The New York Herald Newspaper, July 28, 1873, Page 3

NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, JULY 28, 1873—WITH SUPPLEMENT. MONS, NASSR, Mir, Edmund Yates Has Something Fur- ther to Say About the Persian. \A Critical Estimate of the French Army by Mr. Arobi+ bald Forbes. THE GRAND REVIEW AT LONGCHAMPS, “The Farouche-Looking Vagabond with a Hang-Dog Air.” ‘Trente-et-Quarante for Small Stakes, Tho Army at the Outbreak of the War and - Its Widespread Demoralization. GOBE-MOUCHERIE. Nocturnal Dissipations of ia the Shah. THE PARIS JOURNALS. The Versailles Water Works in Full Play. MR. YATES’ ACCOUNT. PaRis, July 11, 1873, From the accountsof the reperterd and so far asone can tell by the expression of his face (let them say what they will, he is @ surouche looking vagabond, with @ perpetually sombre, almost hhang-dog air!) the Shah is having a” good time in Paris. This is easily intelligible when it is remem- bered that the official receptions and organized fetes are much fewer here than they were in Lon- don, and that the Persian polygamist has conse- quently much more time for his own diversions. And it is of this time that he thinks and makes the most: Whenever it is possible he denudes himself of his jewelled uniform and aigrette, and, slipping ona plain frock coat and an Astrakhan cap, goes off on & nocturnal promenade, Like most barba- Tians, he is BXCEEDINGLY CHILDISH, and the other night took the greatest delight in playing trente-et-quarante for macaroon cakes in one of the little toy kiosks in the Champs Elysées. ‘The game was at its height when he was recog- nized, and acry of “The Shah!” arose. In an in- stant, asif by magic, the crowd round him was fmmense. He saw that flight was inevitable, but he could not fly without bis spoil, ‘Mes macarons,”’ he cried, and gathering up the cakes which he had Just won, he beat a hasty retreat. The insatiable curiosity of the Parisians regarding their guest has wpurred the reporters of the journals to the com- mission of great feats of activity, and the acquisi- tion, or more probably the fabrication, of stories abounding in detail is immense. How he walks, how he talks, how he eats, how he drinks, Are all noted down by these Boswells so small. How his suite will not sleep in the beds prepared for them, but roll upon the floor; what shops they ‘visit and what purchases they make are all regu- larly set forth day by day in journals to which the discussion of politics is forbidden, and which are too well acquainted with the tastes of their readers toenter upon any large or serious subjects. In what other civilized country, for instance, would you find a leng paragraph devoted to a description of THE SHAH’S CHEMISE-DE-NUIT, and of his habits immediately before retiring to rest? Who but @ Frenchman would have thought it worth while gravely toset forth that after taking four turns round the garden, during which he con- umes his last pipe, the Shah returns to his bed- room, which is on the ground floor, undresses him- self, puts on a garment of white silk, long—reach- Ing to his heels and tied round his neck with a gold cord, but does not take oif his fez until he jumps {nto bed? Which REMINDS ME OF A STORY. ; Agentleman who haa been dining out and dining heavily, conscious that he had taken more wine ‘than was good for him, determined to puil himself ‘together before encountering the searching eyes ‘of his wife who, as he found on his return nome, hhad already retired to rest. Accordingly he per- formed his toilette de nuit in his dressing room, and ‘with studiously steady step advanced towards the conjugal couch, Madame looked at him for an instant, not angrily, he was pleased to remark; on the contrary, to his astonishment she burst into a peal of laughter. ‘Don’t you think,’ she said, “before lying down that you had better take off your hat?” He had been so intent on assuming sobriety that he had forgotten to remove his head- gear. Toresume. Before dismissing this question of gobemoucherie I need scarcely say that the French journals teem with stories relating to the Shah's domestic life, ali of which are more or less sea- woned with what is called ‘gros sel." You will un- derstand without apy further indication from me the little turns of double entendre and indecent persifiage which these stories take and how greedily they are devoured and repeated by a popu- lation which delights in such nastiness. But I may ‘tell you as a fact that when the Shah visited the grand spinning and weaving mills at Manchester, ‘where he saw in full employment about six hun- @red buxom and BLOOMING LANCASHIRE LASSES, he was so strick by the sight that he proposed to buy the whole establishment, spinning jennies, power looms and female operatives—especially the female operatives—right away and transport the lot to Teheran. And His Majesty seemed much disappointed when informed that the laws of Great Britain would not admit of the ratification of such @ bargain. With more consideration than was shown him in England, the programme of the Shah's entertain- ments has been so arranged that itis only on every other day that he has been trotted out for oMcial receptions, &c,, while he has been permit- ted to have the intervening time to himself. It was probably with the view of inducing him to believe that we were not such a grave and serious people as we are usually represented that we led ‘the unfortunate man such a round of quasi gayety during his stay with us, If any interpreter at- tached to his suite could have conveyed to the Shah a translation of Sir George Cornewail Lewis’ remark that “life would be tolerable were it not for 11s pleasares,” there is no doubt that the monarch would have apprectated the philosopher's Paradox. This, however, is another of those things ‘which they manage better in France, After the fatigues of his journey from Cherbourg and entry Into Paria on Sunday evening, the Shah was al- lowed to take his rest om Monday, and, with the exception of a drive in an open carriage through the Bois de Boulogne and round the boulevards, he confined himself to the garden of the Petit Bourbon, and to making himself ac. quainted with his new quarters. Tuesday was set ‘part for a visit to the Park and Garden of Versailles, ‘where the Shah was to witness the splendid display of fountains known as the “Grandes-Eaux,” to ‘be entertained at dinner and to behold such Mu Nations and pyrotechnics as Frenchmen declare an alone be foundin Paris. The weather was Jouperd, Y anything too fing, The sug was insup- portable, and almost justified the temerity of Reuter’s agent in Paris, who, in telegraphically Yecording the Shah’s entry, made him the ex- ponent of s very old joxe against our poor English climate by putting into his,mouth the words, “At length I see the sun again!” There could not have been a doubt in the minds of any one present AT VERSAILLES on this day that His Majesty would both see the gun and feel its effects, The thermometer in the single cloud to mtervene between the biazing luminary and the wretched pleasure-seekers, who, in all directions and by all means of conveyance, were flocking to the old palace. Men, with hang- ing heads, asthough cowering under the curse of Cain, skulked slong in sach limited shadow as was cast by the house eaves; or, having of necessity to cross the road, dashed out into the broad streak of giare ag though swimming for their lives, and arrived all panting and perspiring at the opposite shore of shade, Many of the Deputies and officials of the government are now resident at Versailles, and on this occasion entertained their friends at dédetner before and at dinner after the reception. While one remained in the vast chambers of the ancient hotels in the Rue des Reservoirs or the Avenue St, Cloud, refreshing one’s self with newly- gathered strawberries and iced drinks, it was Pleasant enough; but the time came when it was necessary to progeed to the palace, and then came the tug of war; for the gardens, which, as every one knows, are in the same condition as when first laid out more than one hondred and seventy years ago, are admirably adapted for display, and, con- d scarcely a scrap of shade, There Statuesand vases, fountains every- , Narrow lawa so beautifully green, Known he Tapis Vert; but no waving trees, no hedges, ‘cely a shrab to keep off the glare. ere Were no seats either on this particular aiter- noon, for all the chairs had been gathered to- gether On a@ particular portion of the ter- for the accommodation of those in- vited to the night’s firework show. 980 we strolled about as we best mjght, the sun pouring down on our devoted heads, and its reflection going for us from every white statue, plinth and gravelled path within range. ‘Three hours of sunstroke and consequent vertigo are bard to bear, and though I endeavored to console. myself by the refection tnat I was in the service of the HERALD, and the remembrance of what Mr. Stanley and the Cuban correspondents had suffered in the same cause, I found it did not go far in mitigation of my wretchedness, At last, a little alter five o’clock, THE SHAH CAME. His route lay up the Avenue de Paris and through the grand entrance, which was lined with troops; thence round the righthand corner of the building into the gardens, where we, tie > ulace, were ‘waiting to receive him. Down tu bioaa gravel walk came first two of the old guardians of the Palace, their breasts decorated with medais, then the open carriage of the Shah, drawn by four horses—not four horses “in hand,” not four elegantly caparisoned beasts, high-stepping and bit-champing; but as I live, four gray Nor- mandy stallions, with their tails “clubbed” and their harness partly of rope, partly of leather, just as one sees them in the pictures of the old dili- gences! And they are ridden by postilions in blue jackets, with the chevron on the arm, the high shining glazed hat and the enormous thigh boots of that favorite character in Parisian bal- masqués, le postillon de Longjumeau, the postil- jon who used to form the burden of poor Levas- sor’s favorite song :— Le postillon de ma’am ablou C’est un joli loup-garou. Just as the Shah arrived opposite THE FIRST SERIES OF FOUNTAINS, the grandes eaux were turned on. The display has not taken place for years, which, considering each time it does take place it is said to cost 10,000 francs, or $2,000, is not to be wondered at in the Present state of the French finance. The Shah stood entranced at the sight, as well he might be. Round him there was ‘ wates, water everywhere ;’’ water in huge, heavy cascades, in their feathery flakes; water spouted forth on the Latona by the frogs and tortoises into which, according to Ovid, the peasants of Lycia, who refused her a drink, were turned; water from the near lying bassin de Neptune and the far off bassin d’Apollon—one wide water all around us, all above us one blue sky. At several diferent points the Shah left bis carriage to gaze upon this brilliant scene, which was only excelled by its appearance at night, when the fountains, which were again in full play,showed to perfection in the light of colored Bengal fres and stood out in splendid relief against the fringe of the dark woods in the distance. THE FIREWORKS were comparatively poor—not better than some which I have seen in England, not equal to what I saw in America. It is fair, however, to add that according to report some of the best had to be withdrawn, having been completely spoiled by a pelting storm which took place about seven o'clock, ‘The crowd at the railway station at the conclusion of the séte was terrific, aud thousands of persons did not arrive in Paris untii nearly three in the morning. Wednesday was an “‘ofl-day,”’ necessary for the repose of the Shan, necessary for the comple- tion of the preparations for the great review which was to.be held yesterday. About this review there had beena great discussion. It was freely said in society, and some of the newspapers actually had the courage to repeat the re- mark, that it was absurd, and even worse than absurd, to call upon the -Shah to witness the evolutions of troops who, within the last two years had been disgracefully beaten by an enemy whose army had penetrated to the capi- tal and was actually still in possession of a portion of French territory. “This Persian,” said those who felt deeply in the matter, ‘has been to Berlin, where our conquerors have passed in re- view before him, and now, without any necessity for it, we are actually going to make a parade of those troops whom they thrashed.’’ Despite of all these protestations, however, the review came off, and was, on the whole, considered a success. I leave to my colleague, Mr. Forbes, the description of the military spectacle, for which his traming and experience so well qualifies him, and will con. tent myself with a few personal details, It was pot at Versailles on Tuesday, but it was Much hotter yesterday at the hippodrome of Longchamps, where the review was held. Ordi- nary hats and suits of broadcloth were not to be dreamt of, 80 with the assistance of the proprietor of La Belle Jardiniere, 4 ready-made tailoring es- tablishment, I found myself like King Arthur, “clothed with white samite, mystic, wonderful ;” but, unlike King Arthur, with a broad-leaved, white wide-awake hat on my head and a white um- brelia lined with green in my hand, The crowd was to be bigger than ever. Versailles had had its thousands, but Longchamps was to have its tens of thousands, and indeed, when I started. at half-past one o'clock, it seemed, from the state of the road, that for once public rumor had not lied. The Champs Elysées were 80 thickly crammed with vehicles and pedestrians that it was thought aa- visable to makes one's way to the Arc de ‘Triomphe by the Avenue de Friedland, and even the broad road debouching to the Bois de Boulogne from that pojat was scarcely sufficient for the trafic, THE VENETIAN MASTS, which had stood so bravely on the day of the Shah’s entry, had been taken down, and as they lay along the side of the path formed resting places for hundreds of wearied pedestrians or sightseers waiting to see the great man go by, As we sped along it was evident that the sate was popular, not merely with the commonality but with the upper ten thousand of this so-called Republic—a Republic which delights in crests and coronets, uniforms and liveries—some of the prin- cipal supporters of which retain their old aristo- cratic tities and their old aristocratic state, and where equality paints its name on the walis of the public buildings, but is never heard of eise- where. These are répablicans who take enor. mous delight m seizing every opportunity con- ducive to the display of pomp and parade, and the Gaulois, one of the principal journals, cannot find more suitable terms in which to describe its delight at the success of the Toylew than by saying, “ Yesterday, for Ave hours, ‘We were once more under the Empire.” What & nation of vainglorious apes it ts! Can you imagine that the paragraph with which these words begin continues thus:—‘‘Under the rays of a July sun 60,000 men massed on the fleld of Longchamps, brilliant in cuirasses and gold embroidery, their Plumes waving in the breeze, their swords glanc- ing in the light, the heroic infantry of Sedan (1) and of Bazeilles (!), the heroic cuirassiers of Mors- braun and of Reichhosen, the débms of our valiant armies of the Rhine and of Metz Passed round an immense circle, where 200,000 Frenchmen clapped their hands at the sight of our legions, conquered, indeed, but always gloricus!”’ What 1s to be said ofa people to whom such stuf! as this is pennea out and who swallow it with avidity? My flacre had to take tts place in a long line at some considerable distance from our destination, and I was fearful that the place which had been reserved for me would be taken. My fears were well grounded. My ticket professed to admit me to. the Tribune publique, Ab, vaih hope! “Tri- bunes, we will have tribunes,” cried the Roman People in Macaulay’s ballad of Virginia, “Down with the wicked ten.” ButI should nave had to have downed with ten thousand before I could get my tribune. All that could be done was to take up my position ona chair in the open space between the stand and the course, and to spread out the green and white umbrella, under which I felt my- self a betting-list keeper on an English race course, . The company around me was numerous and pleasant. There in the front were Monsieur and Madame, and with them a gentleman who was evidently not Monsieur, and equally evidently was tenderly attached to Madame. There, too, was THE OMNIPRESENT PRENCHMAN with the gold spectacies and the red ribbon in the buttonhole of bis alpaca coat, the cheap cigar, the shiny boots and the tight-fitting gloves of peau de Suéde. Here, too, was the usual French child, who is always fighting with its pursemaid. This time it'was called Maurice, and was in astate of jury at being prevented from covering itself with gravel. French children are always fighting their nurses and wanting to play in the dirt, Don’t you remember the anecdote of Louis Napoleon, when a child, stamping his feet with rage and call- img eut to his mother, “Laissez mot jouer dans cette belle boue’’ (Let me piay in that beautiful puddle) ¢ The scene is pretty and sufficiently animated. Away on the left is the well known Moulin, or mill of Longchamps; in front lies the broad extent of the circular race course, beyond it a nuge wood, in the trees of which, as well as of those nearer to us, people are swarming. On the right a large wooden erection for refreshment purposes, and bearing the name ‘Rouge glacier,” seemed some- what out of keeping. There are cannon to the right of us and cannon to the left of us and troops of all kinds, for the matter of that, and we were patiently waiting. “O’er our head the bright sun laughed a pitiless laugn,’? which is Mr. Robert Browning’s way of expressing that it was very hot, and there was nota breath of air. If I had not had that green and white umbrella this letter never would have been written. There was an amount of trumpeting and drum- ming, such as could only have been made by Frenchmen, and winding by the rock of the cas- cade, which said rock was covered with people, the procession approached, THE STAFF was very brilliant, though the French tastes for gaudy uniforms always reminds one of a circus, and on it were some men of mark, such as Canro- bert, Ladmirault, Clinchaut, &c. Tothe great de- light of the Parisians the Shah rode his white horse with the pink tall. After making the circuit of the course he arrived at the pavilion prepared for him, where I willieave him and the soldiers to be dealt with by my colleague. EDMUND YATES, / MR. FORBES’ ACCOUNT. The Strength, Discipline, Reforms and Martial Appearance of the Troops at the Review—Description, Criticism and Prophecy. Paris, July 12, 1873. Most reviews are things of pure formality, and have, in a military sense, little significance for pro- fessional men, What is there, for instance, in a grand review in Hyde Park of the British house- hod troops before the British Queen or some august visitor—not to that sovereign, but to the realm of which she is the monarch? Absolutely nothing of novel military meaning. The Grenadier Guards march as we have seen them march any day since we knew or cared any thing about marching; the Blues powder past with their characteristic mas- sive grandeur. So it is on the Tempelhofer Feld of Berlin, the Schmerl of Vienna, the parade ground of St.Petersburg. The armies of Europe have each their individual conventional characteristics, with which the student of miltary systems is pertectly well acquainted, to whom, therefore, a review, no matter however imposing, tells nothing new—pre- sents no field for speculation. If an exceptionally large namber of men have been got together, the circumstance means simply an exceptional effort. The expert knows of the existence of the material that each nationality possesses—has in bank, if the expression is justifiable; and when he sees an ex- ceptionally large muster it has forhim the signifi- cance simply that an exceptionally large check has been drawn upon the resources in hand. But the review of the French army on the Long- champs race course on Thursday last had an tnten- sity of interest and a weight of import that were altogether unique. Two years and four months ago, where and what were the French armies? Scattered over the South about Orleans, Tours and Bourges was a half-disorganized congeries of regi- ments, an army only in name. If in its ranks there were still men who had conquered in the Crimea and in Italy they were deteriorated by the vicious military system of the Empire—a system that had grown rottener with every day that Le Buf haa held the portfolio of Minister of War. But the old fighting men with medals on their breasts were but @ handful in comparison with the hordes of raw levies, hurriedly dragged unwilling from their cot- tages, hastily instructed in the rudiments of the art of firing a musket, and hustled into the battle Heid, destitute of any training such as alone enables a man to be anything save s danger, an obstruction, a useless and mischievous nonentity on the battle fleld, THE OFFICERS were for the most part as useless as their com- mands. Everywhere the military spirit had de- teriorated into effeteness—mean, self-seeking and trompery jealousy. No intendance deserving of the name existed, and contractors pillaged at once the treasury and the troops. In the North Faid- herbe’s command was in scarcely better plight. The vast garrison of Paris had little leaven in it of actual soldierhood, and the National Guard had learned the.use of arms only to employ them im the crazy rebellion of the Commune. Of Bourbaki’s army, smashed at Villersexel by Von Werder, the fragments had crumbled into dust in the Wintry passes of the Jura, and the wretched débris had drifted over the frontier into Switzerland, there to be interned by the hardy militiamen of the can- tons. From the outset it had chiefly consisted of raw levies and atoms of divers nationalities, As for the regular soldiers of France—the troops in reliance on whose prowess her ruler had dared to declare war—they were languishing as prisoners of war on German soil. Defeat atter defeat, alter- nated by no single ray of victory, had resulved in the capitulations of Sedan and Metz; and men already demoralized by lost battles, by retreats that resembled routs, by disorgani- sation, by relaxed discipline, by tacit license to plunder, by a lack of regular supplies, were Marched in herds of prisoners from prisoner bivouacs to prison quarters in Germany, there to live for months that idle, listless, objectiess pria- oner-life that more than anything rots the martial- ism of soldiers, Two years and four months ago this was the state of France as a military Power. Her soldiers, armed with what was then the best weapon of the world, bad been beaten en every field. Their system of fighting, that had been praised as the finest imaginable, their mobility, their nonchalant defance o! rigid formations, their attributed adaptability to circumstances—all had availed them nothing; rather, indeed, had turned ; seen in the Bois de Boulogne. todust snd ashes in their hands, the imagined merits turning out the very causes of their reverses, ‘When peace was signed and France collected from the highways and byways, from internment in Switzerland and Beigium, from prison cantonment in Germany and from the corners of her own ter- ritory what remained to her of the component elements of organizations that had once been armies, the alternative confronted her either to resign her position ag one of the great military Powers or to make exer- tions such as perhaps never nation had made be- fore, if she would assert her right still to occupy that position and make good that right by a speedy reorganization of her armies and A RADICAL REFORM in her military system. As we all know, she chose the latter alternative. Thiers addressed his measured purposefulness of energy not alone to the paying off of the war indemnity, but to the re- suacitation of the army. A new scheme of organ- ization and for recruiting was devised, became law and is already in operation. To replace the piles and stacks of Chassepots that went to Ger- many the government factories and private con- tractors have workea day and night. I can re- member seeing in a field outside Sedan 409 pieces ofcaptured French field artillery, ranged in long lines, with German sentries watching over them. On that day in August, 1871, when I saw Kaiser Wilhelm lead his victorious guardsmen in triumph through the streets of his capital, the route from La Belle Alliance Strasse down Unter den Linden to the Schloss Platz was flanked on either side by captured cannon—2,400 of them, im their long avenue of iron and bronze, All these had to be re- Placed. In short, what France had to do, ifshe would have armies capable of holding their own in the present condition of military equipment and preparation on the Continent—far more if that word revanche which she kept and keeps always muttering through her set teeth, was to be any- thing else than a wild utopian aspiration—was to begin at the foundation and build up for herself a wholly new structure of military organization. The ruins of the old one were too rotten to found upon, and the plans of the old building that ex- isted in her archives were vicious, obsolete, and futile. THE SIGNIFICANCE OP THURSDAY'S REVIEW consjsted in this—that it furnished material for the competent spectator to judge whether and to what extent, ifany, France was really bent on a radical abmegation of her old military traditions and on a sweeping reform based on an intelligent appreciation of the lessons capable of being learned from experience; whether she was in thorough earnest, nO matter what the cost, in reorganizing her armies with the greatest possible speed, and te what extent, it being apparent that such are hrr aims, she has up till now succeeded in ful- filling them, The ground on which the review was held, al- though not very suitate for sucha purpose, was certainly the best that could have been found in the neighborhood of Paris. On the plain of Satory there is a wider expanse of marching ground, but it is further from the capital, and besides was cal- culated to awaken some awkward reminiscences of how the good will of French soldiers was won by sausages and champagne administered by a President who afterward became an Emperor, On the plateau of Villiers, where the Emperor William reviewed the Saxons and Wurtembur¢gers, there is an excellent parade ground, but on it there are too many grave mounds under which lie Frenchmen killed in an unsuccessful combat for that spot to be quite an exhilarating location for a gala review. True, Longchamp itself is not by any means desti- tute for Frenchmen of unpleasant military memo- ries. As I gazed on the long lines of men in red breeches the recollection came over me of the parade I had witnessed on the same ground in the Spring of 1871. Almost in the same tracks stood then the trim and rigorously disciplined regiments of Hessians, Silesians and Bavarians, waiting there till the moment should come for them to march past Kaiser Wilhelm, who sat on his black charger just in front of the pavilion in which were now sparkling the diamonds and rubies of the Shah of Persia, Long years before that doleful day for France another army of occupation had been In the forest glades had been pitched the tents of Wellington's sol- diers, and under the hatchets of his pioneers had fallen the grand old oak trees that dated from the days of Chariemagne. What a wiirligig is the world, to be sure! Two short years ago, on this very plain, the red-breeched men were lining rifle- pits and constructing batteries against the lertifi- cations of that very Paris which to-day had poured forth its thousands on the sward and into tribunes to admire and applaud. Look at the high pitched roof that sarmounts that high swell of foliage on the left front. That is the roof of THE CHATEAU DE LA MUETTE, and up against that chimney was the wooden “sookout” of General Dombrowski’s headquarters, whence I had looked out upon the Bois not half an hour before the Versaillist soldiery came streaming over the breach in the shattered outworks of the Porte St, Cloud, to perpetrate @ relentless retribu- tion which Paris seems to have forgotten before the bullet holes in the facades of her houses have become Weather-worn or the rain wholly washed the blood stains from the wails bounding that Com- munist Aceldama in the corner of Pére la Chaise. All the troops, except the garrison of Paris, had bivouacked for the night in the Bois de Bologne There were those who alleged that the real reason tor this was the inability on the part of any French genera! to manceuvre 80 large @ force into the Park in the course ofa single forenoon, and Welling- ton’s famous remark was quoted that he did not know a single British general who could march 20,000 men out of Hyde Park. The criticism seemed to me censorious and uncalled for. In the intense heat of the weather it was a wise humanity to spare the troops a8 much as possible, and the dis- positions on @ cramped and very awkward theatre of operations Were so perfectly adapted to the pur- pose tobe subserved as to prove thatin tactical arrangements General Ladmirault’s staff officers were perfectly competent for their functions. The troops on the ground consisted of the four corps @armée comprising the garrison ot Paris and the Army of Versailles. The total number ef men present must have been littie short of seventy thousand men. Had ali the regiments been at their full strength it would have exceeded 100,000. The First corps was under the command of General Montauden, the Second of General Chrui} hent, the Third of General Douay and the Fourth of General Bataille. The troops were formed, the lines of army corps facing the Seine and occupying nearly the whole of the opem space of the race course. Of the parade, when it had been finally set, the central object opposite the tribune was THE BRILLIANT GROUP OF THE GENERAL STAFF, headed by General Ladmirault, Chief of the army of Versailles aud Governor of Paris, with the chief of his stat’ and a great posse of aids-de-camp, A little behind the staf and to its left was a miscel- laneous contingent, consisting of gendarmerie, the Republican Guards of Paris, the regiment of Met- ropolitan Sapeurs Pompiers, &c. In line with these, but with its left flank thrown back in accord with the boundaries of the available ground, stood the First corps, with its six batteries of artillery and thirty-nine battalions ef infantry. More di- rectly behind the staff were ranged in three lines the Fifth Army corps (six batteries, thirty-nine battalions), the Fourth Army corps (six batteries, thirty-two battalions), and the Second Army corps (six batteries, thirty-nine battalions), in the order a8 named, numbering from front to rear. The formation of the battal- jons on parade was tn columns of companies, the saving of frontage being an object. In the rear of the army corps thus arranged was formed in mass of batteries twenty-six batteries of artillery, comprising the reserve, and being in addition to the divisional artillery, which was formed up in its proper position with the respective army corps. ‘The whole of the artillery, other than the divi- sional artillery, was under the command of General Princetean. No cavalry was attached, at least on parade, to the several divisions, The whole of the cavalry, consisting of fifty-three squadrons in all, was formed up On the plain of Bagatelle, some dis- tance to the right, and separated from the rest of the parade by the ornamental wood around the cascade, Restricting myself, as I am doing, to the purely military agpect of the dax, 3 have nothine to aay with regard to the beauty and splendor of the | troops, once driven off the dead angie of tne pageant as it tay before the spectators in the tribunes, girdled by its setting of greenery. THE ADVENT OF THE SHAH as, accompanied by Marshal MacMahon and fol- lowed by a very large and brilliant cohort of mounted staff officers, he rode on to the field, was greeted from the drums and bugles with the *‘ bat aux champs,” the traditional salute of a French army on parade. The cortége swept down the broad avenue between the Fifthand the Fourth Corps, the men of the former, which kad fronted the other way, having come right about in order that both sides of the avenue should be lined with faces, Passing along to the distant flank, near the trees surrounding the village of Boulogne, the cor- tégé wheeled and came up toward the pavilion along a new avenue formed of the Fifth and First corps, facing inwards. In a few moments the bril- Mant procession was passing along the front of the tribunes. MacMahon rode a noble chestnut charger with that dashing grace of horsemanship which ig one of the chief causes of his popularity in the army. The Shah came on his left, a little behind, Mounted on his white Arab stallion with the famous manve tail His Majesty wore the “diamond coat,” in the iront of his kulan blazed @ tall feather spray of brilliants, and the rich housings of his horse equipment literally blazed with jewels. On the Shah’s left rode L’Admirault, almost as fat as, but without the phlegm of, Bazaine, while on the right hand of MacMahon waa the Duke q@Aumale, The Shah rode to the back of the pavilion, and, dismounting, took his seat in the chair of state under the canopy, whence, in the company of M. Buffet, he witnessed the scene and the march past. MacMahon, with L’Admirault, the Duke d’Aumale, the mounted Persians, with the exception of the Shah, and the rest of the horse- men, wheeled to one side and took up a position opposite to and facing the pavilion, leaving an interval between, along which the troops marched past. A great deal of nonsense bas been written, both in French and English papers, as to the direction in which the troops saluted, and political eard houses have been constructed on erroneous and, indeed, untruthful premises, In many quarters it has been asserted that the oficers saluted, not the President of the Republic, who sat on his horse on the right of the regiments as they passed, Dut that they saluted to their left; accord- ing to some, the tribune of the Assembly, sald to have contained chiefly royalist occupants; accord- to others the chief pavilion, on which sat the Shah and M, Buffet, These statements are either blun- ders or lies; in either case rubbish. Troops of every European army for the most part march past from right to left, and the saluting point is on their right, so that the officers’ sword arms, with which they deliver the salute, are on the side next the saluting point. You may change THE SALUTING POINT if yeu please, but in this case you must invert also the order of marching past, so that the sword arm shall always be next the saluting point. Owing to tactical considerations the troops on Thursday marched past, not from right to left, but from left to right, and, therefore, the saluting point, where sat Marshal MacMahon and his sta:t, had to be fixed on the right of the stream of troops, on the “sword arm side”’ and opposite the tribunes, ‘The officers, as they successively passed, saluted and turned “eyes right,’ without exception. To have done anything else would have been worse than a@ military solicism—it would have been a military impossibility. The salute, in technical language, was ‘taken’? by Marshal MacMahon in virtue of his superior military rank to any other ‘officer on the ground. The attempted importation of political considerations into one of the simplest and most matter of course details at once indicates @ surprising degree of ignorance, and furnishes an illustration of the illusory foundation on which specious canards are for the most part based, The intantry marched past in columns of double companies, each double company being about seventy-five file strong. First came the gen- darmery, the municipal guardsand the fremen— all picked men, mostly veterans, and marching with a considerable show of steadiness, The First corps followed, then the Fourth, then the Second, and the Fifth came last, having served until the end as a screen to enable the other corps to defile benind it intothe marching part position. The detail of the First division will apply to all. ‘The General commanding the army corps having passed with his staff, there came next the Divis- fonal General with his staf, then the regiment of chasseurs belonging to the army corps, then the massed bands and pioneers of the First brigade, then the general officer commanding that brigade, then the two infantry regiments of that brigade, then the two batteries of artillery of the division, and lastly, the Second brigade of the divisiou, headed by its chief, Each regiment consisted of three battalions, which, including the regiment or chasseurs, made up the thirty-nine battalions, which is the complement of an army corps. The chasseurs, as @ rule, marched better than any other infantry of the line, and wore a smarter and more soldierly aspect in their serviceable, dark biue uniform, The red breeches had still a good many of the faults thut characterized the French army under the Empire. In the rearranks there were some very littie men. The dressing was impertect, the step was often badly kept; many men siouched rather than marched; there was a DEFICIENCY OF MARTIAL CARRIAGE, and there was a great lack of uniformity in the angle of slope of the rifles. But, while all this is true, none the less true is it that there were apparent the results of aspirations after better. things, and efforts to overcome that looseness of formation which long practice has made second nature. It used to be that the French army consistently con- temned all attempts at rigidity of formation, Dressing was ostentatiously disregarded. Men were absolutely encouraged to disregard the “touch” and the maintenance of “the step.” “We are supple, mobile, agile,” was the boast. “We have outgrown your stiff, formal drillings; your practising of the goose step, your antiquated notion that an army is @ machine. We march to get over the ground, not to resemble a moving wall. Let the bugle sound and see how dexter- ously we should scatter into skirmishing order; with what elan we should spring forward in the charge. All your stiff formalities are for igno- rant clowns, witnout military instincts. We are intuitively soldiers, and dispense with trouble of which we do not see the use.” ‘The fashion was catching. Everywhere new-fangled snatchers at ad captandum notions argued impulsively that the careful, labored drill of the armies of other nation- alities was @ gigantic blunder. One of Britain's best reputed army reformers, Sir Garnet Wolsey, has put into print his conviction that for “all practical purposes the worst drilled militia regt- ment has enough knowledge of drill.” The sophism was spreading widely. It was complimentary to the intelligence of individual men that the method of laborious drill was needless; was indeed a relic of the time when intelligence among rank and file could not be said to exist. The Germans knew better. Their rank and file is the most intelligent and best educated in Europe, owing to the manner in which their army is recruited; and they of aly nationalities might have seen their way to dispense with formal drills and exact formations, if it were safely possible that such could be dispensed with. But they knew that such was not the case. Cohesion, morale, mutual reliance, immunity trom panic are the outcome solely of discipline—or what the Prussians call ‘“appel..” Every battle fleld is a melée, True; but the difference be- tween the necessary disorder of a well-drilied and an ill-drilled force is that there is order in the dis- order of the former—that, when the bicker and clash of the mélée is over, the parts of the machine fall each into their places again—that men’s faculties, as well a6 their bodies, are disciplined; while of the latter the disorder is irreparable, If victory crowns the effort all is well; if the resistance is stubborn and sustained the disorder becomes cha- otic, morale unbased on the consciousness of cohe- sion, gives way and defeat follows. The history of the late war iterates and reiterates the lesson that against the rock of close discipline the waves of oose bravery break and are scattered. While the iThird German Army corps, after struggling frag- mentary through the fire hell of the wood of Spic- heren, could, nevertheless, by reason of ite tramed Giscipline, stagger into formation when that terri- bie ordeal had been battied through, Frossard’s Spicheren Berg, never could recover COHESION, but huddled, ahapeless throng of fugitives, of to distant Puttelange, Minging their arms from them as they ran. When the Bavarians caught De Failly’s division unawares at Beaumont, his men, pante stricken, had not trained command of their pulses sufficient to make them fall into the ranks ‘88 @ matter of course. Instance on instance might be multiplied. 1tis obvious that the French mili- tary authorities are changing rudimentarily the system of the army. The work isa vastone. The bad traditions of generations are to be unlearned, and then lessons are to be learned such as the foe has enframed in his constitution as the result of the good traditions of generations. But it is much fer proud Frenchmen to have realized the trath of the axiom Fas est docert ab hoste, and to be acting on the realization. The dressing on Thursday was not good, but hard efforts were obviously being made to get and keep it. Oficers were heard calling to their men to pick it up, Men were to be seen painfully sedulous in “keeping touch” of their neighbors; numbers were out of step, but numbers were seen changing step that they might get back into the right step. Intervals were carefully regarded. The men individually were better ‘set up” than they used to be, as if “suppling motions” were beimg extensively resorted to. Knapsacks were neatly rolled and the greateoats trimly rotied about them. The kepi bas been done away with and rather a showy shako substituted. ‘lie shoe and gaiter, however, still remain, and while they are retained the sustained marching power of the French army is much impaired. The bands are too strong in proportion to the company of soidiers, an old fault in the French army, and caiculated to weaken the force of fighting men in the day of need. Some brigades marched much better than others, the result, as I take it, of greater care and perception of the situation on the part of the gen- erals commanding. In instance, by far the best brigade was that of the Duke of Auerstadt (a nephew of Napoleon’s Marshal Davoust), #n officer whom I personally know to be imbued with a con- viction of the reforms necessary in the French army and with a zeal to make them. ‘THE ARTILLERY, both divisional and reserve, passed the saluting point with very remarkabie excellence of dressing. Two batteries to a division is only half the strength of artillery that ought to exist, but there was a re- serve strong enough to supplement the deficiency, The guns were rather miscellaneous and there was an absolute want of horse artillery, but the pro- gress from hardly any fleld artillery at all, which ‘was the cage at the end of the war, to the present condition, 1s simply wonderful. The cavalry was, perhaps, the weakest point. Frenchmen are bad riders and worse keepers, and they do not seem to have improved matenally since the late war, Both of the artillery and cavalry the accoutrements were in a discreditable state of dirt, On the whole it seems to me that the omen may be drawn, from the aspect of the troops on Thura- day’s parade, that there is FORKED LIGHTNING in the thunder cloud of France’s hatred to Germany and her thirst for revenge. Aspirations for the revanche are not a mere brutum fulmen; that I think General Manteufel must have owed to him- self, as he sat there éncognito in plain cloths ina back row of the diplomatic tribune. The French mean to have another wrestle for the tall—that every one who knows the nation knows, But every one did not know what I think this review goes to show, that her military authorities are working assiduously for the end that when the combatants shall grapple, as grapple they must, the issue will not be, by a long way, So nearly a fore- gone conclusion as most people have been content to assume it. If France can contain hersel!, and meanwhile work as she was worked in the past two years, THE STRUGGLE willbe a Titanic one, She has still ap immensity to do; indeed, she has scarcely yet begun the work she has set herself. But in ten years’ time, in accordance with the dispositions of her new military law, she will be able to set in line over 800,000 men without calling out the reserves, With them her military strength will number 1,300,000 trained soldiers. The second act, just passed, pro- viding for organization as the first does for recruit- ing, enacts that wholesome decentralization, the lack of which contributed as muci as anything to France's downfall in the late war. With eighteen well organized and equipped army corps, each with its own staff and its own province to recruit from, with a powerful artillery and arms of precision second to none in the world, ana with a strength in fighting men of a million and a quarter, who shall say that France shall not have made good her title to re-enter the ranks of the great military Powers? And all this that I write of she has deliberately set herself to accom- plish within ten years, ARCHIBALD FORBES, LITERARY CHIT-CHAT. Mr. LEWIS CAMPBELL, Greek Professor at St, Andrew's University, Edinburgh, has published some translations of Sophocles, which the Satur. day Review has no hesitation in recommending as the best and truest that have yet appeared in English. LIBUTENANT MARKHAM, in “The Cruise of the Ro- sario,” gives an interesting account of the favorite hunting ground of the slave traders of the Indian Ocean, which lies among the Santa Cruz and New Mebrides Islands. This isa very retired and ro- mantic corner of the world, little visited by navi- gators. THe SELECT COMMITTRE Of Parliament on the workings of the endowed school system has made a report relating to the grievances of the dissenters with the public schools, which seems to be satisfac. tory to nobody, Tuk Saturday Review takes up the figures of the United States census, and says that “adding to the local taxation and indebtedness the taxation and the debt of the federal government it is plain that per head the thirty-eight millions of citizens of the United States are by far the most heavily taxed and most deeply indebted people in the world.” LADY ASHBURTON, Who died sixteen years since, and has just been suitably commemorated in Lord Haughton’s “Monographs,” was an exceedingly clever and remarkable woman, the soul and centre of a notable literary group, in which Thomas Car- lyle was @ prominent figure. She was a keen “free jance” in conversation, and people who retired discomfited from the sharp encounter with her wit would say of hef:—‘i do not mind being knocked down, but I can’t stand being danced upon afterwards.” Thackeray was one of the eminent men of letters whom she piqued by her tog brilliant rallying, and he left her parlors at Bath House, resolved never to return. He de- clined Lady Ashburton’s invitations, and spoke of her with dislike and discourtesy, Months after, when the angry feeling had had time to die out, he received from her one day an invitation to dinner. Thackeray returmed it, with one ef his inimitable drawings on the back, depicting himself kneeling at her feet, with his hair all aflame from the hot coals she was energetically pouring upon his head out of an ornamental brazier. This act of coatrt tion was followed by complete reconciliation and warm friendship to him and his family. @ CASTELAR’S new boek upon “Old Rome and New Italy,” just translated into English, is pronounced by the Athenaeum a great literary success, “There are innumerable works, im all languages, which point out the antiquities and the historical vicissi- tudes of Rome, but there is none which describes the varying aspects of Italian life more vividly in @ few chapters.” ‘Yue Government oF Prussia is at times ex- tremely {lliberal in matters concerning the press. Witness the recent publication of an improved edi- tion of the works of the philosopher Letbnits, trom his manuscripts in the Royal Library at Hanover. The King of Hanover had agreed to communicate to the editor these valuable papers, but, before the contract could be fulfilled, Hanover became incor- porated in the North Germam Confederation, and the Prussian government refused to fulfil the agreement for the ase of the papers. This delayed the work for some years. But, having a list of the papers wanted, some Hanoverian scholars supplied copies of some aud others were found jn the Britiah Muse uly,