed?—
Standard.

So far as it is at present possible to penetrate the
obscnrity that veils the designs of the French generals,
their plan—if they have any—would seem to be to defend
the line of the Meuse resolutely with the so-called "Army
of the Rhine " against the two Prussian armies of the
Right and Centre; while the new army of three corps,
which is, we are told, to act under Marshal Bazaine, from
its base at Chalons menaces with attack in detail the
heads of the columns of the Third Prussian Army, prose-
cuting its flanking movement on the line which we indi-
cated a few days ago—from Nancy by Chaumont towards
Troyes, on the southernmost of the three routes from Paris
that now lie before the Germans. The Emperor, is, we
know, already at Chalons, where large forces are being
organised, and a plan of campaign such as we have
roughly outlined would be just of that half offensive,
half defensive sort which is dictated at once by the pecu-
liar fighting qualities of the French troops, by the too
palpable fact that they are for the time outnumbered, and
by the consideration that every day's delay in the decision
of the war must weaken the cohesion, damp the enthu-
siasm, augment the difficulties, and decrease the numbers
of the enemy.— Telegraph.
_

The French continue their retreat upon Chalons. The
line taken by Marshal Bazaine is not, as some have sup-
posed, south-west towards the line of the Upper Marne,
at Bar-le-Duc, but due westward to Verdun. A despatch,
dated yesterday, states that the bulk of the army was
on the day before concentrated at Etain or Estain,
in the department of the Meuse. The road by
Etain is not the best and most direct one to
Verdun, which lies more to the south, and leads
through Mars.la-Tour and Manheulles. Marshal
Bazaine was probably induced to take this circuitous
course in order to place his columns as far as possible
from the Prussians. The latter, however, have not let
him off. It is from French despatches we learn that on
Monday they harassed his march. It is probably
some Corps of the army of Prince Frederick Charles
--the same, we presume, which passed the Mo-
selle at Pont-a-Mousson, and which, operating on the
right of the Crown Princ',‘, is nearest the French
line of march—that was thus engaged. No very consi-
derable German force, however, appears to have been able
to get so near Bazaine's corps as to dispute its progress.
The problem was, to a great extent, one of marching, and
the French seem to have got the start. The French Minis-
ter of War says that only two divisions of Prussians ap-
proached Bazaine to harass him, and were repulsed. This
is the explanation of the firing which so shook the nerves of
the Sub-Prefect of Verdun, and led him to report, "under
reserve," that a groat battle had been going on all day.
The statement of Count Palikao in the Legislative Body
that the Germans had relinquished their intention of cut.
ting off the retreat of the French army refers simply to
their attempt to hinder the retreat to Verdun, an
attempt which the French Minister of War considers to
have failed and to have been abandoned, and not to the
general operations of the Germans beyond the
Moselle. The latter are still pressing forward.
in order to be able to force the French to an engagement
before reaching Chalons. The Germans are advancing by
a route rather more direct than that taken by the French
but the latter have the advantage which belongs to an
army operating in its own country of being served and
aided by tho whole existing local and public organisations
on its line of march. The German army, however, is said
to be better supplied in France than the French army
itself is, owing to the admirable arrangements of the
military administration.--Daily News.