The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-24
TIE SENTIMENTS or RINORTTIES IN
TIMES or WAR.

From the Pait Mall Gazette.
Those smong mankind who take an interest
in political events at any great crisis may be
divided into two classes-such as embrace
without hesitation the prevailing sentiment
OF the Time, and such as diverge into varieties
of sentiment of their own, whether arising
from sagacity or prejudice, fancies or crot
chefs. This is especially the in coun-
tries like ours, where freedom, not only of
action but of thought, is carried further than
in communities governed under other politi-
cal systems whether more or less democratic
Not only are the minority Cat least for q con-
siderable tme) not silenced by the ma ajority,
but they are If anything rather more demon
strative than their opponents, more eager to
be heard, and more anxious to put forward
their reasons, as if deprecating an unanimity
which they cannot but apprehend.
Similar manifestations of diversity of
opinion in England have almost always at
tended the course of great European wars of
what may be termed modern times, although
England until lately was always a party to
them. It was very hard work for the grand
sons of the cavaliers to tame down their old
royaIism into hearty sympathy with the arms
of the usurping William in his struggle
against France. Even when that struggle
was continued by so good Church and State
woman as Anne, there was many partisan
of the Pretender whose feelings were sorely
distracted between patriotism ndforeign allie
glance. When Chatham, with Prussia on his
side. made war on Europe, there was for once
no minority in the British public at all. For
the first and only time England stood arrayed
ia that quarrel in hearty unanimity But the
American war was commenced, at all events,
against the vehement protests of minority
strong in numbers and stronger in reasoning:
of which many members no doubt really de-
sired the success of the insurgents, sinking
their zeal for English self-assertion in still
ctr zan1 the which thew
esteemed the right. And although as the
war continued the feelings of the community
in general warmed to the conflict, the voice
of opposition was never wholly extinguished
Finally, in the great struggle against the
France of the Revolution and of the first
Empire, although the national spirit was
reused more and more as it ragged on through
two-thirds of generation, yet even to the
end there remained a sturdy though dimin-
ishing section of our people whose sympa-
thies we've with France, who held that the
war was unrighteous one, waged in truth
against liberty with Napoleon for its cham
pion. And to the Survivors of that section
the short-sighted obstinacy of their antago-
nists gave by-and-by final triumph, and the
Reform Act served as a revenge for Waterloo.
Up to this time we are witnesses only, and
not actors in the continental war now COM
menced: but the attitude of the British pub
lie, at all events as represented by the press,
peculiarly as any which can be drawn from
history. Unless we are mistaken, the per-
vading sentiment of our maj jorty, all but a
national sentiment is on the Prussian side.
One strong reason for this is the general
reprobation of the aggressor in quarrel: of
him who strikes the first blow, especially
when he can show no other reason for
doing so than is involved in long
argumentative recrimination But far
more oyermastering cause is to be
found in the national instinct which
watches over our own greatness and security.
With France on the Rhine and in Belgium,
and with no hope of reversing the issue, 1T is
only too deeply felt that the day of England
as a European power would be over; while o
German coalition debating terms of peace at
Paris could scarcely by possibility have any
demands to make incompatible with oui
honor and our advantage.
This, we repeat, is the popular English view
at the present moment right or wrong. YET
there are many well-wishers to France among
us, and many whose reasons for being SO, a!
we'll as their openness in avowing them, are
honorable But they are almost all wha
may be termed by-reasons-collateral issues
as lawyers would say, defended by arguments
quite irrelevant to what strikes the world a
the main question. There are many whC
cannot get over their hostility to Prussia a
the originator of the present complications b,
her overbearing in Justice to Denmark and he
well-timed assault on Austria. There ar
many who are influenced by strong sens
of the 10y al friendhness of France toward
ourselves fur many years past, on whom thu
memories of our common Crimean struggl
act more foicibly than the fears or jealousie
of the present day. And there are NOR
than might be at first supposed, belonging a
least to the higher if not the more powerful
classes, in whose eyes the present quarre
assumes something of religious complexion
Strange, but true nevertheless. 1t is onl,
the other day that the Monde assured tn
public that the war was to be regarded as
crusade-that it was imperatiyely necessary
in order to check the progress of German
Professionalism and infidelity. Grotesque an
almost blasphemous as such an appeal to tn
God of battles in such a cause ma
be, there is reason to think that it strikes al
answering chord in a good many hearts
Such sentiments, more or less pronounced
are not confined to our Romanist fellow-cti
Zens They. are shared by the section of ou
upper classes whose feelings lead them int
the nearest approximation to Rome, an
whose favorite object of aversion at the pre-
sent moment is Professionalism. In the Ion
run, and if the prevalent sentiment of tn
majority has time to acquire full strength
all these little eddies and backwaters will dis
appear before the general swell of the cul
rent. But, for the time, they act as dis
turbing causes in small way; and it is, on tn
whole, advantageous that they should do Sc
1t is better that whatever fixed public conviC
tion is ultimately to prevail should be see
to have formed itself deliberately, after fu
allowance made for hostile tendencies an