The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-11-30

ELE OaEEl. 80
events which we are all following with 40
much interest. Sedan, Motx, Paris. the ruin
of France, the rise Of Germany, are all expli-
cable by the simple application to life of those
maxims concerning virtue and vice, idleness
and industry, which came next after pothooks
and hangers 10 the copybooks Of our infancy.
But to Mr.. Gladstone's ''astonshed, panied,
bewildered" brain these things are mysteries,
the very mystery of iniquity itself; for they
are War, described by the ancents as ode
tested OF mothers" but, to Mr.. Gladstones
eye, deranger of budgets, and, as such, doubly
or thrice accursed
Henry Taylor, who wrote thu Statesman
said that q statesman should have not good
conscience but strong conscience, by which
he did not mean q bad conscience in the least,
but something more than good conscience.
Now, Mr.. Gladstone is good man in exactly
that sense in which Taylor condemns good
conscience in statesman. To put 1t as plainly
a. possible such man, capriciOus, unreliable
sensitive and noble, when great emergencies
any measures. He is so dreadfully afraid Of
violating the laws OF God that he can do
nothing to help the needs of man except
preach; and good set sermon with vea-
geance has Mr.. Gladstone preached about the
wer in the pages Of the Edin5wrg Reoie,o, and
which may be pronounced the most eloquent
and indscreet utterance anybody in such a
responsible position has ever yet been known
to make. The article is one long tissue of
schoolmaster's criticism, rod In hand, Of every
body connected with the war. Solemn con-
domination Of the French Emperor, sneers at
the King of Prussias piety, doubts whether
Germany, about to be supreme, will Observe
the confidence of Europe"-exactly as if
Europe was a public meeting and Germany
was going to take the chair; ending with
long Qualification Of England as the one vir-
tueus, generous, pure. right-loving Power,
who is never to fire shot in war, or spend
guinea on war, but who, somehow or other,
chiefly because she is an island, is to bring
about the millennium before long. This account
of the article, though brief, is perfectly truth
full. And we do not wonder that all sober and
judicious people in England are quiyering with
shame and regret that so good a man, her
Prime Minister to boot, should make himself
such spectacle for gods and foreigners.
But there is worse behind. The Russian
difficulty has come on top of all the other
troubles, and Mr.. Gladstone, most powerful
Minister since Walpole, has been so exercised
in mind about 1t that he has positively written
to the London Times, that last refuge Of
the travelling Englishman cheated In his
hotel bill or delayed ten minutes by a
railway express. my dear fellow" said
an Englishman who believed in ghosts, ar
guing with another Englishman who didn't
my dear fellow, what should you do if
you went into the parlor and saw the figure
OF your deceased grandmother playing the
piano?" 81 should write to the Times" was
the reply. If this does not finish Mr.. Glad
stone we can hardly imagine what will. The
truth is, one so exquisitely coed, but SO capri
cious in his opinions combination Of arch
angel and will-o' -the-wisp-is not fit for the
first, If for any, place In politics. And things
are becoming too serious in Europe for such
child's play as we have been speaking Of 1t
is tolerably plain that, under the stress Of the
Russian difficulty, Lord Granville, really q
strong man, is virtually superseding the
cloudy-minded Premier. Mr.. Gladstone
would have been truly great statesman in
Japan or China before the day when the outer
barbarians forced those happy and secluded
ones to have foreign affairs. But he is lost in
wandering mazes" in world where empires
| go down in the shock of battle, and where
blood flows too freely for men who have the
right proportion Of blood in their veins to
think Of goods and budgets exclusively. Mr..
Gladstone is in temperament feminine, in
intellect logic mill. Hence his blunders and
deficiencies. And just, though crushing, was
the criticism passed upon him not long since
by brilliant nglishwoman-''He has a
woman's nerves without woman's tact"
New GERMANY 1856 how Germany
has leaped forward! How it has grown
The North German Confederation was great
triumph. The humiliation of France has been
greater triumph. The greatest triumph Of
all il that the Confederation of the South
which was to be, but which seYer was has
| Fl.NFT !
merged itself in the Confederation Of the
North. While the forces Of Germany are
around the walls Of Paris, France meanwhile
humbled and PROSTATE, Baden, Wurtemberg,
Hesse, Bavaria have signed treaties which
make Germany, although not yet complete,
the mightlest Power by far on the European
Continent. A peace and a subsequent trouble
and the German States of Austria will join the
Fathsrland; and then Germany will, as
nearly as possible. be unit Meanwhile
Count Bismarck's policy is the most successful