The New York herald., 1870-12-01

the last few days, north of Paris, at Paris, and
south of Paris, 1t Is evident that the war will
soon be ended. The war began with the
advance of the armies Of Napoleon upon the
| German frontier; and till the battle of Woerth
1t was the general impression that the campaign
would be fought on German soil and ended
with the French occupation of or advance to
Berlin. But Woerth reversed the invasion,
and from that field the German armies poured
into France. The battle of Gravelotte de-
tached Bazaine from Mcmahon and shut him
up in Metz; Sedan disposed of the army Of
McMahon, the Emperor and the empire; the
capitulation Of Metz, for the purposes Of this
war, annihilated Napoleon's grand army and,
with Paris belsaguered, an improvised French
republic, with its provisional government
partly in Tours and partly In Paris, assumed
the desperate task Of expelling the. German
invader.
The regular French army, trained, equipped
aud mustered on or hard by the German from
tier, to the number Of three hundred and fifty
thousand men in July, had disappeared, had,
in fact, ceased to. exist; yea. In killed,
wounded and prisoners, fifty thousand more
had been added to the losses Of France, and
over half million of trained soldiers Of the
armed nationality OF Germany were on the
soil Of the republic before this provisional
French government (except in the immediate
defence Of Paris) began to develop anything
like an army or system Of offensive or
defensive operations. AL that the Germans
had left Of the original armed reserves Of
Paris were shut upfn Paris, and for outside
defensive or offensive movements France had
no army. There were, however, raw ma
terials in abundance from which armies might
be created and brought into the field, and to
this work that part Of the provisional govern
ment which fed to- Tours has been devoting
itself with the energy of despair. We dare
say that on Monday last, north and south of
Paris, and actively operating for the relief Of
Paris, there were not less than three hundred
thousand armed Frenchmen in the field, and
not without the hope of reinaugurating the
resistless warlike reaction of the republic of
1898.
But since Monday last all such baseless
anticipations have been dispelled. The
French Army of the North, at Amiens, has
been badly defeated, totally routed, in short,
and put to fight towards Arras the Army of
the South, at Beaune, in attempting to force q
passage to Fontainebleau, was repulsed with
heavy losses in killed, wounded and prisoners,
and, failing in this attempt, the Army Of the
Loire has Withdrawn. Several sorties from
the west and south sides Of Paris in force
were easily repulsed by the Prussians, and
with severe losses to the French. Grouping
oil these movements together, as parts of
general plan Of operations agreed upon
between General Trochu in Paris and the
active government at Tours, we reach the
common object in view and the extent Of the
| failure. The common object was the relief Of
Paris, and the failure seems to involve .
speedy capitulation Of Paris and the imme-
diate abandonment of Tours by Gambetta and
his colleagues in the government there.
| We are not exactly informed of the move
| ments Of the main army of Prince Frederick
Charles. From such hints as we have, how
ever, it would seem to be his purpose not to
drive away the French Army of the Loire, but
to cut off its retreat southward and to enve-
lop and capture or divide and dispense II, and
at the same time to take possession of Tours.
But whatever his designs, the disasters Of
the French at all points since Sunday last
justify the conclusion that their hastily impro-
vised armies are powerless against the disci-
plined Germans, and that General Trochu's
three or four hundred thousand troops in
Paris are wholly unequal to the task of raising
the siege or cutting way of escape through
the enemy's lines. We return, then, to our
first proposition, that this war on the part Of
France for the expulsion of the invader, or for
the relief Of Paris, is at length proved to be
worse than useless, and that in these late
French defeats we have the beginning of the
end.
It is reported that the Prussians are coll ect-
ing near Paris an immense quantity of pro-
visions for the immediate relief of the inhabi-
tants with the capitulation Of the city. Count
Bismarck, some weeks ago, called the attention
| of the world to the difficult question-How
! are we to prevent the starvation of thousands
Of the people of Paris if the capitulation is
deferred until the city is reduced to famine?
How are we to supply, even for day, those
two millions of destitute people thrown upon
our hands when it is as much as we can do to
| supply our own army, and when the country,
for several days march from any of the gates
of Paris, is utterly exhaustedp If this report,
however, of the accumulation of provisions by
the Germans is true (and we hope it is), Count
Bismarck, in practical way, has undertaken
to answer his own question; and In view Of
| the expected capitulation we trust that in this
benevolent stroke Of military diplomacy he
will achieve glorious success.
! But II the war approaches Its termination