The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-03 00:00:00

TILE PRUSSIAN ARMY.

(From the Times' Military Correspondent.)
IIEAD-QUARTERS OF THE FIRST ARMY,
REICHENBERG 7 June 24.
Last evening intelligence came to the head-quar-
ters of the let Army at Grafenstein which told that
at the same time as Prince Frederick Charles off
i'russia was crossing the Bohemian frontier o
Austria with his army the Austrians were preparing
to cross the Silesian frontier of Prussia, and had
yesterday forenoon pushed three columns into the
country of Glatz. These columns advanced by three
,roads. That on the right by Alstadt on Wilhelms-
tal ; that of the centre by Grulich on Mittelwaide ;
tha;-. of the left by Braunau on Wurschelburg. The
cornroander of the first Prussian army had calcu-
lated upon the possibility of an invasion of Silesia
by the Austrians, where the second army is ready to
meet thorn, and the news that they were in the
Glatz district availed nothing to shake his resolve
of pushing into Bohemia. On the contrary, it
seemed to acclerate his motions, for he had in-
tended to halt to-day in the position of Grafenstein,
but as soon as he heard of the Austrian advance
aides-de-camp were despatched to the different divi-
sions with orders for them to march early this

Thisafternoon the Thuringian regiment of Uhlans,
who are much the same as the Lancers of our ser-
vice, took up outpost duty, and one squadron of
them has had a skirmicih with some of Radetzky's

Hussars. The Hussars were led by a staff. officer,
who came too near the Prussian infantry picket, and
the deadly needle-gun shot the first officer who has
fallen a victim to this war. The Hussars and
Ulalans mutually charged each other, and in the

melee which ensued two Prussian officers and 17
men were wounded. The Austrian loss is not
clearly ascertained.
Two excellent institutions of the Prussian army
have been quickly established and put in working
order at every halting-place ; they are the Field
Telegraph and the Field Post-office. As soon as
it is determined where Head-Quarters are to be
fixed for the night, the Field Telegraph division
start off to the nearest permanent telegraph sta-
tion where the line can be fixed in working order ;
from this starting point they carry a single
line along the side of the shortest road to the
Head-Quarter house, and generally by the time
the chief of the staff arrives at his quarters he finds
his telegraph ready, by which he can get informa-
tion or send his orders. The Field Post-office, to
which I am indebted for being able to send my cor-
respondence to you since we crossed the frontier, is
established also at Head-quarters, but has branch
offices at the Head-quarters of each corps crarmee ; it
carries the private letters of soldiers and officers, as
well as official despatches, and sends out a mail
nearly daily. This is a greater convenience than
the Field Telegraph, but the latter is one of the neat-
est appliances of modern science to the art of war
which it is possible to conceive. The whole of its
apparatus is carried in two light waggons ; one con-
tains the batteries and needles, and is used as a
small room in which the telegraphist works ; the
second waggon carries the poles and wires, with the
implements for puttingthem up. The wires are coiled
round revolving discs, which are fitted in the wag-
gon, so that the wire can•be passed as the waggon
gets along, or the disc can be transferred to a
stretcher carried between two men, so that it may
be laid off the road in places where it is desirable to
cut off corners. The detachment who lay the lines
are all instructed in repairing damage done to the
permanent wires. When it is remembered that yes-
terday morning the Austrians were close up to the

morning.
It rained steadily all last night, and the morning
brought with it no improvement in the weather, but
the troops were in high spirits and appeared to care
pothing for the wet. The army marched by three
roads ; the left column by the way of Eisniedel on
Reichenberg ; the centre by Kratzkau on the same
town, while General von Bitterfeld came from the
mountains which lie between this and Dresden, and
moved upon Gabel. Some of the regiments halted
here, and are billeted in the town for the night ;
o,:hers were pushed through and took up positions
in front. Many battalions have to bivouac this
eveniDg ; but, although the ground is moist and
damp from the incessant rain, the weather is warm,
and the troops will not take much harm from their
first night in the open air. The army is now drawn
together and conceptrated round this town ; for
Gen. von Bitterfeld at Gabel is only 12 miles to the
left. Last night the Prussian advanced posts near
Kratzkau could see the light of the Austrian bivouac
fires, and this morning the Magdeburg Hussars who
cleared the way for the arniy had a skirmish with
some of nadetzky's Austrian Hussars. Shots were
exchanged, two of the Prussians were wounded, and
Ave of the Austrians are reported wounded, with
two killed. A combat was expected at Reichenberg.
Three Austrian cavalry regiments, Lichtenstein's
Hussars, Radetzky's Hussars, and the Hussars of
the Regiment of Hesse Cassel, were known to be in
front of the Prussian advance, and it was anticipated
that in the fine strategical position of Reichenberg
the Austrians might stand to fight; for this town
covers the junction of roads which leads over the
mountains by Gabel, Grottau, Friedland, and from
Hirschberg. But the Austrian cavalry retired through
the town, and it was occupied about 10 o'clock by
the Prussian advanced guard, and Prince Frederick
Ci2arles is now on the south side of the mountains,
and commands the issues of the passes.
The march to-day, although over a hill country,
was not on a severe road, for the summit of the
mountain chain dips so deeply into the gorge which
forms the defile of Reichenberg, that the road through
the pass both ascends and descends with a moderate
gradient ; on either side of the way the mountains
rise, high, but not steep, for the whole character of
this range is more rounded and swelling than bold
and sharp. As the army passed between the hills
this morning the tops were shrouded in a dense
mist, which occasionally lifted high enough to show
the lower parts of the dense fir woods which clothe
the upper mountain sides, but never to afford a
glimpse of their summits. The rain fell heavily and
without ceasing; it battered down the grain which
grew in the fields by the way side, and filled the
mountain watercourses with rushing mud-coloured
streams; there was no wind to give it a slanting
direction, and it came straight down on the men's
helmets, only to roll off in large drops upon
their backs and shoulders, but it did not seem to
depress the spirits of the troops ; they stepped along
very cheerily, marching as well as they did the first
day they left their garrisons, and many of the soldiers
said that they preferred the wet weather to heat. All
along the line of march the commander of the army
was loudly cheered.
When Prince Frederick Charles reached the mar-
ket place of Reichenberg he halted to wait the
arrival of the troops who had marched by the
Friedland road. The town looked dull, for as it was
Sunday the shops were all shut, and at first the
Bohemians seemed inclined to remain in thcirhouses;
but the bands of the marching regiments roused
their curiosity, and they soon collected and lined
the streets in dense crowds to see the troops go by.
The soldiers who had arrived early and had been
dismissed from their ranks joined in the crowd, and
and a common language soon made them friends
with the townspeople. Many tales are told of the
dreadful devastation to which a country is subjected
by the plunderers of an invading army. So far as
the Prussian army has yet advanced into Bohemia
the soldiers have treated the Austrians with the
greatest kindness ; as in the British service, every-
thing that a soldier wishes to buy must be scrupu-
lously paid for, and there seems to be no desire
among the men that it should be otherwise; in fact,
the troops are much more plundered than plunder-
ers, for the cigar merchants and publichouse keepers
are driving a most prosperous trade, and take very
good care that they themselves do not suffer, for the
soldiers are unaccustomed to Austrian currency, and
have to pay in an equivalent of Prussian coin.
Reichenberg was in the hands of the Austrians
this morning, and was duly occupied by the Prus-
sians about 10 o'clock. Since that time nearly
the whole army, attended by artillery and wag-
gons, has marched through the narrow winding
streets of a town which to these artificial disadvan-
tages for free lacomotion adds the natural one of
being built upon a steep hill ; still there has been
no confusion in the marching columns, and
although the troops had to move by different streets
and were sometimes obliged to march in and out of
the town by country lanes and narrow paths, no
column took a false direction or made an unneces-
sary halt ; yet the Quartermaster-General von
Stuhtnahl had only a few minutes allowed him in
which he could arrange his plans.
The column which had marched by the Friedland
wall was brought through the marketplace and
past the Commander-in-Chief. This corps is chiefly
composed of men of the province of Brandenburg ;
they are taller than the average of the Prussian
infantry, but are not so thick or stout, and do not
look so strong as the sturdy Pomeranians; but they
have intelligent faces, and can readily be seen to be,
as they are, men of an education superior to that
which is usually found in • the ranks. The regiment
of the late
King led ;the men bore his cipher on
their shoulder cords, instead of a number. The
whole corps marched
day and a long journey magnificently. Ater a wet
closed
Reichenberg with rank they came up the hill of
parade, a step as on a holiday up, with as perfect
along as if they could not kfnoeo;waenfadtiwguenet;
which
man carried
were heavily encumbered, swingingyt tlley
tells severely
his knapsack, the weight of
against a soldier's marching, and mightin
plentiful,
try where transport is apparently sonbe
carried for him. After the late regiment
came the 64th, Prince Frederick Charles's Own ; the
faces of the soldiers showed that they recognised
their colonel, and they went past him without
cheering, for in the town the men marched as on
parade, but with that appearance
which
is more
pleasing to a soldier than any acclamations.
The head-quarters have been established in the
Schloss, or Castle of Reichenberg, another of the
properties of Count Clam Gallas, who has thus
twice been the involuntary host of Prince Frede-
rick Charles. Here a curious scene is afforded ;
the castle stands on a hill, overlooks the pic-
turesque town, and commands a beautiful view of
the plains and mountains beyond it. The side
of this hill below the castle is covered with care-
fully tended turf and luxuriant shrubberies. The
place looks fit
yto be the quiet home of a coun-
try gentleman, but up and down its gravelled avenue
chargers are b •
emg led ready saddled for the aides-

frontier, and that at midday the Castle of Grafen-
stein, five miles from the nearest permanent station,
was in direct telegraphic communication with Berlin
some idea can be formed of the advantages which
this apparatus gives to an army in the field.
The Prussian army restores the railways as it
goes. This afternoon railway communication was
reopened for military purposes from this place to
Berlin, so that with the telegraph for information,
and the railway for rapid movements, this army

may be concentrated on any point of the railway
communication with an extraordinary rapidity.
Sic'mow, June 26.
The head-quarters of the Ist army halted at Reich-
enberg on the 25th to allow the cavalry that came
by the Friedland road which had covered the march
of the column to come in. During the day the out-
posts were pushed forward, but the Austrians were
not felt.

The road from Reichenberg to Turnau crosses a
range of hills which separates the valley of the
Upper Neisse from the country beyond, and drops
down from this range by some sharp zigzags
to the valley in which lies the village of Lie-
benau. This village is built on the banks of a
stream, which forms a defile through a second
range of hills lying between Liebenau and Turnau.
This rivulet, in the part of its course above the vil-
lage of Liebenau, runs at right angles to the defile,
and forms a valley between the two hills which lie
north of Liebenau towards Reichenberg, and those
which lie to the south towards Turnau. The rail-
way from Liebenau to Turnau passes through the
defile formed by the stream which runs through the
village ; but the road turns to the left and ascends
the southern range, passing near the top between a
steep cutting through racks. This cutting is about
100 yards in length, and here the road is only about
30 feet wide. The hills are on their side covered
with thick plantations of fir trees ; but when the
traveller leaving Liebenau has by the road gained
the summit of the range which lies south of the vil-
lage he finds before him a wide plateau extending
for about two miles in the direction of Turnau. This
plateau was this morning covered with high-stand-
ing corps of wheat and barley, already whitening
for the harvest. The road runs through the corn-
fields, and at the end of the plateau drops down by
a gentle slope into the valley of the Iser. From the
brow of this slope Turnau can be seen lying in the
river towards the left front. The Schloss of Sichrow,
standing on the very edge of the Liebenau defile, is
directly on the right, and the view to the front is
bounded by the fir-clad and fantastically rocky hills
which form the Southern boundary of the valley of
the Iser, while on the left the church of Gentscho-
witz stands raised on a knoll above the general plain,
and looking down upon the orchards and cottages
of the little hamlet which clusters round its foot.
Between the bottom of the slope which falls from
this flat plain into the valley of the Iser and about
halfway between the foot of the hill and the river
itself there runs a low range of hills having an
elevation considerably inferior to that of the pla-
teau. On this lower range, immediately surrounded
by orchards, but in the midst of a wide stretch-
ing corn land, lies the village of I)auby. Last
night the Prussian advance posts were pushed for-
ward to the tops of the range of hills which bound
the valley of Liebenau on the north. This morning
Gen. von Horne, who with the Bth division held
the outposts, had advanced early to occupy Liebe-
nau. As his advanced guard entered the village,
the Austrian rearguard were discovered tearing up
the pavement, in order to form a barricade across
the narrow street through which the high road runs.
On the approach of the advanced guard they re-
tired to the hill over which the road to Turnau
passes south of the village. Here the Austrians took
up position ; their artillery, placed on the brow of
the hill, looked down upon the village of Liebenau,
which Horne had just occupied, and their cavalry
covered the guns. But they were not in force. They
had no infantry, and their whole strength appeared
to be only four regiments of cavalry, with two bat-
teries of horse artillery. Horne's division passed
through the village, and began to ascend the hill,
while Gen. von Haulm came down to Liebenau
with the cavalry, and the field artillery took up a
position on the hills which bound the Liebnau val-
ley on the north. Thus the guns of the Austrians
were on the southern, those of the Prussians on the
northern range which form the valley of Liebenau ;
the valley between them is about 600 yards wide,
and there seemed to be an opportunity for a smart
combat. Down in Liebenau, between the opposed
batteries, were the wings of Horne's divisions, and
columns were already issuing from the village,
making
their way along
were getting among
both the railway and the
chaussee, while theskirmishers
that clothe the hill beside the
the short spruce firs
road.
A little before 9 o'clock Prince Frederick Charles
and his staff came upon the hill where the artillery
a flash of fire, with a heavy puff of white smoke on
was placed. It was almost exactly 9 o'clock when
the Austrian hill, showed that their artillery had
Opened, and a rifle shell -came whistling over the
heads of llorne's division. The Prussian artillery
answered, and for a few minutes the hills echoed
with the noise
o the o
ftheir
while the smoke, • •
dram.. but slowly on the lazy
breeze, hid from sight
opposite
eapgiudn dischargestllough the
quick reports and the whistling of the shells told
that they were not idle. But the Prussian guns were
too numerous, Horne's division
was
hill, and the Austrian artillery had
dt pushing up the
to retire. Then
the-Prussian cavalry pushed forward iby the road,
and in a short time eight fine cavalry regiments
were formed on the northern edge of theplateau.
The Thuringian Uhlans, the Uhlans of the Prince
of Ifulienlohe, and the dragoons of the Prince of

de-camp, who are waiting to carry out the evening Mecklenburg were extended to the left, while the
orders military train horses are being led to water, Brandenburg Hussars of Ziethen, conspicuous by
soldiers,es ;
in stable dress, are hurrying about, mounted their red uniform, were nearer the road. On the
dragoons are in attendance as orderlies, and near right of the cavalry was the horse artillery, and
the door of the castle stands the horse of the officer Prince Frederick Charles, himself a cavalry officer,
of Uhlans, who has brought in the last report from was in the front.
the outposts.

The retreat of the Austrians could be traced by the

broad paths trampled down in the corn, and every
now and they they halted, their artillery came into
action, and two or three rounds were fired at the
forming lines. When Prince Frederick Charles had

completed his dispositions he ordered the advance,
and the troops pressed forward. The cavalry and
artillery moved on the plateau, while Horne's in-
fantry, on the right, made for the Schloss of Sichrow
and the woods around it. The cavalry pushed on

quickly, and the guns moved well with it, but
every now and then halted and came into action.
The Austrians, inferior in numbers and already
retiring, could not hope to stand against the force
thus displayed, and they drew quickly over the
plateau, making for the hills of Dauba. Three
regiments of cavalry were launched after them and
went dashing through the corn, but did not reach
the retiring troops before the latter had quitted
the plateau, and then the woods and broken ground
on the side of the slopes impeded their progress.
As soon as the Austrians gained the Dauba hills
their artillery opened and poured shells briskly
into the advancing lines, but the gliding motion
of the advancing troops and the undulating ground
deceived their aim, for only about 20 casualties oc-
curred. When the Prussian guns gained the
southern brow of the plateau, they opened on the
Austrian batteries ; a smart cannonade ensued, but
the Austrians were ultimately silenced. Yet they
did well, for they made good their retreat ; but had
not the Prussian horse been detained by having to
pass through the narrow street of Liebenau, the
field artillery which to-day fired into the Prussian
ranks would probably have gone as a trophy to
Berlin.
It is evident that the Austrian commander had not
calculated on the rapid advance of General von
Horne. His dispositions for the defence of the Liebe-
nau position were incomplete ; the street of Liebe-
nau was not rendered .impracticable, for the work-
men were disturbed by the Prussian advance guard,
and in the cutting which the road leading from the
village passes through at the top of the hill leading
on to the plateau, although the trees which stood
by the wayside had been cut down, they were not
formed into abattis, nor was the cutting blocked by
waggons or any barricade. The Austrians re-
treated across the Iser, and broke the bridges, but
the Prussians after the combat occupied Turnau
with two divisions, while the main body of the army

bivouacked on the plateau, and one division occu-
pied Gablonz, which lies five miles to the north-east.
The plateau that looks down on Liebenau has
been sadly changed in the course of the day. The
corn is trampled down by the feet of horses and the
wheels of artillery ; dead horses are lying dotted
here and there over the plain, while holes in the
ground show where shells have struck and burst.
But these marks are not frequent, for the Austrian
shells often penetrated into the earth without

bursting, and several have been dug out by the sol-
diers this afternoon ; nor was the practice of their
artillery good. The Ziethen Hussars, whose red
uniforms drew their fire, were at one time exposed
to a heavy cannonade, but though above 50 shells
struck the ground around them not one fell among
their ranks, nor at that time had they a man touched.
The result of to-day's combat is not overvalued
in the Prussian army ; the officers on this side do

not despise their enemy, and they fully recognise
the fact that it was to superior numbers that the
Austrians yielded to-day. They have great confi-
dence in their chief and in the needle gun and their
rifled cannon, but they have no vain assurance.
They know that the Austrian army is a good one,
and they will omit nothing that their skill or
science can suggest to let their troops meet it on the
best of terms.
HEAD-QUARTERS OF FIRST PRUSSIAN ARMY,
SCHLOSS OF SICIIROW, June 27.
The railway and high road which lead down the
valley of the Iser from Turnau to Munchengratz run
for a distance of about five miles from the former
town on the north side of the river, but on reaching
the village of Podoll cross to the south bank by two
bridges, which are about 200 yards distant from
each other, that of the railway being on the right,
and that by which the road crosses on the left of a
person looking towards Munchengratz. The rail-
way bridge is constructed of iron ; that which
carries the road across the stream is made of wood,
and lies on a level with the causeway which is raised
on an embankment about ten feet above the fiat
meadows lying alongside it. The Iser is at Podoll
near upon 100 yards wide, and runs with a deep but
fast stream between steep banks, which only rise
about 4ft. above the level of the water.
By the side of the road and on the banks of
the stream grow large willow trees, planted at
equal distances from each other, and about ten
yards apart. Three roads lead from the plateau of
Sichrow to the high road that runs down the valley
of the Iser. That on the east a country road which
leaves the plateau near the Schloss of Sichrow and
joins the highway near the village of Swierzin,
almost at an equal distance between Turnau and
Podoll; in the centre the chaussee from Liebenau
strikes into the high road halfway between Swierzin
and Turnau, and the road from Gentschowitz on the
west joins it close to this town.
Yesterday evening Prince Frederick Charles threw
a light pontoon bridge over the river a little below
the broken bridge of Turnau, and occupied the
town with a small force without opposition. Horne's
division marched at the same time by the country
road on the east, occupied the village of Swierzin,
and pushed its advanced guard towards Podoll. The
troops directed on this point consisted of two com-
panies of the 4th Jager battalion, the 2d and fusileer
battalions of the 31st Regiment, and one battalion
of the 71st. The Jagers, who were leading, got to
within three-quarters of a mile of Podoll-bridge be-
fore they came into collision with Austrian out-
posts, but here they found the enemy, and a sharp
action ensued, for the Austrians had six battalions
in the village, and meant to hold the place and cover
the passage of the river.
It was about 8 o'clock, and the dusk of the even-
ing was rapidly closing in, when the Jagers first felt
their enemy. On the right hand side of the road,
about half a mile before the bridge, stands the first
house of the village. It is a large square farm-
house, with windows without glass, but with heavy
gratings. The Austrians had occupied it in force,
and their outlying pickets, as they retired before the
advancing Prussians, formed line across the road
beside it. As soon as the Jagers came within sight
the garrison of the farmhouse and the formed-up
pickets opened a bitter fire upon them. From the
grated windows and from the line of soldiers in the
road there came one rapid volley, which told
severely on the Prussian riflemen, but these went
quickly to work, and had fired about three times
before the Austrians, armed only with muzzle-load-
ing rifles, were able to reply. Then the noise of
musketry rose high, occasionally swelling into a
heavy roar, but sometimes falling off so that the ear
could distinguish the separate reports. But this
did not last. Major von Hagen, commanding the
2d battalion of the 31st, which was following the
Jagers on the first sound of the firing, had put his
troops into double quick time, and was soon up to
reinforce the riflemen. It was now nearly dark,
and the flashes of the rifles, the reports of the shots,
and the shouts of the combatants were almost the
only indication of the position of the troops ; yet it
could be seen that the rapid fire of the needle-gun
was telling on the Austrian line in the road, and
the advancing troops of the Prussians showed that
they were gaining ground. Then while the ex-
change of shots was still proceeding rapidly be-
tween the window-gratings of the farm-house and
the Prdsian firing parties who had extended into a
corn-field on the right of the high-way, there was
supported
hoand trah
ae
dreo
aa dd, a fsohr
atnh
de
Jagers,
were a sudden pause
inbytitiehefi3rlientg,
bearing the Austrians back beyond the farm-
houses of the village closed on
to where the cottage
where
own willow trees as a
barricade across the way
Then thrown some hewn
y.
each side of the road, and the defenders had
d
Then the tumult of the fight increased. Dark-

ness had completely closed in and the moon
had not yet risen ; the Prussians pressed up to

facings of Prussia and the white with light-blue of
Austria lie side by side, but the numbers of the latter
much preponderate, and on one part of the railway
three Prussian corpses opposite 19 Austrian form
a grisly trophy of the superiority of the needle-
gun.

he barricade, the Austrians stoutly stood their

ground behind it, and, three paces distant, assail-
ants and defenders poured their fire into each

other's breasts. Little could be seen, though the
flashes of the discharges cast a ',fitful light over
the surging masses ; but in the pauses of the
firing the voices of the officers were heard en-
couraging their men, and half-stifled shrieks or

Close on 500 unwounded Austrian prisoners have
this morning been marched up to head-quarters,
and the Austrian loss in killed and wounded is very
considerable. The Prussians have lost two officers
dead, and seven or eight wounded. The medical
officers have officially reported that the proportion
of wounded Austrians to wounded Prussians is as
five to one. Thus has the needle-gun told both on
the battle-field and in the hospital.

gurgling cries told that the bullets were truly aimed.

This was too severe to endure. The Prussians,
firing much more quickly, and in the narrow street,
where neither side could show their whole strength,
not feeling the inferiority of numbers, succeeded in
tearing away the barricade, and slowly pressed
their adversaries back along the village street. Yet

the Austrians fought bravely, and their plans for
the defence of houses had been skilfully though
hastily made ; from every window muskets flashed
out fire, and sent bullets into the thick ranks of the

advancing Prussians, while on each balcony behind
a wooden barricade Jagers crouched to take their
deadly aim ; but in the street, the soldiers, huddled
together and encumbered with clumsy ramrods,
were unable to load with ease, and could return no

adequate fire to that of the Prussians, while these,
from the advantage of a better arm, poured their
quick volleys into an almost defenceless crowd.

As the battle in the street was pushed inch by
inch towards the Iser, the Austrians, in every house
which the foremost ranks of the Prussians passed,
were cut off from their retreat, and were sooner or

later made prisoners, for the houses of the village
do not join on to each other, but are detached by
spaces of a few yards, and there is no communica-

tion from one house to the other except by the open
street. The whole of the Prussian force was now
up, and, extending between the houses which the
first combatants passed by, cut off the escape of
their garrisons, and exchanged shots with the
defenders.

With shrieks and shouts, amid the crashing of
broken windows, the heavy sounds of falling beams,
and the perpetual rattle of the fire-arms, the battle
was heavily pressed down to the narrow street,
and about half-past eleven the moon came up
clear and full to show the Austrian rearmost

ranks turning viciously to bar the Prussians
from the bridge. The moonlight, reflected in the
stream, told the assailants that they were near the
object of their labour, and showed the Austrians
that now or never the enemy must be hurled back.
Both sides threw out skirmishers along the river
bank, and the moon gave them light to direct their
aim across the stream ; while on the first plank of

the bridge the Austrians turned to bay, and the
Prussians pausing some short paces from them, the
combatants gazed at each other for a few moments.
Then they began a fiercer fight than ever. The
discharges were more frequent, and in the narrower
way the bullets told with more severe effect. Herr
Von Drygalski, leading the fusileer battalion of the
31st, a lieutenant-colonel of only two days' stand-
ing, went down with two bullets in his forehead,
and a captain at his side was. shot in both legs ;

many men fell, and the grey horse of a Prussian
field-officer, with a ball in his heart, fell heavily
against the wall, kicking amid the ranks, but he
was soon quieted for ever, and at that moment men
regarded but little such wounds as could be in-
flicted by an iron-shod hoof, even in the agonies of
death. The Austrians stood gallantly, and made
an attempt to set fire to the bridge ; but the diffe-
rence of their armament again told here ; and it is
said that, galled by their hard fortune, they charged
with the bayonet, but that the Prussians also took
kindly to the steel, and this charge caused no change
in the fortune of the fight ; certain it is that the
defenders were ultimately obliged to retire across

he bridge.

To-day head-quarters have halted here. There
has been no skirmishing ; the Austrians appear to
be in full retreat, for while I write white smoke
curling up from beyond some fir woods beside the
Iser tells that the bridge of Mohelnitz, about five
miles below Podoll, which they have set on fire to
obstruct pursuit, is burning steadily.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—More than sixteen years have elapsed
since a King of Prussia stood before a vast multi-
tude assembled before the palace at Berlin, when
the people, who, like so many other people, had on
that eventful year " conquered their King," took
offence at the uncovered head of their Sovereign,
and compelled him to do obeisance by the mur-
mured threat, " Down with the hat or down with
the head." Only three days ago another Prussian
monarch stood bareheaded before the same throng

of his subjects, and, lifting high the brass helmet
which is his crown in warlike times, told his people
of the hard-won success of his armies in the field,

hinted at the arduous efforts that would still be de-

manded of them and of the nation, and called upon
the Prussians to rally round the standards with
" God for King and Fatherland." The King's
words sprang from an impulse of genuine emotion.
Moments of breathless anxiety have come for Prus-
sia and Germany, and the subjects of King William
gave answer to the royal appeal with a burst of
spontaneous acclamation. Prussia has seen rather
hard ti▪
mes of late. A nation patient, loyal, sub-
missive to a fault, has been treated with harshness
andindignity. The compact between the Sovereign
and his subjects—that " sheet of written paper"
which Frederick William IV. would never allow
" to. stand between him and his people," but to
which he, nevertheless, found it necessary to append
his signature—has, indeed, been lately held of no
more worth than mere waste paper, and the King
and hi▪ s overbearing unscrupulous Minister have fol-
lowed no other rule of action save their own abso-
lute, irresponsible, iron will. Yet the leave-taking
of that Monarch and that statesman from the
Berlin people the other day bore all the marks
of reciprocal regard, and even tenderness. The
Prussians were deeply penetrated with the magni-
tude of the task William I. had taken upon
himself, and, although the result of the elections
proves their firm determination to fight out their
constitutional battle against the Government with
their wonted stubbornness, it is certain that they
will never allow domestic embarrassments to para-
lyse the energy with which the State will now have
to meet foreign complications. Whatever may come
to pass after the close of the war, there is no doubt
that the Government and the people of Prussia are
at one for the present. " Count Bismarck," our
Berlin correspondent informs us, " on leaving the
Palace, became, like his Royal master, the object of
a regular ovation, and Herr von.Roon, the Minister
of War, had people shouting and hurrahing in front
of his hotel all day long." We should by no means
be surprised if this same Count Bismarck were soon
to be a demigod not only in the eyes of the Prus-
sians, but of all patriotic Germans. However loud
the outcry of all men may have been against the
means against which that crafty and violent states-
man was compassing his end, it is impossible to deny
that he was, and is, the only man in Germany who
knows what he is about and what he wants. Nay, he
is, perhaps, the only one who knows what everybody
in Germany wants. There are " Unitarian" ten-
dencies at work among the German people, whi▪
ch
would never have found an utterance among that
undemonstrative and morally timid people, unless a
man high in rank and power had taken the initiati▪
ve.
The great scheme of the reconstitution of a German
empire, which foundered in 1848, weighed down by
the imbecility of the Frankfort Professors, has been
all along the dream of every man in Germany.
Since 1860, when the success of Italy re-awakened
aspirations for national unity north of the Alps,
German tenacity has taken up the question where
1840 had left it. It was German patriotism which
stood up for that old cause of Schleswig-Holstein,
which Austria and Prussia first turned to their joint
advantage, and which Prussia will now turn to her
own benefit. Count Bismarck is, indeed, a singular
and rather forbidding type of a liberal patriot ; but
all the unpopularity of Charles Albert between 1831
and 1846 did not prevent Piedmont being the focus
of Italian aspirations from 1818 to 1859. What
Piedmont was to Italy, Prussia, and Prussia alone,
can be to Germany. This is a truth of which,
theoretically, every man, north of the Main, at
least, has been long convinced. The Germans,
however, for good or for evil need a leader, and
they could not have found one who went straighter
to his goal or bent men's will more forcibly to his
own. So far as the North of Germany is concerned,
it is very evident that Prussia has now gained the
victory over the people's mind no less than over their
armies. Even where the Prussian Government is
most strongly detested, the Prussian people are the
object of sympathy, and Prussian troops are received
with open arms. In Hanover, in Hesse, in Saxony
the past is blotted out as thoroughly and rapidly as
it was in Tuscany, Modena, or Parma in 1860.
Kings and Electors are gone ; and, whatever may
be the chances of war, they either will never come
back or only on such terms as Prussia may dictate.
There is no such frantic joy at Hanover, at Dresden,
or Cassel as there was at Florence or Lucca, for the
people in Germany are not demonstrative, and
their Princes were not so unpopular as the Italian
Bourbons and Austrian Estes. But the Germans
are no less fain to merge their puny States into a
great common Fatherland. Many might have pre-
ferred a Federal unity compatible with their local
independence; but unity they must have—with their
Princes, if practicable ; if not, without them.
The warlike events now impending cannot greatly
modify the conditions in which the northern di-
vision of the country has been lately placed. The
battle which, after the junction of the two Prus-
sian armies consequent on the storming of Gitschin,
may be expected every hour may decide whether
Prussia's influence is to extend to the south as
well as to the north of the Main ; but from
this time there would be no great rashness in
the assertion that the formation of a kingdom at
least of Northern Germany has become a necessity.
The latest news conveys ample confirmation of the
anticipated junction of the Prussian armies, conse-
quent upon the occupation of Gitschin. For
" strategical reasons," Marshal Benedek has been
induced to execute one of those movements which
have signalized the annals of the Austrian armies
on more than one former occasion. He has fallen
back on his strongholds, taking up a position be-
tween Josephstadt and Koniggratz. The Prussians,
according to the Austrian accounts, are thoroughly
exhausted by their own success, and some time may
elapse before either army ventures on an action
which may be decisive. All the forces of the two
great military States are, however, now in presence ;
and " important events," the Austrian telegram con-
cludes, "are expected within the next few days."
HERALD.—Systematic slander is generally the ex-
treme resource of a bad cause on its last legs ; and
the more violent and more extravagant the falsehood
the more desperate is commonly the condition of
those who utter it. Judged by this claim, Liberalism
must be even in worse strains than we should have
beeninclined to suppose; must be conscious of weak-
ness and decay beyond anything that has yet become
apparent to the public ; for never was calumny so
furious, so unscrupulous and so ridiculous in its
disregard of notorious facts and common probability,
as that which has recently been heaped upon the
Conservatives. The example was set in the house of
Commons, where Mr. Bright began the Reform con-
troversy by denouncing the opponents of the Ministry
as enemies of the working class, and followed up
the charge by a published letter in which he re-
viled them as " dirty conspirators." Mr. Bright has
never been scrupulous in his employment of
vituperative terms, which he selects with as little
regard to propriety or applicability as a fourth-
form schoolboy shows in picking epithets from the
Gradus for a copy of Latin verses ; but it is
worthy of notice that the Liberal party made them-
selves tacitly responsible for his his language by the
deference they paid to him, and by their total
omission to rebuke or repudiate his violence. That
there was no foundation for the attack will be plain
to the silliest fellow that ever cheered in Trafalgar-
square or howled in Palace-yard, if he will take the
trouble to recal the compliments which Mr. Bright,
a few days afterwards, paid to the chief author of
the " conspiracy" and the fact that the greatest
boon which legislation has conferred on the work-
ing man during the present century—the Ten
Hours' Factory Act—was carried by Conservative
votes in the teeth of Mr. Bright's most strenuous
opposition. Was this the act of enemies to the
working class ? The question of free trade was an
intricate one; there was room beforehand for the
widest divergence of opinion as to its effect ; but

While this combat was proceeding slowly along the
street, another fight was carried on upon the railway
almost with an equal progress, and with an almost
similar result. A party of the Austrians fell back
from the point where shots were first exchanged,
and where the railway crosses the road, along the
line. They were pushed by some Prassian detach-
ments, but neither side was here in strong force,
and the principal fighting was done upon the road,
but here, too, the needle-gun stowed its advantage
over the old-fashioned weapons of the Austrians, for
the latter fell in the proportion of six to one Prus-
sian. The railway bridge was not broken, but the
lines were torn up by the retiring troops, and the
line is now not passable by trains. The Prussians
pushed over both bridges after the retreating Aus-
trians ; the latter threw a strong detachment into a
large unfinished house, which stands by the chaussee,
about a quarter of a mile beyond the bridge, and
again made a stand, but not of long duration ; they
had lost many killed, wounded, and prisoners ; many
of their officers were dead or taken ; but they stood
till they could gather in all the stragglers who had
escaped from the houses of the village, and, harassed
by the pursuing, Prussians, drew off sullenly by the
main road to Munchengratz. Thus terminated a
contest, which fought upon both sides with the
greatest vigour and determination yet resulted in a
clear victory for the Prussians, for when the last
dropping shots ceased, about 4 o'clock this morning,
there were no Austrian soldiers within three miles of
Podoll-bridge, except the wounded and the taken.
There was no artillery engaged on either side ; it
was purely an infantry action, and the Prussians
derived in it great advantage from the superiority of
their arms over that of their opponents, not only in
the rapidity, but in the direction of their fire, for a
man with an arm on the nipple of which he has to
place a cap naturally raises the muzzle in the air, and
in the hurry and excitement of action often forgets
to lower it, and only sends his bullet over the heads
of the opposite ranks, while the soldier armed with a
breech-loading musket keeps his muzzle down, and
if in haste be fires it off without raising the butt to
his shoulder, his shot still takes effect, though often
low,
and
aproof of this is that very many of the
Austrian prisoners are wounded in the legs.
The road to Podoll was this morning crowded
with hospital waggons and ambulance cars bringing
in wounded; every cottage in the way was converted
into a temporary hospital, and the little village of
Swierzin was entirely filled with stricken men. The
sick bearers, one of the most useful corps which any
army possesses, were at work from the very begin-
ning of the action. As the combatants passed on
these noble-minded men, regardless of the bullets
and careless of personal danger, removed with equal
hand both friend and enemy who were left writhing
on the road and carried them carefully to the rear,
where the medical officers seemed to make no dis-
tinction in their care for both Austrian and Prus-
sian. Not only was it those whose special duty is
the care of the wounded who alone were doing their
best to ease the sufferings of those who had suffered
in the combat ; soldiers not on duty might be seen
carrying water for Prisoners on both sides alike,
and gladly affording any comfort which it was in
their power to give to those who overnight hadbeen
firing against their own hearts ! Nor is this won-
derful, for after the flash of the battle is over, and
the din of the musketry has died away, the men of
this army cannot forget that one common language
links them to their adversaries, and that after all it
is probably German blood which, flowing from an
Austrian, trickles over the white livery of the House
of Hapsburg.
In the village the utmost disorder gave evidence
of the severity of the contest. Austrian knapsacks,
shakos, clothes, and
arms were scattered about in
wild confusion. Dead horses lay in the ditches by
the roadside. White coats and cloaks, which hadbeen
thrown of in the hurry of the
fight, lay scattered
along the road; the trees which had formed the Aus-
trian barricade were still on the side of the street,
and held many a bullet. The cottages had been ran-
sacked of their furniture, and their beams and roof-
trees had been torn down to form defences for the
doors and windows ; while along the street and
upon the banks of the river lay objects which in
the distance look like bundles of untidy uniform,
but which on nearer approach are seen to be the
bodies of slain soldiers. Sometimes they lie in
groups of twos or threes, twisted together as if
they had gripped one another in their mortal
agony, and sometimes single figures lie on their
backs, staring with livid countenance and half-
closed hazy eyes straight up against the hot
morning sun. The dark-blue uniform with red

there could be none as to the benefits of a measure
which would protect the women and children of the
artisan class from overwork, and secure a proper
education to the latter. It was distinctly a ques-
tion between the selfish apparent interests of
capital and the obvious interests of labour, and
the Conservatives took the. part of the labourer.
This should have silenced for ever all slanders upon
the Conservative party as indifferent or unfriendly
to the artisan. But trusting that this had been for-
gotten, Mr. Gladstone was not ashamed to follow
the example of Mr. Bright and to declare that the
hostility of the Conservatives to his Reform Bill
proceeded from their determination not to admit the
elite of the working men to the franchise. Any
working man who will take the trouble fairly and
intelligently to examine the course of parliamentary
debates and the arguments of our own leading ar-
ticles will become aware of the utter injustice of this
imputation. He will find that the chief ground of
Conservative antipathy to the bill was the gross un-
fairness shown towards the agricultural interest—
the attempt to hand over the county constituencies
to the urban population, and disfranchise alto-
gether, for all practical purposes, the eight and
a half millions who depend upon the land for
subsistence. As regards the working class he
- will find that the Conservative arguments were
chiefly directed to two points : first, that that class
already formed one-fourth of the constituency, and
that it was not desirable to double this proportion,
and, secondly, that a bare reduction of the borough
. .

franchise would enfranchise not the elite of the ar-

tisan class, but an indiscriminate mass of whom
many would be ignorant, politically indifferent, de-
pendent, and corruptible. On either point there
may be differences of opinion, but there can be no
ground for accusingthe Conservatives of antagonism
to the working class. And such an accusation can
only have been made because truth would not serve
the purpose ; because Mr. Bright and Mr. Glad-
stone felt that it was impossible to excite the ope-
ratives against the Conservative party, except by
falsifying its conduct and misrepresenting its
opinions ; that, if truly understood, that conduct
and those opinions would render the party at least
as popular as its antagonists. Out of doors, as
might have been expected, the slander has been
wilder, more brutal, and more extravagant. Ab-
stract imputations have been exchanged for concrete
and definite charges, which could only be preferred
in places where ignorance and passion had the field
to themselves, which any educated audience, how-
ever heartily Liberal, would silence with an unani-
mous burst of indignant ridicule. Most of the
accusers have been men silly enough to believe
what they said ; too ignorant of men and things to
perceive that they were talking nonsense. We can-
not make this excuse for Mr. Holyoake, who
thought fit some time ago to state in print that
Conservatives had an instinctive delight in the power
of inflicting pain ; that a Tory was in virtue of his
Toryism cruel and tyrannical. Mr. Holyoake
knows better ; but it is probable enough that the
Luckcrafts and Bradlaughs, the orators of Tra-
falgar-square and the fuglemen of Palace-yard, do
not. It is quite possible that these poor fellows
are serious when they say that a Conservative
Government is likely to plunge England into war
in order to divert attention from domestic politics,
however difficult it may be for us to listen to them
without, laughing. How are they to know, unless
their political friends and flatterers in high places
will tell them, that Conservative statesmen are far
too deeply sensible of the awful responsibility that
attaches to the authors of a great war to be guilty
of any such crime ? How are they to know, when
Mr Gladstone accepts their homage, encourages their
" demonstrations," and vouches for their respecta-
bility, that he dare not repeat in the House of Com-
mons the least absurd of their assertions, and that,
if challenged, he would be obliged at once absolutely
to disavow it and them? How are they to know,
if their betters will not tell them, that of all living
statesmen, Lord Stanley is about the least likely to
engage England unnecessarily in continental quar-
rels ? They talk about Manchester massacres, and
excite themselves with the imagination that Mr.
Walpole may send a regiment of Dragoons to sweep
the pavement of Trafalgar-square, and slaughter a
score of Radicals at the base of the Nelson column.
How are they to know better while the Morning Star
reports their nonsense without a word of correction ?
How are they to know that their meetings, hoot-
ings, and riotous proceedings are unlawful and cri-
minal, when they are tolerated and encouraged by
their political friends, who are responsible for the
peace of the country ? It is natural enough that
they should try to break Lord Elcho's windows, and
think themselves deprived of the immemorial liber-
ties of Englishmen because the police interfere to
prevent them ; natural that they should block the
street in front of the Carlton, and insult the gen-
tlemen who belong to that club ; for while they were
on their way to commit these outrages they re-
ceived a flattering welcome from Mr. Gladstone's
family, and two days afterwards they see in print
a letter from Mr. Gladstone himself praising their
respectable appearance and orderly demeanour,
without one word of disapproval in regard to their
insolent and ruffianly behaviour towards his oppo-
nents. We do not care to find fault with them ;
we would only draw from their language and con-
duct the moral it affords—that an excitement
against Conservatism can be got up, even among the
lowest rabble of London, only by a series of false-
hoods so outrageous as to move the laughter of every
educated man, however prejudiced or passionate.
There is nothing in the real conduct or opinions of
Conservatives with which the people—with which
even an excitable mob of Reformers—could be in-
duced to be seriously angry ; so, in order to get up
a demonstration, it is necessary to tell lies, and very
preposterous lies into the bargain. In France the
aristocrats were accused of eating liitle children and
bathing in human blood, in order to excite the rabble
to cut their throats ; in England the object is only
to break their windows, or their heads, so that the
charges are less atrocious in degree, but they are
not one whit less unprincipled, false, and impossible.
All this lying, however, is very useless. It may im-
pose upon a London mob, for the reason given by
Dr. Newman in his lectures on the position of Eng-
- lish Catholics ; because in London opinions and
parties are pure abstractions, with which the in-
habitants are not practically acquainted, and to
which no personal associations are attached; but
then London mobs cannot affect tne political result.
It is possible to induce the silly and ignorant people
assembled in Trafalgar-square to believe that Con-
servatism is a policy of war abroad and tyranny at
home ; but then it is of no consequence what may be
said or believed about the base of the Nelson column.
The constituencies must decide between Conserva-
tives and Liberals ; and in the constituencies men
are personally known. You will not persuade the
people of King's Lynn that Lord Stanley will plunge
the country into war in order to get rid of Reform ;
or the people of Liverpool that Mr. Horsfall and Mr.
Graves would support him in such policy. You will
not persuade the farmers, who for generations have
lived under an old Tory family, that their landlord
delights in the power of inflicting suffering ; as
easily would Mr. Holyoake persuade them to em-
brace his theological creed. You will not persuade
the factory hands who know their master and his
rivals, that a Conservative millowner is a worse
friend to the operatives than his Radical neighbour.
And—if 1852 and 1858 are already forgotten—a
very short experience of Conservative rule will
suffice to convince the nation that it is quite as
pacific and quite as favourable to freedom as that
of Lord Russell—even though Lord Stanley may
not write secret notes to stir up war while his pub-
lic despatches counsel peace, and though Mr Walpole
may not encourage a mob to frighten Lord Russell's
horse with their hootings, or break the windows in
Carlton-gardens.

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