Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1870-11-18
THE EUROPEAN POWERS.
THEIR MILITARY sTEFGTH.
Members, Armanle ut and Discipline
The Part Zach W u Play in Coming strugsle.

1t seems now Amos. inevitable that all, or
nearly az, the important Powers OF Europe are
TO be drawn into great Struggle for the preser-
walton OF their national homo, - or the msinte
nance of "the balance OF power" myth cal
terms too often used to cloak the ambitious or
SELFISH schemes OF the peoples rulers. in view
OF the probability o; a general and complicated
conflict, it is well TO review the military streug.h
OF the powers which will doubtlCSS take p - il
IT, Tie latest advicos by cable ssreng hen
the tsNef that Russia viii stand shoalde-
to stou'de- with the victorious leg.ons OF
kng William, III retain for corta n exactly
stated s. 2''s Of 70 sable victory. Again this
form dab'e combination England, Austria,
France, Italy and Turkey, kut together by
common fear, and animated by a common III
terest, are 10 ofer the fearful protest OF AIMED
resistance.
ENGIANDs FORCE
in the struggle will be almost purely naval.
Mr.. Kinslske has shown tn at at no tune during
the Crimean war han she more than y, 900 men
IN the field, sui she had the greatset difficulty
10 mainttln even spch force PC that. Ia the
coming war, even fhou On she strain every nerve,
IL rs barely possible toat her contribution in
men TO the alliance can reach 10000. Nomi-
nally, at present, the English armv musters
0i, eco men, and only one in every $50 ia a raw
recruit contrasting in this latter respect very
favorably with every other European Power.
In the Russian army the per centage OF recr uits
is one in every GO; in the Prussian army, be-
fore the war, one in 301; in the Austrian army,
one in 4o5; in theTurkish army, one in coo. In
every b. anch OF war male. eel the English army
is at least abreast OF tue other Powers, ard every
thing may be hoped for except men, and these
can only, from the exigercies Of he- position be
supplied in limited numbers. Turning to the
Dava, arm of her power, however, it is certain
fhat she can in this respect be indeed a helptu oil
member OF tire alliance. She row possess at
least forty-hve or fifty iroD-cla6s. varying in
tonnage from 900 10 6,cC1 tous. Her wooden
meet Is, OF course. much larger, but the in
proyements in modern warfare render them opiv
ueful a Satisfactory 10 lron.clads. They would,
however, be very valuable in protecting En- glish
commerce from the attacks OF hostile priyateers
TIE military tTRENGTH OF FRANCE,
before the commencement of the present war,
was believed to be certainly equal, aud PROC
ably infritely superior, TO that of her rival.
But the shock of actual conflict has scattered
her forces, and what her present value as a
cOnbafant may be il - impos sible TO tell there
are signs, however, of returning yigor anon
ner people, and soon the whole country, m.
spired BY the traditions OF past glory, will be
awake 70 the duties and the exigencies OF tue
hour. 1t would be idle, however, to estimate
ID heures her available military reoources; we
can only be certain Of the fact that she has
abundant strength, Z the opportunity is given
her 70 collect it, aud If q fair degree of energy
be evinced by the government to whom She h5s
coptded the care of her honor and the cecurty
OF her soil. The French navy, however, as vet
unharmed in the present war, IS still very formi-
dable. Its estimated strength IS 5S5 vessels. of
which thirty-seven are iron -clsds aad fifteen
floating batteries. There ere more than hun
dred screw and nearly two hundred paddle
wheel steamers of ell clacses. The navy is in
the most pei state of efficiency, well manned
well ofhcered, and amply furnished with the
iatest improved naval war material. In any
coDnlct tDat assumed naval form ic could not
fall 10 play conspicuous part, and Ii is Justly
rated rs only second in strength to that OF
England.
AUSTRIA,
after France, will probably furnish TIE largest
proportion Of human hostile automatl-living
food for powder-On the side Of the alliance
and from all sides there comes an unyarying re
port that she has well weighed ,he lessons o.
SadOwa and the ro-PrusSian war of Irr6
Inc act1ai s,snaipg army IN 1869 was 21s, 40
augmented, 1t does not no W exec cd $50 OCO men
Provision has been AIDE, accord ug to the new
law, for raising IL BY levies of iorce identical
in character with the PfuSs;ap landwehr n
SOO,C men, but the figures are rot likely to be
reached except on paper. 100000 men are the
very utmost that can be placed in the he Id as an
offensive force. In drill and discipline theSe
troops are laid to lie vastly imprO I'd since they
lfst ya'nly encountered the Prussians. IL mus.
hle are gro sly ignorant, and if there be any
truth IN the principle, which MANY persops
believe to rave been finally established by our
0W N war; thst educated soldiers are better III
mere nghting machines, the Austrian army -
certainly much weaker In this respect than the
PTussiar. In the war OF 1866, out OF $50 $50 men
only 5l,5;O were able to write. As a naval Iower
Austria has, of course, no standing wbatayar
In spite OF her single nautical victory in 1886
over the irOE-clad Re Gulanluomo Her dee;
numbers but few ships, and she poses
.catceiy any men likely to make good ne Of
such resources az she has.
has $4,000 men, on paper, but in fact her troops
do not certainly exceed $50 20. These are pretty
well armed, mostly with breech-loaders of Enr-
fish manufacture, but the discipline is shame
fully lax, and the officers are by no means a
ve1y highly cultured class of men. Ii she were
g lItIie doubt that Italy could muster an amy
OF nearly 10000 men, but great part OF them
would be, OF course, raw leyIes.
TURKEYS ARMY
now numbers probably at least 800, coo men. OF
these $4,000 are quar- tered in remote eyiors OF
the empire, from which 1t would be dangerou.
to the authority of the Porte to remove thsm-
while it would probably take at least three
months to bring them up 10 the field OF battle
The turkish navy is now also q formid lale
force, and it is commanded by an English adj
mural lt numbers at least fifty ships, twelve
of which are iron claSs, built in England upan
very good models The army, it sho al be re-
nembered, is armed almost exclusively with
American breech-lOading rites.
THE STRENGTH OF PRUSSIA
has been proved by the pending struggle. Bat
it is pretty certain that her veteran troops have
and the discipline aud morale OF the army is
very inferior TO what fs was before the outbreak
OF hOstilities. In a fresh conflict it is by no
means certain that the army would display the
same energy and vig0r. She has still 100000
men under arms-not on paper, but in reality.
EUssIA,
on paper, has an army of nearly million and
half OF men; but, in fact, she has certainly not
half that number, and even OF these IL is stated
by some authorities that it would take her at
least three months to concentrate 500 coo men on
her frontier, and fur Their two months to con-
centrate eco more; but we may, perhaps,
fairly rate her offensive siren 9Th at GOO OO0 The
great trouble with the Russia army 3 the ex-
IRENE dlffculty o" mobilizing it, Her vast pcs
C sions Pre- as yet miserably deficient in facili-
Us of internal communication, and her troops
scattered from ore end of the lard to the other,
can only be gathered together by months of
patient ard energet labor. The army is also re-
ported to be very badly armed; only ten ger
cent OF the men are equipped with breech-
leaders.
THE GRAND TOTALS.
Having thus briefly and cursorily run over the
estimated strength of the contending powers we
arrive at rough grand totals, rs follows: Prus-
sia, sec, 900; Russia, 600 O0-total 400 ,Oo0 Eng
land, 10000; France, 6JO,C90; Italy, $4,000;
N u,.-l- M M <<<a Al 4 q