New-York tribune., 1870-09-05
THE CROWNING VICTORY.

with the surrender OF MaCmdnOnS ARMY anu
| the capture of the Emperor Napoleon, which
we announced in extra editions on Saturday
afternoon and Sunday morning, the desperate
struggle in France is practically ended. Paris,
| a Capital without Government, city
without head or an army, wild with thou
sand conflicting cOunsels may attempt
an impracticable defense; Metz, Strasbourg,
and other points, may obstinately delay their
inevitable surrender; the Ministry may at
tempt, if they retain power, to carry out their
vain threat of continuing the struggle with
new levies but the war is nevertheless, over.
France has lost her leadership in Europe and
can scarcely, for quarter of century to come,
be reckoned among the great military Powers;
while the cOnquerOr-not Prussia, but, at
| last, United Germany-becOmes the domi-
nant Nation of the Old World as clearly as
the United States is master of the New.
We publish all we have received up to
very late hour this morning of remarkable
special dispatch to THE TRIBUNE, descriptive
capture of Sedan. The failure of the telegraph
| lines deprives us of the concluding half of this
stirring narrative, but we hope to give it COM
plete in tO-morrOw's TRIBUNE. 1t is by the
writer of the brilliant report of the battle OF
Aug IS, at GravelOtte which decided the fate OF
Metz; but this story is as far superior to that as
the battles it describes exceed, in importance and
in their far-reaching and tremendous cOnse-
quences, the struggles with Bazaine.
| From this writer's vigorous descriptions and
familiar and apt illustrations, the reader will
obtain clear idea of the strategy and the
tactics by which the Prussians first interrupted
MacMahOn in his march, and finally over
whelmed him in Sedan. The outlines of the
movements preceding the battle had preyi-
ously been made plain to the readers of The
TRIBUNE, from other information. This more
than confirms all that has gone before, and
! establishes how modest were the first prOca-
nations of Prussian success. The previous
accounts of King William did not exaggerate;
| they did not suggest how greatly the French
| army had been shattered, nor how hopeless
| their cause had been rendered. Not two days,
! as was reported, but one, sufliced to crush the
! great army of 10000 men with which Mac
| Mahon had retreated to Sedan, and compel It's
surrender. The two Prussian armies, daringly
advancing on either bank of the Meuse, formed
their junction under the very guns of the Citadel
of Sedan, and established a Gordon, crescent
shaped of artillery and infantry, around the
southern and western sides of the city. This
line drawing closer and closer, and becoming
stronger as it contracted, at length carried
the commanding points of the field, and
when the battle eliminated, at i've
o'clock in the afternoon, the Prusslan
artillery looked down upon the French
crowding in confusion into the city, not musket-
shot distant. Resistance was in vain; escape
was impossible and nothing remained for the
French thus completely surrounded but sur
render At o'clock on Thursday the French
troops, practically no longer an organized army,
gave up the struggle. More than one hundred
thousand men, not forty thousand only as the
French Ministers declare, at least six hundred
cannon, and all the equipage of magnificent
army are the least of the fruits of this great
victory.
The surrender Of Bazaine must of necessity
follow. He is as powerless to continue the
struggle now as Johnston was after the surrender
of Lee and as with the capitulation of Lees
army all the forces of the Southern Confed-
eracy laid down their arms, so with the fall of
MacMahon the rest go to the wall. Bazane
knows how, hopeless is further resistance on
his part, and he will not attempt it. Stras-
bourg, Thionville, all the fortresses of the
Mosele and the Rhine, naturally fall, after "a
brief delay, into the hands of the Germans.
Only at Paris can the bloody scenes be re-
newed and there the danger is from civil con-
vulsions, not foreign invasion. When at length
the deceived people of the Capital realize how
they have been betrayed, the revulsion of feel
ing will be terrible, and the military forces
there will be pOwerless to prevent the punish
ment of the traitors and the overthrow
of the semblance of Imperialism which
remains to insult them. We have no news of
the situation at Paris, but we apprehend that
the most painful scenes of the war are yet to
follow in the Capital. The only encouraging
thought is that the revolution, which nothing
c,o preyent, and which we fear may be