The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-03
THE FRENCH GORDON OF POWER
AROUND THE WORLD.
From the N. Y. Herald.

From the n. Y. Herald.
Most people, even the well-informed, when
casually speaking of France or the ''French
Empire, - forget the full significance of that
expression. CHANGING at a map of the globe,
we discover in France proper a territory so
small in comparison with our own vast con-
tinental domain that we are forciblyreminded
of Mr.. Marcy's famous phrase when he spoke
of Austria as "a mere patch on the earth's
surface" Her European limits are hardly
equal to the combined superficies of two or
three of our larger States at the North,
while at the South Texas alone exceeds them
by about sixty-nine thousand square miles.
Yet, within those boundaries France has O
population of thirty eight million souls. But
if we set forth upon a geographical tour of
her outside posts and military and naval pos
sessions we are soon struck by, not merely
their number and extent, but by the strategic
continuity that can be distinctly traced in
their arrangement and their relations to each
other.
1t was the boast of British orators and
statesmen not long since, when extolling the
power of their own country, that 'its
morning drum beat is heard around the
world, " the allusion referring to her chain of
colonies in every zone and in every quarter
of the earth. In truth, her nominal posses
sions in America, Asia, and Africa, including
the Canadas, Australia, India, and the Cape
of Good Hope, are immense. But it must be
remembered that those regions hang so
loosely to the mother country as to be almost
independent, and their actual severance from
the central control is but the question of
another generation. The home power is
of too limited proportions, too closely
hedged in by rival and menacing States,
and too greatly exhausted of physical
resources, in comparison with the rapidly
growing strength of its colonies, to hold it's
direct sway over them much longer. In
view of this fact the idea was preached, a
few years since, of making India the centre
of control, and thereby acquiring a CONT
mental status in the East. But the climate
and soil of India are the very reverse of those
of England, and the suggestion has been little
heard of in later years. With France the case
is totally different. While it is true that she
has lost the magnificent domain which was
once co-extensive with the present United
States and the Canadas taken together, when
her flag was carried by water, not only to all
the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
but into the very heart of the wilderness on
land, a shrewd and far-seeing policy has
dotted the surface of the globe with outposts
that have become, and of choice remain, in
tensely French.
Let us see! Setting out eastward. wa find
her firmly established in Algeria, the finest
part of the north of Africa, and with the Suez
Canal under her influence, lying directly
athwart the great highway of Oriental traffic.
Holding Nice as her own, and garrisoning
Rome and Civita Vecchia, as an indispensable
occupant, she clasps the Mediterranean Sea
in her embrace, while from Suez she looks
out upon the Red Sea, and from the Red
Sea hitherward upon Egypt, and thitherward
upon Syria and Arabia. Thus, upon the
north of the African continent she is en-
camped with 5000, 600 Of population. Fol-