The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-04
SPIRIT OF THh PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-Cempiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
REPUBLICAN OR COSSACKP-THE AT
TITUDE OF RUSSIA.


TITUDE OF RUSSIA.
From the N. Y. Herald.
Our dispatches from Europe again mention
the great diplomatic and military activity of
the Russian Government. Early last spring,
ere there was a sign of trouble directly be-
tween France and Prussia we repeatedly
called attention to the manmuvres of armies
going on throughout the latter kingdom, and
that, too, while the remainder of the press,
British and American, seemed to ignore them.
We now remark the very peculiar attitude of
Russia, and find in it growing symptoms
of far wider catastrophe than has already
taken Europe by surprise.
The wel-known Russian organ lie Nord
has distinctly intimated that the equilibrium
of the Continent, endangered by the eulpable
ambition of one power and by the blind OBJ
stinaoy of another, must be secured by the
Intervention of State sufficiently strong to
make itself respected by both parties, and yet
not liable to be suspected of sympathy for the
passions or the projects of one or the other.
This is plain and pointed talk, and, to back it,
we hear of the Ozar concentrating nearly five
hundred thousand of his best-drilled troops
toward his western frontiers and summoning
his terrible Cossack riders to the field. Com
mon sense tells us that this muster is not made
for the protection of his Prussian neighbor,
since the utmost that France could hope to
do, for the present, would be to raise the
siege of Paris. 1t is not to shield Russia
itself from Prussian invasion, since the
Northern winter, which no foreign foe would
dare to brave, is at the door, and, moreover,
Prussia has not completed the heavy task that
she is unwisely enlarging in France. The po-
litical wisdom of Prussia, disguise it
as she may attempt to do, has been
alarmed, and a rumor came weeks ago
from Berlin that in order to secure the
Cars consent to the dismemberment of
France she was willing to give that potentate
the two duchies of Mecklenburg, and to COM
pensate the ruler of these minor principalities
by forming the conquered provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine into one grand duchy
under his immediate control, as Governor or
Viceroy. But there is another solution to all
this imbroglio, and it is comparatively close
at hand. The secret of that solution will be
found in the memorable words of the great
Napoleon, which we do freely into English
from the exact text of his memorial, written
at st. Helena
s'Ere fifty years shall have passed." said
the imperial political soothsayer, "France
will be republican or Cossack. Then, if my
son be alive, he will be called to the throne
amid the accamations of the people. If he
be no more France will again become repub-
lican, since no other hand would dare to
grasp the sceptre that he could not uphold.
'"The Orleans branch, although acceptable,
is too feeble; it partakes too much of the
same fate, should its members not prefer to
live the life of simple citizens, no matter
what changes may intervene. Once again
France will be republican, and the other
countries will follow her example. Germans,
Prussians, Poles, Italians, Swedes, and Rus
slams will unite with her in crusade in favor
of liberty. They will take up arms against
their sovereigns, who will hasten to make
concessions to them so as to retain part of
their old authority; they will call themselves
constitutional kings with limited powers.
Thus will the feudal system receive its
death blow; like fog in the midst of the
ocean, it will vanish at the first rays of the
sun of liberty.
'But things will not remain there; the
wheel of revolution will not stop at that point;
it's impetuosity will multiply ivefold, and its
Tapidity will increase in like proportion.
When people has regained a part of its
rights it becomes enthusiastically inspired by
victory, and, having tasted the sweets of
liberty, it grows the more enterprising in
order to obtain the more. The States of Eu-
rope will for some years, perhaps, be in a
state of continual agitation, like the soil at
the moment which precedes an earthquake;
but at last the lava will burst forth and the
explosion will terminate everything.
''The bankruptcy of England will be the
lava which is to shake the world and swallow
up the kings and the aristocracies, but will
cement the interests of the democracy by it's
eruption. Believe me, Las Casas, in like
manner as the vines that cover the foot of
Etna and of Vesuvius produce the most deli
cious vintages, SO will the tree of liberty be-
come fixed and not to be cast down when it
shall have its roots planted in that reyolu-
tionary lava which will have overfowed all
the monarchies. May it bloom and flourish
for ages These may seem strange senti-
ments for you to hear from my lips; however,
they are really mine. / was born republi-
can; but destiny and the opposition of Eu-
rope have made me an emperor. now await
the future
Such was the impressive language, in many
places attaining the grandeur of prophecy, in
which Napoleon, from the calm heights of
contemplation, after having held the fate OF
Europe in the hollow of his hand, announced
the inevitable changes visible to him from
the summit of his political Pisgah. The
fifty years have rolled away; a nephew
mot SOM of the Emperor sat foI
eighteen years upon the throne OF
France, and has fallen from it,
France is again republican; the nations of
Europe are preparing to follow her example;
the lava of revolution begins to grow hot be-
meath the feet of Prussia and to throw its
warmth into the palace of the Russian Gar
The Cossacks are summoned to extinguish it
Hence the armaments, hence the diplomatic
agitation, hence the hurrying to and fro, OF
every road and iron rail from the Black SeG
to the Neva, and from the Neva towards the
Danube. The hour is coming; the supreme
conflict is no longer distant. Republican Of
Cossack?-which shall win?
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