, 1866-09-11

- go rs nv
Americans desired to absorb the lands
that lay upon their Southern frontier;
they affected q sort of divine right of
expansion but then it undoubtedly was
10 be exercised in the assimilation to
their own of far inferior races, in the
introduction of their Republican Govern
ment, supposed, of course, to be the
highest form of self-regulation of which
man is capable, in the stead of an anar-
chy IN which pIunder and murder were
the salient features, and Government was
only felt by laws turned into the most
corrupt swindling and by the most une-
quail and tyrannous eXtortion. There is
some excuse for the citizens Of the
United States in believing that Providence
could never intend the fairest regions of
the earth to be wasted upon the Mexi-
cans.
But what is to be said of a French
philosopher, an aSsertor Of political JUS
tice, an indignant denouncer of public
crime, treating The consolidation of Ger
many as an injury 10 France? What is
10 be thought of the claim of a constant
power Of expansion for the French on
the German side, not with any prctcnce
that the Germans will be the better for it
but because the ~annexations most profit
table for France have always been crib
bed in that direction? Nj. FORBADE re-
pudiates the idea that France is only a
Latin realm, and to be left tGe. d-tete with
the other nations Of the like origin.
The %insolent absurdity of the pretension
speaks for itself. We need not even
examine it. But NJ. FORBADE should
know as a matter of fact that AIsace and
the other German acquisitions were
made when there was no German pa
triotism, no sense Of German nation
ality. There was no more heartfelt
allegiance to the nation than in the Sc
parate Duchies to the Kingdom Of France
In the medieval times. All that is
changed. Let M. FORBADE only read the
newspapers, and he will see, disliked as
Bismarck has been in the South, the
strong hatred Of French connection ex-
pels the lighter ~antipathy altogether.
There IS the prospect of German union /;
and those who talk Of compromising
France for that-say by the u%surpation
of B~elgium-are as short-si9hted as poll
ticians as they are iniquitous as men.
Germany grows within itself; let France
be content TO do the like. If the exis-
tence of Germany and of France were
incompatible, we should unhcsitatingIy
say that Germany will assuredly prove
the nation more worthy of life. Most of
what is promising in France comes of
her unlearning the wicked blunders of
the past. Her war spirit has been a fata!
astrology. Napoleon III. has by sheer
force dispossCssed her of some of her
most suicidal traditions. She has the
amplest means of Tor internal de-
velopment. Rich, fertile, of race s%uffici-
emily homogeneous ; compact in territory,
with ample seaboard and noble harbours;
placed geographically for the most ex-
tensive commerce, with more of rich
mineral than she has ever attempted 10
work ; with an ingenious and sufficiently
Industrious population possessing an apti-
tude for arms that puts all dread of at
tack or real insult out of the question
her honest hopes may all be realised
with the most entire sympathy of the
world. She has not a natural enemy,
she need not have one envious or angry
rival. If she is again at war it is because
she wills il; and in that case because
~ - H. ~-~-~rr~ N1wranrr 80 acro