The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-18 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 18, 1870.

WAR having been actually declared and virtually
commenced, it behoves us all to look now less to the
past and more to the present and the future. To each
of the two great belligerents the familiar words of the
American commentator on the psalmist might seem
to address themselves as with the ringing sound of
the war-trumpet—

"Let the dead past bury its dead :
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within and God o'erhead."

It is unhappily but little to the purpose at this
moment to define accurately the relative amount of
the responsibility attaching to France or to Prussia,
to King WILLIAM or the Emperor NAPOLEON,
in having either allowed or caused the late
angry negotiations to terminate at last in
this appalling rupture of peace, and this most
startling and most lamentable signal for the imme-
diate commencement of hostilities. Comments of
that kind to-day are nothing lees:than anachronisms.
They are utterly useless, because they are nothing
whatever to the purpose. The tocsin has sounded.
The " ugly rush" has even now commenced. What
is chiefly felt by lookers-on, in regard to more or less
recent occurrences, is this—that upon both sides
there has been a readiness to accept the challenge
the one of the other. It is not merely that the war
budgets in an epoch of profound European tran-
quillity, pressing so heavily, at times it has seemed so
all but overwhelmingly on the:whole of North Ger-
many, and on the whole of the imperial quadri-
lateral of France, are in terrible truth, now fully
accounted for. The faot is equally apparent that
throughout these recent diplomatic communications
between Paris and Berlin, between Ems and St.
Cloud, the principals have evidenced at every step,
at every movement, a readiness—it might rather be
said an eagerness—to accept at any instant the full
weight of the awful consequences involved in a rup-
ture between them. When the candidature of
Prince LEOPOLD of Hohenzollern-Zigmaringen is
covertly submitted to the King of PRUSSIA as head
of the whole royal race of the HOHENZOLLERNS,. his
MAJESTY, without deeming it essential to consult
With any of his European allies upon the matter, at
once, unhesitatingly, upon his own individual re-
sponsibility, not only approves of it, but goes so far as
distinctly to authorise it. When this " transaction
comes at last, suddenly, as a surprise, to the knowledge
of France and all the rest of the Powers of Christendom,
the two foremost ministers of France, M. OLLIVIER
and the Due de GRAMMONT, denounce it, one after the
other, in the strongest terms, from the,Tribune of the
Corps Ldgislatif. So afterwards, in like manner, when
M. BENEDETTI applies to the KING Of PRUSSIA him-
self in person to accord his royal guarantee to the
non-revival of the candidature, just previously and in
a left-handed manner withdrawn, the resolute old
KING, without an instant's hesitation, on the spur of
the moment, resents what he regards as an in-
trusion by an unmistakeable rebuff, on one of the
public walks of the Kursaal, to that too-zealous in-
truder upon his dignity—the French Ambas-
sador. Finally, the Emperor NAPOLEON, on hear-
ing of this and of that—to him—galling incident in
the negotiations, assumes to himself a far larger
responsibility, a responsibility of awful and appalling
magnitude, throwing down the gage of battle and
formally declaring war against his antagonist. A
retrospective glance like this indicates at every turn
in the negotiations that the two Sovereigns have
been all along perfectly prepared for the emergency.
They have neither of them evidenced any eagerness
to evade or avoid the peril of the impending respon=
sibility.

The result is, as the world knows, that war is an-
nounced. And, as the world equally well knows, the
war thus announced will be a war a outrance. Sharp,
short, and decisive, will be the conflict, when France
and Prussia confront each other with their deadly
arms of precision. The KING is backed by a nation
of foxty millions. The EMPEROR is backed by a nation
of forty millions. They are equally well matched.
Prussia has to sustain the prestige she won four
years ago on the field of Sadowa. France, though
she had nothing whatever to do with the war of 1866
has, as she conceives, to reclaim the prestige she
regards herself as having lost in the presence and
estimation of Europe on that same astounding battle-
field. Supposing NAPOLEON 111. victorious, he
beholds before him as the prise for which he is
fighting, the acquisition of the Rhenish Provinces. Sup-
posingWlLLtam I. victorious, he will emerge from the
contest no longer King of PRUSSIA but Emperor of
GERMANY. For the gratification of these ambitions
the cause of humanity is to be outraged, some of
the fairest scenes on the face of the earth are to be
ravaged awl laid waste, blood and gold poured out
like water, a multitude of our follow creatures ruth-
lessly slaughtered, and another multitude struck
down in agonies, and only saved from death by
frightful mutilation.

While the ultimate object for which NAPOLEON
undertook this war is the re-establishment of his
prestige with the French army which the plebiscite
shewed to have been largely estranged by the
frequent failures of his foreign policy, it is assumed
that his .proximate object is the posion of the
Rhine frontier. This probable enough, but
the contingency which that probability in-
volves is something terrible to contemplate.
People talk vaguely of the Rhine provinces as though
they belonged to Prussia, and as though a fight for
them meant a fight between France and Prussia
only. In reality these provinces_belong to Holland,
Belgium, Bavaria, Baden, and Hesse Darmstadt.
This then is at the very least a French and German
war. There is too much reason to fear.that it will not;
be confined to these two nationalities. Theye is

too much reason to dread that not only will
the Grand Duke of BADEN join his uncle
the King of PRUSSIA, and that some of
the German States will be found battling on the
same side, but Belgium also will be involved. It is
bitt a few months ago, and just after King LEOPOLD
had lost his only son, that the French Government
attempted to pick a quarrel with Belgium, and
was prevented only by the good offices of England.
Belgium has been called the cockpit of Europe, and
lying as it does between the two hostile powers,
having a frontier coterminous with that of France
for about 250 miles, a frontier in most parts merely
imaginary, it will be difficult for it to keep out of
the fray. In fact, NAPOLEON has already sent a
menacing message to Brussels, threatening King
LEOPOLD that if Belgium is not strong enough to re-
sist any violation of neutrality by Prussia, French
troops will at once occupy the Belgian king-
dom. The great fortress of Luxemburg, which
lies close to France and Prussia, and which but a
very little while ago brought the present combatants
to within twenty-four hours of war, is a most
tempting prize, and, though belonging to the
King of HOLLAND, who has just declared his
intention to maintain neutrality, it will scarcely
be resisted. Either incident the violation
of Belgian neutrality or the seizure of Luxem-
burg would be a most serious matter for
ourselves. The neutrality of both has been guaran-
teed by the British Government, and a violation of
that neutrality could not be suffered by us with
punity.• There is too great reason to fear that the
war will not be confined even to these wide limits.
Denmark has been longing to avenge her wrongs
of six years ago, and there is little doubt but
that France will attempt to paralyse Prussia
in the North Sea and the Baltic by an expedition to
the old Dano-German duchies. In fact it is impos-
sible to tell where the conflagration thus lighted will
end, impossible to be sure that it will not extend
from the Straits of Dover to the Bosphorus. The
Power whieh seems most likely to remain aloof is
the one whose kingless condition led to the present
conflict. Spain, it appears, is to be allowed to remain
neutral.

Assuming that the first shock of battle will be felt
in the district where the two combatants touch each
other, it is important that we should understand the
geographical position of this district. The tourist
wishing to travel from Treves to Strasbourg must
have noted with some surprise th at there is no direct rail
communication between these two cities. Arrived at
Saarbriick he has had to turn his back
upon his destination, and instead of journeying
due south-east has had to travel north-east as far as
Kaiserlautern and thence to Neustadt, entering the
French territory at Wissenburg. In this way he
has had to take two sides of a nearly equilateral
triangle instead of the third side. The extended
journey has given him the opportunity of seeing the
charming scenery of the Hardt mountains, which the
railway first pierces and then flanks. But it was
not for the sake of the tourist that this long deviation
was made. Strategy rather than scenery was
the cause of it. The Germans wished to keep
their line on their own territory. That territory
or at least that portion of it lying between the river
Saar and the French frontier, NAPOLEON tried hard to
squeeze out of BISMARCK at the close of the German
war, four years ago. But the Prussian Premier was
too knowing. This strip, though only about 10
miles by 35 miles, contains some of the richest
coal fields in Europe, and great was the lamentation
when it was taken from France after the
downfall of the First NAPOLEON. Instead
of parting with it, BISMARCK fortified it, and it is
against this point that the French troops will
probably direct their first attack. It is but thirty-
five miles in a straight line from Saarbriick to the
French fortress of Metz, and about thirty from the
same Prussian town to the French fortress of Thion-
ville. The Prussian and French frontiers border
each other for only about fifty miles, and
it is probable that the irregular quadrangle
formed by the rivers Saar and Mosel and the railway
from Metz to Saarbriick may be the scene of more
than one desperate battle. But it is not to be ex-
pected that hostilities will be confined there. £he
Rhine Palatinate belongs to. Bavaria, but the
Bavarian army is under the control of Prussia, and it
is no secret that the Grand Duke of BADEN has long
sympathised with his father-in-law, King WILLIAM,
and will now in all probability openly join him.
Thus it is not only the Prussian frontier
from Sierk to Saarguemines, but also the
Bavarian frontier from Saarguemines to Eulingen
and the Baden frontier from Eulingen to
Basle that will be included in the line of battle. A
dozen miles within the Bavarian frontier is the im-
portant fortress of Landau which in the time of the
First NAPOLEON belonged to France, but which
for some time past has been fortified
against France. Better known to Continental
tourists is the frontier between Alsace and Baden.
The inhabitants of the old Alsatian capital, Stras-
bourg, though of German descent, and still speaking
the German tongue, are said to be more French than
the Gauls. They, at all events, will have an oppor-
tunity of manifesting their feelings, for between them
and Germany lies only the Rhine, crossed by a bridge of
boats and by the railway bridge that so many of us have
traversed on our way to the Swiss mountains and lakes.
In fact no campaign of recent years will have been
fought on such familiar ground as that which is now
about to open.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.