The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-30 00:00:00

OUP. COTEMPORARIES—This Morui-ag

ENGLAND AND THE WAR.

The Times says it need not waste words in examining
the excuses that have been made for the apparent
inaction of the Ei,g,lish Ministry. The consi-
deration that must press most emphatically on
the attention of our Ministers is that each belligerent has,
in a manner more or less formal, appealed to them, as to
the other neutral Powers cf Europe. Our Government
stands between the two belligerents, and, if unable to do
anything to bring them into agreement, is unable also
by- the necessity of its position to keep Silence. If
the Ministry agree with Count B:smarck that the best
guarantee of the peace of Europe is to be found in
the annexation of a hostile dependency, it must
approve of his resolution to persevere in the
war till this end is obtained. If it doubts
the reality of the benefits 'he would secure
for Europe, if it sees guarantees of future security
free from the difficulties that are confessedly attached to
those he demands—guarantees, too, that might be at once
secured so as to put a stop to the further progress of a
war already satiated with blood, it cannot but express
the divergence of opinon thus entertained. It may
not, in the judgment of some, redound to our glory
to express an opinion without the intention of
enforcing it. It cannot, in the judgment of any,
redound to our glory to abstain from expressing an opinion
when it is demanded of us, because we may find ourselves
differing from a powerful neighbour.
The Telegraph adverting to the meeting of the Cabinet
Council, which takes place to-day, says, that although
the 'events of the war seem for the day to indicate
a remote possibility of peace, still the situa-
tion is eminently unfavourable for friendly inter-
position. It is not beyond the range of possibility
that our Ministers might find yet another appeal made to
them on the part of the French Government, cast down
by unbroken reverses, and discovering to their bitter cost
the fallacy of the expectation that the rising in mass
of a people without discipline, leaders, or arms,
should result in the expulsion of seven hundred thousand
armed and skilled invaders, peculiarly well supplied
with all the appliances of warfare, Were such an
appeal to be made, we cannot doubt, says the Telegraph,
that the English Cabinet would do all that if
duty of strict neutrality permitted, to devise
for the combatants some basis of peace, which
might at once secure to Germany the guarantees she de-
mands, and salve the bruised susceptibilities of France by
a slight withdrawal from the " hard and fast" line to
which. Count Bismarck has in all his conversations so re-
solutely stuck. But, in any case, whateves they do, if
they should to-day determine to do anything more,
must be done with the utmost discretion and
conciliation. A " word and blow" have been so
often unfortunately associated in international
affairs, that Germany might think, and France
expect, onr diplomacy in this case to be the
precursor of acts. As to the German misconception,
that might do no great harm ; but the French expecta-
tion would be a painful result. It is, then, our clear
duty not to arouse false hopes in the minds of a. nation
that is sore distressed, and that needs all the truth to com-
prehend its painful situation.