The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-30


 OT7HE winter of 1s7o-n was a terrible
 one for France. For the first time
 S since the allied columns had poured into Paris. after Waterloo, a for eign army passed down the Champs Elysees. There was, however, this vast difference between 1915 and 1871, that the veterans of Butcher, the regiments of the Emperor and the Czar, and the troops of Wellington came to restore the Bourbons to their own. If the tricolor was hauled down, it was to hoist the white flag. and royalist France, at all events, could feel measure of satisfaction. In 1871 all this was changed. Moltke's men, march, ing down the Champs Elysees, had over thrown the Emperor of France, not to raise up another Frenchman, but simply to proclaim their own victory. One mar shal of France was prisoner, accused of traitorous surrender of great fortress and great army; another was a prisoner, whose army had been crushed in the decisive battle of Sedan. Thus the line of the marshals of the empire came to an end, as that of the marshals of the King had come to an end, during the orgy of the revolution. When, how ever, the German army of occupation had vanished toward the Rhine, and France had turned her attention to the great effort of reconstruction. one of the few officers who, in spite of everything, had managed to cover himself with glory, was selected by the government of the repub- lie for special honor. The marshaIs baton was offered to the commander of the army of the Loire, Generay Chanzy. That soldier however, declined to accept 1t. It was not he declared, fit reward for soldier who had been beaten in the field. Keep 1t, he said, until you can give it to the man who commands the army of revanche Whether or not the action of Monsieur Poincare's govern ment was actuated by that impulse or not, 1t is to General Joffre, as comman- der of the army of revanche, that it has given the 20 inches of metal, wrapped in velvet of the royal blue of France, once stamped with golden fleur-de-lis, but in this instance with stars.
 The first of these marechaux de France was Alberic Clement, one of the com manders of the forces of Philip Augustus But the marshal as a military officer was descendant of long line of great of ficials, whose business, in the days of the old Frankish Kings. had been to gov ern the stables of the reigning prince. These mariscalci became of more and more importance with the development of cavalry in the medieval armies, so that in time they came to surpass in au- thority the constable himself. The con stable is, of course, an even older of ficer than the marshal. His origin goes back to the days of the Roman Emperors, whose comes stabuli, or count of the stable, grew up by similar process of military officer of the kingdom. Still whether it be the constable of an English village, or the marshal of western min | ing town, the origin of the office is that which gave birth to the constable of France and to the earl marshal of Eng
 
 | hereditary one; but the office of Will | liam the Marshal of the reign of Henry II grew into that of the line of the earls marshal of England. just as the earl marischal of Scotland survived in the family of the Keiths for 10 generations. I Perhaps, indeed, the oldest vestige of | the title Is to be found in the French form of marechal ferrant. or shoeinG smith, so that the real title might be said to be lost in the mist of mythology, and the original marshal to have been Way land Smith.
 l In Germany the old Frankish office of mariscalci descended in tho line of the princes of saxony. and the title of the erz- marschalk survived down to the date of the extinction of the Holy Roman em- pire But in England the title disap- peared with the extinction of the line of the earls marshal, and was revived in the persons of the field marshals. introduced into the British army by George 1T. in imitation of the German Ieldmarschalls. They were a wonderful enough race oi men, these marshals. but, of course. the most wonderful of them all are to be found in the long line of the marechaux de France. who became for awhile the