The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-17

France ana the Peace nj Europe.
Day after day our cable and mail news
renders 1t more and more difficult to believe in
the continuance of peace in Europe. The
Pal Mall Gazette, one Of the most enlightened
and cautious of English journals, has at last
been compelled to acknowledge that war is
more than probable before the end Of the
year. Napoleon's attention to the army in
creases In the International Congress of
workingmen at Brussels the probability of an
early war seems to have monOpolized both
attention and time. The King of Prussia
in his tour through the northern provinces
receives addresses and speaks out with a
bluntness which is quite refreshing, although
it does not encourage hopes of peace. Mean
while we find the British, the German, the
Dutch and the Belgian press full of specula-
ton in relation to certain movements of the
Emperor, having for their object the establish
ment of French Zollveren, Holland and
Belgium to be included.
These various items of news, all connected
more or less directly with the west of Europe,
do not exhaust the alarming r,lmors current
all over the Continent The threatened
Franco-Spanish alliance has already produced a
not unnatural excitement in Italy. The
Italian government, resigned to its fate, has
been quietly going on and somewhat success
fully doing its work since the unfortunate affair
at Montana. A continuance of the present
system of quiet domestic government, tending
as il does towards the development of the re-
sources of the peninsula, might at no distant
day render solution of the Roman question
as easy and peaceful as it would be satisfac-
tory to all concerned. The relations which
have sprung up between France and Spain
have infused new life into the party of action,
and Garibaldian threats and Mazzini letters
and rumored movements of large bodies of
men towards the Papal frontier are now filling
mems minds all over the Italian peninsula.
In the event Of war breaking out in the
North and a Spanish soldier touching Roman
or Italian soil, or Spanish war ship anchor
ing in Italian waters, Italy would burst into
one general blaze Of patriotism which nothing
but deuge of blood could quench.
So is it in the South. Matters are scarcely
less alarming in the East. The Greeks, what
ever we may say of their success, are still as
full of ambition as ever. The Cretan patriots,
in spite of the apparent hopelessness of their
cause, still look forward to the time when the
once lofty place in the great family
of nations. The Servians and other members
of the so-called Slavonic family hesitate in
deciding upon incorporation with Russia or
upon the establishment of a separate Slavonic
empire which shall embrace all the non-Gre-
clan Christian subjects of the Porte while the
Poles, the one Slavonic people who detest the
idea of Incorporation with any Power, long
more intensely than ever for their ancient
national independence.
Europe Is thus seen to be in peculiarly
combustible condition. 1t requires but the
application of the match to produce general
and destructive confagration. II matters little
where the match is applied, whether in the
West or the South or the East it is all but alb
solutely certain that the flames will spread
until every nation of the Continent is wrapped
in their ruinous embrace Suppose, for ex-
ample, that the forces of France and Prussia
were to come into collision on the Rhine, and
that Spain were to attempt to garrison Rome,
is il not certain that war to the death would
break out between Italy and Spain? Is it
not just as certain that the Cretan insurgents
would feel encouraged to make a fresh effort
for their independence? Can it be doubted
that Greece, and after Greece Russia, would
exert themselves to the utmost to fan the
fame of rebellion throughout the Christian
provinces of the Turkish dominions If Rus
STA had not already joined Prussia against
France Russia would at last have found her
opportunity to march on Constantinople and
make good her pretension to be the natural
successor of the great Roman empire of the
East. Surprising England to have refused to
fight for Belgium and Holland, would she re-
main passive and see the iron-cIads of Russia
dominate the Dardanees? Great Britain in
the fray. where, how, when will the matter
end? Who can answer9 The only thing that
is certain now is that Europe is on the eve of
great and serious crisis.
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Health Of the City.