The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-14
sPIRIT OF THE PRHss.
Editorial Opinions of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics cs-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE WAR QUESTION IN EUROPE.

The situation as between France and Prus-
sia is still warlike. Our latest news by
special kilograms and otherwise, does not
convince us that France abates anything in
her extravagant demands. It is Just as mani
fest that Prussia is not disposed to do any
thing which will seem to imply the abandon
ment of her rights Spain even shows pluck,
q good deal more than was expected. The EN-
peror Napoleon has found it necessary to
return from ST. Cloud to the Tuileries. Baron
Werther, the Prussiau Ambassador, has re-
turned from Ems, where he was closeted
with his royal master and is now in Paris.
Olivier still talks big, but whether he talks
without or with a full knowledge of Baron
Werthers mission we are as yet left to con &C.
ture. 1t has been rumored that King William
is not unwilling to advise Prince Leopold to
withdraw his name as a candidate for the
crown of Spain. This. however. he. does as
head of the house of Hohenzollern, not as
King of Prussia. 1t is also rumored that
France will not have this, regarding it as a
subterfuge which would leave her morally
worsted. On the part of Prussia now, as we'll
as on the part of France, preparations for war
go on apace. From a Paris source we learn
that the King of Prussia has had frequent
audiences with Baron de Moltke Moltke, it
will be remembered, was the soul of the sue
cess of the campaign against Austria in 1866
that most brilliant of campaigns, which, in
six short weeks, laid the mighty power of
Austria low. The corps at Cassel, at Hanover,
and in the Elbe provinces are to be rein
forced. Seventy thousand troops are
ordered to the line of the Rhine. The
Botrbons younger and older encourage
Prince Leopold to accept the Spanish crown
and brave the consequences, believing no
doubt, that the complications which might
result from the same would rebound to their
advantage. Accusations and recriminations
were rife on both sides, in Paris and Berlin.
Paris was vastly excited; Berlin looked to the
front. The Empress Eugene was accused of
o war agency-of fomenting war in the inte-
rest of the Prince of the Asturias. Prim pro-
claims "Vi0e PEspagne." In the French
Legislature the oppositionists derided the
war idea of Bonaparte, and ridiculed the no.
tion of ''deorepit invalid" heading the army
of France. England supported the Prussian
position, but recommended peace by the
withdrawal of Prince Leopold. Excitement
still prevailed on Change and the continental
bourses 1t was said. indeed, that the Prince
had withdrawn.
At the present moment, therefore, war is
as likely as not. France seems to wish it,
and Prussia is not afraid If war does break
out it will be after fashion such as the world
has never seen before. The military art has
shared the advantages of modern progress.
The vast and rapidly accumulating resources
of science are as available for purposes of
destruction as they are for amelioratng the
condition of mankind. War between France
and Prussia, the two most gigantic military
powers of Europe-if always we leave Russia
and Great Britain out of the question-will be
short, sharp, and decisive beyond every pre-
vious war on CORRESPONDING scale of magni-
tude in the whole history of the world. In
our own civil war, in the war of 1866 between
Prussia and Austria, in the war of 1S59-60,
between Austria on the one hand and Italy
and France on the other, we had glimpses of the
new agents which, by making war destructive
beyond all conception, promise to hasten the
time when war will be numbered with the
things that were. 1t was the railroad and the
telegraph, more than our superiority in num-
bers, that gave us the victory over our
Southern brothers. 1t was the sklful use of
those two agents that gave Prussia the victory
of Sadowa and that added to the glories of
the French empire the names of Magenta
and Solferino. Had the First Napoleon been
privileged to make use of those two agents
his wondrous faculty for combining and
concentrating his forces would have made
easy not the conquest of Europe only, but of
the world. For ages war was conducted very
much on the same principle. The first great
revolution in the art of war was the Roman
road. This it was which made the conquests
of Rome more rapid, more extensive,
and more enduring than those of Greece
With the decline of the Roman power
came the decay of the magnificent causeways
that made the Roman empire a practical
unit. War in consequence, during the Dark
Ages, was conducted very much after the
fashion of village brawls The dawn of
modern Europe was marked by the invention
of gunpowder and the use of firearms, as well
as by the discovery of the art of printing
With increasing knowledge war gradually as
sumed larger proportions and revealed more
dangerous tendencies. The armies of the six
teenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
in point of bulk, recalled the armies of ancient
Rome. But the use of firearms, imperfect as
the firearms then were, made war infinitely
more destructive. The wars that grew out of
the Revolution of 1889 the wars of Napoleon
and Wellington, made the wars of Conde and
Turenne, of Marlborough and Eugene, Insight.
fcant in comparison. But during the twenty
years that followed the French Revolution
there was nothing which could compare with
that rapidity of movement and concentration
of force which eliminated at Solferino, oi
with that series of blows which laid Austria
PROSTATE on the field of Sadowa Our owl
war, as we have said already furnishes hume
Ious and striking examples of the advantages
of the two agents, the railroad and the tele
graph. 1t is not to be denied, however, tha
if war were to break out between Prussia ant
Austria, the collision and the consequence,
would be something terrifcally new in the his
tory OF human experience. Blood would bt
poured forth in actual, not figurative torrents
Lives would be sacrificed not by thousand
only, but by hundreds of thousands But tn
struggle could not be of long duration, AM
the result might be final, if not absolutely AM
on all hands satisfactory
A FILIBUSTERING EPISODE.