The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-22 00:00:00

THE COST OF SUCCESS.

" A Ifertfordaire Incumbent," who has always
something toss), on the historical topic of the day, has
sent ttm folhwing letter to The Taes for publica-
tion :

The accounts Accounts which arrive daily from ;ranee, however
they may differ accordidg to the sources from which they are
derived, all Id' 're conclusively that the terrible Intern athorial
contest le every day increasing in acerbity. They also
Show that the military superiority of lie German.
Is so decided that the amount of suffering they may
Inflict upon the French population I. practically un-
limited Nearly a quarter of France has been over-
ran and More or lees laid waste. Before the year ends, this
quarter may have grown into a hilt, and Paris itself (or
what remains of it. be occupied by the ill• tder, abhough,
doubtless, at the price of as many more livers and as much
more money as have already been expended. Possibly this
result may produce a formal submission on the part of the
French Government, whatever it may then happen to he,
and the war may be nominally brought to an end ou any
terms the victors may think proper to imp so.

Then will come the rmeation of cost., the unplessant 0 na'e
of obstinate contestant every kind. You, perhaps, have had
the misfortune to he troubled by an incurably litigious
neighb ray Your patience at last breaks down under his
repeated encroachments, and you give your lawyer teatime-
thins to take the next matter of grievance Into • law court
You gain your cause, and exult accordingly; when the next
day you get notice that there will he an appeal. Of course
you feel bound now to follow np the matter with spirit,
red regardless of expense, you retitle specially some
"Krupp eon" of the English Bar. If this •• five hundred
pounder" does not, so to speak, burst—that is, if he
is not In the middle of some other case lei another
court Just as yours is called on—you will doubtlees
&gale wiu. But your obstinate neighbour carries on the.
matter before a yet higher trihnual, and you, bon pro mat grE.
are obliged to follow him. At lest when the resources of
litigation have been exhausted, sod your triumph iv unim-
peachable, your lawyer hints his fear that the "other party"
ha. no effects to meet the costs which have been given against
him. as It 'Towers that he hss been completely ruined by the
expenses of the long stilt. This agreeable information Is per-
haps further mph meal by the receipt of an Angamoue
letter, warning you that there is • heartbroken mid derperate
man abroad with his me always set upon the villain who, by
legal chicanery, han reduced him and Ills family to beggary.
Now this wretched war is to Germany Jest what such •
lawsuit as I have described would he to a quit t English
gentledlan. titan detestable business to have In hand, and
yet It coeld not have been avoided. Si, long as a fresh animal
to arms le Blade, the challenge cannot he refused, althoneth the
bine of both litigants are running up to • Metall el exlent,
and the Jewels of the defetolant repidly diminist i .g. We, a
nation of ehopkeepers, find that one &Women never look very
cheerfully on the I r.spect of compensation her expenses.
They do not doubt their power to enter upon an enemy's
land, Impound his crops, put an execution into his house,
and sell his furniture, lint they know that when the fields
have come to produce nothing bet teazle., and the furniture
lien dwindled dOIVII to a collection of cracked crockery and
unsymmetrical tables, this step, however indicative of a
complete triumph, Involves fee financial advantages.
It so happens that the very country which now appears
likely to he amerced In the Issue of the great Interest tonal
atilt did,not so very long wool:Mira • most brilliant and rapid
success over an adversary all relatively weekend an obstinate,
as she herself turns out to be Is hone, WO, Marelisi
Beaumont landed with an array of 31,000 mon • few miles
from Algiers, at .1 within three week., to the infinite sur-
prise of ail France, that town capitulated, and has ever since
remained in the possession of its continerms. So little
was this ere tees either expected or desired —for the ex-
'
edition like some others since. •1111 undertaken nonatioilly to
punish an liisult to an anillawrelor, but really to prop up a
fain, y government by the pr. oti.a of military sircess—thst,
except fir the revolution which i x palled the older Bourbon*
in the following month, the whole army would have returned
home, with II sufficient treasure to pay the expeowe
of the r xpeditlon, ad enormous credit for adding a
new page to the history of French eilccesees. Unhappily,
the new dynasty adopted a different poitcy, and
resolved to flatter the poplar desire for conquest. What
has been the result I France has been compelled to
.iciiupy more and more territory in Attica, to in-
flict more and more misery on the unhappy Arabs,
thereby increasing the intensity of their batted, and necessi-
t ding the employment of a greater force for keeping them
in check. Forty years hate elapsed since the compiest, In
which at least 150 millions sterling have been spent a few
colonists have Non enabled to cultivate the sell, so long a.
for every ooe a force II nix or seven soldiers was maintained
to protect them : and now, dreumstanc a o,lipellinz the
withdrawal of there soldiers, we hear at once of a fresh
revolt.
If, now. for 35,000 men we pot 350,000, and for Algisra aed
Its Ley, Sedan and the ex-Emperor, the poeitiou of the
Germans le France in MO is evectly analogous In that of the
French in Africa 10 11131. In both instances there has been
a brilliant and unexp.cted succeis—in both the success has
brought up • grave aid enexpected difficillty. The government
of the Drys WWI of such a kind that on the abolition of
the central authority anerchy at once fidlowed
In the Algerian rrovlnces. The rapture of the Emperor
similarly gave occasion to the Revolution In Sari.; end
now, it would seem, Presets will be component in France,
sie France was compelled in Africa, to 0 nquest., to occupy,
and to govern a territory as large as herself. inhabited by a
Polollation embittered to the highest pitch against her,