The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-26
France and PrussIn.

FRANCO ana FruHSlHs
From ne World.
The sensational kilograms which informed
MS that Count Bismark had uttered direct
menace to France in the matter of the cession
of Luxembourg have already been discredited,
as at the time we bade our readers expect that
they would be. The Prussian Premier, like
the French Emperor is evidently exerting
himself to the utmost to avoid, if possible, a
collision, upon the results of which, should it
occur, no well-informed European statesman
can venture to speculate with any confidence.
Unfortunately, however, the real peril to the
peace Of Europe in the present relations of
France with Prus sia is to be found, not in the
Cabinets of Berlin or Paris, but in the inhamed
condition of the popular temper of Germany,
ON the one hand, and in the protoundest con-
yictons and passion of the French people, ON
the other hand.
Were there no Prussian garrison actually in
possession of the fortress of Luxembourg it
might still be doubted whether the German
people flushed with the apparent realization
of that long dream of German unity' over
which the Teutonic race has brooded for
ages, would quietly accept the cession of a
territory inhabited by two hundred thousand
Germans to the empire of Napoleon. At a
public meeting u6lu luG OIueI udy III D6Tllu,
it was unanimously resolved" as we
Americans would say, that Luxembourg
belongs to Germany, and that it would be a
derogation from German right to submit the
question of its annexation to France even to
vote of the people of Luxembourg themselves.
"Nationalities, :" it would seem, are Just as
capable of lawless ambition as dynasties or
mOnarchs; and the Germanic enthusiasm,
which has made so little of Danish claims
II 4. 8 ll.1s
to Polish selfgovernment, would not be likely
tOstickle seriously at dragooning Luxembourg
ers into allegiance to an Imperial Germany
But the fortress of Luxembourg is at this
moment occupied by a Prussian garrison.
This garrison holds the post, it is true, by
virtue of an agreement between the King
of Holland, in his independent capacity
as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and the
King of Prussia; and it can hardly be
denied that the sovereign who possessed
the power of inviting Prussians to mount
guard in his castle, ought to be at liberty
to transfer his preferences or his property to
another Government. But whatever the
rights of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg may
be in the premises, possession, which is con-
Ceded to be nine points of the law in the case
of private individuals, is substantially the
whole law in the case of great military
monarchy representing the aspirations and
the will Of forty millions of Germans. To
withdraw the Prussan eagles from Luxem-
bourg, and turn over the city and the
Grand Duchy to France, would un-
questionably be regarded as a surrender
and humiliation. Whether the occupation
of Luxembourg is really necessary to the
consolidation of German unity is quite another
matter, and of subsidiary practical Importance.
1t is reported, indeed, that the Prussian War
Minister has declared the occupation of Lux
20 ho ,,oi1it for tha do
tense of the Rhenish frontiers of Germany; and
this declaration if it has ever been made, will
naturally intensity the German feeling on the
subject. But we need not travel out of our
own continent and our own history to learn that
popular feeling needs no such reinforcements
to make it formidable. The old Germanic senti-
ment which Heine satirized by saying that the
Germans would never agree to fraternize, even
on the broadest republican platform, with the
French, until due vengeance had been exacted
for the blood of Couradin, of Hohenstauten,
murdered foully by Charles of Anjou in the
thirteenth century, is pretty plainly in blaze
about Luxembourg. The Prussian Ministry
may have agreed to refer the matter for con-
sideration to the great powers which were
associated in the settlement OF the rela-
tions of Luxembourg to Holland and to Ger
many in 1889; and the great powers, if con-
suited, can scarcely deny that the sovereignty
of the King of Holland in Luxembourg carries
with it the right to cede Luxembourg to
France or to any other State. But, as Lord
Palmerston did not hesitate at the time to say,
the so-called ''public law'' of Europe was
practically torn to pieces when the Austro-
Prussian forces advanced upon Denmark, and
Europe acquiesced in the prostration of the
rights of the Danish crown by the sheer weight
of the German arms. The civilized Europe Of
the nineteenth century has reverted to the
good old rule:-
"That they should take who have the power
And they should keep who can"
If Germany abandons Luxembourg Il
France, it will be because Count Bismarl
doubts the issue of a conflict on this question
with France. If France recedes from her pre-
tensions to Luxembourg under her negOtia
tions with the King of Holland, it will bt
because Napoleon doubts the issue of a con
fict on this question with Germany. In thu
first case, the prestige of Count .Bismark, whicl
rests more entirely than that of any othe
ruler in our times upon a series of audacou
and successful moves on the chess-board O
politics, will suffer a very serious check, anC
a check which Count Bismark can the les
afford to risk that he has past of great per
sonal unpopularity, and civil policy obnoxiou
to all that is liberal in the German mind, wit
which to contend. In the second case, tn
influence of the Emperor Napoleon, which ha
already been sorely damaged both at HON
and abroad, will incur perils involving NJ
only his own reputation, but that for whic
his own reputation may be justly supposed I
be most valuable to him-the prospects of IL
dynasty he has labored 50 hard to found.
The actual situation in Europe, therefor
it will be seen, is a striking Illustration OF u
"a vrofa1 yVpnaVa ha ha Gn Oh