There seems to be a fatality attending French movements, even
when they are successful. It is now certain, from the accounts of the correspondent of the Telegraph with the German camp, that in the action of Bapaume on the 3rd inst. Faidherbe gained a decided victory. His men behaved with the greatest gallantry, and their repeated attacks so exhausted the Germans—the 33rd Regiment, for instance, having only three officers left—that at 6 p.m. General von Goeben gave the order to retreat across the Somme, and the heavy baggage trains were already in motion, when it was per- ceived that the French commander, whether unaware of his vic- tory, or, as the correspondent supposes, dismayed by his own losses, or, as is possible from the despatches, alarmed by his want of food, retreated, and the German movement was stayed. Had Faidherbe only advanced, or even maintained his position till morning, he would have secured an unmistakable victory, which might have electrified France and changed the whole fortune of the war. It is this want of push, rather than of brains or courage in the French Generals, which makes their greatest efforts act fruitless.
