The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-17
SPIRIT OF THE RRnss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Dav for the Evenine Telegraph. ~.
THE GERMAN EMPIRE GERMAN
UNITY AND AUSTRIAS EFFORTS
FOR PEACE. fr.I

THE GERMAN EMPIRE GERMAN
UNITY AND AUSTRIAS EFFORTS
FOR PEACE.
From the NJ T. Herald.
Special dispatches from Berlin assert that
on tuesday last (the 18th inst the Parla-
mentary deputation of the North German
Confederate Bund was to set out from the
Prussian capital to convey to King william,
at his military headquarters in Versailles, the
offer Of the imperial crown that WILL upon
his brows, symbolic the succession to do
minion rivalling in extent and far exceeding
In real population, wealth, and social import
ance the realm of Ohio and Charlemagne. AT
the same moment we hear the fiat that decides
the fate of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg,
and prepares the way for the absorption,
gradual or sudden, as occasion may decide,
of both Holland and Belgium into the vast
military empire which already overshadows
the centre aud the west of Europe.
This, should the sturdy old Hohenzollern
accept the proffered dignity-and what rea-
son is there to doubt that he will ?-is an
event of the most imposing moment, sur
rounded by historical contrasts as romantic
and dramatic as anything recorded in the
illumined annals of Froissart and Monstrelet
The imperial sword and sceptre of Germany
laid at the feet of a Teutenic prince in the cap
tured palace of Louis Quatorze, while Prus-
sian eagles float in triumph over the spires of
tremble to the echo of besieging ordnance
The world has not witnessed such q spectacle
since the armies of Napoleon entered Rome
and dictated law to the Pontiff in his council
chamber at the Vatican.
Well may the other powers hastily en-
deavor to set their houses in order, aud
meanwhile struggle to avert any extension of
the war.
Thus it is that Austria still persistently en-
deavors to bring about negotiations for peace
between the German alliance and France;
and in the light of the past and of the pre-
sent, too, we say that Austria is wise. The
Emperor Franz Joseph, comparatively young
as he is in sovereignty and in diplomacy, has
exhibited foresight, prudence, aud modera-
ton throughout his reign. He displayed all
these qualities, so valuable and SO admirable
in q prince, after the disastrous defeat of his
arms by the French and Italian coalition at
Solferino; after the overthrow of his best
generals by the Prussians at Sadowa and in
the measures that he has since taken to har-
monize the jarring States still subject to his
sceptre within the pale of the empire. In
this ssgacious course he is sustained by the
abilities Of q minister-the Baron Won Beust
who may justly be styled the Cavour Of
Austria.
And now we see the same spirit prevailing.
Outside of the immediate vortex of the
Franco-P Prussian war, yet near enough to feel
the heat of its conflagrations and to hear the
thunders of its artillery, Austrian intellect
detects dangers growing more and more
gigantic every hour while the struggle con.
tinues to push on towards that bitter extre
nifty which bequeaths to an entire race anc
lineage legacies of undying hate and eterna
thirst for vengeance. To enkndle such end
less antagonism in the breast of but one indi
vidual, TO invoke that Fn'
Patient search and vigil long
or him who treasures up wrong,
frcm the weakest of mankind, is q mos
solemn and peIilous enterprise; but when tn
task, really or apparently undertaken, is t,
trample on anation of forty millions, warlik
al ell periods of its history and schooled TO
ages in adversely as well as in glory, wisdom
which looks to the future even more than a
the present, halts midway. Tread not upoi
dwarf; he may have a giant for friend,
is an apothegm of pith and meaning. Francs
is not yet dwarf, but a giantess surprised
and overmastered for the moment, becaus
she had been bound down while she slept b,
the Liliputians of monarchical misrule
France has suffered for the sins Of Europe
and, even were she entombed, the stone ma,
yet be rolled away from the mouth O
her sepulohre and she may rise again
The ashes of Charles Martel, of Phil
Augustus, of Bayard, of Henry of Navarro
of the Grand Conde, of the First Napoleon
and of Lafayette repose in the soil of France
and their spirit is still alive in her people
Those who think otherwise are making bu
hasty Judgment of events not six months olC
Quiet thinkers who, only that long ago, hel
their peace when jubilate was sounded oy,
the pte6iscitum and the browning Of the ed
ice" in France, were noticed only with I'll
smile of self-sstished disdain; yet, 10 what
change is there to-day how are the mighi
fallen Providence will teach us, in.spite
all human conceits, that things shall be as
wills, and His reversals Of Judgment contin
ally laugh at our calculations and humble OF
pride. In this world the man or the matte
who builds safety upon the ruins of another
not noble, and never can DO truly great
German unity is 10 be set upon the shiftir
sands Of conquest, imposed upon people 70
eign in language, faith, and culture, We ha,
every warrant in the lessons Of history 10 b
heve that IL will vanish, in the first great n
heavsd, as suddenly as II came. King w
liam may we'll say that he Is asst onished at Il
rapidity with which that union has spruI
into being. He had expected that ID wou
be accomplished some day by slow but su
processes Gas in America and ltaly), bat
had not hoped to see il in his lifetime Gre
manic union, built upon the disunion al
disruption, along with the burning humili
tion, of neighboring France AS well ere
your citadel upon the lava crusts Of yesaviu
France has been oyerrun and nearly 90
quered again and again-by the Norman
the Allemanni (of old, the Saraeens, Il
English. Her armies have been scatter.
and slaughtered; her strongholds taken; b
fields devastated; her cities bombarded; h
churches deseorated; her people laid uni
tribute. The Holy Alliance OF kings, led {
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