The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-30 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30 1870.

ARE we paltering with the political situation of
affairs in Europe ? Can apathy to whatever occurs
continue to be the characteristic of our foreign
policy without derogating from the dignity, the
influence, the pride and importance of Englan 1 in
the councils of Christendom ? Our connivance at
the seizure of Hanover, our toleration of the absorp-

tion of a considerable portion of the Danish province
of Schleswig-Holstein into the German Fatherland,
degraded our character and tarnished our reputation.
Yielding, as we have done of late years, to every
advance made by a strong military nation like
Prussia towards the carrying out, more and more
boldly, of its most unscrupulous system of territorial
aggrandizement,"wehave encouraged the very lust of
encroachment that we ought in reason to have rt.-
pressed, or at the very least to have endeavoured
as far as possible to moderate. Inconsequence of
this, the audacity of BISMARCK has triumphed.
Rods of empire hitherto scattered and independent
have been bound together wilh the Prussian axe
in the centre, and the dignity of Imperator has at
length been accorded by acclamation to the head of

the house of Hohenzollern. Remembering the sheer
brnte force with which the Government of Berlin
has gathered strength to itself at the bitter
cost of the lesser Powers around it,
there can surely be no cause for complaining
at the jealousy manifested at last by the late Impe-
rial Government of France when, suddenly, and quite
as a surprise to every one, it was announced that,
without taking anyone into her council, Prussia had
arranged with PRIM, the Spanish Dictator, for the
seating of a scion of the Hohenzollern race
on the vacant throne at Ma ?rid. It had

long been felt, and it was said then quite openly
and frankly at Paris that Prussia had been insidiously,
energetically, and systematically preparing for battle
ever since the morrow of her last crushing victory
at Sadowa. It was said in retaliation at Ems and

Berlin, and elsewhere, that France, on the contrary,
had been the one who had all the while been in-
sidiously preparing for the encounter. Carried away
by the warlike spirit manifested by the nation at
large, the former Minister of State, then President
of the Senate—that is to say, M. OLLIVIER'S prede-
cessor, M. RoUHEß—lent weight to the imputation
directed against his Imperial master by declaring
that for four years he (the EMPEROU) had been

steadily making warlike preparations. Events proved,
within a very brief interval after the utteranca of
that boast, that those words of M. ROUHER were
expressive of so much bouncing and blustering. -
They:were as utterly a stupidity in their way—not an
indiscretion, but a stupidity—as that outrageous '
declaration made in the tribune by M. EMILE
OLLIVIER, that he began :the war (this ghastly and
appalling war !) with a light heart. But as we
have said, the actual events of the campai-4.n
very soon, indeed, sufficed to demonstrate
beyond the possibility of contradiction,
which of the two belligerents ha,/, daring the pre-
ceding four years, been steadily, secretly. and insidi-
ously making warlike preparations. France, as
every incident in the campaign spewed more and
more clearly, was not in the least prepared. Prussia,
wise in its generation, ." like a strong man armed
keaping his house," was ready upon the instant to
muster a gigantic array upon the northern frontier
line of France, and to advance at the pas de
charge into Alsace and Lorraine every by-way
and hillock and coppice in which had been carefully
studied long beforehand, not only by great military
chieftains like VON MOLTKE and VON Room, but by
the great mass of the Prussian officers under tneir
command, down to the more intelligent of the young
subalterns.

Might in these days, if but armed to the
teeth and une►ubarrassed by scruples, has but to

act as though it had Right to whatever it lays
claim to, and success is at once achieved and secured
to it by the connivance of burrounding nations,
In order to recognise the truth of this

assertion it is only necessary to remark the
triumphant growth of the two most unscrup u-
loos Powers now in Christendom—the Prussian
Monarchy, directed by King WILLIAM, and the
Italian Monarchy, directed by • King VICTOR
EMMANUEL. Whatever either sovereign has wanted
to possess he has seized upon with a bold hand and
absorbed into his dominion. All that England
has had to do in their regard has been to
watch apathetically the daring work of German
and of Italian unification. It seems only within the
fitne-s of things that the Royal race of Prussia
having been baulked in its attempt at the acquisition
of the Spanish Crown, that golden bauble should
fall to the lot of a Prince of the House of 6avoy—
that King AMADEUS should at last ascend the throne
originally assigned to LEOPOLD of Sigmaringen.
The flagrant example set to the rest of Europe by
the councils of Berlin and of Florence, are proving
as a matter of course, however, contagious. Prus-
sia, herself, drunk with blood _ and shod with
iron, intimates plainly enough her intention
not only to absorb Alsace and Lorraine,
but Luxemburg as well. The • Russian
Autocrat through his Minister Prince GOILTSCHA-
KOFF, insolently declares his intention to set aside as
so much waste paper that Treaty of 1850 which was
purchaced by the heart's blood of the warriors of
France and England who fell on the battle-fields of
the Crimea. Emboldened by these acts, Rou-
mania has now openly declared its independence
and thrown off its allegiance to the Sublime Porte.
How much longer is England, in the presence of
these proceedings, marked quite by their audacity
and insolence, to remain simply apathetically obser-
vant? If very much longer, she will unquestionably
be paltering not only with the political situation of
Europe, but also, and in a very deplorable manner,
with her own historical reputation.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.