The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-13
LORD PALMERSTON IN PARIS IN1s15.
TEzrnAcrs FROM HIS PRIVATE 5oURNAIs.

review of Pruss1an troops at Champ de Mars.
There were about twenty thousand infantry,
cavalry, and artillery. The Emperor of Rus
sia, King of Prussia, and the Duke of We'll
lington were present. Many English, but
scarcely any French. The sovereigns rode
round, the troops standing in close columns,
the cavalry drawn up with their
backs to the Invalides The staff then
took post, and the troops marched by.
The Prussians are remarkably fine-looking
men, and extremely neat in their dress. The
guards are particularly tall and well-sized, so
that the whole front rank of each company
looks as if it had been sized bya ruler. The
cuirassiers are fine troops, the rest of the
cavalry are rather slovenly in their appear
ance, and monnted upon strong but not very
active-looking horses The lancers, with their
little black. and-white striped flags at the end
of their lances, have very singular and
pretty effect at distance. The foreign
troops all march with shorter and more
constrained and stiff step than ours. The
Emperor of Russia was SO much struck
with the active, swinging step of our
men that he ordered his troops Immediately
to adopt it. In two days afterwards he had
q body of them out in the Champ de Mars.
The men, as might naturally have been ex-
pected, were confused and puzzled between
the step they were used to and that which
they we're now required to march with; the
consequence was, they did neither one thing
nor the other, and marched remarkably i'll.
The Emperor was in great passion, and put
three colonels of regiments into close arrest
in one of our guard-rooms. His aides-de
camp thought themselves lucky that he did
not order them to dance, like Vestris, at
twenty-four hours notice, under pain of
visit to Siberia
Monday, Sept. Al went at TO q sham
fight of the Prussians in the plain of Grenelle,
about two miles out of Paris. There ap-
peared to be about twenty thousand men of
all arms. They were drawn up in two bodies,
and, after some evolutions of cavalry, one line
advanced and the other retired; they did not
fire. The manueuvres were said to be meant
to represent the late attack of the Prus-
slams upon Paris. The troops man9uvred
with great quickness and accuracy, and the
Duke of Wellington was much pleased with
their manner of deploying from column. 1
was observing to him the different practice
of our army and that of other nations iu their
manner of advancing to an attack they
always advance in column, we in line. He
said he was satisfied that this was one reason
why we had always beaten the French that
if troops are steady, and the line we'll formed,
the line will always have an advantage over
the column, from presenting SO much larger
a front of fire; and that, by attacking Che
column rapidly, they are prevented from
deploying, which is an operation that eau
not be performed under a close fire. The
object of the column attack is to
penetrate into the enemys position
and deploy in their rear if it succeeds in
this, the result is certain. Twice in the
Peninsula the French had established CO.
lumn on our position, at Busaco and Albuera,
but in each instance they were Immediately
charged by fresh troops and the column
destroyed. At Busaco the duke had had q
regiment of Portuguese militia to make
road. The work had, however, been done
before they came, and he was going to lead
them back They begged that, as a battle
was likely to take place, they might be kept.
He consented, and desired them to remain on
the very ground where they were. This
happened in the course of the action
to become an important point, and
the French made great effort to gain pos
session of it. The militia soon found that
they had made hard bargain of it, and lost
no time in debating who should go away first
The duke, however, Immediately brought up
two British regiments, and before the French
column could deploy on the ground it had
seized, it was cut to pieces. He said he had
not above sixteen or eighteen thousand
British infantry at Waterloo; that he started
with the very worst army that ever was got
together; but that four or five regiments who
had been in the Peninsula soon gave q tone
and character to the whole army, and the
result was known. The other troops under
his command did very i'll. The Nassaus ran
away, and fired at him when he rode up to
rally them. The Prussian army started with
double his force, but, by the time they
reached Paris, he was as strong as they were,
though he had received no reinforcements,
and they had not lost any great number in
battle. But their discipline was so relaxed
that their numbers rapidly diminished during
the march. He had brought sixty Thousand
to Paris, and they not more than that force
The system of individual plunder had
been the ruin of the French army,
and would be the destruction of the Prus-
sian. When officers were allowed to make re-
quisitions for their troops, they soon began
to make them for themselves; and those who
demanded provisions to-day would call for
money tomorrow. War then assumed a new
character, the profession of ar ms became
mercenary speculation, and the officers
thoughts grew to be directed to the acquisi-
tion of plunder instead of the attainment of
glory. The duke had succeeded in keeping
his army well in hand. No officer was
permitted to make any requisition himself,
but was obliged to state his wants to the com
missary, who applied to the
agents of the French Govern
ment for the articles required; and
the supply being made through channels
known to the people, and by authorities re-
cognized by them, the burden was not felt to
be so oppressive as if the exaction had been
made by the immediate order of an enemy,
and at the caprice of individual officers. The
consequence was that, though both the Prus-
SLAMS and ourselves lived equally at the ex-
peDse OF the country, the first are detested
and the latter liked. =
H. haa - l. ]