The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-18 00:00:00

PEACE RUMOURS.

Whatever value, observes the Daily News, may bo
attributed to the rumours of peace negotiations which
reach us from Brussels, it is obvious at leas't that they
step in at a very peculiar crisis in the history
of the war. The state of affairs in Franco
has now got beyond the sphere 'of military
calculation. With the dispersal of the Army of
the Loire, the Germans may be said to have
encountered and beaten all the opposition forces about
which any definite statistics could be had. Generals von
Moltke and von Roan have successfully carried out their
programme, and probably wait at this moment
for the capture of Paris, and the surrender of Met;
as the climax of their planned campaign. Outside and
beyond these calculations, nevertheless, the Germans are
confronted by an unknown quantity. No man can tell
what strength or will of resistance rests with
the French people. That is a problem which it is impos-
siple to solve ; and yet on the practical solution of it,
should - these rumoured peace negotiations be
broken off, depend the fortunes of the war, and the
terrible contingencies which hang about a prolongation
of the struggle. There is no general on the Prussian staff
—or on any other staff—who can say whether the Franco
of 1870 is about to shew herself the France of 1792, or tho
France of 1814.

REVOLUTIONARY FRANCE.

The Daily Telegraph discusses the question " What has
France gained by Revolution," and says :—See what the
history of France has been for the last eighty years, and
then let the most heated partisan of pure Revolutionary
ideas judge for himself if the French system has
answered. Where there is civic violence, where
there is bloodshed in the streets, there will
inevitably be reaction, and when that stage has been
reached, then steps iu the soldier with his sword. Men
mast sleep o' nights, and will obey any one who will give
them comparative security. The soldier once paramount,
foreign war and caste distinctions follow in his
train. Embarked in the fatal career of conquest,
let a nation carry things ever so proudly for
a time, reverses, defeat, invasion, humiliation must,
in the long run, be its lot. To say so much •is merely
to recite in a single sentence the history of France for
the last eighty years. Assume for a moment that
the heroes of the great Revolution of 1786 had en-
deavoured to attain their ends in a more peaceful
way, and that the French had been as much a law-
abiding people as they have been notoriously the
reverse, who can doubt that the history of that
nation would have formed a magnificent page iu the
annals of the human race ? With their quick synipathies,
with their bright intelligence, with their artistic faculties,
they could have attained to any height they desired.
Feudal privileges and absurdities would equally have
been swept away. Frenchmen wonld have been
to a far higher degree than they are at present in the
enjoyment of that " equality they so dearly love. A
German army would not have been encamped round
Paris, nor a Prussian sovereign in occupation of the State
rooms at Versailles. It would be equally true to say that
the violence with which the outbreak of the great Revolu-
tion was stained has been as destructive to the moral
habits as it has been to the political rights of the
nation ; and hence it is that France is, as it were, falling
to pieces before our eyes. The process of regeneration
will be sharp and tedious ; but we have nu doubt that,
taught by bitter experience, the nation will see at
last that obedience to law is the only safe course for a
people which desires to retain its place in the foremost
rank.