Dr. Russell, in a letter to the Times, from the
Crown Prince's head-quarters, dated Coulommiers, September 1G, gives an illus- tration of the ex-Emperor's military ignorance and incompetence which is quite astounding. He tells us that he is in a position to give an accurate version of the conversation between the Emperor and the King of Prussia at the interview before Sedan on the day after the surrender, and he asserts that this was part of the conver- sation :—" Prince Frederick Charles decided the fate of the day," remarked the Emperor. " It was his army which carried our posi- tion." "Prince Frederick Charles ! I do not understand your Majesty. It was my son's army which fought at Sedan." " And where, then, is Prince Frederick Charles ?" " Ile is with seven Army corps before Metz." At these words, says Dr. Russell, "the Emperor started and recoiled as if he had been struck ; but ho soon recovered his self-possession, and the conversation was continued." The excuse for such portentous ignorance, if excuse there be, is that some of the Army corps which first attacked Marshal MacMahon's on the line of the Meuse were corps which had originally belonged to the army of Prince Frederick Charles, but had been transferred to the army of the Prince of Saxony. Such was the sort of ignorance which first produced the war, then caused the French failure, and finally produced the French collapse. Napoleon III. was the representative of hia army and kingdom.
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