The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-09-30

|
Around and at Sedan. 10000
| Total killed ana wounded 95Ooo
Add prisoners. 1875, S24
And we have grand total off,. ...... $50, 1874
as the losses of The French army from Saar-
bruck to Sedan in killed, wounded and pri-
soners. Add the prisoners taken at Laon,
| Toul and Strasbourg, and this grand aggregate
| is swelled to 100000 men, The remainder of
the regular standing army Of $50, 900 men,
with which Napoleon entered into this war, is
made up of the column of Bazaine, estimated
at 10000 men, cooped up In Metz; the de-
tachment Of Vinoy, escaping from Sedan to
| Paris, and the fugitive detachments, amount
| ing to five or six thousand men, escaping from
Sedan into the neutral territory of Belgium,
where they were disarmed. We may say that
Of the original regular army Of 100000 men
! which Napoleon possessed when he opened
this war at Saarbruck there are now Eek
Guiding Bazaine's army in Metz, which may be
counted as prisoners) less than SO, 900 able
bodied men remaining in the service of
France.
The losses in warlike materials to the French
army are simply incalculable. They are Off
cially reported including TO- $50 horses, to say
nothing of the thousands of horses killed; 1O2
mitrailleuses, SS7 field and fortress pieces of
artillery, over 400 wagons and trains, several
pontoon trains military magazines, railway
trains, with an incalculable quantity of sup
plies in small arms, the gleanings Of all the
battle fields and fortresses captured, ammuni-
ton, clothing, equipments forage and pro-
visions. The French losses in the track Of Mac
Mahon's retreat from Woerth to tho Moselle
are given officially as embracing two magazines
10000 woollen blankets, 10000 cloths (bags,
we suppose) of rice, coffee, sugar, large guam
titles of wine, rum and tobacco, this latter
article alone amounting to halfa million of tina
Iers, and tobacco is one of the prime necessi-
ties Of German army.
These are terrible losses, but still more ter
rible are the losses of France laid waste and
Of her suspended productive industry, and the
loss of that military discipline, superiority and
prestige which made France the arbiter and
the French army the terror of the Continent
All this is gone, with the removal Of that SPLEEN
did standing army with which Louis Napoleon
had counted upon a triumphal march to Berlin
The losses of Germany In killed and wounded
in this war (the attacking party have been
much heavier than the French losses. King
William has, probably, thus lost from Saar-
bruck to the surrender of Strasbourg,
over $50, 600 men; but he has still half
million and more of soldiers at his command
of the same quality as his soldiers lost. In the
outset the difference between him and Napo-
leon was the difference between o French
standing army of $50, 900 men, demoralzed by
luxurious empire, and the vigorous armed
nationality of united Germany Of 700, 600
soldiers, the best disciplined, armed and
equipped, without exception, and the best
commanded of any army in the world since the
time of the first Napoleon.
Napoleon the Third has brought upon France
all these heavy disasters, involving the loss of
| his position as arbiter of Europe and the loss
| France Of her military fame and prestige,
and what, worst Of all. appears now to be
inevitable, humiIiatng confscation of her
Rhine frontier. But France, under the reviv-
| ing inspiration of the republic, will fight to
''the last ditch" This is her heroic resolu-
ton but Of what avail will be the fighting of
her hastily collected raw troops against the
disciplined and swarming German legions,
widening their depredations for forage and
provisions every day and more destructive to
| the subsistence of the country than cloud of
locusts. It appears to us that peace is the
only way of safety to France from general
devastation, famine and political and social
chaos, and that peace is the solemn first duty
| of the great neutral Powers in view of the
general dangers threatened from a prolonga-
ton of this terrible war. Peace is especially
the duty and the policy of England, looking
to the menacing preparations of Russia for a
descent upon Constantinoplc, the gateway of
| the East, and at the manifestations of British
public sentiment in favor of generous help
ing hand to the French republic in behalf of
peace.
| Tup pOpR AND THE KING OF ITALY The