766

he would feel on actual service during such an operation; for, be it observed, much reputation is won in Prussia by success in this exercise. We may add, that the Kriegsspiel has, in a great measure, revolutionized and shaped afresh the nature of instruction given in the military establishments in Prussia. To have its full force, it is desirable occasionally to carry out afterwards, in manœuvres over the actual country depicted, some programme that has been worked out by the Kriegsspiel.

yards the troops are actually uncovered, | ing and use of maps, in writing out dispounless there are special features in the sitions, in giving clear and decided orders, ground which would conceal them. So at and in appreciating the value of time and length the actual collision of the forces oc- space. An officer vividly realizes the racurs. And now comes the most ingenious, pidity with which, on occasion, cavalry the ground as compared with though perhaps not the most valuable, cross feature in the game, namely, the repre- infantry; he learns the terrible time it sentation of the varying fortunes and un- takes troops to file across a bridge; and certainties in war, by means of calculated he experiences, in a manner, the anxiety tables of probabilities, and by the throw of dice. A die having six sides, a table is drawn up formed of six rows with the numbers belonging to the faces placed in The first row six squares in each row. gives even chances, such as would be taken when two perfectly equal forces meet under equally favourable conditions, and when the two generals elect to try their fortunes by the onset. In this row, the numbers 1, 3 and 5 would be coloured dark, and if thrown, would give success to one force, while 2, 4 and 6 would give it to the other; slight success being won by the figures 1 or 2, decided success by 3 or According to 4, and complete by 5 or 6. the number thrown the beaten troops would be made to move back; and they would limit their future action according Thus. to the decision of the chief umpire. after complete defeat (given by 2 or 6) troops would be incapable of acting for, at all events, twenty minutes or ten

moves.

Is it too much to say, that the unveiling of the pieces of this game reveals a strange source of Prussian skill and success in war? Suppose, for example, we, like the writer of the Battle of Dorking, contemplate the case, which we trust is never likely to be a reality, of a German army landing in We should cersome quarter of England. tainly, at the present moment, look with some anxiety at the efforts of almost any English general. We have a commander who has had, perhaps, some experience in Indian warfare, and has moved a few troops about in a general sort of way at Aldershot, or at the Curragh; but his adversary has fought his Kriegsspiel under all conceivable circumstances again and again over the actual ground, as far as it could be represented by our admirable Ordinance Survey. He has again and again followed the track of the various roads. He has had to consider whether, owing to the cross-sleepers being raised or sunk into the ground, cavalry could, or He has felt the could not, trot along any particular railway, if required to do so. annoyance of the delay occasioned by the steepness of any particular hill delaying the pace of the half-winded horse of a vedette. He has discussed the size of our fields and the thickness of our hedges, and he has referred doubtful points to officers who have travelled in England, Whatever military skill is necessary to with the eyes and ears that were used qualify a man to take part in such a game, to such purpose in France previous very little is needed to enable the mind to the war, and the hands and heads that, to estimate the value of it. It affords, so in spite of French vigilance, measured Major Roerdansz and the Prussian au- the slope of the Paris forts, and calthorities generally consider, first-rate culated the angle at which to breach them instruction in tactics, practice in the read- 'in the presence of the very guards of the

The second row of squares on the table have the same numbers repeated, but two are dark and three light, and the sixth counts as a blank and must be thrown again. Here, then, the odds are three to two for the light colour. The third on, the row gives four to two, and so These would be last giving five to one. taken to represent cases where a general was compelled to accept battle at a disadvantage, either in position or in men; when he might, as on actual service, obtain a success, but where the odds would be against him. The results of artillery and infantry fire are formed into a similar table, the calculated losses being noted down and from time to time taken away from the suffering army.

When, however, the troops become completely engaged all along the line, the game is generally discontinued, the most instructive part being then at an end.

A nation that will learn even by dearly bought experience, is a nation above the average; perhaps, therefore we express an unreasonable wish when we hope that we may value this experience, presented as it were gratis to us, and that we may avail ourselves of it although it has cost us nothing. Prussia, who no longer fears an attack has given us a guarantee of good faith in that she has, in a measure, dropped the reserve that so long characterized her military policy, But do not let us flatter ourselves that Prusssia is the only enemy who could cope with us. At the moment of her greatest prostration France could have taken Belgium, had we been the only obstacle in her way, in spite of our political pretensions and the pictures in our popular newspapers. May we be wise in time, and be prepared before, not after, our day of trial!

Emperor. Not only might a Prussian those who are not temporizers, but who general have done all this, but he might believe that time will work in their favour, have done it under the eye and criticism and besides these it wins some, who are of Von Moltke himself, with his forty neither temporizers nor believers in the years' Kriegsspiel brought to practice abstract advantage of waiting, but who are and tested by autumn manoeuvres, and simply unready. In addition to all these crowned by two of the most successful it wins a few, we suppose, we fear they campaigns of this century, undertaken are not more than a few, who feel honouragainst what were considered the two ably bound by the compact of Bordeaux, greatest military Powers in Europe. and who honestly hold that the country can hardly decide freely on the form of constitution which it is safest to try, while there is still so great a danger to face as the chance of a further collision with Germany. Thus M. Thiers has, we think, no small chance of defeating the various impatient parties crystalizing around him, by the (in France) very unusual exhibition of resolve to adhere strictly to a political compact which satisfies nobody, but which leaves to everybody hope. We do not say that, so long as he lives, the ad interim rẻgime will be maintained, for he may very likely live till the German occupation is at an end, which can hardly fail to put an end to the ad interim régime, and he may fail some day to hold his own even before the Germans quit the soil; but we do say that he has a very excellent chance of beating the mercurial and hesitating parties opposed to him, and foiling even the best conceived of all the plans for driving him from office that which would elect the Duc d'Aumale as Vice-president of the Republic under him, with power to fill his place in case of his suddenly failing or resigning his place. We call this the best THE political position in France is very of the plans for driving him from office, beperilous and very characteristic. No party cause, firstly, it would not be a breach of has the strength to wait, and no party has the compact of Bordeaux, while it would the strength to outvote and constitutionally be equivalent to an expression of want of overpower the others. M. Thiers threatens confidence in him; and next, because it them all in turns, and remains still the key would be aimed at the one prominent weakof the situation. He tells the Monarchists, ness M. Thiers has exhibited his weaknot without truth, in answer to their re-ness for resigning whenever he cannot get proach that he does not lean on the ma- his own way. M. Thiers has, we suspect, jority, that when he looks for the majority, an excellent chance of defeating even this "he finds nothing but a conspiracy." He well-conceived plan to get rid of himself, tells the Left, on the other hand, that he for both the Right and the Left have will defend the compact of Bordeaux- the very little confidence in the ultimate solucompact to leave the definitive settlement tion, whenever, by M. Thiers's death, or of the form of Government till the Ger- by the German evacuation, or by the sucmans have left the soil of France - even cess of the plot to manoeuvre him into against the Republicans. And while M. resignation, the time comes for the counTheirs lives and retains the spirit thus to try to choose definitively its new form of use each party against the other, and to Government. The suspense continues not keep his stand on the arrangement made because the people can wait, and prefer at the end of the war for temporary pur- waiting, till the danger of German menace poses, he will probably have his way. The is at an end, but because every party and mere fact that he represents a temporary every section of every party is so tremuarrangement is a political advantage to lous with impatient excitement that it him. It wins all the temporizers, and all | cannot bear to risk a false move.

From The Economist.

THE SITUATION IN FRANCE.

The

Legitimists cannot determine how much to [without strong facts on his side, that a yield to the Orleanists, and the Orleanists great part of the regular army is strongly cannot determine how much to yield to the Republican; another part is unquestionLegitimists; the Right and Centre dare ably Monarchical; and some of the troops not combine to attack the Republic, and are certainly Imperialists. Thus there is the Republicans dare not openly attack but too much danger that whenever the the Monarchists; the Conservative Repub-final catastrophe can no longer be averted licans do not know how much to yield to by M. Thiers's dexterity, the result may the Radical Republicans, and the Radical but too probably bring with it a great Republicans do not know how much to danger of civil war. The only sort of yield to the Reds. All are in such a twit- compromise which, in our belief, would ter, because nobody knows their own avert this, would be the choice of some one strength, and nobody will risk anything to welcome to the Monarchical party, like the try it. Yet for all alike genuine patience, Duc d'Aumale, to take the chief office unthe genuine faculty of waiting stolidly der a constitution welcome to the Repuband not anticipating the future at all, is lican party, in other words, to succeed M. not only non-existant but impossible. The Thiers as President of the Republic. But Assembly quivers, day after day, like the whether this most promising sort of comleaves on as aspen tree with the emotion promise is possible to the frenzied parties of its expectation and its dread. The of France seems more and more doubtful. work of administration, the work of pro- In the first place, it is doubtful whether viding a proper army and a proper tariff, the Duc d'Aumale would consent to abanof reorganizing French finance and reduc- don the pretensions of his nephew to the ing the currency within limits, is all more Throne. In the next place, it is very or less delayed and injured by the nervous doubtful whether the Republicans would intensity of the French emotion about the hear for a moment of such a President ultimate problem of parties - Monarchy without treating the whole thing as a or Republic; if Monarchy, what régime? Monarchical conspiracy, and by so treating it, if Republic, of what kind Conservative | forcing it to become so; and in the last place or Progressive? it is certain that the Legitimists would oppose such a solution with all their power. Thus, the more we look at the present situation in France, the more fear we feel for the result. There is no sign whatever of that tendency to mutual concession which must precede a stable settlement; and though M. Thiers may very likely outgeneral his adversaries for some time longer, he is not producing - we question very much whether he is in any degree trying to produce - that alleviation of the bitterness of party spirit, that wish to arrive at some result in which all the nation concurs, which must precede any settlement that is not to be achieved by civil war.

And yet it is precisely the intensity of this nervous emotion which assures us that when the moment comes for settling the question at last, it will be settled on some unsatisfactory and unstable basis. The people who care so much more about the means than the end, the form of Government than the result of Government, who are so impatient for the catastrophe that they can hardly listen to the drama, are very unlikely to accept quietly any of those practical solutions which, in such a matter, are alone possible. And as far as anybody can see, even the army is not likely | to throw its very great weight decisively into any scale. M. Gambetta boasts not

NATURAL CURIOSITY.-A natural curiosity was recently found by some Broadstairs boatmen at the back of the Goodwin Sands, and was brought by the finders on shore at Broadstairs. It consists of two pieces of wreck, logs of wood some 12 or 14 feet long, and more completely covered with living barnacles than any piece of wreck ever before seen by the oldest sailor on the coast. The owners exhibit their findings on the pier, and much interest is excited when the logs with their living burden are fed. The feeding consists

of their being dipped in the sea off the jetty at
high tide. The boatmen have placed themselves
in communication both with Mr. Buckland and
the Crystal Palace authorities, and they say
that it has been arranged that the Crystal Pal-
ace Company will take the curiosities, and that
a trough is being constructed for their safe con-
veyance. The barnacles are the common “ Pen-
telasmis anatifera," from which, as Dr. Harvey
says, "our ancestors believed that barnacle
geese were sprung."
Public Opinion.

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