The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-14
SPIRIT OF ran PRzss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
OaY for the Evening Telegraph
THE FALL OF FRANCE.

"fallen from her high estate The mind ac-
commodities itself with difficulty to totally new
conditions which reverse the whole previous
current of history. Our eyes have been so
long filled with the spectacle of a supreme and
dominant France that they have long refused
to see what must now be her place in the
world And we have had our hearts filled 50
long with the bright and happy thought of
civilized nations living together in progress
sive peace. that it has scarcely been possible
for us to realize that the future of humanity,
in the Old World at least, will be regulated
not by that ideal, but by the very different
one of the stronger, wiser, and more culti-
waited people holding down by sheer force
those who have not reached such height of
moral and material force. But, above all
things, we must study things as they are;
and these shape themselves now for France
and Europe in why unexpected, but which
may yet prove beneficent to mankind.
The great point to be observed in forming
opinion upon the future of France, and &C
!cordingly of Europe, is that her armies have
not merely been defeated in the field, but the
nation is subdued by the German nation. 1t
is a vanquished people, and will soon be a
completely subjugated land; nay, it is 80 al
ready. That question was decided virtually
when the provisional government determined
to continue the contest with Germany after
Sedan, instead of submitting at once to the
cession of the frontier provinces. 1t is use
less now for the most ardent sympathizers
with France to regret what has hap
pened. For it was not to be, with
the splendid traditions of the great ma
tiop, that she should have confessed her.
self unable to expel the Germans after
Sedan Those who held the foremost
rank in the world do not abdicate until sheer
force compels. And, whatever be the future
of the bright people of France, they will
l. oil
for having tried last desperate effort to
save themselves after their wretched empire
went down in shame and blood. This last
noble and spirited appeal to the moral power
supposed to be latent in the name and idea of
q republic was grand example of chivalrous
though Quixotic exaltation of mind; and
Frenchmen, while their language lasts will
be always able to say, "Our Paris and our
France fell, but fell fighting to the last with
face turned to the foe"
But the game is lost and apparently lost,
so far as human foresight can go, forever.
The future Government of France, in the
broad and radical sense of the term, will now
be regulated according to the interests and
determination of victorious Germany. The
Germans are very thorough, very searching,
very scientific in their theory as we'll as their
practice; and it is not merely king or an en
peror or diplomatist who will have to settle
the future condition of France but the scien-
tific mind of Germany at large. Emperors
and diplomatists will but be the organ of this
vast general purpose of1the Teutonic people
And we may be satisfied that the question will
be dealt with not upon any humanitarian or
cosmopolitan grounds, 1.-THE single principle
of disabling France from ever renewing her
attack again upon the united Germany which
for the first time comes into political exist
ence. 1t is not altogether the most pleasant
idea in the world, but we may be sure that
France will henceforward be dependent and
disarmed, and that from the vantage ground
of Metz and Strasburg the vigilant German
mind and eye and arm will henceforward keep
inexorable watch over the defeated people,
REFRESHING every tendency to military resur-
rection. Such government as France can
form now will be the creature of the necessity
of .the hour, and virtually, though not for
mally the offspring of the conquerors will.
And he will consult, first of all, his own ne
cessity and interest, thinking only in the
second place of unhappy France.
1t is very difficult to forecast so dark and
uncertain future but at a moment when
every intelligent man is asking what is to
become of France we cannot help trying to
peer through the gloom to see if, haply,
there may be some brighter thing beyond;
and, so striving, we can see this at all events
that the best chance forthe brilliant French
is to be so watched and guarded from the
revival of the military demon within them as
to oblige them perforce to turn their splendid
faculties and generour temper to culture and
to commerce, to science, to literature, and to
ant. But the problem is one of inordinate
difficulty, and to watch it's solution will be
incomparably the most absorbingly interest
ing object ever presented to the political
and social observer. For hitherto
force has been the ruling principle in French
politics, and her fanatical parties have sought
war abroad to stave off mutual determination
at home. What will now happen when France
will have that resource cut off altogether
now that she needs must find some mode of
settling her domestic affairs without recur-
renee to the stimulant and sedative-for it
has been sedative to France, queer as the
tqing may sound-of foreign war E! How will
her five parties of Legitimists, Orleanists,
Imperialists, White Republicans, and Red Re-
publicans live together in some form of COM
mon citizenship without the intermittent
fever of bloodshed? How will French history
write itself now that it can no longer oscil-
late between civil and foreign war? These
are indeed grave questions, and wise would
be the man who could answer them.
In the meantime it must not be overlooked
that some of the most advanced minds among
the Germans are beginning to PROFOUND very
extraordinary doctrine upon these questions
They suggest that at the present day and in
the present generation they are absolutely
incapable of solution, and that 1t may be thai
German troops and German officials will have
to remain for generation or two in France
to teach new race of Frenehmen geography
and good temper, and flavor the highly-sea
soned French disposition with just drop o.
two of humility, SO that the French of tht
twentieth century may live in peace and amit!
with their neighbors. These advanced Ger
man minds declare that France cannot noV