The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-08-19
S. G.
Friday forming, August 10, 1870.
Progress OF tho Prussian Arms.


continues her march to Paris. The New
York Times asserts that the "best posi-
BILE position on the Moselle" has been as
completely driven in as the frontier line
between Saarbruck and Weissenburg,
and the invader is another stage nearer
to the capital of France. The news of
the evacuation of Metz may be prema-
ture, but cut off as it now is from all
communication with Paris, and left, as it
must necessarily be, to the defence of q
garrison inadequate to its vast require
ments, its capitulntion can only be a
question of time, and its Importance as
bulwark against tho conquerors is
thoroughly neutrahzed. About tho
evacuation of Nancy, there can be no
question, and it is quito clear that the
100000 men lately stationed on the Mo-
selle have effected retreat to the line of
the Meuse,. or twenty miles further back.
The slowness with which news travels in
the present struggle is beyond all prece-
dent. Nancy was entered on Friday,
and we were not in possession of the
fact t,until an interval of two days. The
battles OF Woerth and Saarbruck were
fought ten days ago, and we are only
now beginning tc appreciate their magni-
tude, in view Of their results, First,
the possession Of Alsace was yielded up
without further struggle; then the passes
of the Vosges we're tnrdily admitted to
be the property of the enemy, and now
the ancient province of Lorraine, the
duchy Of Lothaire, is oil but overrun by,
the Prussian troops. That all this has
been abandoned while two-thirds of the
French army have not yet faced the
enemy, spenks volumes for Prussian
strategy and prowess, as we'll as for their
overwhelming numerical strength.
Previous reverses have made Paris
calmer but not less defiant. It remains
to be seen whether the latest and most
fatal yet of all the evidences of weakness
which France has displayed in the course
of the struggle, will leave her confidence
unshaken. There is feverish and des-
perate energy in the statement, "the
hour approaches when the enemy will
be chased from the land" that in spite
of its incongruity with existing ciroum-
stances, lends it q sort Of tragic pathos.
There are still three lines Of defence to
be passed before reaching the gates of
Paris, but who can tell whether the
Emperor will be prepared to make a
stund either in the valley of the Meuse,
on the wood-studded plateau of the
Argonnes, or amid the plains of central
France, watered by the Aisne, the Marne
and the Seine. At one or other of
these points stand must be made; but
the conviction that another battle must
equally decide contest, which, SO far as
its original purpose is concerned. is
already practically ended, will render the
French commanders doubly cautious in
their selection both of time and place.
Their most highly trained troops have
been proved incapable of standing be-
fore the weight of the Prussian onset;
they may, therefore, reasonably hesitate
before bringing into action an army
reinforced by raw levies from Paris. and
untried soldiers from Chalons. To en-
gage the Prussians by sections becomes
daily moro impossible. Their contracted
wedge-like front is now confined within
a space Of about twenty miles, and their
three great divisions evidently advance
with perfect unity Of plan and direc-
ton. The capture of Strasburg, which
appears imminent, has assumed the
character of mere episode of the cam
paign, just as that Of Metz may do, now
that it is completely isolated from its
base of supplies. The demonstration Of
the feet in the Baltic comes all too late to
turn the desperate fortunes Of the En-
pirc.
The French Government is justified in
the boast that the internal discussions
on which the Ppussians may have reck-
oncd do not exist. But while men Of all
shades Of politics vie with each other in