The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-20

tnClbb III btdlcbuioug Out bho MOIlu hho
never seen so remarkable an instance
of a man reversing all his professions
as it witnesses in the case of Bismarck. In
1850 he made q speech avowing that the mis-
sion of Prussia was to subordinate herself to
Austria. Ten years afterwards he warned Aus
tria that she must finally abandon her old po-
sition in Germany. In 1864 Prussia led Aus
tria into the war against Denmark, and man
aged to absorb all the advantages of the
enterprise That little interlude is partly for
gotten now but the transactions associated
with it are little to the credit of other powers
besides Prussia. England sympathized with
Denmark, and all but positively pledged its
assistance to her There can be no doubt but
Denmark went into the war counting upon
this assistance. 1t never came Denmark was
crushed and Austria betrayed.
The King of Prussia and the Emperor of
Austria agreed to divide the Elbe duchies
between them at the famous meeting where
the Convention of Gastein was drawn up.
All this time Austria was merely being used
by Prussia as a cats-paw. Bismarck, with
the proverbial zeal of q new convert, had
taken up the grand idea of a North German
Confederation, and resolved that no price
would be too high to pay for it. Since the
time of Frederick the Great the policy of
Prussia has been to suppress weaker States
or place its feudatories on vacant thrones.
The story of the Elbe duchies and of Hano-
yer illustrates the first tendency, and the
recent intrigue with Prim is an example of
the second. But Bismarcks intention to
render Prussia the dictator of Germany was
first so little appreciated by the people, espe-
cialy when they saw it involved war with
Austria, that he was probably the most un-
popular man in the country. When he was
Shot at, in May, 1866, the sympathies of his
countrymen we're entirely with the assassin.
1t was different after the war. Bismarck
was received in Berlin with more than royal
honors but no man knew better than he that
his work was only half done.
France could not look unmoved upon the
supremacy acquired by her daring rival.
NJ. Edgar Quinet wrote, in 1867-"Win
not France often and often awake from her
sleep, thinking she hears the step of her
giant neighbor? Or, supposing she were to
fall asleep without taking prudential
measures, would not this be the sign of
deadly relaxation? And what temptation
then for Germany to take advantage of it In
all these cases our danger is equally great.
But what could France do at this period
She had no weapon which she could oppose
to the needle-gun of Prussia and the exam
pie of Austria had shown how mad was the
hope of winning battles with an inferior arm.
The hosts of Austria fell like corn beneath
the sickle, while the Prussian troops were
comparatively unscathed. Austria had made
the fatal mistake of undertaking her rival.
The saying attributed to Prince Schwarzen-
berg-''I{ faut a0ilir la PruSse Ga6ord pour
en- suite la dem0ISr' whether really uttered
or not, expressed the sentiments prevailing
at Vienna, and the result was that Austria
was herself almost destroyed.
The Emperor Napoleon could not fight,
but he could prepare to fight. Prussia, SO
far from moderating her aims, seemed clearly
to be enlarging them. Her next move was
to place feudatory upon the throne Of
Spain. Napoleon saw that the hour had COME
for striking the blow. If he has been ambi-
tious, can any one pretend that Prussia has
not also been guided by that fatal passion?
Is the 'aggressiveness' all on the side of
Napoleon? This is not question to be de-
cided by sympathies, but by regard for the
records of history. These two great powers
have been striving to gain the mastery in
Europe for years past. Bismarck undoubt-
edly seemed to be winning the game. If
France and Prussia could now be left alone to
| fight out their own quarrel the world would
| look on, not indeed with Indifference, but
with comparative calmness. Of this, however,
we have no guarantee. Any accident-the
temporary invasion of Belgium-might draw
England into the vortex, and events might
occur which would at once and irrevocably
change the current of modern history. 1t is
absolutely certain that the present war, even
if its area is not enlarged, will materially
change the position of the contestants. If
Napoleon failed, he would disappear from the
throne of France, while King William
would probably emerge as Emperor of Ger
many. If Prussia is compelled to treat foI
peace, the loss of her Rhenish provinces
would probably not be the ultimate measure
of her humiliation.