Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-09-29

make this promise from his hostility tc
Austria, and also from his personal regard
for Bismarck, who had been, as was
known at the French Court, warm ad
mirer of the Napoleonic regime Soon
after the decisive blow at Sadowa, the
French Ambassador at Berliu proposed tc
Bismarck the cession to France of some Of
the left bank of the Rhine, in considers
ton of the recent large territorial acquisl-
tons made by Prussia. To the unwise
suggestion the premier replied 'tNo," toe
emphatically to be misunderstood
Perhaps this was the first time that
Napoleon felt himself outwitted by Count
Bismarck. The French proposition the
Count made known to the four South Ger.
man States, which, though few weeks
only before they had been outspoken in
their hostility to Prussia and Bismarck
now, after his magnificent success, and
out of the Germans old, traditional enmity
to France, entered at once into an alliance,
offensive and defensive, with Prussia.
This was a further humiliation to the
French Emperor, and he does not submit
to such things with the highest Christian
meekness. Then came the Luxembourg
affair, and more recently the dispute as
to the Belgian railways The climax was
reached in the plans for placing Leopold
on the Spanish throne. The Hohenzollern
prince was not acceptable to Napoleon
he saw further extension of Prussia's in
tuence, and then the secrecy with which
the negotiations had been conducted, while
he of all sovereigns claimed the right to
know all that took place in respect to the
Spanish throne, and further, perhaps Leo
pold's accession would displace his favorite
candidate, Alphonso XII.
Among the domestic causes of the war,
in France, was the Emperor's personal
feelings. To be thus, through four years,
outwitted by the Prussian premier was
more than the hero of the coup d'etat
could well endure. For many years he
has gloried in being the Arbiter of Europe;
his imperial hands held the balance of
power, but Sadowa robbed him of that,
and he therefore hates Prussia, the victor
on that eventful field. And even in France
the last year had witnessed some decrease
in his authority, though the recent plebis-
Cltum had restored this.
Then his solicitude for the succession of
his son led him to calculate on brilliant
and successful campaign as a means of
giving the Prince Imperial a secure place
in the hearts Of the French nation, and
thus render certain his possession of the
throne. If the war could be a short and
successful one, Napoleon calculated rightly,
but if otherwise, woe to him and his son :;
and we think he saw AN this, and accept
ed the dread alternative of war. Surely
the gods first make mad those whom they
will destroy. Moreoves, the French,
especially the Parsans, felt keenly the
humiliation which the nation had received
at the hands Of Prussia. The temper of
the people was not to be misunderstood !;
they IN a sense demanded the humiliation
of their German rival, and if the Emperor
could not do this, he was not longer want
ed as the ruler of the French nation.
In a word, Napoleon has entered upon
the war for the purpose of retaining his
throne for himself and his son. Too long
has France been robbed of liberty, and
too deep in the hearts of the people is the
of the last eighteen years de-
despotism to submit much
longer to the man who is the author of her
woes. There is a large and daily increas-
ing party in France who have no sym
pathy with Napoleon or the war. AS one
French writer says, " The war excites no
and further adds, truly,
. France has nothing to gain, and liberty
much to lose" That such a man as
Theirs puts himself against the war is also
significant.
OF the result of the war we have no
question the God of battles is not the
ally of despotism, nor of despots who have
such personal record as Napoleon III.
The American people, fresh from their
holocaust on the alter of liberty, cannot
ong hesitate as to whom, in this struggle,
their sympathy belongs to Prussia, with
all her faults, and they are not few, is the
leader and hope of liberty in continental
Europe, while Napoleon is its strongest
adversary.