The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-09

many the Royal House of Prussia was dis
posed to arrogate to itself the lions share of
the prerogatives and honors of the conduct
Of the war. Thus, the Princes of the blood
came in command second and third after o
man of comparatively humble origin. This
went all we'll until the battles of August at
Metz, where General Won Steinmetz, on his
own responsibility, without justification,
disobeyed the positive orders of the comman-
der-in- chief, in passing the Moselle on the
south side of Metz instead of the north side.
Hadhe done the latter as ordered, the repeated
but Intellectual aud terribly costly attacks of
the 9TH and Sth Corps on the enemy's position
at Moscsu-ste. Hubert from the Bois de
Vaux and the Bois des Ognons, would have
been replaced by an easy and presumably
successful and far less costly attack by the
same body from the heights of the Bois du
Saulny. There the Germans would have had
the advantage of high ground against lower
positions of the French, and would not have
had to cross, at such immense loss, such deep
and steep ravines, in the face of the enemy's
concentrated fire. From Bazaine's first posi-
ton, when attacked, on the Metz-Verdun
road, he could not have SO readily turned to
answer the attack if the latter had come at
once from the north and southwest, as he did
against these narrow heads of columns which
approached him from the south and south
west only. On his repulse, during the
the evening of the 18th of September, his
only possible line Of retreat would have been
down the dangerous deile of Gravelotte by
Ars-sur- -Mosele, into the valley of the Mo-
selle (the very line on which Won Steinmetz
wrongly came up against him. and Bazaine's
retreat into Metz, on the morning of the 10Th,
would have been rendered impossible. He
would have been either crushedin yet another
battle, or chased down the Moselle towards
Nancy, which movement would eventually
have subjected him to like certainty of
annihilation.
After this event the King personally ex-
pressed his displeasure to General Won Stein
metz, and ordered him to report in future,
not to the great headquarters of the army,
but to that of Prince Frederick Charles.
Upon this the temper of the General none
too sweet ordinarily, grew notably irascible
and upgenial, which quality he took such
pains to manifest in his personal and official
Intercourse with the Prince, that at length
the relations of the two grew into public
scandal at headquarters, seriously disturbing
the serenity of the official atmosphere
and threatening ultimately to vitiate the
discipline of the armies concerned. This led
to the removal of Won Steinmetz, not at the
request of the Prince, but at that of General
Won Moltke. Since then matters stand as
above described, in a curiously pied condi-
tion-an "army" composed of two corps, and
provided with general staff of its own, yet
without any commander, but the commander
of another ''army," of which the first men
toned forms part. That the influence of
modern ideas regarding "equal rights" is
gradually forcing those who are the na-
tural opponents of such ideas to cede
them some recognition is evident,
not only from King Williams appointment of
a man of the people to an important COM
mand over higher born officers, but also from
the fact that the chief of the staff of Prince
Frederick Charles army-Gen. Stiehle-is
nobling proposition, which has usually fol-
lowed on the heels at least, if it did not
necessarily precede, all high civil or military
distinctions. This man, still quite young,
rose solely by his talents, and was chosen to
his present position by the Prince in prefer
ence to men of far longer service and of in
comparably colder" families.