Year: 1870

Special War Dispatches frem Europe-The


Economies OF tho Nations and Enterprise


Of the Press.


Our special writer's at the seat of war In


Europe, as we'll as those who date at some OF
the great neutral centres of the Old World,
supply the valuable narrative which appears
in our columns to-day in detail Of the grand
movements of the armies of France and Prus-
sia. The letters are dated at Bellort at the
headquarters of the French Army of the Rhine,
at Berlin and London. They show forth the
vast preparations which were made on both
sides for the struggle, and point out the mea-
sures which had been taken to prevent. while
such result was possible, its bloody execution,
or to assuage its horrors if carried into effect.
The vast naval force Of Great Britain is
exhibited in most accurate and exhaustive
analyses of the muster rolls of her fleets,
which show her power at sea, from the
proudest ensign Of her most honored admirals,
as they float on her formidable iron -clads,
down to the humblest of her Jack tars, of her
marines and her powder boys. This roll of
the force of the great insular European neutral
will enable our readers to understand what
really important part England may yet
play in the war, and how materially
she may assist by her diplomacy in
its sudden final adjustment. The question of
the supply of coal comes in incidentally in
this connection. 1t is only casually mentioned
by one of the writers, but is really of very
first consequence in the consideration of the
subject Of the European war. 1t has been
calculated that the home supply Of coal in
England will be completely exhausted within
twenty-five years, owing to the increasing de-
mands of her manufacturing interests and Of
her navy for purposes of motive power
Should this calculation prove correct the
great heart Of the commercial giant of
Europe would cease to pulsate, its arms fall
paralyzed to its side. There would be nothing
left to Britain as means of recuperatiOn or
cure but a resort to the ipexhaustible water
power of Ireland. Exact in her economies to
degree and almost president in her forecasts of
the materialistic future, England may have
become convinced of the accuracy of this
calculation, and hence her anxiety for the
preservation OF the independence Of Belgium.
She has rarely, if ever, except in the case of
modern Greece, assisted at the birth of a ma
tionality; and scarcely, if ever, interfered to
save one either from Typographical alteration
or governmental extinction. Belgium, how
ever, contains coal within her bosom, and coal
is to-day the very pabulum of British ma
tional life-her inspiriting power from Man
chester to Hindostan, from Birmingham to
Pekin, and from Cork and Galway to
the antipodes. The subject of the sup
ply OF coal in England constitutes thus
really prominent feature for and in a compre-
crisis.


OF our special correspondence from the seat
of war we may with great justice claim the
privilege Of another remark. The dismissal of
the French envoy Benedict by King William
of Prussia, at Ems, was, perhaps, the most
sudden precursor of deadly struggle between
two great nations which was ever before given
to the outside world. Napoleon's insult to
Austria, in the person of Baron Hubner, at
the Tuileries on the New Years day of 1859,
and which heralded the Franco-Austrian war
Of that year, was not more so. Our special
enterprise in reporting the present event has
been fully equal to the emergency, however,
and from the first day of difficulty in Madrid,
to the latest moment of the consequences
from Prim to Benedetti, from Napoleon to
King William, and from Moltke to MacMahon,
and the Crown Prince and the battles, our his
tory of the movement has been ample, accu-
rate and of the greatest value to the public.