The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-16 00:00:00

THE CIVIL SERVICE.

The House went into committee on the civil service
estimates, and several votes were granted. The sitting
was suspended at seven o'clock. When the House re-
assembled at nine o'clock, the attention of the Speaker
was drawn to the number of members present, and a
" count out " was the result.

OUR COTEMPORARIES---This Morning.

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.
THE TIMES.

The Timea avers that the greatest national, crime that
we have had the pain of recording in these columns since
the days of the first French Empire has been consum-
mated. War is declared—an unjust, but premeditated war.
This dire calamity, which overwhelms Europe with dis-
may, is, it is now too clear, the act of France—of one man
in France. It is the ultimate result of personal rule.
It is now too evident that nothing short of an
amount of humiliation to which no powerful
nation could submit would have given Prussia a chance of
escape. The opportunity for showing the wonders of the
chassepot - and the mitrailleuse was not to be resisted.
France flattered herself that she was marching to certain
victory. She gave no time for diplomacy to stay her arm
or to baffle her of her prey. The reliance of the Emperor
on one Minister was so manifest that the very man whose
wondrous pliancy and complacency have been most
conspicuous during his tenure of office—the Keeper of
the seals, 011ivier—was mystified and thrown off the scent.
He was kept so completely in the dark with respect to
the real mind of the Ruler on this important matter,
that he was proclaiming Peace in the lobbies of the
Legislative Body at the ♦ery moment in which his col-
league of Foreign Affairs was throwing out broad hints
from the Tribune about the necessity of " further nego-
tiation " with Prussia.

THE DAILY NEWS.

The Daily .News believes that had France not been
resolved to quarrel the explanations given by King
William, and the steps taken by him in disavowing the
candidature of Prince Leopold, would have been deemed
amply sufficient for her honour, and more than sufficient
for her safety. The second demand avowed by
M. 011ivier in the Corps Legislatif was one
with which no nation could comply without
disci edit. To demand of King William that
he should engage beforehand to refuse his authorisation,
should the Crown be offered at some future time to Prince
Leopold, was grossly indecent and insulting. It was
perhaps a. little unfortunate that the King of Prussia
refused to see M. Benedetti, especially as it
is King William's habit to see and speak to
political and other personages in a very na-
tural and unofficial way ; but a Sovereign has at
any rate a right to arrange the time and manner of an
interview with the Representative of another Power;
and any gentleman will refuse to see another when he
knows that his proposed visitor is the bearer of an insult-
ing and hectoring demand. France has hectored Prussia,
and Prussia would have at once acknowledged her as
the arbiter of Europe had she yielded to the hectoring.
But her curt refusal in no way lends even the
colour of justification or the shadow of an excuse to the
action of the Emperor and his Government. The decla-
ration of war is therefore utterly inexcusable on the part
of France. She has put herself in the wrong before the
public opinion of Europe. In the corn of history her
action will be treated as a crime—a crime against civilisa-
tion, against humanity, as well as against the peace and
good order of the world.
THE TELEGAPH.

The Telegraph considers the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
candidature was only a later version of Sadowa, of the
refusal to give compensation, of the military alliances
with the South German States, of the hesitation to fulfil
France's favourite Article in the Treaty of Prague, of other
incidents that have made France angry and Prussia confi-
dent. Thus the war of 1870 is the direct inheritance from
the war of 1866. It is the temper, the rivalry, the resent-
ment of 1866 that we now find breaking forth in the
declaration of war at Paris ; and, while we must condemn
France for giving way suddenly and disastrously to her
pasaions, we should at the same time remember that
during four years she has restrained those passions with no
ordinary forbearance and success, in face of many provo-
cations. Regarding the present war, therefore, as merely
the sequel to that so abruptly concluded four
years ago, the Telegraph is constrained to anticipate
that it will not remain within its present limits.
Mr. Gladstone last night, in the House of Commons,
spoke, in terms warrantably grave, of the " peculiar
claims of Great Britain to be heard as to the disputes "
of France and Prussia. It must be obvious that the event
of yesterday opens tremendous possibilities of convulsion
and change, which cannot, on the spur of the moment, be
calmly and fully recognised. No more ominous, no more cala-
mitous occurrence has startled Europe, since the days of
the First Napoleon, than the outbreak of war between the
forty millions of France and the forty millions of Ger-
many. When such stupendous forces, aided by all the
deadly accelerative agencies of .modern civilisation, are
set in hostile movement, we caw do. lfttle more than wait