The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-31 00:00:00

11.
cure in all this. An enemy of half a million ca
men, however well commanded, cannot pretend t°
dictate to a world. The pretensions of Napoleon
111., not his own, probably, but those which other°
put forward for him, were too great for his Power'
too vast for his resources. A determination t°
maintain them by force in the face of recent event°
would have been fatal to his Government ;
would not improbably have resulted in the oYeri
throw of his dynasty. The upshot of two great
dramas, played out in two hemispheres, has drr
turbed his calculations, and made it necessary 1°
him to draw in a little. The North American
sße-
public, after a desperate struggle of four years, has
triumphed over the South, so that now again ft„
1„
frontier extends to the border river of Mexico. The
North German Power, fighting for supretnacY
Central Europe, has not only driven Austria from
the field, and barred her out of Germany, but has
consolidated herself by the annexation or subjilga:
tion of all the German countries north of the line °f
the Maine. In America and in Europe France has
suddenly been confronted by a Power equal to her;
self ; it is not to be wondered at that she findsl
impossible to stand her ground against both of thou'
In consenting to retire from Mexico at the bidding
of the United States Government, and in submitting.
to the affront which she has experienced at the half..
of Prussia in the abrupt refusal of a trifling rectin
cation of frontier in the direction of the river Saar:
France may be thought by some to have listened to
the promptings of discretion rather than those 0,1
valour. But only a madman will rush into the &
,0
any
when the odds are ten to one against him. If at sll
time the United States had made up their minds 'I
back up by force the Republican faction in Man
the Emperor of the French would at once have 'lief
presented to him the disagreeable alternative of
allowing the small expeditionary force to be over-
whelmed and captured, or sending across the .Atlan-
tic in all the transport ships of Europe the whole
army. of France to cope with that of Amen`''
When the success of the United States was decideur
when the intentions of the United States with re-
gard to Mexico were expressed in the plainest lair
guage that could be, and in diplomatic document*
the Emperor of the French, if he would avoid all
ignominious expulsion from the Western continent'
had nothing to do but to withdraw from it with the
best grace possible under such distressing circaar
stances. The establishment of a Mexican empire Wa,
all very feasible while the American states to til°
north of it were divided, it became an impossible 0.11:
terprise when they were united in opposition to la
Napoleon 111. is just in the position of a player 'elb
has made a false move at chess. He has the opOr.;
tunity of withdrawing it • he must take it,back 0:
he will lose the game. in America his tactics sit;
simple, though not altogether satisfactory to
it.f,
pride of France. In Europe he has had a more GI%
ficult part to play. When a power equal to France
reared herself up beside him on the Rhine, after
seven days of battle, his Foreign Minister was 11;
strutted to represent to Prussia that France
placed in a somewhat awkward position by this °Ti;
cumstance, but that such a trifling matter as ta
restoration of Saar-Louis, taken from her in 1815:
might do something towards restoring his equall„„
nifty. This request was refused, and France
submitted to the rebuff in rather an ill-huni°lltra.
For the moment she can hardly contend with a steth
which has an army as large as her own, armed wi
needle guns which can shoot five times for her one'
•
France is getting ready her breech-loaders. It is is
reported that the settlement of this little affair
of
to be postponed until after the Paris Exhibition
next year. At the close of 1867 the French army
will be fully equipped with the " Chassepot" breed,
loader, said to be as far superior to the "
nadelgewehr," as that is to the old Brown Bess of
the British army. We trust, however, that beroo
this time the irritability of the French will have 5,
far cooled down that we shall escape the reell',e,
rence of the carnage of 1866 on a still larger ilia
The French will be then, as they are now,
kt
their
strongest nation in Europe, well able to hold tue
own against all corners, and will admit, when thei
r
a
present passion of jealousy is past, that they beat
nothing to gain in the extension of their presea
frontiers, no motive to induce them to wish for bar'
riers against German ambition.