The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-10
THE PERLLS OF THE EMPIRE.

The internal connections in France prove
that the Emperors declaration of war against
Prussia was a double blunder, disastrous as q
national movement and to the last degree
dangerous as a dynastic experiment. The
sturdy Germans are still pressing steadily on
ward, and while they launt in his face
trophies of victories such as France never
before yielded up except in an hour Of dire
necessity, they throng round the stronghold
at Metz, menace Strasburg, and prepare to
overrun Alsace and Lorraine. Bismark is re-
ported to have said that if the German armies
were victorious they would not insist upon
the abdication of Napoleon, because it was
their duty to confine their attention to Ger
man objects and not to French ones. Now
there is no object dearer to the
German heart han German unity, and no
fruit of victory would be more grateful to the
national sentiment evoked by the Prussians
than the reconquest of the provinces wrested
from Germany long ago by a Bourbon mon
arch. 1t would be, too, a fitting conclusion
to the long course of Napoleonic attempts to
add German territory to France, if the pres
emit Emperor should not only fail in ~rectify-
ing the frontier on the northwest by an
extension of French dominion to the Rhine,
but also be forced to surrender the accessions
of his predecessors. Such a sequel would make
Napoleon the ~laughing-stock of Europe; and
we do not wonder at his reported determi-
nation, under the pressure of this danger, to
seek death or victory rather than return dis
graced to Paris. AS matters are now pro-
crossing, the Germans will soon be in q
position to insist that the provinces they
covet shall be given up as indemnity for the
past and security for the future. Some en-
thusiastic Prussians think they will also de-
mand, if they continue to be victorious, a
portion of the fleet sent to destroy their sea-
port towns and ravage their coast, which is
now anchored at Copenhagen; but one or
the other of these exactions, if not both,
will certainly be made unless the tide of bat
tie is speedily changed.
OF all the nations in the world France is
the least likely to bear with ~equanimity such
notifications A display of her temper was
made in the French Chambers yesterday
when the Ministry which lately boosted a
triumphant majority was rebuzed and forced
to resign. sui as the new system of consti-
tutional government is a late invention, in
which the people have no real confidence,
and as it is we'll understood that the elected
ministers acted as the mere puppets of their
imperial master, how long will the public
demand for the expulsion of the real
author of French woes be appeased by the
sacrifice of a few of his subservient agents?
Napoleon has enjoyed the sweets of personal
government, and he must now face its perils.
For the terrible mistakes which have been
made, and the terrible dangers and disasters
which threaten the nation, he mainly, if not
solely, is responsible; and if the French
character has not been wonderfully changed,
they will hold him and his dynasty to a strict
accountability.
The new Minister, General palikao, is one
of the veterans of France, who boasts of long
and gallant service in her armies, but ever if
he possessed marvellous administrative talent,
his utmost energies would be tasked in the
rescue of the lettering dynasty which has
done so much to injure France and to destroy
itself. The man who wrote the bulletin
about 'Louis and l." the vain woman who
talked to Frenchmen of putting herself in the
forefront of danger, and their whole suite of
servile supporters, have exhausted, by their
audacious absurdities and tragical blunders,
the patience of a proud aud suffering people,
and it is high time that they should give way
for rulers endowed with better sense and
better principles.