The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1870-11-05
VOL. 8. No. 46.
Metz Surrendered Z!

The fortunes of the French are still waning.
The triumphs of the Prussian forces are still fol-
lowing each other in quick succession and in
magnitude and Importance in their leading char
acteristcs almost incredible, seeming more like
a romance, dream, reverie than true, actual
history. On the 9th ultimo, Bazine is reported
to have surrendered Metz to the Prussian forces
with one hundred and fifty thousand prisoners
This seems almost incredible. 1t has the ap-
pearance and air of mystery that cannot be
solved. 1t assumes the look of something be-
hind the screen that has not yet shown ITSELF
Why it should be necessary for an army of this
strength to surrender or to be in situation that
should render their surrender a military necessi-
ty or an expediency is more than our under
standing of European warfare and politics can
divine. If there be actual necessity for these I'M
precedented capitulatons, there is more defective
generaship in the ranks of the French military
resources than we had suspected had an exist
ence there.
If the disasters that have hung like lowering
storm about the wings of the French eagles are
not attributable to disreputable lack of gener-
alship and military ability in the French ranks,
there is more of treachery in its generals and
greater and more successful combination of its
execution than has ever yet covered the pages of
any history in any age of the world. If we are
to account for these things upon the ground
of the treachery of the French generals and their
oor..:an Nth E;no w illiopn and hic Councillors
they intend to re-establish the French empire
with Louis Napoleon, or some one he shall name,
upon the throne. This result will but heal
wound whose fostering matter will rankle in its
concealment for period and then throw the
body polite into more violent spasms than those
that have lately cost the Prussians so much blood
and treasure and the French so much morti6ca-
ton, so much humiliation and such a series of
disasters Her territory invaded and held by
victorious foe, her splendid cities, her cultiva-
ted fields, her beautiful villages, her thriving
communities all falling victims to the inevitable
devastation that marks the track of an invading
army.
If these speculations concerning a collision
between the french leaders ana the RUSSIAN
government to restore the empire are without
foundation, then we acknowledge that we have
been deceived in the military capacity ofFrance
and in the ability of her generals. If they are
doing the best they can for France under the
circumstances, we can see nothing in the future
for them that is encouraging. We can see no
other termination Of the war than that which
the shrewd, cool-headed Bismarck chooses to
give.
With large portion of the French territory
in the actual possession of the invaders, with
Strasbourg, Sedan and Metz securely within their
grasp, with two armies numbering more than
two hundred thousand men captured and on pa
role, with but a slight degree of unity and con-
cert Of action among the leaders of the govern
ment and the French people, with Paris hemmed
in and the channels that feed her shut, it strikes
us that the French must be annihilated or be
satisfied with the bes: terms she can beg from
it may bean ungenerous conqueror.