Show condemnation on the loth of december the council of war at trianon rendered judgment in the trial of marshal bazaine azaine JB the tile judges unanimously declaring the marshal guilty of capitulating capitula ting with his army in in the open en field without having done all ti that duty and honor dictated to prevent such a calamity and they condemned tho the accused to pay the expenses of the trial to have havo his name stricken from the list of the leg Legion lon Ion of df honor to degradation from his military rank ran kand and to be executed this condemnation was the most severe that the tribunal could pronounce and is strictly in conformity with the provisions of military law which forbids on pen penalty lity of death all generals commanding an army to capitulate in the open field the judges rejected as not substantiated the tile charges of treason against tile the accused the tho these charges however were but incidental port portions ions ious of the indictment the principal rin cipal charge tho the one upon which ph the whole trial hinged being that the commander in chief of the army of the rhine had violated certain leading clauses of the military lawand law and the invest investigation atlon of these charges was the tho great object of the trial the defence sought to complicate the trial by the introduction of poll poli political matters and the accused himself had the temerity to avow as an excuse for treating with the enemy that after the fall of the empire on the ath of september the only government that existed in france franco was an insurrectionary one poor as it was this was the best defence the accused could make and in offering ofie ofle ring it ho he undoubtedly expected that it would produce a favorable impression upon the officers of the court which tried him nearly all of whom as well weli as himself had served under the tho Empire but in this expectation ho he was disappointed for ills his course at metz was such a flagrant violation of every provision of military law that no excuses of a political nature were regarded as any mitigation of of the gravity of his crime erime this trial is justly regarded as ono one of the most important of the present generation and its commencement men mon cement and result have been ascribed by newspaper writers to political causes anu and and primarily to wounded national pride rather than to a desire for the administration of justice while feelings of t his this kind may have inema increased sed the desire of the I 1 sr anch people to have marshal marshai Ba conduct investigated I 1 think it can be proved without difficulty that his trial triai and condemnation were strictly in accordance with the principles of french mill military baryj jurisprudence uris prudence and were exactly what might have been expected under the circumstances and to prove this to your numerous readers is my object in writing this article A very strong impression at one ti time me prevailed that bazaine nazaine had sold himself to the prussians but while nothing was adduced in the way of evidence during the trial to confirm this tilis impression it was proven r oven to the satisfaction of his ya judges adges first that ho he did not do all that was within his power and which honor and duty required to prevent capitulation second that after having induced marshal mcmahon to march bazaine made no serious attempt to go to his aid but left him ancl and the second corps of the army to bear the brunt of the entire struggle thus hastening on the disasters which culminated in the surrender at sedan third that the accused neglected to gather resources from flom t the he environs of metz which would have enabled him to prolong ills his resistance and that instead of serving out rations to his men lie permitted his supplies to be used W wastefully and had bad the horses fed with avith wheat and rye fourth that after receiving C news of the situation in brance prance from the pru prussian asian commander in chief instead of endeavoring to revive the spirit of his army and of the people of metz he spread news favorable to the enemy F that the accused charged regnier a spy in tile the service of Ilis bismarck marck to inform ills his master that he bazaine was ready to capitulate without the honors of war and that too when lie he had llad a months provisions and abundance of the munitions of war on hand band sixth that while systematically isolating himself from france and the government of the national defence the accused made known to Rg regnier riler the prussian spy ahoe identity was proven by a pass from al de do bismarck that ills his entire supply of provisions would be exhausted by a certain day seventh that the marshal remained inactive while his ar army m Y was in in good fighting condition making no effort to prevent capitulation either by breaking the ene mys mya lines or by a series of engagements gage ments endeavoring to raise the blockade of metz eighth that contrary to the laws of war the marshal by his aide de camp general boyer carried on negotiations of a political lature nature with the enemy for the dismemberment of french territory when ho he was entirely destitute of authority for any such purpose ninth that having determined to capitulate lie ho failed to destroy the materials and munitions of war with which metz was well provided and which gf alling into the hands of the enemy enabled them moro more successfully to continue the war against franceane France and Tent hand laetit was proved that tha marshal nir hai haj delivered to the thoc enemy e y the colors of his army after h having haning infused used subterfuges to prevent th them bein being destroyed by his troops all these points were clearly proven by hundreds of witnesses whose testimony was the cause of the condemnation to death pronounced upon marshal bazaine nazaine by the council of war at trianon the bazaine trial is above all and in a word the punishment pronounced b by y public opinion upon a marshal of r france rance who entrusted with the leadership eldership eader skip ship of an army and the tho thede thode de re feass ass of a fortress places aces both army and fortress in the ac hands of the enemy and the condemnation to death pronounced on the loth of december is all an endorsement by th that at council orallar of war of pie that any military officer who proves himself recreant to and unworthy u 11 of the confidence and trust reposed in him by ills his country is worthy only of death I 1 regard the condemnation of bazaine nazaine as the commencement the revenge of france against germany but unfortunately for the pride of the nation instead of the victim b being in german or germany it was a e b bad a d frenchman A word more and I 1 have done A writer in a city contemporary has on two or three occasions compared ared the fate fato of bazaine to that that of Rl arshal marshal ney tile bravest of the tiie brave brav III in I 1 reply epy I 1 would aull simply recommend this uninformed person to go to school and study F rench french history jj A bertrand |