The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-16 00:00:00

THE MISSION OF M. THIERS.

The Daily News, in commentingupon the mission of M.
Thiers to England, says :—The irony of Fate it surely is
which has brought M. Thiers to England to seek our
good offices in obtaining for his country favourable terms
of peace from Germany. Not to go far back into his
career as a statesman, not to make any allu-
sion to his influence as a teacher of history,kwe cart hardly
forget how bitterly M. Thiers assailed the Emperor
Napoleon's Government in 1866 because it had not done
something towards the reduction and dismemberment of
Prussia. M. Thiers then insisted over and over
again that the interest of France demanded a policy which
should keep Germany divided and weak ; and he declared
a little prematurely, as it now turns out, that, in
allowing the consolidation of Germany, the Emperor's
Government had left itself no other blunder to commit.
It would be cruel, perhaps, now to point out to M.
Thiers that, according to his own political theory, Ger-
many ought to insist on weakening and dividing
France ; that if the principle of reasonable
self-preservation compelled France to prevent Germany
from becoming strong, surely the same principle would
justify Germany in endeavouring to reduce the strength
of France. Germany, however, may be expected to
have magnanimity enough not to act towards France
in the spirit which M. Tlaisrs would have had France
display towards Germany. M. Thiers is not France ;
and, in ady case, "tu l'as voulu, Georges Dandin,"
would hardly be a statesmanlike way of dis-
posing of a great national question. For our-
selves we sincerely hope that the German statesmen
and people may be able to see their way towards accepting
conditions of peace which shall not involve annexations
of territory.

The Standard says that in the absence of any trust-
worthy information as to the object of M. Thiers' visit
to London it is idle to speculate on the chances of his suc-
cess. It is difficult to suppose that M. Thiers
has been sent over by M. Jules Favre merely to
ask the recognition of the British Government for
the French Republic. The Republic must have
other cares just now than to trouble itself about its
formal diplomatic character, and M. Thiers, as one of
those who protested against the manner in which the
recent coup d'etat was effected, could hardly have been
selected as its apologist to the Court of St. James. The vete-
ran Orleanist statesman and Bonapartist historian, though
he has acted with the Republican party for some
time past, has never been considered as identified with
Republican principles. Under ordinary circumstances he
would not be a very apt representative of a party which
has declared that it had no share in the war. M. Thiers'
only objection to the war was that it was made at the
wrong time. He has contributed as much as any one
else to foster that unhappy spirit of restlessness
and of jealousy to which the present calamities
of France are mainly due. He has been one of the
chief apostles of chauvinisme, and he has no right to
detach himself from that unfortunate policy which has
brought the third Napoleon to his ruin. In some
respects, however, the very character which M.
Thiers has earned in the past fits him pecu-
liarly to be an ambassador of peace. Whether
he is an apt representative of the Republic or not,
he is not without claims to speak on behalf of that
France which certainly as much as the Emperor
is responsible for the present war. We may be sure
that the proposals of which M. Thiers is the
bearer involve the very uttermost concessions
which France is prepared to make in order to rid
her soil of the foreign invader, and to spare Paris the
horrors of a siege. We do not yet know what is the pre-
cise nature of those proposals, but it is probable that
the preliminary rumours as to their character are
substantially correct. France is ready to concede
all for which Germany took up arms, and to compen-
sate the latter for the costs of the war. We believe that
France is prepared to go further, and to give up to
Prussia one-half of her iron-clad fleet. She may even con-
sent, in order to show her sincerity for peace, to dismantle
the fortresses of Metz and Strasburg. The terms are
hard for a proud nation to concede, and they are such as
two months ago would have been considered beyond the
wildest dreams of even M. de Bismarck's ambition. They
satisfy all the most ardent longings of the German heart.
They ensure a large sum of money to the visitors. They
give them at least the shell of a navy, and they secure
the safety of the Rhine border in future.