Headquarters, Homburg, August 8th, 1870.
(Signed) Wilhelm.”
[95] “It is well known that the vineyards in France were guarded and protected by the German troops, but the same thing happened in regard to the art treasures of Versailles, and the German soldiers protected French property at the risk of their lives against the incendiary bombs of the Paris Commune.”—Lüder, Landkriegsrecht, p. 118.
[96] Bluntschli, Völkerrecht, sec. 652.
[97] [These terms are translated literally. They are roughly equivalent to the English distinction between “real” and “personal” property.—J. H. M.]
[98] To be entirely distinguished from municipal funds which are regarded as private property.
[99] How sensitive, indeed, how utterly sentimental, public opinion has become to-day in regard to this question, is shown by the attitude of the French and German Press in regard to some objects of art carried away from China.
[100] As to booty in the shape of horses, the Prussian instructions say: “Horses taken as booty belong to the State and are therefore to be handed over to the horse depot. For every horse which is still serviceable he who has captured it receives a bonus of 18 dollars out of the exchequer, and for every unserviceable horse half this sum.”
[101] Napoleon, who actually permitted his soldiers to plunder in numerous cases and in others, at least, did not do his best to prevent it, spoke of it at St. Helena: “Policy and morality are in complete agreement in their opposition to pillage. I have meditated a good deal on this subject; I have often been in a position to gratify my soldiers thereby; I would have done it if I had found it advantageous. But nothing is more calculated to disorganize and completely ruin an army. From the moment he is allowed to pillage, a soldier’s discipline is gone.”
[102] Dahn, Jahrbuch f. A.u.M., III, 1876. Jacquemyns Revue.
[103] Dahn, ibid., III, 1871.