The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-20
THE NEW YORK PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JoURNAIs
UPON CURRENT ToP1cs-COMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.

commercial world, at least in this country
whether great war breaks out in Europe
during the coming summer or not A struggle
between France and Germany would raise the
price of our produce, lower the price of our
bonds, and raise the premium on gold, send
home the great mass of our tourists, and pro-
duce divers other consequences, social, finan-
oial, and even political, too numerous to men
ton. The chances of the speedy outbreak of
such conflict are therefore, very interest
ing subject of discussion. But when it rests
largely with either of two reticent men, both
Of dark and tortuous counsel, and each WELD
ing the forces of great empire with but very
feeble control or supervision from public
opinion, to say when the fight shall begin,
or whether it shall begin at ALL all
efforts to calculate probabilities are, of course,
attended with great difficulty and, what is of
more consequence, boundless field of mis-
chief is opened up to stockholders and SEN
satlonal reporters and correspondents. We
indicated very briefly last week our reasons
Tor thinking that there is, at present, no
danger of an outbreak of hostlities between
France and Prussia, and that the present
tendency to panic ON this subject is due to an
unscrupulous or reckless use of the cable by
spectators, and "enterprising" and imagina-
tive news collectors. Nothing has since oc-
Cured to induce us to modify our opinion,
and there can be no harm in stating the
grounds of it fully, as we are satisfied they
VIII be found sufficient to justify us, even if
we should prove hereafter to be mistaken.
1t is stated on very good authority that the
idea OF taking Luxembourg as a counterpoise
to possible Prussian expansion in Germany,
was first suggested to Napoleon by Bismark
fVnC ~ a4 aoplr, s,,No u,;t,
before the late war, when Bismark was to the
Emperor little better than a troublesome
visionary. The probabilities are that the hint
made at the time very little impression on the
imperial mind and that, judging from the
calm manner in which the refusal of the Rhine
provinces has since been received, we should
not now witness the revival of the idea if
Napoleon were not goaded into action OF some
kind by the late assaults of the opposition in
the Corps Legislatif. There is feeling enough
IN France about Prussian aggrandizement
to make it necessary that the Government
should do something, or appear to be doing
something; and the opposition to the new
scheme OF army organization is so strong that
hardly anything but the prospect of great war
at no distant period will carry it through. For
the left bank of the Rhine there is use in ask
ing. 1t has been refused decidedly and peremp-
torily; and there is no Frenchman who does
not know that an attempt to seize it would be
met by the whole of Germany in arms, and
resisted to the last man and the last thaler.
Of protTacted negotiation about that there is
no chance. Bismark would not talk about it,
and dare not if he would. But about the ces-
sion of the Duchy of Luxembourg there is
use in talking. This is a small bit of territory,
valuable only for its fortress. 1t has belonged
to the house of Nassau since 1885, and although
it is thoroughly German, and has furnished
more than one wearer of the old imperial crown,
and was member of the Germanic COnfede
ration, the dissolution of the Confederation by
the battle of Sadowa has left it more under the
control of Holland, strict juris, than ever it
has been before. Moreover, Holland is just
now in mortal terror of Prussia. Bismark
is the bugbear of both the Dutch king and
ministers, who, whatever the material ad-
vantages of absorption into the North German
Confederation might be, naturally shrink
from what would unquestionably be the vir-
tual termination of the Dutch national exist
ence, proud and illustrious as it is. There
fore, it is not at all unreasonable for France
to hope that Holland may be induced to pur-
chase, by the cession of a patch of land
which has for her no earthly value, the
protection and alliance of Prussia's great
enemy. True, the DHchy is already occupied
by Prussian troops the population is almost
exclusively German, and it is only amongst
the upper classes that French leanings are
found, and amongst the mass of German Libe
rails there would be strong opposition to Its
transfer to France. The speech of Herr Ben
ningsen an able and sensible man, in the
North German Parliament, of which we re
eeived the report last week. reveals this clearly
enough. On the other hand, the reply o
Count Bsmark showed plainly that the Prus
sian Government does not deny the sovereign
rights of the King of Holland over the du0hy
does not deny the unwillingness of tn
inhabitants to enter the German Con
federation, and admits that if Prussia inter
feres at all with the discretion of the Dutcl
Government in the matter, it should only b
after taking counsel of the four other grea
powers which concurred in the treaty of 1889
by which the duchy was, at the partition G
Holland and Belgium, annexed to the former
In short, it is abundantly clear that hOweve
much German sentiment may be opposed t
the cession, Prussia does not claim the righ
r. of peremptory prohibition; and the Who'll
question is for the present at least, debata
BILE one. 1t affords plenty of ground for an
quantity of negotiations and this we max
bold to say is the very thing which at tn
present moment France needs.
1t must be remembered that France has n
material advantage to hope for through wa
with Germany Jena and Austerlitz canno
be repeated; no Frenchman dreams of i
What France would fight for would be the II
tention of the leadership in European polite
which she has lost by the events of the pas
year. To fight for this, without having mad
the victory as sure as organization, arms
numbers, and leaders can make it, would be
piece of folly Frenchmen, with all their in
petuosity, are not likely TO commit. defei
in the field now would fix France irretrievab
in a second or third-rate position. Wheneve