The New York herald., 1870-10-29

| INVASION of Greece by AerXes, and the defeat
and dispersion Of his fleets and armies. The
picture. however, may be aptly applied to
the late advance of the armies of Napoleon
upon Germany and their annihila.ion as q
militar; force. On the I'd of August at the
head Of an army infinitely stronger than that
Of the King OF Persia, the French Emperor.
at the pretty little German frontier town Of
Saarbruck, gave the Prince Imperial his
''bapllsm Of fire. aud then retired with the
young lad to his headquarters at Metz to
report to the Empress Regent in Paris his
first engagement of the campaign for Berlin
as prosperous beginning. His armies on
that day, stretching from Metz to and along
the German border from saarbruck mp to
| Strasbonrg, numbered three hundred and CITY
| thousand men. The soldiers Of that army had
| the reputation Of the best disciplined, armed
and equipped, and tho prestige Of the finest
| soldiers in the world. On the % OF Septem-
bcr. nevertheless after being shattered ia
many battles, one half the remainder Of that
! splendid army, with fifty thousand fresh
| troops IS reiniorcemen.s, was captured, with
| the Emperor, at Sedan, and the other half
was shut up within the Notifications Of Metz.
| Thus within the brief space of month the
prestige OF Napoleon the Third as the arbiter
| OF Europe, and the fame and the name Of his
armies as the imperial Romans revived, were
| scattered to the winds, and conformation and
chaos eclipsel The gay pleasures Of Paris. A
month later and we find, while the late impe-
rial dictator Of peace or war ia prisoner amid
the mockeries OF q royal palace beyond the
Rhine, and while the Empress aud the poor
bewildered little Prince Imperial are eating
the bread Of exiles beyond the British Cham
nel Paris ITSELF with its two millions Of pco-
pie and its two hundred and ffty-two thou
sand soldiers, Is as closely invested by the
German legions as was the little city of Jsru-
salem by Titus eighteen hundred years ago.
We find the provisional republican government
of France partly In Paris and part in Tours
over hundred miles away, and the only
mode OF communication between these two
divisions the hazardous and uncertain balloon.
Yesterday they had the news in California,
in Cuba, Egypt and Benga! Of the surrender
o.! the strong city of Metz, with on army OF
one hundred and fifty thousand men, includ-
Ing several marshals Of France and tho
last Of the flower OF her imperial troops,
bronzed and hardened to war in their cam
paigns in Algeria, Italy, Mexico and the
Crimea. To-day the great and powerful
nation of France, with her forty millions Of
people, is in reality as helpless against the
astounding military strength of Ger
many as was distracted Mexico ia the
grasp of Bazaine There is something that
appalls us, something that we can hardly |
realize, and which We cannot comprehend, in |
the startling facts that the internal defence OF |
the first military nation on the globe ia to-day
reduced TO the guerilla warfare of Mexico
against Bazaine, and that Bazainc, with a
hundred and fny thousand Of the iiness SOL
| diers Of France, chassepo.s and all, has sur
rendered as ingloriously as Napoleon.
Incredible, however, as these facts may
appear, they are before us, and before pros
trate, bleeding and starving France, in all
their gloomness, and they must be recognized
by France, or she may be utterly destroyed rs
| an Independent State Was not Poland at ono
/! time the great central Power of Europe,
stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic?
Did she not through Sobieski, in great
crisis Of peril to Vienna and to Central and
Western Europe, expel the audacious Turk,
who, with his splendid army Of three hum
dred thousand men, counted upon march
over the Continent? And where is Poland
now? What interest may next inquire,
have tie governing fcudal arstocracy of Eng
land, what interest has the royal house Of
Austria, or even that of Italy, in interposing
helping hand to the present French republic?
They have none Of them any more interest
in this matter than the Gear of Russia, save in
the maintenance OF what they call ''the
balance Of power"
They may not consent to the absorption of
France by Germany, but it is apparent that
they wiz consent TO the reduction OF France to
that last extremity of proatration in which she
will bo compelled to accept tho government
dictated by King William. What government
will that be should France be reduced to this
humiliation? viii i. be the Bonapartes or the
Bourbons? 1t nay be the Bourbons; but
there is a mystery about Bazaine which points
to the Bonapartes. The present government
of France. then. should at once proceed to a
treaty of peace with Count Bismarck on the
best terms that can be obtained, through such
assistance as in their selishness the neutral
Powers may be ready to give, to arrest this
fearful military power of Germany.
But with part Of this French provisional
government in Paris and part in Tours and on
the move it cannot be got together. Let
shorter method, then, be adopted. Let
General Trochu, then, assume the RESPONSE
bility aud organize new provisional govern
ment in Paris and open negotiations