The New York herald., 1870-08-02
burnings and rccriminations among those who
engaged and suffered in the 'Lost Cause. !"
and they had better be abandoned FIRST as last
the sooner the better Let the dead rest.
Tho French Cordsn or Power Around
tho World.


Empire" forget the full significance Of that
expression. Glancing at map OF the globe,
we discover In France proper territory 80
small, In comparison with our own vast con-
tinental domain, that we are forclbly reminded
of Mr.. Marcy's famous phrase, when he spoke
Of Austria as "a mere patch on the earth's
surface" Her European limits are hardly
equal to the combined superfioies OF two or
three of our larger States at the North, while,
at the South, Texas alone exceeds them by
about sixty-nine thousand square miles Yet,
within those boundaries France has popula-
tion of thirty-eight million souls. But If we
set forth upon geographical tour OF her out
side posts and military and naval possessions
we are soon struck by, not merely their
number and extent, but by the strategic con-
tinuity that can bo distinctly traced in their
arrangement and their relations to each other.
1t was the boast of British orators
and statesmen not loag since, when
extolling the power of their own country,
that sits morning drum beat is heard around the
world" the allusoa referring to her chain of
colonies in every zone and in every quarter of
the earth. In truth, her nominal possessions
in America, Asia and Africa, including the
Canadas, Australia, India and the Cape Of
Good Hope, are immense. But 1t must be re-
to the mother country as to be almost inde-
pendent, and their actual severance from the
central control is but the question of another
generation. The home power is of too limited
proportions, too closely hedged in by rival and
menacing States, and too greatly exhausted
Of physical resources, In comparison with the
rapidly growing strength of its colonies, to
hold its direct sway over them much longer.
In view Of this fact the idea was broached,
few years since, of making India the centre
of control, and thereby acquiring conti-
mental status in the East. But the eli
mate and soil of India are the very
reverse Of those of England, and the sugges-
ton has been little heard of in later years.
While it is true that she has lost tho magni-
fcent domain which was once co-extensiye
with the present United States and
the Canadas taken together, when her flag was
carried by water, not only to all the shores of
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but into the
very heart of the wilderness On land a shrewd
and far-seeing policy has dotted the surface
of the globe with outposts that have become,
and of choice remain, intensely French.
Let us see! Setting out eastward, we find her
t., Al IL <ho o~t Is
the north of Africa, and with the Suez Canal
under her influence, lying directly athwart the
great highway Of Oriental traffic. Holding
Nice as her own, and garrisoning Rome and
Civita Vecchia, as an indispensable occupant,
she clasps the Mediterranean Sea in her en-
brace, while from Suez she looks out upon the
Red Sea, and from the Red Sea hitherward
upon Egypt, and thitherward upon Syria and
Arabia. Thus, upon the north Of the African
continent she is encamped with 100000 of
population. Following her down the western
coast and thence around the capss, we find
her with 1000, 900 in Senegambia, province
of untold future wealth and i'm 2ortance; on
the Cote dor (also called Porto-Noyo); at Ga
boon with 100000; at lie de la Reunion with
225 900; at the lies Mayotte and Nossi-Be with
d 900, and at lie Ste. Marie with 10000 sub
jects Mauritius, the lie de France and her
alliances in Madagascar, make her strong in
the Mozambique Channel, as she is strong in
the Mediterranean and the Red seas. In Asia
she protects in the usual way the brilliant little
kingdom Of Cambodia, and holds six provinces
of Cochin China, and the fins old settlement of
Pondicherry and its dependencies. In Oceania
she has New Caledonia and the Loyalty and
Marquesas islands, with nearly 100000 in
habtants, and protects the Tahiti group and
the Gambler islands as well as the Touamatou
and Toubouai isles. These protectorates give
her ], 200, 900 of people. In America she has
French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St.
Pierre and Miqnelon, with $500, 600 inhabit-
ants. Then she has fishing RIGHTS and settle
ments of some Importance at Caps Breton and
many minor points dotted over the Western
hemisphere. In fine, it will be safe 10 COM
pute that, scattered about thus, she has de-
votedly attached to her fully $4,000, 900 of
people, partly natives of the respective coun-
tries and partly of French origin. Then she
has her factories" in China and Japan, and,
quite oddly to relate, sympathetic population
in Eastern Russia, the descendants of French
men who found their way by fortune Of war
to Siberia.
1t will be seen, by comparing the survey we
have taken with the map, that France thus
literally encompasses the globe with a series
of strong positions 80 skilfully pitched near
continents, straits, narrow sess and the mouths
of great rivers, that, in case Of any disabling
misfortune occurring to her great English
rival, she would but have to tighten her reins,
80 to speak, in order to crush almost any other
antagonist. The United States would soon
have felt this boa constructor clasp had French