The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-12-16
The German Empirc-German Unity and
Austria's Efforts for Peace.

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 dominion
rivalling in extent and far exceeding in real
population, wealth and social Importance the
realm Of Ohio and Charlemagne. At the
same moment we hear the fiat that decides the
fate of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 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
and the west of Europe.
This, should the sturdy old HoheRzollern
accept the proffered dignity-and what reason
is there to doubt that he viii ?-is an event
of the most imposing moment, surrounded by
historical contrasts as romantic and dramatic
as anything recorded in the ilumined annals
of Frossart and Monstrelet. The imperial
sword and sceptre of Germany laid at the feet
of Teutonic prince in captured palace of
Louis Quatorze, while Prussian eagles float in
triumph over the spires of st. Denis and the
towers of Notre Dame tremble to the echo of
besieging ordnance The world has not wit
messed such spectacle since the armies of
Napoleon l. entered Rome and dictated law to
the Pontif in his council chamber at the
Vatican.
Well may the other Powers hastily endeavor
to set their houses in order, and, meanwhile,
struggle to avert any extension of the war.
Thus it is that Austria still Professionally 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 ex-
hibited foresight, prudence and moderation
throughout his reign. He displayed all these
qualities, so valuable and SO admirable in a
prince, after the disastrous defeat of his
arms by the French and Italian coali-
ton at Solferino; after the overthrow
Of his best generals by the Prussians
at Sadowa, and in the measures that he has
since taken to harmonize the Earring States
still subject to his sceptre within the pale of
the empire. In this sagacious course he is
sustained by the abilities of 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
Prussian war, yet near enough to feel the heat
of its confagrations and to hear the thund ers
of its artillery, Austrian intellect detect is dan
gers growing more and more gigantic every
hour while the struggle continues to push on
toward that bitter extremity which bequeaths
to an entire race and lineage legacies of indy
ing hate and eternal thirst for vengeance. To
enkinde such endless antagonism in the breast
of bat one individual, to invoke that
Patient search and vigil long
or him who treasures up wrong,
from the weakest Of mankind, is most
solemn and perilous enterprise; but when the
task, really or apparently undertaken, is to
trample on a nation Of forty millions, warlike
at all periods Of its history and schooled for
ages in adversely as well as in glory, wisdom,
which looks to the future even more than at
the present, halts midway. 'Tread not upon
a dwarf; he may have giant for friend,
is an apothegns Of pith and meaning. France
is not yet dwarf, but giantess surprised and
overmastered for the moment, because she
had been bound down while she slept by the
Lilputians of monarchical misrule France
has suffered for the sins of Europe; and, even
were she entombed, the stone may yet be
rolled away from the mouth Of her
sepulchre and she may arise again.
The ashes of Charles Martel, of Philip
Augustus, of Bayard, of Henry of Navarro,
of the Grand Condo, 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 but
hasty judgment Of events not six months old.
Quiet thinkers who, only that long ago, held
their peace when jubilate was sounded over
the plebiscitum and the sscrowning Of the edi-
fee" in France, were noticed only with the
smile of self-satisfied disdain; yet, To- what a
change is there to-day-how are the mighty
| fallen! Providence will teach US, in spite OF
all human conceits, that things shall be as He
wills, and His reversals of judgment continu-
| ally laugh at our calculations and humble our
! pride. In this world the man or the nation
who builds safety upon the ruins Of another is
| not noble, and never can be truly great. II
German unity is to be set upon the shifting
sands Of conquest, imposed upon people for
eign in language, faith and culture, we have
| every warrant in the lessons of history to be-
lieve that it will vanish, in the first great up
heaval, as suddenly as it came. King Will
liam may well say that he is astonished at the
rapidty with which that union has sprung
into being. He had expected that it would be
accomplished some day, by slow but sure
processes Gas in America and Italy,, but he
had not hoped to see it in his lifetime. Ger
manic union, built upon the disunion and dis