28th June.
Ir wants only some three months of thirty-four years since the culminating German victory of Sedan, and yet the memory of that epoch-making event is as fresh in the minds of all who took an interest in the brand struggle then in progress,-—and who did not?—as though it were but yesterday. Though the war was but six weeks old, in those fateful weeks there had already risen a new {factor in European politics to tak—he place of one about to pass away.
the German Empire, although not formally promulgated till some months later, had really come to birth om the same day and in the same place as the Napoleonic Empire had met its fate, the day and field of Sedan, Europe watched spell-bound the spectacle: of the few days' maneuvring before the great fight. For-j bach and Weissemburg had already been won, and Bazaine, too tardy in his movements, had been driven back into Metz by Germans with their backs to Paris and their faces to Berlin, MacMahon was at Chalons with the remnant of his beaten army and such reinforcements as could be got together, when he received the astounding order to attempt the relief of Bazaine. There was nothing for it but to obey, The Emperor was with him, but it was not military necessity that dictated the movement. he order came from Paris where it was held to be politically essential that Metz should be relieve ed. So, with a foreboding of what was in store, MacMahon set out on a roundabout way towards the north to succour the beleaguered fortress. Moltke divined in an instant the object: of the move, and took the most perfect steps to turn his enemy's error to account. The German forces already west: of Meiz swung round on their right, and, keep.ng their left shoulders up, arrived in the nick of time in position to prevent any turning back on the part of MacMahon's army, while other forces advancing from other points had stopped all progress, thanks to. some phenomenal marching. The French were literally hemined in, and had to fight at the groutest disadvantage, which they id with characteristic bravery. No courage, however, could avail against such odds, and the result is historical, We have recalled ancient history to this extent only to point out the possible parallel' up north, The fight at the Yalu corresponds with the earlier contests in 1870. The Russians have been driven back just as the French were, They have Metz in Port Arthur. Their MacMahon has lately been at the Manchurian Chalons, Liaoyang, where, if repers spanks true, he his found very much the same difficn'ty that troubled his prototype " in France, Nothing ready, nothing where it is wanted, insufficient supplies, sufficient numbers, and worse still, the same interference behind him. Had MacMahon been left alone he would never have thought of entering upon such a hare-brained expedition as was forced upon him. Now, if accounts be true, General Kuropatkin is being hampered, and worse than hampered, by instructions and positive orders from the Czar, He 1s to relieve Port Arthur!
'A month ago military experts in Europe were already pointing out the risk he ran of being cut off. It is true many of these so-called experts had forgotten altogether about the altered conditions when the snow began to melt. They forgot, if they ever knew, that the time for easy communication in Manchuria is the winter when the frozen snow makes roads everywhere. In all probability, the difficulty of moving at all under the prevailing conditions of weather has had a great deal to do with the apparent deliberation of the Japanese movements. But the nearer General. Kuropatkia sends his forces to Port Arthur—the-better: the chance of the repetition of the -grelt German coup of thirty-four years'ap
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.