The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-07 00:00:00

THE WEEKLY PRESS.
THE ARMISTICE.
The endeavours of the English Government to bring
about an armistice were as we now know, says the Saturday
Review, justified by tie information in their possession,
seem not unlikely to lead to practical results. It is said
that Count Bismarck has offered to agree to an armistice
'of twenty-five 'days, in order that a Constituent Assembly
may be convoked. Theoretically, there is no more reason
why England should came forward to urge an armistice
than why Austria or Russia should come forward. But
in point of fact England is looked to by both combat tuts
as a mediator more than any other power, partly because
it has been the habit. of Continental nations since the old
Napoleon wars to concede this position to England, and
partly beeause it is known that the English Government
is impelled by the restless propensity for meddling to
which the English public is given, and by a consideration
for the material interests of ' England affected by
the war, to be always more ready to interfere
than any other great Power can be supposed to be.
The convocation of a Constituent Assembly really means
the end of the war, and Frenchmen see this as plainly as
Englishmen or Germans can see it ; and the very large
portion of Frenchmen of all parties who want to see the
war go on, and still believe that France must conquer if
she perseveres, insist with great reason that if their wishes
ere to be fulfilled, and the war is to go on, it must go on
without a day's pause or intermission. The difficulty
arises, whether Alsace and Lorraine are to be represented
in the Assembly. 'When the question was raised some
little' time ago, Count Bismarck' said. that he could
not permit this. Alsace and Lorraine now belong to
Germany, and it would be quite inconsistent with their
new position to allow them to send Deputies to a French
Assembly. But it is hard to believe that Count Bismarck
will insist on this, for obviously, if he does insist on it, he
must mean that the new Assembly is to meet, not to dis-
cuss the terms of peace, but to register his decrees. The
inconvenience and inconsistency of allowing elections in
Alsace for members of a French Assembly is certainly
great ; bub it would be most humiliating to France, and
dangerous to the interests of peace, that the Deputies
from provinceS that have so long been part of France
should not be allowed to take part in the discussion of a
subject so interesting to them.
The intervention of England,' says the Economist, has
been singularly well-timed and singularly fortunate.
Lord Granville introduced it by a despatch written with
remarkable clearness, manliness, and precision. And he
seems tobave fouud willing hearers. As we last week
said both combatants were close upon an immense and
needless task. The plain fact is that France rose upon
the division of Germany, and that she has ceased to be
able to invade • Germany now that Germany has
become united. The notion, therefore, that Germany
needs security against France is an error, which so cool a
thinker as Count Bismarck cannot share. She is herself,
now that she is herself, her own best security. And if
this be so, there is really nothing for Germany to fight
for. . Even if she wants a rectification of frontier, now
that she holds Metz and Strasburg, she has the best pos-
sible material guarantees that she can have what she
wishes. Whatever may be the case in a distant future,
the France-of 1870 could never remoter Metz and
Strasburg- from the Germany of 1870. Franco must
take what Germany gives, and when a belligerent
is come to .that, there iss,
nothing left to fight for.
A stranger conjuncture of circumstances has certainly
never happened in, the world. Such an armistice, with
such an existing condition, is unexampled. The plan is
that, if possible, the state of both belligerents after the
twenty-five days of cessation should be the same as it was
before the cessation. But this.is not possible. The minds
of both must be different. The minds both of the French
and the German nation are heated and excited; both are
now ready to dare excessively and to suffer excessively.
After a few days of calm, a few days to
think of peace, both must be wiser. Both would
see that neither: can gain anything, equal to the
loss of continued war, or eomparable to it. The terms
of the armistice may say that at the end all shall be as it
was at the begining, but it will not be—nature forbids ;
passions will be calmer and minds wiser. And a stranger
Assembly with a stranger work than the so-called " Con-
stituent'' has never met and never will meet. It should
be called the " Pacfficant," for its main use will be to make
a peace, not to make a Constitution. It will be elected
while France has no Government—while much of her
soil is occupied by foreigners—while all of it is in fear of
foreigners—while its capital is being starved. Such an
Assembly is certainly no judge of what France would
think or feel at other times • but it is an excellent judge
of what France wants just for the moment. It intsy make
a peace well, though it may be helplessly at sea, and
hardly able at all to decide on a form of Government or on
a Constitution.
MR. • GLADSTONE ON FOREIGN POLITICS.
The Spectator says that there is no subject on which this
nation knows so little of Mr. Gladstone's mind as on
Foreign politics. He has never been Foreign Secretary ;
he has not often spoken at length on foreign policy ; and
it has only once happened to him to be compelled to accept
or reject-a distinct policy in great continental affairs. , A
glimpse into Mr. Gladstone's mind upon foreign politics is
therefore of very unusual interest, and it is stated on very
good authority,- that such a glimpse is afforded by the
article in the Edinburgh on Germany, France, and. Eng-
land, that it was not only inspired, but actually written
by the Premier. We most heartily hope that the report is
true. Hit is, our most serious fear for Mr. Gladstone's lead-
ership will be at once removed, and our gravest apprehension
for the futuie of Great Britain in a great degree allayed.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Gladstone, though en-
tirely with the Germans as to the commencement of the
war, and emphatically opposed " n6t to Napoleon, but to
Napoleonism," of which he. hopes France has finally got
rid, is now very doubtful of German moderation, hopes
faintly, that the Treaty of Prague may be carried out, and
upholds in very powerful language the doctrine that to
tear away human beings from the community to which
they belong is " an old and a cruel practice, " contrary to
humanity and civilisation. Finally, no one has, we con-
ceive, summedup the one grand defect in the French mental
constitution with greater force, or insight, or depth of ad-
miration for France than is apparent in this paragraph :
"The extraordinary race by which that land is inhabited
appears to be richly, nay, supremely, endowed with every
gift but 'one—the gift of true political sagacity. Hence it
is that, while they are the greatest framers of logical pro-
cesses, and the most prolific parents of abstract ideas for
the solution of all manner of problems, they seem to show
in their own case little practical tact available for the
management of human affairs. Accomplished and con-
summate in the branches .of an. almost universal know-
ledge, in this single but great chapter of the appliances of
civilised, not to. say humans life, they have yet to learn
their A B C."