New-York tribune., 1870-10-03

English, or the Spaniards, or even the people
of the United States. All history is full of
instances of the violation Of the ethics of
war by cultivated and Christian people. When,
in modern times, have prisoners ever been
more cruelty tortured by a civilized enemy
than our soldiers at AndersOnyllle Is
there any gaOer worse than Capt. Writ
among the German armies Is there no COM
plaiDt. well or i'll founded, of the treatment
of Confederate prisoners in our own hands
during the war, The British prison-ship in
New-York Harbor during the Revolution was
the scene of horrors far exceeding those which
the French captives told after Sedan. The
patriots of Cuba have not only been cruelty
outraged by their Spanish cOnquerors, but ac-
tnaly butchered after surrender During the
Peninsular War; at the beginning of this cen
tury, both French, and Spanish, and English
soldiers were guilty of extraordinary inhu-
manity. In the present war the French have
been brutal in carrying out the order for eX-
pelling German residents from Paris, and If
they have committed no excesses IN the field
we must remember they have never been off
their own territory If they had crossed into
Germany, the same stories would probably
told about the Prussians.
The massacre of Bazeiles has parallels in
almost every modern war,-nay, accept the
worst possible account OF it, and that can
easily he matched in the history OF French or
of English armies. When SOult stormed Oporto,
in 1909 a hellish massacre Of non-c0mbatants
followed; rape pillage, and murder were un-
restrained; the river was literally chOked with
the dead; and 10000 of the Portuguese, in
Guiding women and children, persisted in
various ways. When Wellington assaulted
Ciudad Rodrigo, in 1912, still worse scenes
were enacted, and the British fired the town
in three or four places, and tried to blow up
the great magazine-a crime all the more
atrocious "a the town belonged to their allies.
When the same commander stormed Badajos,
soon afterward, the sack of the city, with all
the nameless accOmpaniments of murder and
violence lasted tlCO days and tlcO nights. When
he took St. Sebastian in 1913 the Outrages
of his troops almost exceeded belief. The
wretched inhabitants, driven from their burn
ing houses and huddled into one quarter of
the city, were subjected to every horror which
diabolical lust and rage could inspire. Girls
parents and their husbands. Every habitation
was pillaged The streets ran with wine and
blood, and resounded for two or three days
with the shrieks of the tortured. On the morn
ing of the assault st. Sebastian contained over
600 houses at the end of three days there re-
mained only 80. In this case also it must
be remembered that the inhabitants who
suffered were not only nOn-combatants but
the friends and allies of the British.
Wellington was just man but III
the excitement Of victory the brutal instincts
of the soldiers got the mastery and there
was no controlling them. Augereau made him
self Infamous by his cruelties to the peasants
of Catalonia iii 1910. The annals of the Brit
ish wars in India are stained with atrocities.
During the British American war of 1912 Ad-
miral COchrane received imperative orders from
the English Governments: to destroy
and lay waste all towns and districts
of the United States found accessible
20 the attack of British ornaments"
Gen. MOntauban got his title of Count Palikao
by a most nscrupulous campaign in China.
The destruction of Chambersourg was a blot
upon the Confederate campaign in Pennsyl-
vania, and in Sherman's march to the sea
there was many a deed of violence at which
nobody should have been more shocked than our
own commander. The most infamous, how
ever, of all recent wars are those of the
French in Algeria, where whole tribes, in
cluding men, women, and children, have re-
peatedly been sulfocated in their caverns, like
rats in a hole, not by the troops in the intox-
ication of battle but by the deliberate order
of French generals. For deeds like these,
Pelsser and st. Arnaud ought to be held in
execratiOn to the end of time.
The stories told of the Prussians just now
are undoubtedly exaggerated. but these in
stances are enough to show that something of
the kind may be anticipated in all wars, and
even deeds of the most abOminable character
do not necessarily prove that the nation under
whose flag they are committed is deficient i'll
true civilization. They are the manifestations
of innate wickedness which is naturally stirred
up by the disorders of war, and we never
shall be free from them till wars are alto
gether abolished.
is THE WORLD FLITf