The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-18 00:00:00

THE POSITION OF ENGLAND.

The day seems to have passed when the opinion of Eng-
land could be counted as a force in European politics.
The most signal disturbance the continent has suffered
since Waterloo is now at hand, and the course of Great
Britain is watched with hardly more curiosity than the
course of Denmark, or Switzerland, or the Sublime
Porte. France, Spain, Prussia, have all thought it safe
to despise the sentiment of England. She has been de-
ceived on the Spanish throne question ; she has been
hoodwinked in a matter so important as the neutrality
of Belgium ; she demands explanations, and the
Great Powers hardly make a pretence of listening to her ;
she threatens war, and apparently nobody is alarmed.
And yet England is a formidable foe. Her navy is the
best in the world; her army, if not large, according to
modern ideas, is composed of superb material, and as
tough as oak; and, finally, her financial strength, despite
her heavy debt, is enormous. How does it happen that
in the complications which now distract the whole
continent she is so little considered? How is it that
in half the period of a generation she has fallen
from the position of a first-class to that of a
third-class power? The French were not far from
right when they called England a nation of shopkeepers.
The Ministry seems to have become possessed with the
idea that their whole duty is to save English commerce
from interruption and get for English shippers the
carrying trade of the Continent. They do not see that
the commercial supremacy of the kingdom depends in a
great measure upon its political predominance. They do
not realise that the advance of Napoleon to the Rhine
threatens the Western coast of the North Sea quite
as much as the Eastern. When Austria and
Prussia menaced the territory of Denmark, Eng-
land blustered, scolded, distinctly threatened war
unless the Great Powers of Germany abandoned their
designs upon that little kingdom. Those designs were
not abandoned ; the kingdom was dismembered ; and
England meekly withdrew her ultimatum. The disgrace
of that affair has not been forgotten. Europe is per-
suaded that England will submit to anything rather than
fight, and treats her accordingly with impolite indiffer-
ence. At the present conjuncture the popular anxiety
for decided action is unmistakable, but the Government
strangely holds back. There is no doubt that the English
people sympathise strongly with Germany, and dread
the ulterior designs of France. They are
anxious that Great Britain should interfere decidedly
and at once to protect the threatened neutrality of
Belgium—not by empty remonstrance, but by an armed
occupation. With a strong force under arms behind the
Belgian frontier, with a superb navy hovering about the
shores of the North Sea, England would not only avert
an impending danger but regain by a single effort the
proud position from which she has fallen. While Mr.
Gladstone timidly shrinks from this bold and politic
course, the Conservatives have seized the opportunity
and threaten to rise once more to power on
the swelling tide of popular passion. Mr.
Disraeli undoubtedly had the country with him
when, he demanded in Parliament that England should
shew a more resoluta front, and secure the advantages of
peace by proving her readiness for war. We believe the
people are in no humour to trifle with the present crisis,
and if Mr. Gladstone wavers, a double misfortune will
follow : for not only will England lose her power to influ-
ence the Continent toward a speedy peace, bnt the great
Liberal party will lose its hold upon the masses of the
English people.--New York Tribune.

THE WAR-FIGHTING IN SOUTHERN
GERMANY.

The announcement that the French and Prussians are
fighting in Baden indicates some decided progress in the
development of the campaign. Baden is across the
Rhine, on the other side of that angle of French territory
to one side of which hitherto the reports of active opera-
tions have been confined. That part of France is bounded
on the north by Rhenish Bavaria and Prussia, and on the
east by Baden, and thus penetrates the hostile territory.
Along the northern line of this angle in Rhenish Prussia
are Saarlouis, SaarbrUck, and the other points of which

we have lately heard, and it is here that a large Prussian
force of four hundred thousand men is reported as in posi-
tion. Some collisions have occurred here also, on the left
of the Prussian force, seeming to indicate a disposition of
the French to accept a battle there. But suddenly we
hear of French operations at another point, and this
renders it probable that the French having, by threat-
ening on that line of invasion, induced the Prussians to
concentrate there their immediately available forces,
have slipped away from them, and, reinforcing Marshal
M`Mahon at Strasburg, have crossed the Rhine at that
city, or lower down at Selz. By this means the French
frontier would be safe apparently—for a corps would be
left at Thionville and Metz, and these points the
Prussians could not pass—while the French would still
have probably three hundred thousand men with which to
operate in, Southern Germany. Already the army
of Baden was at Rastadt, and the Crown Prince
of Prussia had assumed command of this force
and was endeavouring to concentrate the whole South
German contingent. An advantage of the French ad-
vance into Baden would be that it might strike this
force. It would thus first hit Prussia in her weakest
point. The Prussian Crown Prince seems to inherit
the blunder-headed and arrogant temper of his father,
and though, no doubt, he is fortified with a staff of com-
petent soldiers, yet, in 1866, he managed to so far miscon-
ceive the strategy of the Sadowa campaign that if the
Austrians had been well commanded on the eventful
day of the main battle the Prussians would have been
beaten in detail. He, therefore, is a weak point,
and he commands the South German force. More-
over, the South German force is itself a weak point.
It is not yet full of the Prussian spirit ; and while it adds
numbers to the Prussian roll and would, if supporting the
good troops, add a real weight to the scale, it will be found
quite otherwise when it fights alone and the first
brunt of battle falls upon it. M`Mahon crossing the
Rhine at Strasburg with 200,000 good troops, and striking
the •Prince at Rastadt or at Bruchsal or on any battle-
field between that and Mannheim, would crush him before
the troops in Rhenish Prussia could reach the Rhine and
come to his assistance, or probably even before succour
could reach him from any force that may be at Mayence
or Coblentz,, 'which, perhaps, is mostly a force of raw
troops. Supposing such a success, France would have
done already something to cripple her foe, would
have the prestige of victory, and could feed her
army on Southern Germany. We therefore incline to
credit the despatch that tells of this fighting. From
England, by special telegram, we are told of a sharp
affray between some men belonging to Marshal Bazaine's
army and the Prussians. The French, it is said, were re-
pulsed, having lost some few soldiers and one cannon.
The detachment appears to have been engaged in " feel-
ing" the Prussian line, and found the enemy nearer and
more active than its commander expected. Paris tele-
grams state that there are five, Prussian army corps on
the line of the Rhine, and that the Prussians have mined
the-banks of the river. This news may be on the whole
merely a repetition of the first despatches relative to
the- affray at Saarbruck. The popular agitation con-
tinues in England, Italy, Austria, and Rome. Premier
Gladstone defined England's neutrality at a civic banquet
in Guildhall, London. Queen Victoria and her Cabinet
are, he says, anxious for peace, anxious for Belgium, de-
plore the war, but must stand prepared to meet any f its
eventualities. The British Premier's statement is not reas-
suring either as to an early termination of the great
struggle or its exact range and limit before the close.—
New York Herald, Aug. 4.

The Earl Granville has arrived in town from
Walmer Castle.

The Baron F. von Diergardt has given the munifi-
cent donation of £lO,OOO to the committee of the German
Hospital at Dalston, for the purposes of the charity. A
special general court of the Governors has been called for
Friday next- for the. purpose of giving the Committee
power to invest the money.