Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1859-05-19
The Coming European War
the Grea test Conflict the
World has ever Seen.
From the n. Y. Evening Pc

sSCSHAs
From the N. Y. Evening Post
We are apparently on the eve of one of
the most tremendous armed conflicts which
the world has ever seen since the downfall
of Napoleon the Great. The wars of I'M
perial France were bloody wars. as all the
world knows. No slaughtered hectacombs
were ever piled so high as the great En-
peror piled them. The dead never lay so
thickly on any battle field of which histo-
ry makes any mention, as they lay on Ely
iau and Bordinau and Waterloo. What
amount of destruction and misery science.
in The hands of genius, could, in given
time. deal out on a given number Of men,
was here amply demonstrated.
B1t it is not saying too much 10 say
that if the European Powers let their arm
ed hordes loose upon one another this sum-
mer, ruthless destroyer as Napoleon was,
he will be shown before three years are
over 10 have been a mere tyro in the art
of destruction Since his day all the arts
have advanced with rapid strides, but none
with strides so rapid as This one. The
weapons with which his soldiers were arm
ed, with which the bridge of Lodi was
carried, and Austeritz and Marengo were
Won, bear much the same relation TO the
rifle of the present day as the matchbox
bore to the old firelock
Death did not in his time flash from
serried ranks until the foemen stood two
or three hundred yards apart. 1t now fiits
in the air nearly three quarters Of mile,
as far as the sharpest eye can mark hu-
man figure His seige artillery would be
TO day by no means heavy field pieces. -
Wellington's heaviest preaching guns at
Badajos and Salamanca were twenty-four
Founders. The Rdsslens at Inkermann.
and the British at Tchernaya, brought
thirtytwo Founders into the field with
ease and effect. But the advantage W hich
heavy guns have always had over light
ones, hitherto, for the ordinary purposes
OF field artillery, has been rather in the
length Of the rarge than the size of the
ball. A twelve FOUNDER rushing through
a column of infantry is full of destruction
and almost as demoralizing rs one treble
the weight; but formerly it could not be
projected SO far. Science has, in our day,
destroyed the difference between them
Recent inventions, some Of them those of
our own countrymen, some OF English
men, and some of the present Emperor If
France, have furnished light eld-pieces,
which four horses can whirl at the widest
gallop from point to point, with more than
the deadly powe, which, forty years ago
belonged only to weapons which sixteen
horses could move with difficulty, and
which were always pieces de position.
Moreover, facilities have been created.
since Waterloo was fought, for bringing
together masses Of men thus armed, and
dashing them against one another, such as
the great Napoleon in his widest dreams
never dreamed of We all know how the
rapidly Of lis movements dazzled and as
founded our fathers. We know how he
strobe over Europe like magician, taking
armies up, as it seemed in those days, in
the hollow OF his hand, and tlinging them
in the twinkling of an eye on every point
where his giant plans needed them. We
know how distance seemed 10 shrivel up
at the blast of his trumpet. We know
how the pupils OF Turcnne and Montecu-
cult recoiied in dismay before legons
which struck like thunderbolt after hav-
ing advanced like the wind. Blu; great as
was the perfection to which lie carried the
ART of rapid concentration, it becomes the
crawling of a turtle when compared with
the power with railways have armed the
generals Of our day. When Napoleon
stared Oh his expeditions armies were Of
ncccssi divided into columns. which. III
order to obtain the means of subsistence
and of transport, were compelled either 20
follow each other at tolerably long inter
walls. or else march on the same point by
different circuiious routes. And they did
march literally marched, trudged every
inch Of the way on foot and the eagle flap
ped his wings in appreciation if they
achieved fifty miles in twenty four hours
The maddest Impotence of the maddest
had 10 adapt itself to the capa-
bli,ies of human legs and human s,om-
achs.
1t took, even in the hands of Napole
on, long while TO concentrate al army OF
two hundred thousand men at point three
hundred miles distant; and when they
we're there then it required stupendous
energy and stupendous resources to feed
them. All the grand old heroes had TO
take pork and flour into their grandest cal
cula.ions; and pork and flour, alas! have to
be car ried about to be of any use.
The other day we were told, in contrast
with this, that the present Emperor was
able to send twenty tive thousand men in
day from Paris 10 Lyons--a distance of
three hundred miles 1t would have ia
ken his uncle week of forced marching
to accomplish the same object. Austria is
sending troops into Italy at the same rate
Moreover. the same power which renders
this rapid concentration of troops SO easy,
renders their subsistence, while concentra-
ted, just as easy. The railroad dumps the
soldiers nova days down on the battle
field, aud the nexi dumps down month }
provisions in their rear. The telegraph,
we need hardly say. plays as wonderful a
part in this change as the railroad. One
of Napoleon's generals would have requir-
L.. e.,