The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-22 00:00:00

THE WAR.

Alas ! for France, observes the Spectator, for the gallant
and gifted people, and the beautiful land ! An armed
nation is rushing on her, a nation welded into a bar of
steel, and wielded by a single hand., Blacker out-look
never had nation. Men, bra' e men, men potentially
heroical there are in profusion—the very mob of Paris is
material for a glorious army—and with time and organi-
sation all could be retrieved. But the factories have been
making cartridges for the Chassepot, not for the "tabatiere;”
the schools for officers have heen kept down because
they were so Liberal ; the General of genius has yet
to manifest himself—for Trochu, if he is one, must be
Carnot, not commandant ; and against that unresting
foe who sacrifices battalions to win a hill, those legions
driven on by the calm genius who foresees and provides
for all, what can an inorganic mass of brave men do ?
The soldiers will die uselessly, the Mobiles will be mas-
sacred, and France will be none the better for the loss of
her bravest sons. All points to a hideous catastrophe,
which, by a strange irony of fate, will leave France for a
moment at the mercy of the heir of that Queen Louise
who begged terms from the uncle of Napoleon, and
was bidden to attend to women's work. We know that
it seems almost dastardly to recommend peace, that the
collapse of this mighty empire, which for twenty years
has shadowed Europe, bewilders men, who cannot, will
not, believe it true ; but yet what help ? A battle before
Paris? We, for our part, bow humbly before the gran-
deur of the patriotism which would dictate that resolve—
if there are guns, if there are munitions, if there are pro-
visions, if there is a man ! No figure in history would
be more heroic than Trochu and the Parisians fighting
and winning a battle of despair ; but can they win it ?
and if they lose, when will France be great again?

THE COLLAPSE OF CLESARISM.
The Economist thinks we may say safely that it is
Csarism that has uttery failed in France—meaning by
CHsarism, that peculiar system of which Louis Napoleon,
—still, we suppose, nominally the Emperor of the French
—is the great exponent, which tries to win directly from
a plebiscite, i.e., the vote of the people, a power for
the throne to override the popular will as expressed in
regular representative assemblies, and to lace in the
monarch an indefinite " responsibility " to the
nation, by virtue of which he may hold in severe
check the intellectual criticism of the more educated
cla ses and even the votes of the people's own delegates.
A virtually irresponsible power obtained by one man
from the vague preference of the masses for a particular
name—that is CHsarism, and that is a system which has
undoubtedly undergone a sunden and frightful collapse
such as none but the very worst hereditary monarchies in
Europe have sustained, The reverse for France is infi-
nitely greater than the reverse of 1866 for Austria. Homo-
geneous, as few States in Europe are homogeneous, animated
by but one spirit in relation to this particular war--if not
leading the military science of the day, at least known to
be one among the leaders—rich in money—full of credit—
high in military pride—there was hardly one element of
failure which she had in common with Austria, and yet
her reverses have been as signal and all but as complete.
It is the very object of the plebiscite to give the Emperor
an authority which reduces all intermediate Powers to
comparative insignificance if they come into collision
with his own. Consequently everything must depend
on him, and if he be not practically omniscient there is no
substantial check at all on the creatures whom he sets up
to execute his will. This has evidently been the ruin of
the great military power of France.