The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1871.

at the cost of the small ones, France losing the
territory she had gained since 1792, but
none of her old possessions. In 185 G there was
no transfer of territory. In 1859 Austria only lost a
province which was confessedly a source of weak-
ness to her; in 180 G the same thing happened,
whilst in Germany the gains of Prussia Consisted
entirely of small States, whose peoples speedily be-
came reconciled to union with their own race.
Savoy and Nice were part of a bargain by which
Italy gained far more than she lost. At
no time within the present century has
a State of the first class been Compelled
to part with a considerable number of its subjects,
who were attached to their country, and unwilling
to be separated from it. There have
been amalgamations, " agglomerations," separations,
but no such blow has been inflicted
upon a great people, within the memory
The plain inference is that Germany is
Laying up for herself future troubles without at the
mine time gaining such superiority as would enable
her to defy the, resentment of her neighbour.
France is much the richer state of the two,
and will speedily recover her present prostration. On
what ground then are we to rejoice itt an arrange-
ment which we should deplore in the case of any
other nation ? What was bad in Poland, what was bad
in Italy, is not less bad now. The conquest of the

of- man.

Rhineircutier by NAPOLEON 111. would have been a
greater evil than the conquest of Alsace and Lor-
raine by the Emperor WILLIAM, but the latter is
nevertheless a dire calamity. Before we go into
ecstasies over the conclusion of peace, it way be well
to appreciate the real merits of the situation.

THE country would, we feel sure, be delighted to
have an assurance froth any one of its Parliamentary
guides that it would never hear anything more in
the army debates of those twenty thousand men.
At a time when great principles are at stake, and
when great changes are impending, all the Opposi-
tion ingenuity of attack and the Ministerial
capacity of defence are expended upon
this unfortunate contingent. The question
which most occupies the attention of our
leading statesmen is not the base on which the edi-
fice of reorganisation should be constructed, not the
best mode of giving the country value for its money,
but whether the reduction of the army by 20,000
men when the present Government took office was
beneficial or injurious. The Opposition urge that the
Gladstone Ministry disbanded this body in order to
save two millions sterling, and that in doing
so it lost the services of many useful veterans;
the Government reply that they did not save two
millions by the reduction, that no useful veterans,
but only invalids and bad characters, were lost, and
that the disbanding was but the carrying out of the
great principle that armaments should be small in
tie of peace, large in time of war. These twenty
thousand men will soon become as famous as the ten
thousand Greeks; but their fame will be of a
much less creditable hind. More than mice already
have the twenty thousand appeared in the House of
Commons, 'after numerous extra - parliamentary
parades; and the first great military night in the
Lords has been largely devoted to a review of the
same kind. The impartial observer can have

little difficulty in determining what the truth
is ; but the truth is not worth discovering.
The country is perfectly indifferent on the matter.
It might have felt interested some time ago, but it is
not so now. It is fully alive to the fact that the army
was thoroughly bad in any ease, and that it could
only be a little more or less bad with or without the
twenty thousand. If Ministers and ox-Ministers
would also awaken to this truth, they would probably
cease to bandy recriminations which can have no
practical effect. •

J.
The national object is to determine what or-
ganisation shall , replace a system .which, with
very trifling variations, has existed alike under
Liberal and Obnservative Governments. It is un-

fortunate that the Amigo of Lords should no.
at its first discussion be able to • offer
any assistance in this great work. The Peers
brought forward abundant criticism, and some made
very useful suggestions; but none attempted to
define the fundamental alterations needful for the
establishment of a new system. Lord CAItNAItVON,
who spoke liberally, spewed himself least fear-
ful of innovation when he hinted at com-
pulsory service, the appointment of a military
Minister, a sort of Von RooN, and urged that we
opght to get much more for our fifteen millions a
year than wp dq at present 7 yet he stopped qhpyt
of the deduction which necessarily fo'llowS from this
last argument. We shall never get value for our
fifteen millions, not to speak of an efficient army for
less than that enormous, sum, until the
head and front of the whole organisation,
the system of management, is thoroughly
reformed. It is useless to modify details, if the
administration remains what it is. But no member
of the Upper House comes forward with the truth,
and the representatives of the people have refused -to
accept proposals (Mr. TREVELYAN'S) which would
go far to attain the end in view.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE IMPERIALISTS AT THE
.ELECTIf:INS.

The Morning Post endeavours to explain the small
return of Imperialists to the National Assembly by
the Gambetta decree, which rendered ineligible all
senatms, prefects, councillors of State, and former
deputies of the old Imperialist majority. "The
elections were fixed for the Bth of February, and it

was only late in the afternoon of the Gth
that AL Gambetta consented to • the repeal
of his decree. In the disturbed state of the
country this news could 'not be rapidly promulgated,
and the elections for the most part took place under
the impression that the decree was valid." This ex,-
planation cannot be deemed sound. It is true that
Gambetta issugd one decree, but the, Paris Govern-
ment issued another and a difforentone, and through-
out the North the latter was preferred, Gamhetta's
mandate being quite disregarded. Such was the
case also in all the departments occupied by the
Germans. These districts are precisely those in

yore most
which the Imperial candidates were of
uniformlS, elected; and if there was any chance at
all for the adherents of the fallen dynasty, there
cpuld surely be no obstacle to their success north of
the Loire. The true reason why but half-a-dozen
Imperialists were returned was that .Imperialism had
received its death blow.