All rumours from China are this week unfavourable to the
French. It is stated• that the fleet off Formosa has cholera on board, that the blockade is imperfect, and that nothing whatever can be done towards the occupation of the island until large reinforcements have been forwarded. The number given is 15,000 men, and 10,000 more are demanded for General &fere de l'Isle, if he is to move forward into the high- lands now occupied by the Chinese. It is said these Tonquin highlands are deadly to Europeans, but we suspect this state- ment rests on Chinese authority. It is in the Deltas that Englishmen, at all events, die. The correspondent who forwards these demands has probably high French authority for his figures; but if they are correct, a very curious question arises, —What is wrong in the French Army that her Generals need and expend so many more men than English Generals do P Is it all due to a special liability to disease, or does the result spring from the difference between volunteers and conscripts ? We are all too apt to forget that our difficult system of recruit- ing has one of the advantages of natural selection. The physically weak, and those who hate military service, keep away from the Army.
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