The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-03-04 00:00:00

E4t stonr4ribie tNserVer.

SATURDAY, MARCH .1, 1871.

PEACE.

If anything were wanting to prove what an
accursed thing is war, it might be found in the
immense ditliculty of securing terms of peace
when peace has become an absolute necessity.
In the terrible war between Prussia and Fr -ice
there have been but two parties in the strife.
It has been a deadly duel of nations. France
and Prussia alone have fought this awful pitched
battle, and other nations have, SS it were, stood
aside, looking on with deep anxiety —some with
sympathies on this side, and sonic with sympa-
thies on that—but none daring, or st least wish-
ing, to interfere. And so it has been during the
negotiations for peace. Prussia and France
alone have had to arrange the compact. The
conquerors have not been urged towards mercy
by united nations; the conquered have had none
to plead for them. France has lain bleeding
and prostrate, powerless and friendless, in the
dust of humiliation ; Prussia, puffed up with
pride, fed by ambition, and half fearful of giving
her vanquished foe the slightest advantage for
the future, has been relentless in her demands ;
and hence it is naturally followed that the terms
of peace are awfully, bitterly hard for the Power
that so recklessly and wickedly commenced the
war.

The terms are undoubtedly severe indeed ;
but "on the side of the oppressors there is
power." We are most of us familiar with
Shakespeare's beautiful lines as to the " quality
of mercy.- Mercy, he tells us, is—

Mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his mown,
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein loth sit the dread and fear of kings ;
But mercy is above the sceptred away;
It is enthroned in the hettrm of kings.
But King William of Prussia, as erewhile he
was called—the Emperor of Germany, has none
of this mercy; he has unhappy France in his
power, and he is determined to take advantage
of it; he has a giant's strength, and he shrinks
not from the tyranny of using it as a giant.
Telegraphing to his Queen, the Emperor-King
says, " With deeply moved heart, and with grati-
tude to the graee of God, I inform thee that the
preliminaries of peace have just been signed."
What strange notions do some people have of
'the grace of God I" They weal make the
Almighty a party to their schemes of ambition
and their lusts of power. We would rather not
think of the God of love in this impious connec-
tion with the lustful ambition of a conquering
monarch. Looking at the terms of peace, we
deeply regret that they should be so tyrannously
unjust; but the fact of peace, the blessed fact
that peace is at last asured, we heartily rejoice
at.

With very different feelings must the fact of
peace and the circumstances under which it is
effected, be regarded in France and Prussia.
The former sullenly and ungraciously submits.
mattering vengeance as she bows her neck to
the conqueror ; the latter relentless and remorse-
less, proudly insists on indemnity for the past,
and the show as well as the reality of triumph
for the present, believing that this will be their
best guarantee for the future. But to both na-
tions as to the world at large, the future is
shrouded in impenetrable mystery. What will
be the ultimate results of this sanguinary war
and this disasterous peace, none can say. In
fact, humanity has no ultimate results, and ef-
fect produces cause as cause produces effect, so
that events are linked in an infinate chain. But
is it too much to anticipate another European
war resulting, sooner or later, from this so•called
peaceful settlement of affairs? We think not.
The terms of peace are so onerous that they will
render war on the part of France against Prus-
sia for a long time improbable,lif not impossible.
Francs will be despoiled of rich territory which
has hitherto been a source of national wealth
and strength to her; she will have to pay 200
millions sterling, which will keep her poor for
some time; but these facts and the other con-
ditions of peace will tend to keep up a perpetual
hatred of the Germans and a longing for ven-
geance, and it is highly probable that before
many years have passed, France will seek to
gratify this. But there are other considera-
tions. France is not without friends, though
they may have felt compelled to hold aloof from
ectual help to her in her distress ; while, on the
other hand, the aggrandisement of Prussia will
make all Europe beside jealous of her position
and fearful of her power; so than when next
European complications arise, Prussia may find
several Powers leagued against her. Such con-
siderations show the intrinsically accursed char-
acter of war, one of the most poeerful agents
for evil which afflict humanity.