New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-12-28
ANGLO-FRENCH TOPICS.

GRANT USED TO INFLUENCE PRESIDENT MAC
MAHON.
IRON the REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIDUSE.l
LONDON, Dec. 15.-The Turkish party and papers
in England have been consong themselves all this
week for the fall of Pevna by singing Che praises OF
Osman Pashas heroism and the herosm of his army.
That is what we have all heard for months past.
To all reproaches against the Turks the answer is,
they have courage. No doubt they have. 1t is the
one good quality they possess in common with
other wild beasts. But too much may be made OF it,
and the praise may be oyerdone rs it has been In
this instance and as the fuller accounts prove.
Osman Pasha quilted Plevna with long trains OF
artillery drawn by horses, and of wagons drawn by
bullocks. To- talk Of his being starved ont so long
as these remained to him, is nonsense ; to talk OF
the unparalleled heroism Of his resistance is to ignore
what has been done by very different men IN differ
ent times. Take one example the siege of Genoa by
the Austriaus in 1900 and its defence by Massena.
Provisions were scarce from the first, the
population suffered and grew riotous. tho
mobiles were plotting TO deliver the town. Massena
had an enemy to fight within as well as without
The streets and squares were guarded against the
populacc by French battalions, and artillery with
matches lighted When beef failed the soldiers ate
horse the horses all gone they ate rats. The Aus
TRAN prisoners and the people of the town were
made TO subsist for weeks on a soup of herbs. The
wheat and -four were early consumed, and n bread
made of oats and beans was served out. From the
beginning the city had been vigorously searched,
and all provisions seized and thrown into
common stock. When everything else had been
eaten, Massena collected all the starch cocoa and
lnseed in the place. and bread was made OF
these strange substances which the soldiers could
hardly swallow; which, when swallowed few could
digest and which sent the greater part of the army
Il ;t,I, ia vvprp DIVING of hunger:
their dead bodies strcwed the streets; the prisoners
Jared TO better The soldiers died day by day;
those who lived were so weak that they could only
mount guard sitting. Some Of the troops IN despair
broke their guns. Before he suuenders," cried
they. "hc will make rs eat his boots" There re-
manned at last even of the starch and nseed bread,
but two ounces per man; and not TIL those TWO
ounces had been eaten would Massena treat to sur
render or receive a flag Of truce
Then what did he! The admirers of the herOism
Of Osman Pasha would have bad Masscna surrender
unclnditionally. The Austrians were 10000. Mas
sena had but 5000 men left who could carry n
muskct and instead Of long trains OF bullocEs ana
horses there remained not an ounce of food in the
citv I'm these circumstances the indom!able
Frenchman surrendered The city, indeed, but not
soldier not n musllet, not flag. He gave no parole
not 10 serve. lie marched ont with his army, arms
and baggage banners displayed and bugcs sound
ing. with free right to resume hostties the moment
ho was beyond the Austrian lines. 1t was not even
a continuation; the word does not appear IN the
convention signed it was an evacuation Between
this and the wholesale surrender of Ghaz Osman
there is room for several varying degrees of adj
miraton.
The passages which Mr.. Theodore Martin has pub
shed in his third volume of the Life of the Prince
Consort from the diary of the Queen describing her
visit to the Emperor Napoleon Ill, in 1880, have
been eagerly reproduced 10y the Bonapartist journals
Of Paris Men who still wear the livery Of the En-
pirc are only too happy to publish such testimony as
this in behalf of their perjured and biood-staned
chief from a woman whose personal character
stands high in Europe, and whose mistakes
have seldom been of kind to serve as
4 shield to the crimes and debaucheries
which disraced the Tuilencs under the last of the
Napoleons. 1t used TO be said we must distinguish
between the queen and the woman ; that the queen
had 10 do many things from which the wire and
mother would have shruuk, had p sense Il political
duty permitted her to shrink. Unhappily, this can
be- said no longer of her relations with Napoleon III.
There 10 trace of rcpugnance ordlskc 10 the En-
p,ror in her diary. The expressions of personal
liking are frequen. and strong. The visit is as of
one friend 10 another. Amid all the reviews and
public shows, the hosts AID guests find time for
quiet little dinners together and quiet talks. The
wcl-known personal fascination of the Emperor
was never exertcd adroitly or with better
effect. IL ehaceS from the mind of the Queen
all memory. if memory there were, of his
spiracy AGAINST France, of the arrests, eXiles,
massacre. brute violence, and base GINNING
in al forms, by which he had reached power
AMI kept it. The QIeen of England actually
Apologies to the usurper Of France for her cyiles
to the exllcd Orcauist5 in England She defends
them against his charge of couspring for his
,naton wholly unaware of the bitter sarcasm she
tnus levelled against the man who had used whole
sale assassination as a political weapon. have
already quoted her Majestys account Of her tender
parting with her imperial Brother" But here Is a
passage still more hopeessly inconsistent with the
theory which would cover the Qaeen's pure name
with the plea of state necessity.
cit is extraordinary how very much attached one
becomes to the Emperor, whel one lives with him
qIitc at ones ease and intimately, we have done
during the last ten days for eight, ten, twelve and
to-day even fourteen hours day. He is so quiet
so simple naiT even o, 50 pleased to be Informed
about things which he does not know, so gentle, so
full of tact dignity, and modesty, full Of respect
and kind attention toward us, never saying word
doing thing which could put me out or embarrass
me. know few people whom have felt inyolun-
tlrily more inclined to cOniIle in and speak unre-
seryedly to- should not fear saying anything to
him. | felt do not know how to express it
safe with him. His society particularly agreeable
and pleasant there - something fascinating, mel
aucholy, an engaging which draws you to him, IN
spite of any prtrcnion you may have against him,
aud certainly without the assistance Of any out
ward advantages of appearance, though | like his
face He undoubtedly has most extraordinary
powcrof attaching people to him. The children are
l.fIf al ia .,,l,,