The Telegram. — 1899-10-24 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

LEGO, MITCIIIO.I., and IRONSOInta, and nue in hand. Four of the Houset a,juiti each other and one of thern adjoins the main coed of Broadmayne. The Cottage., *bee all Let, will produce a gripe Rental of £l9 a Year. The Owner pay the Rates and Taxes (n hich are I ) 1111,,1,0th Line. •  _ 1.04. further i.,furiu4ttou aprhc,tiou InAy b Milde to the Ameriommots. at their Otric,e, South Street, Dorchesbir ; to Kr. Join; Port, ot Broatinityne ; or to MEll$ll.B. LOCK & ItELD, rt,2o{l,  A• Ibeit!r.  The present inoment is well chosen for the publication of M. lii.oures now famous work in an English translation. No nation has a vaguer knowledge of what war means than the population of the British Isles.  Soldiering is a stern fact, remote from the experience of most of us, and the tax of universal military service, as it exists on the continent, his not familiarised the nation with the terrific engines of destruction now in general use and rapidly growing more formidable. M. BLOCH, whose book is believed to have exerted Go much influence on the CZAR of RUSSIA as to have induced him to summon the recent Peace Conference, is not a soldier ; he is a banker who for Emmy years devoted his leisure to a careful and exhaustive study of  this subject in all its details. The work was submitted by the Czar: to the inspection of Russian military experts, who reported that the accuracy of the author's conclusions might be relied on. M. BLOCH has endeavoured to prove that a war between two powers equally matched in numbers and skill means suicide. for both. Since the Franco-German war 30 years ago no two great European powers have met in battle ; modern weapons of destruction have never been tested on equal terms. The civilisNl world now stands in dread of the great European war, which hangs over it like a nightmare. If this ever comes, M. 131.ocit believes that it will mean the national suicide of all the people engaged in it, and his book has induced not a few thoughtful people—the CZAR OF Russia. among them—to share his opinion. Every one acquainted with history, and the changes in military tactics consequent on the tremendous powers of reciprocal destruction placed impartially in the hands of each and all of the leading nations of the world, is aware that future wars will have no parallel in the past. War, as M. BLOCH sees it, will begin with streams of cavalry pouring across the threatened frontiers, after these swarms of Milans or Cossacks, the main armies will begin to roll up—not such armies as we send to India, the Soudan, or South Africa, but practially whole of the male population capable of bearing arms. These vast hordes of disciplined and drilled men, fresh from the plough or the office stool, will be called upon to make tremendous marches in all weathers, carrying a load of 80Ib. on their backs. They will sleep in the open air,  often in pouring rain, and always shaken with the fatigue. Readers of ZOLA'S "Debacle" will have no difficulty in  picturing their sufferings. The result of this hardship will be that, long before the enemy has been seen or a gun fired, thousands will have broken down. Sickness from exposure and exhaustion will fill the hospitals. This process of weeding, however, will enable the servivors on either side to meet in the stupendous battle of which M. BLOCH gives an appalling description. Long before the evening is visible men will begin to fall, slain by invisible sharpshooters a mile away, whose presence not a single puff of smoke will betray. But gradually the opposing armies will confront each other, separated by half-a-mile,swept by a fire in which no living creature could live for a minute. Then, amidst a rain of terrible projectiles, in which men, horses, and guns are destroyed and overwhelmed, the firing lines will advance. Combatants will be swept out of existence in ranks, but still others will take their places, although none shall cross the lead-swept interval separating the two armies. Regiments will be annihilated without seeing the face of the foe that has wrought their ruin. To add to the horrors, this terrible agony will be in the clear light of day. What follows? Both sides fight until exhausted, but the carnage will purchase no victory. For no attack can be pushed home across the zone of lire against an entrenched enemy. Consequently most of the battles of the future will be inconclusive. To deal with the dead and wounded, M. BLocu shows, will be beyond all medical means. Moreover, the slaughter of the officers will convert armies into military mobs, nor will it be possible during a long war to provide transports for the vast hosts remote from their base of supplies. The result, therefore, of wars, if fought out to the bitter end, would be anarchy and ruin, followed by the breakdown of all financial, industrial, social, and civilised machinery. These are the results of the wars of the future as foreseen by M. Bcocu.  It would be a mistake to conclude that treason has its headquarters in Ireland. The speeches of Irish members in Ireland have, it is true, been of a distinctly disloyal character, and have done incalculable injury to the Home Rule cause among the very people most favourable to it. But the treasonable movement of which we see sporadic evidence in the Transvaal, in Chicago, and in reference to the raising of the new constabulary force designed to operate in the two Republics after the war, is an altogether different affair. It nates in America, with the old Clan-na-Gad, which has blossomed forth under a new name, but with the old objects. Attempts are to be made to smuggle is as recruits for the constabulary force disloyal Fenians, who will ultimately endeavour to raise fresh rebellions in South Africa and undermine British authority. There, is, happily, no chance at all that this scheme will be accomplished. The men are being most carefully selected ; their past will be closely scrutinised, and that is a test which no Fenian can succssfully encounter. The Irish Members of Parliament have, of course, nothing to do with all this. They are simply bent upon exploiting the situation for their own benefit. But if they are wise they will i curb their tongues, lest it be said that, ithough dissociated from the physical force party in fact, they are not out of sympathy with that party in theory.  origi•