New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-08-02

= mo r~VMesss VI
Her standing army Is small but WIN nv,
celent volunteer system she has vast reserve
Of men trained in the mechanism of military
art mon whose patriotism, in case OF emer-
oency. she could call with confidence. More
over, the English people are beginning 10 suS-
pect that NapoleOn's next movement, II he
should be victorious over PRUSSIA, WOuld VIC
against Great Britain. He has fought WIN
three of the four great powers which h'lihh-
ated his uncle; perhaps Frenchmen VIII want
him to complete the avenging OF Waterloo ny
fighting with the fourth. We do not say this
is probable; but Englishmen are beginning 10
think about it.
The Chassepot gun was first tried in action
Mt Montana in 1867-and 1t has never had
trial on any considerable scale except at that
time. Gen. de Failly, now commanding the
Fifth Army Corps, was in command OF the
Frencb troops at that battle, and reported that
tbe gun worked admirably. But III point OF
fact the French did very little fighting at
Montana. for the Papal ZOuaves had virtually
gained the victory before their allies reached
| the field.
The Benedict treaty has in the process Oh
French explanation undergone as many chahge7
as the story of the three black crows. ne
latest is the most prepOsterous. Benede1u uiu
write the treaty,-there is no use denying 'iiaV
since Bismarck showed the autograph copy
but then he wrote it at Bismarck's dictatl0n
We mover fail to laugh at that good old story Oh
| tbe hunter and the Indian. You may take
"the crow,n duoth the hunter, "and I'll take
"the turkey. or, III take the turkey, and go"
I" NAV take the crown But never before did we
hear the Indian accused of originating the prop
osition. and merely employing the hunter as
an amanuensis to write it down for HIM
In modern French history we meet with
nothing which is more unsatisfactory and an
moving than that regard for popular liberty
which it has been the policy OF the Bona
parties to profess. The founder OF the family
fortunes set to all his successors an example
of the most extraordinary tergiyersaton ana
duplicity. Wherever he carried sword and
fre-at home, too as well as abroad - ne
always proclaimed himself the apostle OF
liberty and the champion of emancipation, his
sincerity being no greater and perhaps less
than tie honesty with which in Egypt he
patronzed Mohammedism. And even now
there come to us gossiping rumOrs that Napo-
leon III. will "appeal to the yearning OF the
european masses for republican appeal
at which we can imagine the devil ggglng
with the most profound satisfaction. 10 read
suggestions like these is TO recall the history
of Europe from 1896 to 1s15-the cheat prac-
ticed upon Germany, the hollow promises
made to Italy, the hints of liberation thrown
out to the serfs of Russia, the prattle about a
regenerated government in Portugal and
Spain. 1t is possible that, having established
| his power in either of these countries, the
first Emperor might, with his vast
capacity for public business, have
greatly advanced their mere material
prosperity and power, for these are the
be-all and the end-all of the BOnapartean
system of government; but there is not the
least reason to suppose that anywhere the
Imperial success would have added in the
smallest degree to personal liberty, while
everywhere the human intellect would have
been reduced to that abect condition which
marks so strongly the annals of the first En-
pire. Germany itself is not a nation in which
| the game of deception can be again success
! fully played. For more than two centuries, it
| has never trusted in the professions of the
! French throne without bitterly rueing its
credulity; and through an awful experience, 1t
has discovered precisely what the word
Liberty" means in the French language. 1t
is not now, when Germans, through their
own praiseworthy exertions, have attained q
reasonable proportion Of constitutional freedom,
that they will trust themselves in the blood
stained hands of one whose artillery wheels
have obliterated almost the last vestige of
Liberty in the land which he has made partly
! his dupe and partly his victim. 1t is not from
Paris that we wish to receive any new bulletins
of Continental freedom.