The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-10

doctrine IS all that lS needed to ward OIL the
danger which General Grant so whiningly
deplores in his message. The West India
Islands belong by their geographical posi-
ton to the American political system; and
whether they are to fulfil their ultimate
destiny as an independent confederation, or
as a part of the Uuited States, we are equally
interested in forbidding any new ties be-
tween them and Europe. General Grant is
recreant to every American sentiment in ad-
mitting the possibility that San Domingo
may pass to some European power if we do
not make hot haste to acquire it.
FRANCE AND IFS PROSPECTS.
From the NJ Y. Times
To those who consider thoughtfully the
crisis through which France is passing, the
question will often occur whether she will
derive any permanent benefit from these
terrible sufferings and disasters. The French
people are sufficiently intelligent and quick
witted, and il would seem that they must
now recognize some of the defects of their
social and political system, written as they
are in letters of blood and fire over the land.
To all foreign observers, the palpable and
fatal feature Of their system has been its GEN.
tralization in the capital city, and the degra-
dation of the popular character by des-
potism.
A whole nation cannot give up its most
valued interests for twenty years to a mill
tary adventurer of no genius, and only Dig
niied by great name, without losing self
reliance and its manly virtues Despotism
crushes out the vigor and courage of people.
Every civil Office is filled with the
tools OF the despotic leader. The army be-
comes Pretorian Guard, and it's Generals,
knowing that they create the empire, show
no subordination and enforce no discipline.
All the positions of honor and duty are merely
the means by which the Emperors favorites
fill their pockets and escape arduous labor.
No work is honestly done. The cddreS of q
regiment are falsely filled, SO that some I'm
perial servant can draw pay for men not in
service. Ammunition, ordnance, and pro-
visions are purchased and stored under dis
honest vouchers, SO that the courtly favor
ties may receive money for what is not
bought Everything military is shoddy.
The martial empire is one vast sham. The
army is lazy, luxurious, and insubordinate.
The officers take the tolls of q campaign in
a comfortable carriage, and dread hardship
and labor. The privates neither respect
nor fear their officers. This vast Impe-
rial bubble needs only the prick of the
German sword to go Oft in air. Before the
war, a French general of high position,
seeing the tendency of Capitalization and
Imperialism, is reported to have said to the
Emperor, 'Sire, one day your projects will
ruin the empire J" That is, it would be found
that there is no local administration in
France. The lamentable failure now in the
French rural districts to organize any sort of
vigorous military opposition to the Germans
is one of the most striking fulflments of
this prediction. 1t is safe to say that no
foreign enemy could have had long line of
communication for hundreds of miles over
American or English territory without hav-
ing it broken a hundred times by locally y-or-
ganized resistance Yet the Prussians march
through France as carelessly as the British
usedto do through Northern India fearing no
''raid" or sudden attack. They have learned
to despise the French as an inferior race
So cowed have the peasantry become that
one very friendly authority, writing from in
terror France, states that not only would
! they yield Alsace and Lorraine for peace
but leach peasant would give up his neigh
bor's farm" for such q blessing. SO enfee-
bled and disorganized by imperialism have
! the army become, that another witness says
! that ten-miles march in the day will
''knock up French corps, and even now,
with France crushed under the iron heel of
the foreigner, the soldiers in the provinces
are mutinous and the generals quarrelsome
! and insubordinate.i
These last great faults, we believe, we are
being rapidly corrected by the French Ad-
ministration. NJ Gambetta has shown great
vigor in repressing mutinies and dismissing
refractory Generals. General Trochu has APP
parently drilled his motley crowd of soldiers
into subordination and discipline. The ar
mics of France will soon learn to obey and
to endure hardship. But whether centraliza-
tion will be so easily unlearnt, is more diff.
cult operation. II has been ingrained in the
| French nation for many generations. Paris,
too, has shown herself worthy of her posi-
tion. No words of praise can ever exagge
rate the courage, heroism, con
stancy, and resources shown by that city
Of idlers and pleasure e-hunters, il
forming itself into fortified camp, and look
ing, for months, death by famine in the face
or the awful destruction of a bombardment
without an apparent tremor or unmanlN
dread. Paris has for months saved France
from devastation. she will still be helC
worthy to command; and though Cesarisu
be dead, we fear centralisIn will still live. Al
nations but the French note, at this time
with disgust, the French prevailing ''unve
racity" of the French leaders and of the popu
lace. All appear to be afraid to face facts
Through the whole war, this has evidently
been the curse of both Government anC
people. Hardly any one seemed to wish t.
know She truth. No more terrible symptom
of the decadence of a nation can appear
The hopeful sign, however, even here, i
that the apparently best leader in France il
the one ''silent and veracious" man, Genera
Trocbu, who has never deceived the popu
lace, and who, beyond any, foIesaw the de
fects in the French military system. Nj
Gambetts, on the other hand, though an abl
man, evidently belongs to the other class
who have brought such disasters on France.
A defect like this must be deeply seated il
the French character. This war may hav