The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-08 00:00:00

Two tcHNE.4 ix A CARER&

The Emperor Napoleon has during his Attu'
' career passed through many strange scenes, but
perhaps nothtfig has been more remarkable than the
, diversity which has occurred in the cireumstauces
under which he treated of peace with German
Sovereigns dating the last eleven years. In 1859
' the Emperor Napoleon met the Emperor of Austria
in a cottage in the vicinity of the Lombard battlefield.
He was then in the full pride of success, and elated
with the victories of the Italian campaign. The
interview was of brief duration, but it determined
the fate of Lombardy. It is difficult to
realise that it was the same man who so
recently met the King of Prussia in a
small room near the battle field of Sedan, No
longer the conqueror but the conquered, the proud
defender of Italy had become the ruined Emperor-
and the defeated leader of the crushed armies of
France. His position is far worse than that of the
Austrian Emperor, for he was not a prisoner, and
was enabled to return to his throne. These
momentous interviews are the turning points of the
career of the Emperor. As he stepped from the Loin- ,
bard cottage the most distinguished Sovereign of the
world, so he left the room near Sedan the most unfor-
tunate of living rulers hereafter to fill a dark page
in the annals of disappointed ambition. From the
time when ho dictated terms of peace to the
Austrians, to the day when he told the King of
Prussia that he had iv) longer the right to accept
terms on his own authority, his power had visibly de-
clinkl, and those who watched his career attentively
could discern the gradual but certain loss of his
prestige. Casual observers, however, will not
trouble themselves with such observations, and
hence the sketch of these Imperial interviews will

remain a striking illustration of the rise and fall of
human power, and the uncertainty that attends on
such fitful careers as. that which culminated at
Solferino, to set in snch a starless night as that of
Sedan.

THE BATTLE OP SEDAN AS A MILITADX LESSON.

The 7 //nes thinks that the battle of Sedan conveys
a creat military lesson, for it was decided entirely by
the fire of artillery. The superiority of the German
guns in weight, range, and precision was most
decisive, and it was ,this which brought about the
capitulation of Sedan, and the surrender of the French
army. It was deemed necessary for Sedan to give
up, although smaller places were holding out against
the enemy, because it had no chance against the
artillery which the Germans had brought
to bear on it.SThe great military lesson of
this battle must be applied to ourselves
The recent reductions affected the artillery as well
as the infantry of our army and changes have been
proposed which do not seem consistent with the ex-
perience so fearfully gained at Sedan. This is
scarcely a time when' we should elect to choose the
French system, and to discard that of Prussia. It
was not the advantage of numbers which gained the
day for the Germans, and the Emperor Napoleon
himself declared that ho owed his defeat to the
force of his enemy's artillery. We must &so bear in
mind That our army should keep up its strength in
artillery, which is of more importance than infantry
and cannot be so readily supplied or ex-
temporised. We should lose no time in improv-
ing the condition of the British guns, and
we possess means and material for rendering them
the best in the world. This is one of the most sig-
nificant of the lessons which each day of these
stirring times brings before us.