The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-20 00:00:00

THE ARMY OF THE NORTH.

In a communication from Arras, December 15, the
special correspondent of the Standard writes :—Strange
to say, notwithstanding the immense drain on the popu-
lation and the awful loss of life, I find as the war goes on,
ho matter how adversely for the French, a new and still
finer set of men spring up to replace their fallen country-
men. The new recruits that I have seen
everywhere in the North are taller, healthier, and
better built men than their predecessors. It
strikes me most forcibly that new, and now only,
is the real blood and bone of the country coming to
the front ; and with the 1,500,000 men that are declared
on paper to be under arms, and which number I am in-
clined to believe is not grossly exaggerated, they ought,
with proper handling and practical camp drill in large
manes, to drive the Prussians over the Rhine before
two months. There is not the slightest doubt
or question as to the feelings of the nation
throughout the entire North. I have visited most of
the large towns, passed through numberless vil-
!ages, mixed with the people constantly, from the
highest military and civil authorities down to the pro-
prietor of the humblest cabaret, and I am more than ever
convinced that there is but one thought and one fixed
determination in the hearts cf the whole French people,
land that is never to rest till they have had a terrible re-
venge for the pitiless, exterminating scourge into which
the war has developed since the capitulation at Sedan.
The Prussians have made a great and fatal mistake.
Had they proposed an honourable peace at that
period they would have achieved, with the most
unprecedented success, what they declared to be
their sole intention—a war with the Emperor, not with the
French nation. They had the chance, such as no king-
dom or empire has ever yet had, of adding a double crown
to their reputation by their moderation and humanity.
But what have they done ? They are scourging a suf-
fering nation to such an extent as to reap a harvest,
they never anticipated. There is a subtle change
stealing over the French, and no one who lives in
the country can fail to mark it. Notwithstanding
eleven great battles lost in nearly a month, and the
overwhelming defeats they are daily sustaining ; not-
withstanding the' perilous isolation of the capital,
and their whole country overrun by the enemy,
the war of extermination is day by day resulting in a
purification of the country. The nobler and higher
qualities which have always been their attributes,
but which have been dormant under a long and
fatal prosperity, are silently but surely developing.
Paris has proved in the teeth of a universal scepticism,
and by the cruellest of all probations, a self-denying
and self-sacrificing patriotism that has amazed the
world. The otd, superficial life seems to have died out,
and a terrible earnestness and latent power ha, been
brought to life, that one day, sooner or later, will demand
a heavy reckoning. I notice the change wherever I
go. The people are no longer the same. They are
being taught a bitter lesson, but they are most surely
profiting by it. There is but one idea in the mind
of every Frenchman- an entire sacrifice of pleasure,
of property, and of life, though the strife should last till
themext generation, to drive once and for ever the Ger-
mans from their soil.