The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-27 00:00:00

THE NEW YORK PRESS ON THE WAR.
In the midst of the mass of contradictory telegrams
on the situation in Europe it is tolerably clear that if
there is to be war, the cases belli will not be the candi-
dature of Prince Leopold. Should it be revived, it will
be but a step in hostilities already declared upon other
grounds, and not itself the basis of conflict. There is no
good reason to doubt the assurance of the
Ministerial Constitutionnel so far as it relates
to the formal withdrawal of the Prince of
Hohenzollern. Read by the light of continued warlike
preparations, both in France and Prussia, there are many
reasons for being sceptical as to its further opinion re-
garding the " pacific solution " of existing difficulties.
Only twelve days ago we find the same journal writing as
follows : " Our country has no intention of commencing a
reaction against the changes accomplished in Germany
in 1866 : but it ought to constitute itself the vigi-
lant guardian of the Treaty of Prague." At the
same time a discussion was in process within the Legisla-
tive Chamber, in the course of which the " misfortune "
of Sadowa was pretty frequently alluded to, and the as-
sumed designs of Prussia upon South Germany made the
pretext for maintaining the annual military contingent
undiminished. Guided by such indications of the spirit
existing in Franee, it is not difficult to- understand the
attitude of Prussia, fairly aroused as she now seems to be
to the overbearing pretensions of her military rival.
Whatever opinions may be entertained as to the right
of France to maintain such a line of European policy as
she has lately indicated, it is beyond a doubt that any
interference she may volunteer between the two sections
of Germany will be almost equally resented by both.
The South German States may be briefly described as two
kingdoms, two grand duchies, and two petty princedoms,
united in a loose sort of Confederation, of which
Bavaria is the head. They contain about nine
millions of the existing thirty-eight millions of
German population. After the seven days' war of 1866,
Austria left each of them to make its own terms
with the conqueror, and out of these grew the treaties
concluded at Nikolsburg, but only made public eight
months afterwards, by which, in consideration of a
guarantee of territorial independence, Bavaria Wurtem-
berg, and Baden, agreed to place their armies in time of
war under the leadership of the King of Prussia. Speaking
in June, 1867, the Prince of Hohenlohe, Prime Minister
of the first of these States, remarked, in explanation of
this agreement, " When I say that Bavaria, would in the
event of war, place her army under the command of the
King of Prussia, I suppose the case of a war in which
the integrity of Germany, in its actual limits,
would be menaced from any side whatever." Or,-as a
French writer, quoting the passage, remarks :—" Let
France extend her arms to grasp the Rhine, and Germany
will rise as one man." It is perfectly true that in the
South German States, with the single exception of Baden,
there exists but a very sectional attachment to Prussia.
Even the Suabian enthusiasts for national unity have
begun to suspect that " one great Germany is a dream,
and that the only possible change is to one great Prussia."
But, if compelled to throw in their lot with either France
or Prussia, there cannot be a moment's doubt
that they would select the latter, and that a
declaration of war by France would only hasten
the completion of a union which the bond of a Customs
Parliament and a military alliance has alieady half con-
summated.—New York Times, July 14.
There is little doubt of great preparations for war in
both France and Prussia. The disposition of troops has
also a threatening aspect, and the army and navy of each
power are clearly on a war footing. But as such result
would follow the slightest indication of hostile intent on
the part of either power, these preparations do not neces-
sarily indicate that a war inevitable. They may tend, however
to aggravate a conflict for which thereis not wanting an in-
clination and a motive on the part, at least, of France.
Napoleon maintains his threatening attitude and persists
in his offensive demands, and the effort of Prussia at ex-
planation is not accepted. Throughout the whole affair
the attitude of France has been that of an enraged ruffian
bent upon insult. To be sure, the attitude of Prussia has
been calculating and somewhat exasperating, -but
she has decidedly the advantage thus far in the
quarrel.—The pretext which France has used to
produce a conflict upon which Napoleon has fixed his
heart for a long time past is removed by the withdrawal,
now positively announced, of Prince Leopold. He iignn-
willing to be the instrument of inflicting a war upon
Prussia, and has declined the opportunity of being King
of Spain. We shall now see if France has not anothor
excuse for war. It will be strange if she does not discover
after all that it is the Rhine frontier which she wants and
for which she proposes to do battle—if only her people
can be brought to support her Emperor.—New York
Tribune, July 13.

ien armies have been set in motion by a political
difference, apparently or really trivial, the determination
of that difference does not always arrest the movement of
the armies; and thus though it is formally announced in
Madrid, and - reported from Paris and Berlin, that the
Prince of Hohenzollern is no longer a candidate for the
Spanish throne, and though this declaration is accepted in
Paris as settling the immediate point on which France
took fire, yet we hear again from Berlin that the tone of
France toward Prussia is still "alarming and provoking,"
and from Paris that parties in the Corps Legislatif are
eager to force a war, while in all the news there is no
intimation of any purpose to discontinue the vast military
preparations already on foot. There is no doubt that in
France the movement of troops has gone much further
and been far more extensive than has been telegraphed
hither, for the use of the wires would not be permitted
by the French Government for any news on this subject.
We can only judge of the activity in France by the
movements that we know to have taken place in Germany,
for these movements were only made to meet pr6ceding
movements of French soldiers. The fact that the King of
Prussia is in conference with Moltke rather than with
Bismarck—that he takes advice in strategy, not diplomacy
and statecraft—may furnish a hint how far matters have
gone. It is possible, therefore, that France may now
declare that she is in the attitude of war; that she has
been compelled to assume this attitude through the machi-
nations and encroachments of Prussia---of which the candi-
dature of the Hohenzollern was only the last—and that
the mere withdrawal of this step toward the Spanish
throne is not enough ; that while she has her arms in her
hands she must insist upon some sufficient guarantee that
Prussia will confine herself to the terms of the Treaty of
Prague, or, otherwise, that France must have an
equivalent for all possible aggrandisement that would
come to Prussia with the Treaty of Prague set aside, this
equivalent being the left bank of the Rhine. In assum-
ing this ground France would be neither arrogant nor
domineering. She would only be acting upon and ap-
plying to the case before her the principles that govern
now as they have governed in all past time every nation
in Europe possessed of the power to make its purposes felt.
There can be no question that Prussia in her recent
history has acted on the maxim of the Greek, that " oaths
are invented to cheat fools." She has regarded, in a
spirit of the most impudent indifference, her own pledges,
made with all the circumstances that give the sanction
of law to treaties. She has directly violated her faith
with Austria ; trampled upon the rights of the Danes
with a bullying contempt for her little neighbour that
should have been offensive to all Europe, and has never
ceased in insidious encroachment, that, as it ways always
more or less threatening to France, was certain one day
to call forth the protest and resistance of that Power. It
is clear that if France is ever to fight Prussia she must
fight her now. She will likely never find it more possible
to cope with her. Should she wait till Prussia
has added to the power of United North Ger-
many that of all the South German States—till
she has crowded Austria still further down the Danube,
and is joined in treaties of intimate alliance with all the
small Powers that are uneasy in the neighbourhood of
France—continuing this very policy that would have put
a German on the Spanish Throne ; should France wait
for all this her contest with the German giant would be
hopeless from its inception. As this is evidently felt in
France, and as it seems to be widely conceded that col-
lision between the two Powers is only a question of time
--there is still a high probability that, despite what may
now occur touching the Throne of Spain, France may
resolve to try whether the brilliant triumph of Prussia
at Sadowa was not in a great degree due to the fact that
she contended against a feeble and contemptibly com-
manded army, and whether the needle gun and the
Prussian troops may not cut a very different figure when
once really tried in well contested battle. With these
possibilities before us it is not yet safe to rely on the
peace of Europe, whatever sentimental notions Hohenzol-
lern may have of " the duty of a German soldier."—New
York Herald, July 14.

SUNSTROKE.—In the Malton Market on Saturday
a country woman fell down in a fit occasioned by the heat
of the sun, which marked 128 degrees.
The deaths are announced of the Dowager Lady
Osborne, widow of the late Sir John Osborne, who died in
1848. She was the daughter of Sir Charles Danvers,
Bart., and of Lady Young, the wife of Sir Charles
Lawrence Young, Bart.