A CRUISING VISIT TO SOME GERMAN BATTLE-FIELDS. 
4*3 
every part; of Germany seemed to go through Leipzig. It is amazing, 
as a matter of geography, the number of people who have to go through 
Leipzig in getting about Europe. The roads from. Vienna, Warsaw, 
Copenhagen, Paris, Hamburg, Rome, all seem to lead through Leipzig. 
While engaged upon that part of my history I could not help wondering 
that Leipzig was not made the capital of the German Empire in 1871. 
If you will draw a circle around Leipzig you will see that it includes 
Denmark and the borders of Poland, Vienna, Prague, Munich, the 
borders of France and Belgium. In fact it is almost the centre of a 
circle which takes in the whole of Germany, and I take it that the 
German Emperor to-day would have had an easier task in the govern¬ 
ment of that great Empire if Leipzig had been made the capital. It 
would have moderated that feeling of dislike between south and north 
Germans. Berlin is still essentially a Prussian capital, and in cities 
like Munich and Dresden the people pay grudging homage to Berlin 
as the capital of their Empire. But that is political. 
At Lutzen the country is so flat that it is very difficult to discover 
the historic features of the battle-field without great pains. The villages 
are so exactly alike as to be confusing, like trees in a forest. 
The head-quarters of Napoleon on May 1st, 1818, are occupied to¬ 
day by officials of the Government. I dined at the table d’hote with 
various local functionaries who took interest in the object of my 
visit, but not one of them apparently knew much about that part of 
the country. I suppose the reason was that they had been appointed 
from other districts. But there is one point that can be identified 
very satisfactorily, and that is the only rising ground, if I can speak 
of rising ground in a plain that appears to be flat—a slight elevation 
where Napoleon massed his artillery towards the close of the day. 
Here it was that Napoleon is described as having for a moment turned 
to his aide-de-camp with a look that meant to say : “ Do you believe 
that my star is going down ? 33 He had never yet met troops that 
could face him as these troops did ; it was a complete revelation to 
him after the experience of Jena in 1806, to come back to within a 
few miles of that field and to meet practically the same people resisting 
him and fighting for every inch of the ground and meeting him in 
hand-to-hand struggles in these little villages and showing an obstinacy 
and manly courage that he could not explain. That battle, although a 
drawn one, gave the new popular army of Scharnhorst enormous courage 
for the continuation of the war. There was only one man in the whole 
Prussian army who despaired, and that was the King, but then he was 
born so. 
Then we come down to another place here (pointing to a map) which 
I shall rapidly touch upon because it is now late, and that is Wartemburg. 
Let us once more take to our canoe at Torgau and sail down the river 
to the place where Bliicher took his army across the Elbe and threatened 
Napoleon's retreat—not a decisive battle, a desperate fight in a desperate 
swamp. At Wartemburg I could not help thinking of some of the 
native villages on the African coast embedded behind swamps. It is 
most difficult of access from the Elbe and is protected from the high 
60 
