The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-30 00:00:00

HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS.

Governor Seymour, in his recent interesting historical
address at Cornell University, took occasion to claim
for the Hollanders, who made the earliest settlements on
the banks of the Hudson, and in the Mohawk valley,
credit for some of the best phases of our civil and poli-
tical history. The United States of the Nether-
lands presented all the leading features of the
United States of America, although their ad-
justments were less perfect. And it was to the
superior political principles planted by the Hollanders in
the colonial and revolutionary eras, that Governor Sey-
mour ingeniously traced the superior influence of New
York over the constitutional history of the country.
The difference, historically, between Nev7i England and.
New York was that while the former claimed all that be-
longed to her, and set up enduring monuments wherever
a battle was fought or a field won, the latter had been
unjust to its founders, and untrue to history, in allowing
the record of the achievements to perish.—Boston Adver-
tiser.

AFFAIRS IN CUBA.
HABANA, July 12, 1870.

A meeting of the prominent slave owners of the western
section of Cuba was held at the Captain General's palace
yesterday. Captain General de Rodas was chosen Presi-
dent. After a discussion of the subject of the abolition
of slavery in Cuba a committee composed of 25 of those
present was appointed to consider the matter and report
at the earliest date possible the most feasible and liberal
plan for the abolition of slavery throughout the
island, said committee to initiate the movement by imme-
diately carrying out the provisions of the plan adopted.
After the completion of the plan it will be presented to
the Spanish Cortes for approval. The meeting was very
harmonious, all being unanimous in the belief that slavery
must be abolished, and accepting the measure as patriotic
and in accordance with the spirit of the century.
Captain General de Rodas, acting in concert with
the Government of Spain, has ordered an election
for Deputies to represent the Island of Cuba in the
Spanish Cortes. It is expected that the election will
take place before the end of August. The Cubans, in the
district of Camaguey, who were recently in rebellion
against the Spanish authorities, and have returned to their
allegiance, are now working on their plantations. Arms
have been given them by the Government; and they are
now organising for self-protection against the insurgents
or any roving bands that may appear in that section.
General Goyeneche has relieved General Portillo of the
command of the Cinco Villas district.

THE " NEW YORK HERALD" ON THE
SITUATION IN EUROPE.
At the present moment, war is as likely as not. France
seems to wish it, and Prussia is not afraid. If war does
break out it will be after a fashion such as the world has
never seen before. The military art has shared the ad-
vantages of modern progress. The vast and rapidly accu-
mulating resources of science are as available for pur-
poses of destruction as they are for ameliorating the con-
dition of mankind. War between France and Prussia,
the two most gigantic military Powers of Europe—if
always we leave Russia and Great Britain out of the
question—will be short, sharp, and decisive beyond every
previous war on a corresponding scale of magnitude in the
whole history of the world. In our own civil war, in the
war of 1866 between Prussia and Austria, in the war of
1859-60, between Austria on the one hand and Italy and
France on the other, we had glimpses of the new agents
which, by making war destructive beyond all concep-
tion, promise to hasten the time when war will be num-
bered with the things that were. It was the railroad
and the telegraph, more than our superiority in numbers,
that gave us the victory over our Southern brethren.
It was the skilful use of those two agents that gave
Prussia the victory of Sadowa, and that added to the
glories of the French Empire the names of Magenta
and Solferino. Had the First Napoleon been privi-
leged to make use of these two agents his
wondrous faculty for combining and concentrating his
forces would have made easy not the conquest of Europe
only, but of the world. For ages war was conducted
very much on the same principle. The first great revolu-
tion in the art of war was the Roman road. This it was
which made the conquests, of Rome more rapid, more
extensive, and more enduring than those of Greece. With
the decline of the Roman power came the decay of the
magnificent causeways that made the Roman Empire a
practical unit. War in consequence during the Dark
Ages was conducted very much after the fashion of
village brawls. The dawn of modern Europe was
marked by the invention of gunpowder and the use of
firearms, as well as by the discovery of the art
of printing. With increasing knowledge war gra-
dually assumed larger proportions and revealed more
dangerous tendencies. The armies of the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, in point of bulk,
recalled the armies of ancient Rome. The wars that
grew out of the Revolution of 1789, the wars of Napoleon
and Wellington, made the wars of Conde and Turrenne,
of Marlborough and Eugene insignificant in, comparison.
But during the twenty years that followed the French
Revolution there was nothing which could compare with
that rapidity of movement and concentration of force
which culminated at Solferino, or with that series of
blows which laid Austria prostrate on the field. Our
own war, as we have said already, furnishes numerous
and striking examples of the advantages of the two agents,
the railroad and the telegraph. It is not to be denied
however, that if war were to break out between Prussia,
and Austria, the collision and the oonsequences would be
something terrifically new in the history of human ex-
perience. Blood would be poured forth in actual, not
figurative, torrents. Lives would be sacrificed not
by thousands only, but by hundreds of thousands. k
But the struggle could not be of long duration, and the
result might be final, if not absolutely and on all hands
satisfactory. It is natural enough to put to one's self the
question, who will win ? It is not, however, a question
that admits of easy answer. Both Powers are strong, and
both are fully prepared. The actual French army imme-
diately available is, perhaps, the larger. But every Prus-
sian is a trained soldier, and the military arrangements of
Prussia are such that there could not, unless the war was
greatly protracted, be any lack of men. In the homoge-
neous character of her population it is not to be denied
France has a certain advantage. This advantage, how-
ever, it has often seemed to us, is greatly overestimated.
It is true that North Germany is occasionally a reluctant
unit. It is true also that, while by military treaty Prus-
sia claims the armies of Bavaria, of Wurtemberg and of
Baden, these South German States sometimes reveal a
spirit which is anything but favourable to the continuance
of Prussian supremacy. All this true. It is true too, that
Frenchmen count on German support when they cross the
Rhine. Herein lies the mistake. The Germans are one.
although they recognise different masters. They may
quarrel among themselves, but they will not join the
stranger in a crusade againt the Fatherland. Germans
may reveal division so long as they contend only with
each other ; . but the German people become one the
moment the foot of the invader touches the soil. It was
in a great measure German lukewarmness that made the
hand of Austria so feeble in '66. The soldiers of Prussia
fought with spirit because they fought for fatherland.
The German soldiers of Austria fought feebly because
they fought against fatherland. It must not, therefore,
be imagined that the South German States will welcome
the invader, especially when that invader is France.
There is one other consideration which ought not to be
overlooked. As events are now shaping themselves the
presumption is that Prussia will have the advantage of
fighting in the outset at least on her own soil. " Pro arts
et focis,' for hearth and home, no section of the German
race but knows how to fight. End the war when and how
it may it cannot fail to make an onward progress of the
I race. t will place Europe primarily under entirely new
conditions.

James Cooper, of Merrion-street, Leeds, formerly
a cloth merchant, has been committed for trial on a
charge of forging two bills of exchange, one for £3O and
one for £5O.

COAL CONTRABAND OF WAR.—A correspondent
of the Times has drawn attention to the fact that,
with the present conditions of naval warfare, coal
is contraband, of war, and ought at once to be
declared so by Government. Unless this is done promptly,
we cannot, he maintains, be impartially neutral, as one of
the combatants has sent hor navy to blockade her enemy's
ports, which she will probably be able to do for a time,
and by supplying her with an article of prime necessity
to a steam navy, England is really lending her direct and
potent aid.