MR. RUSSELL'S WAR DIARY.*
THERE are two points of view from which a volume like Mr. Russell's may be regarded ; one as material for history, the other as a record of personal adventure in an exciting period among great men and great events. The author, as the special corre- spondent of the Times, enjoyed unusual advantages, and one might infer that a daily register of incidents coming within his knowledge would present much which could not properly find its way into the columns of a contemporary newspaper, and especially as regards chronology, would be really valuable to the historian. On the other hand, the special correspondent has no " office ;" he finds his way from place to place as he best can ; he marches at all sorts of times ; when he arrives his billet may be anything from a hovel to a back-parlour, and his surroundings the least favourable which it is possible to conceive for composition, or even jotting down notes in a diary. Except for what passes under his eyes, he must depend upon verbal reports, and rely very much upon his memory. Moreover, he is bound to write what he does know or believe at once, and send it straight away to the mail-bag. Under these circumstances, the wonder is, not that the work should give incorrect impressions sometimes, and furnish erroneous reports at others, but that, on the whole, it should be so well done. And of this present volume we may say that a large portion of its pages are entertaining as a story of the personal experiences of a non-combatant during war-time, while they will have some worth also to the future compilers or composers of authentic history ; less, far less, indeed, in this respect than might have been reasonably anticipated, yet still a certain value, because they bring home to the imagination not only the movement and colour of the campaign, but at least the outward aspects of con- spicuous men. No doubt a spiteful critic might find a great deal to satirize in a special correspondent who parades his lofty acquaintances a little too freely for good taste, but we may justly remark that, if he does his duty, a special correspondent is bound to have as many friends as possible at the very fountain- head of affairs, and that his relations with them are not an improper subject for record in a diary. It may also be said that there is too much of Mr. Russell and too little of the war, but the fact is, that after Sedan he was unfortunately placed, being chained to the Crown Prince's head-quarters at Versailles, and that he would have been more in his element in the camps of Prince Frederick Charles or General Von Manteuffel, after Metz had sur- rendered. For Mr. Russell can give a vivid and picturesque idea of a battle. Only two battles—one partially, the other entirely— came under his pen during the long sojourn at Versailles, neither of which is described in this volume, the diarist remarking that he will not repeat what he wrote to the newspaper. Consequently, the bulk of the book is made up of notes on his personal doings, and therefore lacks the interest attaching to the earlier pages.
Mr. Russell, obedient to a sudden summons, packed up in haste and started for Berlin some days after the declaration of war. There he had an interview with Count Bismarck, the King, the Crown Prince, the Crown Princess, and all the great people. Poli- tically it was considered a good stroke of business to pay court to the Times, especially as the French had refused to welcome any foreign correspondents. When Mr. Russell was presented to the King at a sort of unofficial Court, his Majesty said that "public opinion was very powerful in these days, and that he was glad to • My Diary Daring the Last Great War. By W. H. Russell. London George Boutledge and Sons.
see Mr. Russell there as the Minister from that Power," an anec- dote which shows that King William kneiv how to pay compli- ments, and recognise a fact also. Nevertheless, the reporter element was so dreaded in the military department, where the desire to keep secret preliminary movements was naturally strong, that our diarist was kept in Berlin until some time after the Crown Prince had started for the frontier. During his enforced sojourn in Berlin, of course he occupied himself in fitting preparations. " I was buying maps of the Palatinate and countries thereabout," he writes, " when the master called me on one side, and advised me to purchase a map or two of 'the Eastern Departments of France.' Many officers, he said, had got them, and the War De- partment were lithographing French maps as fast as they could.
Some maps with the military routes marked on them were dressed' as far back as 1866 and 1867,"—an instance of sagacious fore- sight not uncommon in the Prussian War Office, but very un- usual in other similar departments, all of which are not situated on the Continent. Mr. Russell did not start from Berlin until the morning of the 1st of August, a few hours before the opening stroke of the war, and did not reach the Crown Prince's quarters• until the Bavarian cannon were breaking the silence of morning in the valley of the Sulzbach, and the North-German hosts were gather- ing above Worth. He did not see the battle, because his horses were used up ; but the next day, General Blumenthal, with great clearness and in English, described the situation. " The French are now quite broken in upon. We have thrust them back and got through their first line, broken up their communications, beaten their best General, and, I believe, their best army. They fought magnificently ; I must say that." Mr. Russell rode with the Crown Prince's staff as far as Sedan. After that catastrophe he came to London to write an account of it, and went straight back to France, joining the head-quarters of the Third Army at Montmirail on the 13th of September. Thence to the end of the war, the greater part of the time at Versailles, he was attached to this army.
No one can fairly say that the entries from day to day, during the first month of the' war, are not very lively and interesting, bringing under our eyes all sorts of persons and things, and showing war behind the scenes. And if we are in doubt respecting the exact dates at which some observations were written down and some facts recorded, we are not at all sure that such doubts will affect the public, although they are certain to trouble the historian, if he deals with them in any way. For example, we find this entry :—" August 20. By this time we hear of the tremendous fighting round Metz, and the German staff officers are in high spirits. There is but one cry now, • On to Paris I' Bazaine, they say, is surrounded and irretrievably lost." Was this actually written at Nancy, or in the evening at Vaucouleurs, the next halting-place ? After the news had reached him that MacMahon was making for the Meuse, that the whole German Army had begun to move north and north-east, and that he must get ready to move, Mr. Russell writes :-
" The curate tolls me, as I go to lie down, he is 'glad I am not a German.' I thought he meant for my soul's sake, but on inquiry I learned it was on account of my body, for 'these gentlemen will never see their patrie again. It was terrible, mais c'est positif.' And some- how Major-General Blumenthal was quite of a different opinion ; for taking me into a room in which was a table covered with a largo map, on a scale of an inch to a mile, he said, ' These French are lost, you see. We know they are there, and there, and there,—MacMahon's whole army. Where can they go to ? Poor, foolish fellows! They must go to Belgium, or fight there and be lost,' and he put his finger on the map between M6ziores and Carignan."
If this was duly written down at Brabant le Roi on the 27th of August, it is a proof of German foresight, very interesting to the military student. General Von Blumenthal the next day at St. Menehould said, " Why, they are lost,—they cannot escape 1 " Here is an anecdote of a different nature :—
" As I was riding across the Place to overtake the staff, I heard my name called, and turning, saw the Duke of Manchester in his rifle uniform, all equipped for the field. Ho had arrived in the hope of being invited or permitted to accompany the Crown Prince, to whom he is well known, and was mortified to find that his soldierly desire to see service could not be gratified. If any man could hope to go with the head-quarters of a German army, from connections and strong sympathy, it Was the Duke. But there he stood planie la in St.. Menehould, 'determined,' he said, to see some of the game.'"
At Rheims, on his return from the flying visit to London, Mr.
Russell met Count Bismarck, who took him home, gave him a cigar, and talked to him while he dressed for dinner, giving especi-
ally a lively account of his interview with Napoleon III., after Sedan :-
" I was fast asleep in bed," said Count Bismarck, "and very much tired after the day, when an aide-de-camp woke me up to say that the Emperor was coming into Donchery to see me. When I heard he was coming I was astonished. I thought, under all the circumstances, I should have been the last man in the world that he would have cared to see. I had sat up until half-past one the night before, and it was just five when I was awakened by the news. I pulled on my coat and called for my horse, and was off immediately to meet him. I had no orderly, or I outstripped him, and when I got a little way outside the town I perceived the Emperor coming along in 'a carriage with some officers on horseback. I immediately dismounted and stood in the road, letting my horse go. When he saw me standing in the road (per- haps mistaking my gesture, as I raised my hand to my cap to salute him), and seeing that my horse had been let go, there came for a moment a look in his face as if of alarm. But he was at once reassured. I received him with the same respect that I would have shown to my own king. He alighted, and I proposed we should walk into a little cottage close at hand. But the house was a weaver's, and not clean, and so chairs were brought outside, and we sat together talking. Then the Count repeated the story about the Emperor's anxiety to see the King. 'I told him it could not be done until the terms of the capitulation had been signed. He urged it again and again, and I always gave him the same reply. Then I pointed out that it was no use for him to affect to treat with the King after his declaration that he had no power what- ever, and that all the authority over the army and the country rested with the Regent and with the Government. As the conversation be- came unpleasant, at last I proposed we should talk on a different subject.'
We may quote one other interesting passage, entered under the date of February 2, when an end had come to the resistance of Paris :—
" When I sot out for Paris, I loaded my carriage with bread, meat, vegetables, &c., and Herpes [his man] also laid in a store for Dr. Her- bert, Lord Oarnarvon's brother, who has been acting nobly during the siege, and covering his name and country with honour. There was great delay at the crowded bridge, but at last I got free, and drove straight to the British Embassy, where I found Mr. Wallace presiding over a distribution of food to the famished English. The place looked like a co-operative store. Mr. Anberon Herbert toiled in on foot with a groat load on his back, and I picked him up and gave him a lift. What stories to hear! I gave Mr. Wallace some of my bread, and dis- tributed my load as judiciously as I could. Found Dr. Gordon looking pale, thin, and hungry, at the Hotel St. Honore, and Wyatt a walking ghost. Next day I went over to the Tuileries and visited General Vinoy, chief of the Army. He was full of sorrow, but burning with anger too, for his officers and men were loaded with insults by the armed rabble, and he feared the worst as soon as the Germans had left."
Touches of this kind abound in Mr. Russell's pages. We can, however, only regret that so little care should have been bestowed an the proofs, and that the volume should be disfigured by very many errors, which make it painful to read. An author owes some respect to the public, some also to himself, and we are .astonished that one so susceptible to criticism as Mr.. Russell should have allowed his "Diary" to escape from the press in a condition so little creditable to anyone.
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