The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-08-15
Probable Effect Of the Invasion of
France--A German View.

sympathie5 OF our pe0ple-tnaC we tnlnh
due to the public to place before them vel
digested review OF the military and politica
situation, even when it does not accord will
the opinions entertained by this paper, ant
!: expressed in its columns. We therefore prln
the following article, which Is especially di
rected to discussion Of the effect likely Il
be produced upon the patriotic ardor ant
warlike spirit of the French people by th'
invasion of their country by the armies o
Germany. The writer of the article is al
able critic and close observer, and BIZ
opinions deserve. and will doubtless obtain
thoughtful consideration:
"Those who believe the advance Of thu
German army on the soil Of France will
have the same general and permanent
effect on the French people, which the inva
sion OF the German army under the com
mand Of the Duke OF Brunswick in 179!
produced, appear not sufficiently to consider
the vast difference OF circumstances which
existed then and now.
SIN 1892 the soverelgns OF Germany,
backed secretly by England and Russia, had
united in coalition for the purpose of over
throwing the popular government which had
been gradually formed in France since 1889.
Partly instgated by the French emigrated no.
bility, who had represented the condition OF
France as favorable to foreign interference,
partly from motives of self-interest and in
defence of their own sovereign rights, the
coalition determined to interfere in the
internal affairs Of their western neigh
Dor, and to relnstate Louis XVI on the
absolute throne Of his ancestors against the
will of his (former) subjects. No nation
would have quietly submitted to such dicta-
ton from abroad, least OF all the French
nation. The impolitic, not to say insolent,
manifesto of the Duke Of Brunswick, in
which he declared that any resistance on the
part Of the French people to the objects OF
his mission would be visited upon them with
lire and sword, the dictatorial tone which
pervaded this strangely infatuated document,
could have no other effect than to call forth
the unanimous and enthusiastic determina-
ton Of the French people not to sheathe the
sword until the invader was driven from
their soil. Hence, with perhaps the excep-
ton Of the Court, the dissident clergy and
one or two departments under the influence
of this clergy, the French united as one man
in defence Of their country and their newly
acquired liberties. 1t is true, the declaration
OF war proceeded in 1892, as in 1870, from
the French. However, it is not the party
which declares war, but the one which makes
war necessary, that must be held responsible
for it, and it was the coalition on whose
shoulders that responsibility rested. How
different is the state of affairs nowl We
will not examine the irreconcilable enmities
and iealousies of the Romanic and Ger
manic nations as deeply rooted as the mis-
sion which both are appointed to fill in the
history OF the world is different; we will not
dwell on the necessity Of deciding sooner or
later the future predominance Of the one or
the other, which may lie at the bottom OF
the whole trouble; we cannot, placed thus
far from the theatre of action, judge whether
Bismarck or Napoleon by any undue desire
of territorial aggrandizement, have made
peace between the two leading nations OF
Continental Europe impossible; we can only
Judge of the immediate events which have
caused France to draw the sword. And
here the conviction forces itself upon our
mind, that, however loath the Emperor
Napoleon may have been to commence war
at this time, he has been driven into it by
the increasing dangers which have threat
eued him at home, rather than by any imme-
date and fragrant dereliction on the part OF
Prussia. Approaching possibly the end of
his earthly career, with the fiascos Of Mexico
and Sadowa to wipe out, pressed by nume-
rous and, in part at least, unscrupulous ad-
versaries at home, knowing that the French
get easily tired Of everything old, and feel
ing that be himself is growing old-for he
has reigned twenty years-with bigoted
dQQ unpOpuldf NuS ouI ulliC IVY IoHoAo9
whom the French nation has never exhibited
any marked signs Of affection, he was COM
PEELED to play ;'va baaque," to commence
the war, aad to commence it now, in order
to insure, If possible, the permanence OF his
dynasty after his death. Thus forced by
circumstances beyond his control, Napoleon
has been driven to Pick a quarrel with the
hated hereditary enemy Of his nation, he has
declared war without fragrant provocation,
without immediate just cause. As Thiers,
himself bitter enemy Of Prussia, has said,
he should have fought last year or wait until
next year. But he could do neither, for last
year he vas not ready. and next year might
be too late for him. The sympathies OF the
leading European nations have thus from the
beginning Of the quarrel been turned against
him; but what powerful! element OF success
are not such universal sympathies at the
present day, and who can calculate their
ultimate effect on the French people, in case
repeated defeat conrinces them of the i'm
probability, the impossibiity of success?
"But to return to the point from which We