The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-28
European Politics.

very moderate measure of reform, and on
being successfully opposed by Mr.. Benjamin
Disraeli, in consequence of its alleged revolu-
tionary tendency, giving way to that adven-
turer, who, as chief of the so-called Conserva-
tives, produces and carries through both
Houses of Parliament one infinitely more
sweeping. Gladstone again, at present leader
of the Liberal party, is the author of mea
sure for the Disestablishment of the Irish
Church, though some years ago he published
a large volume to show that O oonnexion be-
tween Church and State was imperatvely
necessary for public security as we'll as private
salvation. Both measures, il must be ad-
mitted, were highly desirable; but they involve
strange contradictions on the part of their
Originators; Disraeli having for fully twenty
years denounced all popular concessions in
England as ruinous, and Gladstone, who
rarely appears in public without a prayer
book in his hands, having almost declared
praying in the highway to be the first duty of
a statesman.
In France, matters are in state more con-
Trajectory still. Louis Napoleon omits no
opportunity of proclaiming that the Empire is
La Pair, but he is constantly preparing for
war. While peace is invariably on his lips, he
has no less than thirteen hundred thousand
men arrayed for battle. His adherents in the
press at the same time adopt tone which is
entirely opposed to his own. pamphlet has
been lately published in Paris under Govern
ment auspices counsellng au attack upon
Prussia in the autumn, "short, sharp, aud
decisive" He almost mulaneously writes
to his troops in camp at Chalons, that he will
be with s'the men, and his War Minister,
Marshal Mel, declares in the Legislature that
France was never so perfectly equipped for
war as now. Still the pacif, professions con-
tinue; and the latest proclamation of the
French Emperor is that he will never go to
war, excepting for the preservation OF the
shonor, territory and the influence OF France"
though what the latter term may mean is not
precisely known, as he may at any time enter
into war with Prussia if he thinks she is
acquiring an undue ascendency.
The course OF Bisnark is equally ambigu-
ous. He has constantly assumed bold, if
not defiant attitude towards France, but at the
present moment he has Withdrawn from public
affairs at the very time when the safety OF his
country appears most menaced. Whether he
has the same reliance on the needle-gun as
before is unknown, but he has, in some de-
gree, lost his opportunity, as that celebrated
weapon is supposed to be superseded by the
new Chassepot rifle. Had Prussia advanced
against France after the memorable battle of
Sadowa, she might at this time have been the
leading power in Europe, and the French en-
pire but name for Louis Napoleon had no.
toriously no means of prosing him, and his
soldiers refused to fight in the presence of GER
tain defeat. But, unfortunately for himself,
perhaps, he refused to follow the advice of
Moltke, his impetuous commander-in-c chief
and is, possibly, expiating in chagrin, or look
ing back with regret now on lost opportu-
nifty, when regret is idle and retrospection un-
availing.
Austria is pursuing more consistent course.
She has seemingly resisted the Establishments
of Prince Napoleon to induce her to enter into
a crusade against Prussia, with a view of en-
deavoring to regain lost influence in Ger
many, and revenging her late Prussian defeat;
having just disbanded $4,000 troops, and
now wisely occupied, seemingly, with
internal improvements alone. But she
has a quarrel with the Pope on hand, in
consequence of the recent ecclesiastical re-
forms, which may give her some trouble for
the moment, though she almost to a certainty
will emerge from it triumphant in the end.
And, so soon as this is accomplished, she pro
baby will make some attempt to re-acquire
her lost position in Europe; for, long one o.
the most powerful, and perhaps the oldest o.
all European continental powers, she cannot
tactly acquiesce in being superseded by Prus'
sia, a comparative upstart and one of the most
modern, the more especially as many of the
smaller German States appear to be looking tC
her for the means of escaping from that Prus-
sian domination to which they have been for
the moment constrained to submit.
Russia meanwhile is making silent but
perpetual progress. The vast dream shadowed
forth in the celebrated alleged-though We
believe fabulous-will of Peter the Great, il
apparently on the eve of being realized, ant
Europe is, as predicted by Napoleon at St.
Helena, nearly fifty years ago, on the
point of becoming either Republican o.
Cossack." In the East she has lately mad
enormous advances, her troops being within
few days. march of the British possessions in
India, where she has recently acquired infinite
power and prestige by overcoming that Rajal