Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-10

! confidence in itself, it had no chance against
the disciplined legions of the Germans. The
British, oumaneuvred and outfought, were drv-
en- back in disorder. The next day they made
another hopeless stand near Kingston, and
while this second battle was in progress, the
writer, sick and faint with wounds, limped
to the rear toward his own house, about mile
away, and, soon after reaching shelter, fell sense
less. When he recovered he found the victori-
GUS German troops all about him, and heard
group of them, as they refreshed themselves
after the battle, discussing the English soldiers
after this fashson: "They are stout soldiers,
these English volunteers-they run well, but
not so well as the French moblots. They shoot
well too, and if they could vancouver as wen as
they shoot, we shouldn't be here now
The result of the two days fighting lett all
England at the mercy of the invaders. London
was occupied by the German army, and the
terms of peace imposed by the cOnquerors were
more .onerous than those exacted of France.
Troops lived at free quarters; an enormous ram
som was required; the fleet was given up, for
England must give way to a new naval power,
and be made harmless for eIenge. Decay CT
commercial prosperity swiftly followed these
military disasters. Great Britain was stripped
of her colonies; Canada and the West Indies
were annexed to the United States Australia
became independent; India was lost after
the English there had all been destroyed, vainly
trying to hold the country, when cut off from
aid by their countrymen; Gibraltar and Malta
were ceded to the new naval power; Ireland be-
tod bn &c al
anarchy and revolution. Trade was gone, the
harbors empty, the factories silent, the land a
prey to pauperism and decay. Such is the mel
ancholy picture which this writer draws of the
possible fate of England, and no one can read it
without the conviction that all this might hap
pen, and something like it probably would hap
pen, if war should suddenly break out between
Germany and Great Britain.
But beside the interest of this story, as
| work of fiction and as a warning of what may
| be in store for England, it enables one to real
ize, even better than all the letters of war cor
respondents, the bitter humiliation and the
hopeless rage which must fill the hearts of
Frenchmen at the defeat and dishonor of their
country, and what seems, TO them at least, the
insolence of the conquerors. The incoherent
shreks with which Frenchmen express their
passionate hate and despair are less impressive
than the sober, restrained language in which an
Englishman tells the story of his cOuntry's fall,
and the correspondents, though sometimes
moved to Indignation and sympathy, are mere
spectators, personally unaffected by the calami-
ties they describe.
The author of this narrative is said to be Col.
Hamley, a frequent contributor to Black
wood. Whoever he is, as writer of realistic
fiction he is worthy to rank with DeFoe. His
motive, as we remarked, is political. He is a
tory, and believes in the importance of preserv-
ing the aseendency of the "wise aristocracy,"
which ''has been used to rule, to face political
dangers, and TO bring the nation with honor I'M
sullied through former struggles" He breads
the transfer of power into the hands of the
clover classes, unframed to the use of political
rights and swayed by demagogues." He thinks
there is no safety for England but in the reor-
ganization of the army on such basis as will
enable it TO meet that of Germany on equal
terms, and in keeping the army and navy con-
stantly on a war footing. If this were SO, the
prospect for England and Europe would be in
deed dark.