THE FRANCS-TIREURS V. THE LANDSTUTIM. Lev sus Emma or von
“SrearaTel....i Srit,—I am forwarding you a letter from H.R.H. the Due d*Aumale written to my aunt, Lady Waldegrave, in 1870. He had been over to Paris a month previously to try to persuade the Assembly to allow him to fight for France. They had refused, and be had returned to England very much dejected. The following letter of a month later may be of interest to your readers as showing clearly how identical the Han tactics of that date were with those of to-day.—I am, 'EL James's Club, Piccadilly. 12th October, 1870.
HT rice LADY WALDNORAVA—I am going this evening to Woodziorton to see my eon for • little. On Friday, 14th, I return to dine at Holland House, where Hayward wishes to meet me to obtain some information for an article he is going to publish. After that I 'hall probably 'My for three or four dap/ at Twicken- ham. I em giving you this information in case you should have any message for me.
Please beg Kr. Forteecue to read the instructions given to the Landsturm in 1813. The Standard published an extract from them the other day. In it the King of Prussia enjoined on his subject. to hold to the conduct by which his eon canned villages to be burned and the French to be shot in hundreds. In fact, all these acts of cruelty are beginning to disgust even the English Press.
At Chantilly, Cl. McColl has demanded the privilege of neutrality for an English estate. He was informed in reply that Prussia had no worse enemy than England, and that without England France would not have received the arms which pro- longed the war (alas! that in rery inaccurate). Further the General stated that the real proprietor was well known, and that they were enchanted to punish a prince who had offered his sword to the provisional Government. I am very proud to be treated by these gentlemen as a good Frenchman, and personally entirely insensible to their ravages. Bat the unfortunate inhabitants have nothing left, nothing, and the blows lavished upon them draw from them nothing but cries. All are agreed in recognizing that the soldiers are not bad ; but the officers, the Junkers, are atrocious, and, to my astonishment, they are plunderers as well as cruel. The Saxons and the Prussians will not speak to one another, separate ambulances are nequired for them.
I am inundated with letters after the style of an article you may have read this morning in the Daily Telegraph. I em invoked as a Messiah, as a saviour ; I ought to arrive with a million chases- pots, two hundred cannon, form two armies, out in pieces the Prussians on the one side, overwhelm the redcoats on the other, le. They promise that after all that I shall be the idol of France. Parbleu! I think eco indeed! These letters break my heart, for they make me feel only more cruelly the impotence to which I bare been rednoed.—Always your devoted Servant, (Prom the "Standard," Friday, October 7th, 1870, IP. 6, COI. 2.) "THE FRANCS-TIREUR.S V. TILE LANDSTURIff.
[To ran Zama or TIM .(traxsono.1
Sia,—According to all accounts from the seat of war there appears to be on the part of Prongs a strong determination to treat the Francs-tireurs as mere lawless freebooters and assassins, to whom no consideration whatever ought to be shown. Some English journals having adopted the some view, I trust you wilkallow me to inform your readout, through your medium, of the rules laid down by the Prussian Government for the land.sturtn, a term
synonymous with the lode an mass in France, in consequence of which the Franeretireurs have sprung into existence.
The. Royal Procaine order concerning the calling out of the Landsturm (dated 214 April, 1813) contains the following rules, viz • Sec. 7. On the Landstarm being called out, the fighting to which it ie summoned becomes a fight for existence (Notheskr) which sanctions every means that may be employed. The severest and most unrelenting means are the bent, bemuse they are the most likely to bring the just cause soon to a successful issue?
'Sea & The object of the Landstarm is to arrest the march of the enemy as well as to bar his retreat, to annoy him incessantly, to capture his munition, couriers, and recruits, to surprise him by night, to break up his hospitals, in short to harass, trouble, and molest him in every conceivable way, and to destroy him singly or in detachments, whenever or wherever it may be possible? 'Sea. 39. A special uniform or distinctive dress for the Land- aturm is not allowed, because this would betray the wearer and render him more liable to be pursued by the enemy.' Any comment on the paragraphs I have just quoted would be superfluous. Your readers will be able to judge for themselves what right Prussia has to find fault with the France tirenre, and to treat them as beyond the pale of military laws. The struggle for existence is actually brought home to every Frenchman's door, and few Englishmen will blame him for trying every means in his power to abate off the yoke of the bated invader.—Believe
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