The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-09-29
Prssress Of the War In Europe
Attitude Of tho Neutral Powers.

| talk magniIoquently Prussia marches on,
| adding victory to victory, and making herself
perfectly at home on the soil OF France.
/ While Jules Favre and his associates In the
provisional government encourage France to
hold out and fight the fight to the bitter end,
and while M. Theirs wanders wildly from capt.
| tai to capital, seeking help and finding none,
Strasbourg, Frances proudest fortress, has
fallen, Metz is in despair, Paris itself is in an
agony, clinging feebly to her last hope, and the
| Crown Prince of Prussia, under the shadow OF
| the statue of Louis the Fourteenth, at Yer
| sailles, distributes rewards to the honored
| brave Of his army. The situation has become
such that no man not blinded by passion or
prejudice or ignorance can doubt the final
result or encourage France to prolong strug-
gle in which blood will be vainly shed and in
which she cannot hope to win.
The attitude Of the combatahts is by many
misunderstood, and by some who ought to
know and do better wilfully and wickedly
misrepresented. Prussia is blamed because
she will not halt in her career Of conquest.
Bismarck Is abused because he was not all
honey and deceit to Jules Favre. King VIII
liam is abused because, having been COM
PEELED to sacrifice millions of precious lives
and millions of treasure--for all of which he
and his family must give good account to
Prussia, and, indeed, to the whole German
people-he will not foolishly fling away
all that he has won and make the grandest
Of all campaigns the greatest of all
absurdties. What is the actual situation as
| between Germany and France to-day! War
was without good reason, as we have again
and again told our readers, made by France
against Prussia. If France had been success
full the French legions would have marched to
Berlin. Napoleon the Third, after having
ridden in triumph under the Lindens, would,
in the royal palace of Berlin, have repeated
all the sins committed by his uncle after the
battle of Jena. Germany would again have
been humbled. German unity would have
been made impossible for at least another
half century. The Rhine provinces would
have been annexed to France. Waterloo
would in part have been avenged. The ill
omened star of the Bonapartes would have
shed its baleful light on the nations of Europe,
and progress, genuine civilization, would have
been sacrificed on the altar of certain Napo-
leonic ideas. But the tide of victory has rolled
in the opposite direction. Germany, this time
victorious, has poured her legions in upon
France. The northern hordes, after some
centuries of comparative weakness, have again
-, ~, sclt Iol cs,%.t,
southwark; but on this occasion the northern
hordes represent civilization, modern ideas,
modern force. Alaric, Attila, Genseric, while
they are yet strong-stronger, in fact than
ever-are no longer barbarians. Because
Germany, not France, has won, maudlin SEN
timentalists all the world over rave about
humanity and civilization and barbarity,
confound the true with the false, justice with
| injustice, and howl against the victorious
Prussians as if they were very pack of
wolves.
Let us look at the situation calmly.
What can King William, what can Bismarck,
what can the German generals do other than
they are doing? Bismarck has told us he is
willing to make peace. So has his master,
King William. The Crown Prince has
again and again expressed himself
in terms which prove that war for its own
sake has no charms for him. But France has
no government. The government chosen by
the French people is not to be got at. The
| government now in power is government
without popular credentials. In other words,
L ri 6ay. 80 yik md
the government de .tacto is without right II
King William treats with Napoleon or with the
Regency France may repudiate. If King
William treats with Jules Favre and his asso-
ciates France may repudiate. King William
has some six hundred thousand men on French
soil; he must feed them; he cannot lead them
back; they will not be led back until peace
has been secured. Bismarck has seen Jules
Favre, the acknowledged representative Of
the present government Of France. He
has stated the terms on which his govern
ment is willing to grant an armistice. He
has made it plain that the Prnssians have
no desire to force upon France any form o.
government; that they want no more than to
be satisfied that the government with which
they conclude peace is government faithfully
representing France, and that its deeds are
binding upon the French people. With the
present government they cannot make peace
With Napoleon or with the Regency they might
legally make peace; but peace 80 arranged
| would be farce. 1t would be worse; il
would be an insult to the French people; and
neither King William nor Bismarck nor any
sensible German has any desire to wound un.
necessarily the amour propre of the proud
and sensitive people of France. An armistice,
however, is different thing, and that Prussia
is willing to grant at once. If France will moi
now accept Prussia's terms for an armistice
France must suffer, although longer to hold
/ ont is hv universal consent madness