The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1870-10-02
Strasburg has Fallen.

In the present contest between France
and Prussia, extreme partisan views have
been held by others than those directly en-
gagged in the contest. Privately, persons
will have their sympathies incline one side
or another, and it requires moro than ordi-
nary restraint to prevent them breaking
out either in the public journals or on the
political platform. Some, however, have
lost sight of almost every principle OF honor
in the phrenzy of partisanship. Some jour
nails, like the London Times and New York
Tribune, have gone SO far as to deliberately
run down the French, to falsify or delay,
or even suppress, any intelligence favor
able to their cause, and to impute to them
motives of the grossest character. Their
behavior to their prisoners has been stig-
matizcd as barbarous, and their conduct to
the wounded on the battle field or in hospl-
tai branded as inhuman. Some few have
even gone so far as to impute to them COW
ardice in action, while complaints of their
having fred on ambulances and on the
bearers of flags of truce have been per-
sistently, if not truthfully, made. Let the
history of the siege of strasburg be suf-
fcient refrltation of these shameful false
hoods. 1t has fallen-but like all former
struggles in this eventful war, without dis
honor to Frenchmen or disparagement of
their historic or traditional bravery. The
defence has been heroic, and will rank WITH
Saragossa in gallantry and in horrors
One of our cotcmporaries says that this
r. md fhn no
is right for there is but little of it extant,
and what there is, is not of the age. And
vet occasionally some sparks of magma
nimity are struck out of the dullmaterial-
ism of modern existence. The actors IN
the defence of Strasburg will be found to
have had their share, when the full particu-
lars of the events transpiring within its
beleaeuered walls shall have been made
public. When romance and poetry gov
erned minds and hearts, the age was Ca
4 tholic; and even now, when any traces OF
heroic action appear, they generally crop
up among Catholics, and never except as
the direct fruit of some lingering feeling
or principle first implanted by our religion.
Tn this connection we cannot refrain from
layinp before our readers some of the in
cidents which preceded the surrender,
taken from the London Tablet; Strasburg,
I, it continues, is a Catholic city, with Ca
, tholic Bishop, and the siege and the con-
J duct of the Bishop will be memorable
Under the most terrible sufferings the gar
t rison and population have till now held
: out, and nobly done their duty to thell
e country The good Bishop is dead. The
i French have to thank Prussia as well as
, China for increasing of late the list OF theil
:; martyrs of charity. The aged prelate was
: we learn, broken down-by the incessan
f labors and privations he undertook for hi
. people. We may also conclude that the
e death of Mgr. Raess may have been notably
I + accelerated by the grief he felt at the bru
n tal refusal of the Prussian commander t.
I; snare the women and children. The Bish
G OPS remonstrance and petition that thos'
helpless ones might be allowed to go ou
4 was met with the Prussian excuse tha
It their absence would prolong the siege. l
g will be for the civilization of the nineteenth
E. century to take note of the fact whicl
d comes out, that the sufferings of the femal
q nopulation and their infants form an ele
mert in that Prussian strategy of whic
d we have heard the praises. The benevo
'e lent King is said to have since ordered tina
e the dwelling houses were not any more t
be fred on but all sentimentality mus
e., e, give way in war, so the women and chill
l. dren were not allowed to leave the crum
m bling city. The advantage of their starva
D. ton could not be relinquished. "A fricn
ie who was fortunate enough to escape froE
il, in Strasburg recently, and who went direct
I'd Rome, has given an affecting account
"a the horrors the people were even then er
~ during The famine was increasing dalI,
~ and all the non -combatants were crowde
night and day into cellars and sewers Il
safety from the terrible shells. Notwiti
stauding their sufferings, they Professe
'S their determination to stand oy tue resolu