The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-16
FRANCE p.

those in his confidence can tell. The settled
discomfort with which the Tuleries regards
the state of Germany had perhaps found vent
this last summer in the concoction of more
than one scheme or conspiracy against the quiet
of the Continent. Various ideal repartitions
of Europe have been designed in the Imperial
Cabinet in the course Of sixteen years of
political dreaming, and 1868 has had, like
the rest, its map, its programme, and pos
sibly its plan OF campaign. Great enter
prises might have been undertaken again in the
coming winter if il had not been for the irony
of Fortune, which so constantly interferes
with the execution of the vague purposes Of
irresolute men. Prussia, at any rate, is
thought to be safe till next year, wheu unless
anything else happens, the French Emperor
will again be hard at work conquering General
Moltke upon paper. All that can be hoped is
that something may happen again next year,
and, as the world is full Of surprises, perhaps
something will. The Pope may be i'll, or NJ.
Rochefort may be dead, or there will bs
Great Exhibition somewhere, or a new general
election to the Corps Legislstif, or the JeGuits
may have got in'o trouble by buying up all
the land in Belgium, or NJ. Olivier have
acquired the happest inf uenoe at home
over the mind Of the French Emperor.
Everything will once more necessarily
blow over, and the French nation be consoled
with the promise for the twentieth time that
the edifce is now at last about TO be crowned,
and new law introduced about the public
press. 1t is singular that politician of the
Emperor's grasp of mind should be necessarily
exhausting his own treasury and the patience
OF Europe by these indefinite prolongations
and postponements. War, it would seem,
never is, but always Is to be. The explana.
tion is that the Emperor cannot but perceive
that the war programme on which he is con-
stAntly forcing himself to ponder is unsuited
to the real wants of his age and country. He
=. l.. L.. - e
right and wrong and grain Of conscience
easily makes him sour. Those who are best
acquainted with his habits and disposition ap-
pear agreed in thinking that he has no natural
turn or inclination for engaging in great and
hazardous campaign. Handling the powder bar
rel and calculating the effects ofits explosion, is
an occupation for which he has even predi-
lection, but firing it would be an act of fury
from which his better nature, as well as his
ordinary instincts, both equally reooil. Ma
poleon III, like "Hsmlet,' might continue
through whole years to brood over an enter
prise which he could not bring himself to exc
cute, If it were not for the natural tendency of
political clouds to preoipitats themselves in
wet weather. Englishmen know by expert
ence the meaning of drifting into war,'' and
the danger is lest the situation which the Em-
peror has partly created should in its turn
produce the catastrophe from which he
shrinks.
The general impression that a movement
upon the Rhine was meant to coincide Gin
case of Russian intervention) with a revival
of Polish agitation and Franco Austrian ex-
pedition in favor of Catholic Poland, is doubt
less founded upon modicum of fact. Such a
combination was probably one on which the
Imperial fancy has rested in its passage from
one phase to another and FOR the present, like
Beau Brummel's mangled cravats, must be
considered to be one more of the Emperor 8
failures. The advantage of the design, il it
was ever really matured, was doubtless that
France might thus expect to engage on her
side certain amount of revolutionary fervor.
The Pope might bless the banners whose
mission was to avenge the Catholic Bishops
of Poland; while the scattered spirits oi
sedition in France, Italy, and the
Austrian provinces would be distracted, if not
persuaded by the spectacle of a crusade for
the cause of nationalities. Even Garibaldi
would feel little uncertain as to the path OF
duty, as he could not head at one and the
same moment guerilla war in Poland and in
Italy. To head such Catholic league as this
would be the Emperor's delight-that is to
say, if it did not cost too many lives, and if he
could calculate with absolute certainty on its
success. To have the Pope and the French
Empress crying with JOY at the news of alter.
nate lie Deu1ns at Warsaw and Baden-B Baden,
to see French marshsls proudly prancing
about at the head of military sontingents from
Catholic Spain and even Catholic Belgium,
and to be able to hope that the excitement
about Poland might make the Roman ques-
tion easier of solution, in which case Italian
legions might yet be fighting with enthusi.
asm in the Polish forest, side by side with
the French Zouaves-all this is sort O
political picture which the Emperor Of course
has often drawn at times in his romantic soul
The reconciliation OF the Papacy and of demo
cracy would seem thus to be complete; and
France would get the Rhine, with the approva
both of the patriots and the priests of South
ern Europe. This dreamy, misty, Napoleoni
fancy has been ruined, as it was sure in the
ordinary course OF things TO be, by very
commonplace event. The Queen of Spain
who was to have played the glorified part of a
once lending men to France and contributing
an air of sanctity TO the undertaking, ha
suddenly been deposed by her subjects, VIII
could not abide an intolerable mixture 0
piety, misgovernment and feminine depra
witty. The loss of an army on the eve OF
desperate campaign is serious affair, espe
cially when the army is one on whose &C
operation at the nick of time depends tn
whole success of the arrangement. Auz
ious as the Spanish Revolution may b
to appesse or prOpitiate the French Empire
liberated Spain is scarcely likely to embark i
a speculative filibustering adventure, which q
most could only end in ths aggrandisemeut {
an already powerful neighbor. And indeed
supposing that no such ingenious scheme wa
seriously entertained at the Tuileries as
Franco Catholic alliance, still the explosion
successful rebellion in Spain has not bee
without its uses. The dreams of an undeoide
person are easily disturbed. A rat behind tt
tapestry at the last might have kept "Hamlet
from aveDging his fathers ghost. No one ca
feel Eure what the French Emperor might