The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-17 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1870.

THE dimensions of the German army or rather of
the three German armies now advancing into France
beyond the Saar, beyond the Meurthe, beyond the
Moselle, are, in the history of European wars, some-
thing abnormal, something portentious. Altogether
there are at this moment within the French terri-
tories not far short of 600,000 German soldiers armed
nearly every one of them with the deadly needle gun,
and trailing with them upwards of 1,500 formidable
pieces of artillery. At their back, pressing after
them in second line, are coming rapidly up the
reserves—all the rest of the male population of
Northern and Southern Germany being prepared, if
need be, to answer the first summons to come to the
aid or to swell the ranks of these gigantic forces,
supposing that summons to be given by old King
WILLIAM at the beck of the finger or at a mere
glance of the eye of "the little man in spectacles."
From Brandenburg, from Magdeburg and Thuringia,
from Pomerania, from Saxony and from Hanover,
from Bavaria and Baden, from Wurteraburg and
Westphalia, from Hesse and Nassau, from Posen and
Silesia, they have poured in "at the double,"
to the tuck of drum and the bugle - call
round the black and white flag of the royal
leader of the North German Confederation. Their
aggregate mass has been distributed in three distinct
portions, in the first, the second, and the third
army—the Army of the Saar, the Army of the
Rhine, and the Army of the South. At the centre,
as leader of the Second, or Army of the Rhine, there
has been placed in command, from the outset, Prince
FREDERICK CHARLES. TO the right of him,
advancing in to France immediately to the south-
east of Luxembourg, there is the First, or Army of
the Saar, under the command of General von
STEINMETZ. Opposite whom to the left of the central
invading army of German soldiers, is the Third, or
Army of the South, led by the most daring and
adventurous of all the princes of the Royal House,
the CROWN PRINCE—" FRITZ," a 9 the KING calls
him—the Heir Apparent to the Kingdom of Prussia,
or shall we say to the Empire of Germany ? Under
the standards of the CROWN PRINCE there are
250,000 men ! Under those of Prince FREDERIC
CHARLES there are another 250,000 ! Under STEIN-
METZ there are some 70,000 ! Altogether 570,000 !
Nearly 200 guns (186) accompany STEINMETZ'
70,000. Exactly 660 guns accompanying the CRoWN
PRINCE'S 260,000; and another 660 the other
PRINCE'S 250,000. In all, as we have said, over
1,500 pieces of artillery. Otherwise to express the
same facts, while General STEINMETZ has with him
50 battalions of infantry, and 48 squadrons of
cavalry, and 32 battalions of field artillbry—
Prince FREDERICK CHARLES is the leader of 197
battalions, of 52 squadrons, and of 110 batteries—
the CROWN PRINCE having under his command 192
battalions, 164 squadrons, and 110 batteries. An
array all the more formidable because of the patriotic
arduor animating every individual in this gigantic
host, and because of the high state of discipline into
which they have been drilled.
MOLTSE'S boast that in a fortnight he would put
250,000 men upon the Rhine has been more than
simply just surpassed. Within a very little more
than three weeks, he has got more than double that
number beyond the Rhine and beyond the Saar, and
some of them even beyond the Meurthe and the
Moselle.

EVER since the first symptoms of war between
France and Prussia made themselves manifest, and
especially since the publication of the Secret Treaty
project brought us face to face with our duty to
Belgium, a mournful cry has arisen with much unani-
mity throughout the land. Our army (in spite of its
cost) is wretchedly weak; we have few men; if we inter-
fered on behalf of the Belgians or anybody else we
could do very little to help them—such is the re-
assuring confession which our military budget of
fourteen or fifteen millions a year enables us to
make. The complaint is not ill-founded; at the
same time it is not less true that the means
adopted to remedy the evil are little calculated to
secure the desired result. Instead of frantically
voting a sum of money in time of danger, and
rushing to recruit a few thousand men, it would be
much better if we turned our attention to ensuring
the thorough efficiency of the forces that we possess.
Those forces, in spite of all alarmist statements, are
respectable. Since the era of peace closed, in 1851,
with the Great Exhibition that was to perpetuate it for
ever, the British army has steadily increased in num-
bers. According to some figures published in the
Times, which are evidently supplied from an official
source, the British army in 1845 mustered not more
than 120,000 men, including every species of soldier.
There are now fully 350,000 within these islands
alone. The regular army in the United King-
dom attains a strength of nearly 90,000 ; the
M ilitia is represented by 100,000 real, and not paper
men ; and the Volunteers are at least 170,000 strong.
Surely if this great host had attained a really high
standard of efficiency, if it were equal to all the
modern improvements in war, there could be no need
of alarmist recruiting. An army of 400,000 men is
quite enough for our purposes. What we
want is a sufficient domestic force to preserve the
country from all fear of invasion, and a regular army
of about 100,000 men always in hand, and always
ready to proceed to any one point—to defend a
colony or uphold a treaty obligation. Considering that
an invading force would have the sea to cross, and a
lanling to effect, 400,000 men are surely sufficient to
accomplish what the fleet leaves undone. France,