The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-26
The Seat of the German War.

| NOW lnat tue "concom1tancY OF things" makes
h Infinitely probable that we shall soon be hear
ing, from beyond the Atlantic, that dismal
deaening thunder of hostile guns for four long
years so sadly familiar to us in our own hemis
phere, IL is desirable that we should form to
| ourselves some definite image of the theatre on
| which this new and formidable war is about to
be fought out. Discussion as to its origin has
dropped from the order of the day. Behind
Count Bismark and his willy ambition, on the
one side; behind the Kaiser, Francis Joseph,
and his arrogant impatience, on the other, lie
and have been working propulsive forces set in
motion long before either Bismark or Francis
came to the front OF power.
| These forces have brought about now at last
the collision which they have long been pre-
pairing, and upon that collision the attention of
mankind bids fair, tor some months 10 come, to
! be concentrated. It's first and most re5ounding
| shock is likely to occur in Sllesia-in that
ancient and splendid Silesia, over which the
| founder OF Prussian greatness did such despe-
rate battles tor wears with the stoutesC-hearted
| sovereign albeit a woman, who ever welded
the sceplre OF the Hapsburgs. Much of what
| Carlyle says concerning this same Silesia, and
| concerning the pertiDacity with which Maria
Theresa clung to it long ater it had been trsbly
lost to her. has by no means indirect applica-
cation to the secret springs of the course of
! Austria at TIE present time.
| at was in Maria Theresa's ncurable sorrow
| at the loss of Sesia," says the historian OF
| Frederic the Great, land her uneXtingulshabe
! hope to reconquer II. tnat this and all Fried
| rich's other wars had their origin. Twice she
had signed peace with Friedrich, and solemnly
ceded Siesla to him; but tnat, too, with the
imperial lady was by no means a tnis to the
business. Not that she meant to break her
treatles-far from her such a thought in the
conscious form. Practically, she Ieckoned to
herself, these treaties would come to be broken,
as treaties do not endure forever and then, at
m no 20 ho a.,
Silesla back 10 US: the Pragmatic sanction
complete in every point. Was not that our dear
fathers will; monitlon of all our fathers and
their patriotsms and Evolutionary herOisms:
and, In TACT the behest OF gods and men?"
This was Austrias way OF looking at Silesia
and the loss OF it, hundred and ten years ago.
All the circumstances attending the political
crisis of the hour in Europe tend to bring
Austria INTO the same way OF looking at Silesia
AID the loss of it to-day. All europe is de.
nouncng, and for ten years past has baen de-
nouncng, treaties as solemn as those which
cave Sllesla to Frederick the Great. Austria,
to whom the deliberate will of Europe, in those
preternaturally solemn conclaves of 1914 and
| 1915, at Vienna, gave Lombardy and Venice,
| has been summoned, in all sorts of Ways to
acknowledge herself sinner and scandal to
| the age for still holding Venice after having
! been bombarded and bayoneted out OF Lom-
bardy. If fifty years possession, then, under the
public law of Europe do not consecrate the
Austrian authority in Italy, why should a CEN
tury OF possession under the public law of
Europe, the Austrans may fairly ask, consecratG
the Prussan authority in Sllesla? In all Ger.
many and the lands adjacent, there is no richer
prize of war to be found than this same pro-
vince. lnteIposed between the Russian king
dom Of Poland to the northeast and the Austrian
Kingdoms OF Morayla and Bohemia to the south
west il is richer both in natural resources and
the developed industry of its inhabitants than
either of its imperial neighbors. It's capital,
Breslau, is the second city of Prussia, Doth in
wealth and in population. In an area of but
little more than twice the size OF Massachusetts,,
Siesla contained, in 1861, population nearly
equal to that OF the state OF New ork, max ing
it the most depsely populated OF the eleven
provinces of Prussia, with the exception of
the Rhenlsh provinces between Cologne and
CoblentZ.
The Catholic and the Protestant elements are
almost exactly balanced within its borders,
while on the point of race the German element
greatly preponderates throughout the whole
province, although in its four millions OF inhab-
tants are embraced nearly eight hundred thou
sand Poles in the Governments" OF Oppeln and
BIesau, and about nifty thousand Moravlans in
the same districts. The western portion of the
province is netted over by very Complete sys
TEN Of railways, and the manufactures, and esDe-
cially the WOollen and cotton manufactures of
Slesia hold one of the highest places in the
scale OF continental industry.
Now, though it Will be by no means an easy
task for Austria to WIest from her ambitious
northern neighbor region so valuable IN ITSELF
and so important from its position to any power
aspiring alter performance in Germany; and
though it is far from doubtful that Russia, at
| least, among the great neutral powers, would
be extremely unwilling TO see Austria thrust her
arm so far forward towards the centre OF
Northern Europe as 1T would be thrust by the
possession OF Silesia, still ii is obvious that
Austria, being actually launched into Ger
manic war, can have nothing better worth
striking Tor than this magnificent prize Along
| the frontiers OF Slesia her great "Army of the
| North" has been concentrated three hundred
| thousand strong under the command OF her
| most trusted soldier, Feld-Nlarshal Won Benedek.
| To the defense oil Sllesla, Prussia has been
| pushing forward the finest host she has ever
brought into the field, p host probably not
much, 1t at ALL inferior in numbers to the army
| ii is destined to encounter; less formidable, as
military critics tell u.s. in the element of cav
airy, but much more formidable in that element
of artillery which has recently become the most
important arm OF national military power.
Between these two grand armies the real and
decisive campaign OF the coming summer is
likely to be fought out. The sympathy which
is felt in Western Europe and in this country
| for the Italians and the Italian cause, will. OF
course attract public attention very strongly to
the Warlike operations which may take place to
the southwark OF the Alps.
| But while we should be the last people in the
world to disparage the Valor and the enthusiasm
of the Italian race 1t must be admitted that the
new kingdom OF Victor Emanuel is destined to
play secondary part in the purely military his
| tory of the impending struggle, although 1t may
well be that in the end the attitude aud the
necessities of Italy will exert commanding
and decisive inhuence upon the political results
! of the war; And whether the actual outbreak
of hostilties come with collision between thC
Prussian power on the Baltic and the isolated
Austrian eorpsa of Won GablenZ, now retreating
out of Hostein; or with revolutionary eXplo
sion in VenetIa, Friuli or the Italian Tyrol the
war will really begin in dread earnest only wheI
: the standards of the HapsburgJ and the Hohen
Zollern shall be dashed toeether in battle within
| the azura an adOWa Of the historical Giant MOun