The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-07 00:00:00

THE CHANGE OF ENGLISH SENTIMENT.

The Standard maintains that a complete and con-
spicuous change has taken place in English sentiment as
regards the war,' and observes :—'Whatever of enthusi-
asm the triumphs of the German war may have awakened
in England at the commencement of the campaign was
due solely to the consideration that she was waging a war
of self-defence, that she was repelling the invader, that
she was fighting for her existence. "As the Germans
are now carrying on the war solely to compel a cession of
territory, the war is from this moment aggressive on the
part of Germany and defensive on the part of France."
We quote the words from Prussia's most consis-
tent advocate, the Spectator, a weekly journal whose
influence is as considerable as it is confessed, and we'quote
them merely because they briefly contain the true reason
and the real secret why English sympathies have undergone
the change which they have. The character of the war
is altered, United France asserts fit the point of German
bayonets and German guns the fact of its national
existence ; it is Prussia which, for the present, enjoys the
monopoly of the aggressive role. It is satisfactory that
Englishmen are able to see the true relative positions of
the combatants, that they know what the Prussian wishes
for peace, as exhibited in the negotiations for an
armistice, were worth ; that they realise the fact that'
had M. Favre accepted the conditions proposed by
Count Bismarck as a preliminary to the meeting of the
Constituent Assembly, it would have been, as the
Spectator says, " a mean form of concluding it there and
then," and that it would have cast on their body the
onus of a responsibility which was in reality already
saken out of their hands. "As the Germans have
made up their minds for conquest "—we quote again from
the weekly organ of English Radicalism—no better course
" could have been decided on he the Provisional Govern-
ment than to fight on." These, we think, are facts suffi-
ciently comprehensive to account for the change in
English sentiments as regard s the war. But they are far
from being all that it is possible or that it is easy to
cite. Englishmen are at last beginning to see that
if Germany desired a durable peace she would be
anxious to remove all possibility of a future out-
break of the quarrel. But Count Bismarck actually
challenges a future quarrel—" As we shall shortly have
another war with you," said the German Chancellor to M.
Favre. Thank goodness we at last know what the Prus•
sian idea of a guaranteed peace is.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—One shilling day, Thursday,
Oct. 6th, 1870.—Admission by season tickets, 4,034; do.
on payment, 10,058. Total visitors, 14,092.
WORKMEN'S INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, AGRI-.
CULTURAL, HALL, ISLINGTON. - The number. of visi-
tors, exclusive of season ticket holders, exhibitors and
others, on the 6 inst. was 2,742.

WORKING MEN'S COLLEGE, 45, GREAT ORMOND
STREET, W.C.—The seventeenth session will begin on
Monday next, the 10th instant, when the classes will
resume for now members. The Principal—the Rev. F.
D. Maurice, M.A., (Professor of Moral Philosophy at
Cambridge,) will deliver the inaugural address on Thurs-
day, the 13th, at 8.30 p.m. The Art classes, to be held
in the new rooms, comprise Life— Antique— Pencil
and Chalk—Water Colour—Ornament and Perspective.
THE TRUCK COMMISSION.--A West of England
paper understands that Mr. T. W. Booker, an ironmaster,
has been advised to institute proceedings against the
Truck Act Commissioners, who are now at Cardiff, for
entering his office and shop stores, and removing books
and papers therefrom, on the 26th ult., and that notice of
the intended action has already been given. The affair
has caused much excitement in the district.