Year: 1872

| Summer soldering and sham fights are pretty TO


look at, but they can not qualify men to cope
with the veterans of real battles. The shock of


actual conflict puts to fight oil the beautiful


formations Of volunteer troops which one ad-


mires on the parade ground. Neither courage


nor patriotism, though most intense and self


sacrificing. make good the want of the dread


fol practice OF war. Crack regiments at the


first battle Of Bull Run, and for many an engage


ment after. were easily seized with pOnic and ran


from the field. This was true Of the Southern


as of the Northern combatants. 1t was only the


toss of penny which side would take to their


heels first. Yet the novices of that day lived to


fight many a day after with a pluck and per-


sistence worthy of the great Napoeon's Imperial


Guard. 1t was lesson taught at frghtfu cost


but this nation, North and South, feels as if it


could fight now 10 some purpose, if required to


meet an alien foe. We need no more teaching


on that head for half generation. The utility


of war experience was plainly shown in the


Franco-German struggle. The men of the Ger


man army we're, for the most part, veterans of


the war with Austria, and many Of them had


served in the brief but rough campaign against


Denmark. Opposed to them was a smaller man,


Der Of old soldiers who had learned ther trade in


Algiers, in the Crimea, at Magenta and Solferino,


and in Mexico. These men fought most calamity


at Woerth, at Mars la Tour, Vionvie, Grave


otte, and in other of the earlier contests. The


German generals repeatedly paid tribute to the


bravery Of the Frenchmen. At the battles about


Metz, for a long time, the victory hung in the


balance. An impartial judge in reading the ac-
counts written by Englishmen-and which may


be supposed to be quite unbased-can see that
the Germans depended for triumph on their
merical superiority. There was no sign then of
the physical deterioration which critics ascribe to
the French, in explaining their long list of sub
sequent defeats. In the most famous of their
warke annals, the French never exhibited great
er courage and dash than in the Titanic encoun-
tiers of Mars la Tour and Gravelotte At Sedan
the French were simply overmatched by two to
one /; and no amount of experienced valor could
save them. When the war was transferred TO
central France General Chanzy and de Paadines
at different times met the invaders with favor
able odds as to mere numbers. In many lively
engagements the French were twice as strong as
the Germans. Fighting for their homes, and all
that men hold dear, the Frenchmen were not de-
fcient IN courage and doggedness. But unlike
the armies under Bazane and Mcmahon, they
were inexperienced in No amount peace
fol drill could supply this want; and so when the
solid German columns marched down upon them.
all they could do was to exchange voleys, stand
their ground till men dropped thickly in the
ranks, and then run. This was the regular mat
ter-ofcourse order of things, with on exception
or two such as the repulse of Won der Tann's
Bavarians at Coulmiers. 1t was only pastime for
the trained German soldiers to march around, /
over and through all the French militia which the
genius of Gambetta improvisei and armed. At
Paris there was the same disparity between the |
raw forces within the walls, no matter how nu-
merous, and the Gordon of tried troops without
The more French volunteers-the more food for .
German powder


Mindful of these instances of the advantage of
training in war, we do not set much store by the .
autumn maneuvres il England. These move
ments the present season lasted nearly two .
weeks. The English papers have run over with .
graphic narratives of the mastering and the stra-
tegy and all that done by the same pens which
described all the genuine European battles of the
last ten years 1t peases the English people to
imagine that this sort of thing makes warriors Of
the most amblike Of men and that two or three
autumn campaigns in and among the sheep pas
lures of Dorsetshire will it the British TO beat
MoIke and all his host in the future battle of
Dorking 'Tis pity that the art of war can be
learned only by war. But such seems to be the
teaching Of history, and it cannot be set aside
even for the benefit of our English cousins.
Brave and stedfast as they are, they could no
more stand up against the German armies of the
late war than house of cards against a whir
wind. The Germans once landed (which would
be their difficulty and Englands opportunity
could if they cared to leave their naval base
march straight through England. The repeti
ton of autumn maneuvres would be Of no good
against men who stormed the heights of Spiche-
ren and carried St. Privat. Nothing could have
nerved any race Of men to such awful deeds OF
gaantry but experience in war. Lacking THIS
and the Englishmen of to-day are happy in not
having acquired it-no men, however courageous
by nature and familiar with theoretical campaign
ing can hope to defeat such tried and proved
machine OF destruction as a German army. New
since England is not In the way Of
training herself to warlke deeds by war; it is not
, bad thing for her to drill her militia and be rea-
iy to make resistance better than nothing in
the remote contingency of an invasion. If the ,
autumn manGuvres have no other result, they :
please the English people and deprive the Tories
IF fine subject OF attack on the Gladstone ad-
Some people think that this-and '
lot the driving of possible invaders into the sea
lis the true object of these martial exercises on
be English plains. i
THB rate of upheaval of the Swedish coast IS v