The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-16

1t is natural that our people should warmly
sympathize with the French in their sudden
and overwhelming calamities, since they have
shaken off the rule of the usurping despot
who so recklessly dragged them into an
unjust and desolating war. we ardently
wish them good deliverance from the grave
perls that environ them; but this must not
lead as into in ustice to Germany. And we
are unjust to her if we demand that she shall
surrender the oonquests that have cost her
so dearly, and retire from France without in.
demnity for the past or security for the
future. Should we be likely to do that if we
stood in her shoes?
Leaving the question of pecuniary in
demnity wholly out of sight, let us give due
consideration to the German claim of terrific
rial protection against another such assault
as has Just been SO overwhelmingly repelled
The natural physical boundary between
France and Germany is the crest of the
Vosges Mountains, and not the river Rhine.
These mountains, which are great natural
barriers, formed the actual boundary, until
France, under Louis XIV, about 1S0 years
ago, by conquest annexed the German pro-
vinces of Alsace and Lorraine (or, as they were
then called, Elsass and Lotharingen), in a
war which had no other excuse than the
French monarchs ambition. Napoleon fol-
lowed this up by conquering and annexing
the present Rhenish provinces of Prussia,
which were restored to her when that dis
turber of the peace of Europe was overthrown
OF these provinces, France had possession
only for thirteen years; yet, ever since she
was compelled to give them up by the settle
ment of her boundary by the other ma
tions of Europe, she has been constantly
reiterating her claiA, as if she had natural
and inherent right to them. This pre-
posterous claim, which has no foundation
except in national vanity aud ambition, has
been stimulated in every conceivable way by
Napoleon III during the whole period of his
reign, until the French people have been
brought to believe that they have really a
right to this territory and to the Rhine as a
boundary; and the last card played by the
now fallen Emperor for the preservation of
his dynasty was the Inauguration of popular
war for the acquisition of it. That he was
right in supposing that such a war would be
popular among his people, appears from the
fact that all classes in France have united in
giving it support. There has rarely been an
instance of more marked unanimity in any
scheme of conquest on the part of any
people than was exhibited in this instance
from the very outset, if we may judge from
the fact that no voice in France was raised
against it, and the statement of the Emperor
himself, recently, that he was driven into
the war by the popular sentiment of France.
Germany, and especially Prussia, has had
reason to know and appreciate the danger of
this insatiate desire of the French to augment
their power by the conquest and annexation
of German territory. 1t is not an affair of
to-day-it is two centuries old. In 1714,
Prince Eugene of Savoy, the distinguished
general and statesman, expressed his views
in language which has since become prophetic.
81 know" he said, 'only too we'll, that hence
forth the political peace of Europe will be
constantly endangered; that peace aoiM
France aotU ae0er be sTue; for it may easily
be supposed that hereafter France will go
still further, and claim the Rhine as boun-
dary." No one felt the danger of this ag-
gressive spirit on the part of the French
more deeply than Frederick the Great, and
his political and strategical view as states
man and O general was that the Vosges
range, and not the Rhine, was the natural
boundary of Germany "The heights of
Wasgau'' Gn the Vosges chain), he said, ''are
the Thermopyl@ of Germany" and how i'm
portant this natural boundary of Germany is
for her preservation and security may be in
ferred from the remarkable words of the EN-
peror Charles V:-"If Vienna and Strasburg
were at the same time in danger from an
enemy, and could save but one of them,
would sacrifice Vienna to secure Strasburg."
OF all the countries of Germany, Prussia
has been the one the most exposed to a war
on the part of France as sudden and unex-
pected as this one has been, and has conse-
quently been compelled, especially since the
downfall of Napoleon l, to keep herself in a
| state of armed preparation. She has been
| compelled to convert her whole male popula-
| tion into an army, and for half century to
maintain system by which every man might
be disciplined and ready, in her defense, to
| act as soldier at q moments warming.
That she was wise in so doing, the CON-
| mencement of this causeless war has shown
True, it has proved disastrous to the people
| who began it, They have not realized what
| they anticipated-the certain conquest and
annexation of part of Prussia. They have
been met, not by Prussia alone, but by the
| uprising against them of all Germany; and
now, when their armies, instead of crossing
| the German frontier, are hurled back upon
their own soil, their leading captains out
generated, the Emperor prisoner, and a vic
torious army en- route for Paris, they depose
the Emperor, to whose audacious and auto
cratic rule they had submitted for eighteen
years, and establish republic. Is it to be
expected that the Confederated German
States, having forty millions Of people
after the enormous sacrifices which
they have made to counteract and defeat ths
ambitious designs of France, will withdraw
their armies and return to Germany without
any security for the future, because Napoleon
is no longer in power and the French people
have taken the initiatory steps to establish
republic? The Germans know, by bitter ex
perience of two centuries, that France-re
publican or monarchical-will again repeat,
if she can, what she has done three times
already; and every man in the German ranks
feels that-now that they have conquered
the armies of this incessant disturber of the
peace of Europe, by an united effort ant
with yigor and celebrity almost without {