The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-15
Probable War Between France and Ger
many-The Critical Situation of Loui,
Napoleon.

Napoleon.
From the Herald
The age OF miracles has returned. The evil
dence has been laid before our readers in the
successive issues of this paper, since the laying
OF the Atlantic cable and especially in our issue
of Monday, with its copous budget of European
news. Only look at it. Dispatches down to
Saturday night last from London, Paris, and
Florence, and down to Friday evening from Ber.
lin, Vienna Cronstadt, and st. Petersburg pub
lished in the Herald OF Monday morning Three
columns of such dispatches in one issue of this
journal! We are approaching in reality the
boast of the lively fairy Puck, when he sad
'I'll put girdle round about the earth III forty
minutes"
There has never been such another marvel of
newspaper enterprise in the Ola World or the
New as was given 10 our readers in tEeir Herald
of Monday morning. 1t marks the positive
Inauguration of d new epoch in modern journal
ism, from which, as we go on, we promise the
great American public still more wonderful
things. We have the experience, the men, and
the means, and all the modern improvements
and facilities needed to keep pace with the pro-
gress OF the age, and we do not intend that the
Herald shall rest upon the laurels II has alreauy
gained. On the Atlantic cable we are like
General Grant when he had fairly started his
Rebel adversary on the race for Richmond; for
we intend to night 1T out on this line If It takes
all summer" and all winter 100.
One of our special dispatches published on
Monday, from Berlin, dated August 10, gives us
intelligence which is second IN Importance only
to the tremendous battle and disastrous defeat
OF the Austrians at Sadowa or Kontggratz. We
refer to the despatch which says there is great
excitement heren Tin Berlln) III consequence or
the demand made upon Prussia by France Tor
the extension OF her front er TO the Rhine; that
NJ. Benedetti (the French Minlster) had LETT
Berlin for Paris on the evening OF the 9TH. His
departure in the midst OF that great excitement
in the Prussian capital was very significant.
He left TOR Paris to warn or to consult the En-
peror, because he saw that he could do nothing
with this demand for the extension OF France 10
the Rhine. The later dispatches from the same
quarter, which we published yesterday, fully
confirm this view of the German question.
The Rhine Is the sacred river OF the Germans
II Is to them what the Jordan was TO the ancient
Israelltes what the Ganges is 10 the Hindoos,
what the Nile was and is to the Egyptlans-an
object of veneration, affection, and devotion.
The German calls the beautiful river of his
fatherland ''Our Father Rhine;" he sings of Its
hills and wales and vineyards, and of Its people,
as all German on both banks-that there is and
shall be no divided authority on "Father Rhine
The Hon Mrs. Norton, IN her exquisite poem
of the Young German soldier dying in Algiers,
makes it his last wish that his companion shall
restore
"My fathers sword and mine,
To our cottage wall IN Blngen,
Fair Bingen on the Rhine"
And, in truth, from the poetic and sentimen'
tai nature of the German, mis- love OF Father
Rhinen is stronger than deatn. Wnen tne semi
official organ at Berlin, therefore, tells us that
the question of the REIMBURSEMENT OF any oi
the German soil along the Rhine is not an in
ternational but a national question, we can un-
derstand it. 1t means that the German race,
of all their States and Principahues-some
sixty millions of Germans-are prepared to night
for Father Rhine and their brethren on his
banks, whatever may have been the promises OF
BsmaIk OF in whatever shape may come the
demands of Napoleon.
There s danger, then, we hold, in this demand
of France for the lett bank OF the Rhine But
hopes of the French people, and he cannot re
cede without something OF disgrace and OF peril
to his dynasty. But war with Prussia tor this
boundary will be war with the whole German
family of sixty millions. Austria will be power
less to help him even if so inclined Her Bm
peror stands dlsgraced among his own people In
his own capital. Italy is under the greatest
OBLIGATIONS to Prussia, so that Napoleon against
Bismark can hardly expect supporting hanC
from Victor Emanuel. In any event, In attempt
ing TO wrest by force of arms the lett bank o
the Rhine from the Germans, Napoleon will bC
beaten The thirty.siX millions OF French people
cannot cope with the sixty millions OF the Ger
mans. Let him try this rash experiment, and i
will ruin HIM. He win be beaten, and his empirt
will be superseded with his iall by another
French republic. Such are the DANGERS whcl
now menace Napoleon; for the question OF th
Rhine TO the Germans, from the mountains Il
the sea- is ''not an international but n nationa
question: We shall watch with deep inJeres
the course of Napoleon upon this delicate en-
dangerous question to its settlement.
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