American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-05-15
NUMBER 90
LUXEMBOURG.


King of Prussia to agree to general
Conference of the Great Powers at Lon,
don to settle the Luxemburg question
and the King has assented. In this
happy aud timely stroke the TorylMinis-
try have restored the waning influence Of
Great Britain in European politics by sue.
cessfuily intervening to keep the peace
and by assembling tho Congress in Lon.
| don.
No other solution of the difficulty was
possible. A more causless useless .'and
wicked war than that which seemed i'm,
minent is not conceivable. But the diff
hculty, so far as France and Prussia were
concerned, was passing beyond the rea.-
sonable point. 1t was no longer ques.
tiOn of Luxembourg 1t was point of ma.
tional honor. In France even Emile de
Girardin, whom Louis Napoleon has sued
for eriticising tie imperial policy, and
whose paper has been seized, said, " Pub.
lie meetings all over the country should
make known to NJ. do. Bismark that if
there is german nation there is also a
French nation; that if there is German
patriotism which is susceptible, there il.
a French patriotism which is sensitive
that, in word, the German people ex-
cited, misled, and made to serve Prus.
sian ambition will End itself opposed not
only by the French army but BY the
French people, determined to defend
their independence and to tear in pieces
the treaties of 1915" " France does
not desire war;" said an official article in.
the Constitutional, and will use all
means consistent W tn her national hon.
or to avoid it."
These things were said at time when
it is becoming unpleasantly evident to-
Frenchmen that, after all the fine talk
about tearing the treaties of 1915 and
remodellng the map of Europe, Italy has
become free by the aid of Prussia, Ger
many is uniting under the vigorous lead
ership OF the same power, while France
not only had no part in the settlement
but no advantage from it, not even the
little slip of Rhenish territory which is
the traditional desire of France. "Ah,"
sneers Theirs in the Assembly, "you
have abandoned the old policy of keep
ing Germany and Italy divided, and what
have you gained by the new2 You have
gained compact Germany to which
Italy owes its freedom, and which will
not tolerate another step in farther ag+
grandizement of France The policy of
the Empire has strengthened the natural
enemies of France abroad, and deprived
France of domestic liberty at home."4
The philosophy of the speech is false,
t because it assumes that nations are nat,
urally hostile, but under the cireum-
stances it must have prodigious influence
t in France. 1t was becoming question
, to France whether Bismarck did not
snub Louis Napoleon as well as outwit
s him whether France had not twice in
! the year asked Of him as favor what, if
she spoke at all, she should have de-
manded as a right; whether, in fact,
, France was not sinking into a subordi-
, nate position in Europe to the parvenu
Hohenzollern monarchy, and therefore it
, was becoming distinctly question of war
or revolution. For France to withdraw
in the face Of the Prussian position was
: impossible, and war was inevitable unless
Prussia would yield.
I Yet war could not be welcome to
: Prussia, with the sores of last summer
+ still angry, and Austria biding her time,
, and France aroused from end to end:
while the treaty questions were by no
means clear, and the feelings of the i'm
: habitauts might be favorable to France.
! The treaties of 1915 are void by the war
of last year; therefore the right of the
German garrison in Luxemburg was dis
, putable The inhabitants are Roman
, Catholics, while Prussia is Protestant,
/, and they speak French or Walloon and
= not German. The question was Of policy
rather than Of right by treaty or popular
7 consent, aud Prussis is doubtless glad OF
the chance offered by England of dis
cussiug the question in general Con-
:. gress.
r That Congress will be the most i'm,
por ant since the Congress of Vienna, for
q it meets to settle many of the questions
: which that Congress determined. But
in that assembly the people we re not
heard Even England was represented
by Lord Castlereagh, Tory Of the To-
: rios, and the map of Europe was modelled
h in the interest of rnlers merely. Tho
;, vast political change of the half century
will appear in the different spirit of the
London Copgress-in which French
Emperor elected by O popular vote and