The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-01

own oitadels in an adequate posture Of
defense But what official incompetency
left wanting, the courage of gallant and de-
termined soldier supplied. The magnetic
power of single will transformed the garri-
son of the Alsatian stronghold into baud of
heroes. With supplies too scanty for the
wants Of its defenders, with defenses too ex-
tensive to be manned by the handful of
troops that were left behind them, Strasburg
has held out till sheer exhaustion could be
goaded on no further, and longer resistance
would have meant passive slaughter. Stras-
burg has deserved well of France, truly, for
it has held up before a panic-stricken and
covering populace an example of heroic de-
votion which has done more to kindle the pa
triotic fervor that seems now to be spreading
over her western provinces, than any other
event of most eventful struggle. General
Uhrich has been of more service to his coun-
try than an army corps, and he will find an
honored place in the roll of her heroes.
few days later than the first German ad-
vance upon Strasburg occurred the series of
battles which ended in the isolation of Metz,
and the separation of the two main divisions
of the French army. just as the citadel by
the Rhine commanded Alsace, the great for
tress on the Moselle is the dominating point
of Lorraine. While one of the threatened
provinces is gone, the other thus remains in
dispute. Metz has as yet experienced none of
the horrors of pitiless bombardment, but it
has evidently been brought face to face with
famine, and has been to someextent decimated
by pestilence. Yet sortie after sortie has been
made by the starving and demoralized
troops of Bazaine, and a sufficient number
of the enemy are kept idly Watching the guns
of the fortress to present vindication of the
use of strong places for national dsfense and
preservation. How long Metz may hold out
mill ,NrolNah1u danapd tho inn hot ha
garrison and inhabitants can exc out sc anty
subsistence from everything that can possibly
stand in the place of food. With the sur
rounding country thoroughly cleared of all
that can contribute to the sustenance of man
and beast, and with every avenue of obtaining
supplies effectually cut off by the enemy, it
is highly improbable that the capitulation of
Metz can be much longer delayed.
If the news of the Provisional Government
suppressing the fact of the surrender of
Strasburg be correct, it is a circumstance
greatly to be regretted The crowning sin
of the ex-Government was, that it did not
dare to tell the people the truth. 1t is of the
very essence of the new regime that it should
conceal neither danger nor disaster. The
State is no longer the dynasty. 1t has be-
come in fact what it is in theory-the people.
If the French nation are to be unnamed by
misfortune, and are unfit to be trusted with
the true aspect of their own destinies then
their patent of self-government lacks conir-
nation, and the future is as destitute of pro-
mise as the past was of performance. If the
news can reach Paris that the independence
of the country rests more than ever upon her
shoulders, it should be sent there with all
despatch. The capital has, up till this
time, shown itself worthy of the supreme
crisis through which the nation is passing.
A fresh calamity ought only to nerve its pur-
pose to a more resolute pitch, and should
awaken that old republican fervor which
never yet failed to make a people, risen up
in its might, terrible in its energy and irwin
cible in its resolves.