The Portland daily press., 1870-10-10
rHF1 PR ESS.
Monday Morning, Oct Der 10, 1870
Firing st the Human Race.

We are told daily by cable dispatches that
the Prussians, having completed their invest
ment Of Paris, and having put all their guns
in position, are about to open fire on that city.
1t wants only this last act of wanton vandal-
ism to make doubly true Gladstone's just OBJ
seryation at the beginning of the war, that
the quarrel between France and Prussia is
"the most mournful and miserable ever wit
messed by mankind" Louis Blanc says in
recent letter, with the extravaganza natural
to French patriot, that "Civilization Is
prisoner in Paris" But it would hardly De
an extravaganza to say that the human race
is shut up in Paris, for all that is best in the
feeling and the judgment Of mankind is SO
thoroughly excited in view of the approach
ing doom of the great city that the whole
race seems almost 10 identify itself with that
portion of the human brotherhood that is
about to be slaughtered. Every cannon shot
directed against Paris will so thoroughly out
rage the moral sentiment of the world, that
the rebound must do more execution against
Prussia than the blow did against France.
1t is wonderful to reflect that all tie Satan
ic work that is now going Oh in Europe-all
the mangied bodies of soldiers, all the untime-
" deaths, all the broken hearts of wives and
mothers, all the suffering occasioned by the
burning of villages, the pillage of homes and
the desolation of fieds-is to he attributed to
the ambition and heartlessness of three
men-Napoleon, William and Bismarck. And
though each of these men has at times COM
mandel somethingof the respect and admira-
ton of the world, owing to the success that
has attended him, yet neither of them has
qualities that justify him in requiring un-
counted millions to mourn, to suffer, to bleed
....s IL. Ca. Aa.>olann
before he came to the throne, was man of
infamous character who was known as youe
in New York and London. Nor was he in
those days credited with much ability. Ger
tainly the perjury and murder by which he
obtained the imperial crown and kept it for
twenty years are not calculated to heighten
our respect for his moral character. As for
King William, he is not only dishonest pol
itcian, but has been in his day dissipated
man, with marked taste for pretty actresses
and opera singers. When his brother was
king he affected liberal political opinions for
the sake Of becoming popular, but upon his
accession to the throne he abandoned his old
progressive associates at once, declared HIM
self a believer in the divine right of kings
and has ever since jealousy guarded the pre-
negatives Of the throne. AS for Bismarck, he
was formerly SO recklessly dissipated that he
nearly went crazy, and was everywhere known
as ''Mad Bismarck" He has since become a
more sober man, all his lack of principle hav-
ing evidently been transferred from his pri-
vlte to his pol teal life. Instead of being a
trough" he is now despot.
Yet Gen..Butler admires these men and
confesses to a strong inclination for the form
of government of which they are the sup
porters, and Mr.. Motley, our superfne minis
ter to London-is there anything in the con-
stitution requiring us always to be represent
ed by snob at that court ?-sneers at the vul-
gar Washburne who sympathizes with the
new and vulgar French republic. Id