Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-16

! as the world has never seen before TIL,
. military art has shared the ADVANTAGES q
modern progress. The vast and rapidl,
accumulating resources of science are a
available for purposes of destruction a
they are for ameliorating the condition o
mankind. War between France an.
Prussia, the two most gigantic military
Powers of Europe-if always we leavl
Russia and Great Britain out of th,
. question-will be short, sharp anC
decisive beyond every previous war OF
corresponding scale of magnitude il
the whole history of the world. In
our own civil war, in the war of 1866
between Prussia and Austria, in the wal
of 1659-60, between Austria en- the one
hand and Italy and France on the other,
we had glimpses of the new agents
which, by making war destructive be-
yond all conception, promise to hasten
the time when war win be numbered with
the things that were. 1t was the railroad
and the telegraph, more than our superiori-
ty in numbers, that gave US the victory
over our Southern brothers. 1t was the
skilful use of those two agents that gave
Prussia the victory of Sadowa and that
added to the glories of the French empire
the names of Magenta and Solferino.
Had the first Napoleon been priviIedged
to make use of those two agents his won
drous faculty for combining and concen-
trating his forces would have made easy
not the conquest of Europe only, but of
the world. 80
TIE SILENCE OF PRUSSIA.
From the World, July u
LII Prussia now disavows formally and
officially, as the Prussian journals have
informally and unofficially disavowed.
Prince Leopold, of Hohenzollern, France
has won not an apparent only but sub
stantial advantage. The demands of
France have been advanced sword in
hand. To refuse them is war. To as
sent to them is defeat without war. If
the Prussian government fights it may be
beaten. The Prussian government is
beaten if it does not fight. All clouds of
passion, excitement and partisanship
cleared away, this is the plain meaning of
the position to-day. There are those who
infer from it that all will pass off hap
PLY and without shot. We are not of
the number. There is cunous
analogy between the conduct of Bismarck
at this crisis and during the anxious
days which in February, 1866, preceded
the rupture between Prussia and Austria.
Then as now Prussia maintained what the
English journals then as now called ga
dignified silence To the Austrian note
demanding an explanation of the inten-
tiOns of Prussia in Holstein no answer at
all was returned-tO the personal request
of the Austrian ambassador for an expla-
nation of this silence an answer elabor-
ately evasiVe. These two preliminary
steps led up to the third. To the inquiry
made by the Austrian ambassador at Ber-
LIN in March, 1856, whether the Prussian
decree threatening the adherents of the
Prince of Augustenburg in the Duchies
meant or did not mean an intention to use
force, Count Bismarck deliberately replied
that it did not. At that moment the Prus-
sian army was organizing for the cam
paign which ended at SadoWa.
THE WAR CRISIS.
From the World, July 13
Prussia speaks at last Not for peace
or in diplomatic forms. Prince Leopold
of -Hohenzollern declines the Spanish
throne, but in declining it openly insults
the power by which he has been forced
TO the step. He adopts, of course, the
fimsy fiction of the head of his family,
that Prussia had nothing to do with and
no knowledge of the offer which he first
accepted without consulting her and now
to save her dignity declines. With this
Prince Leopold, having spoken the piece
set down for him, retires from the scene.
But Prussia also speaks TO the pur-
pose. Her troops are marching forward
to the Rhine. Moltke, the ''organizer of
victory" in 1866, is closeted with the IA
natical and obstinate old King William.
Behind the moving columns of her peak
helmeted soldiers surges the wave of pop
ular passion. For near four years
Prussia has been excited and educated to
anticipate a war with France. It has
been the almost openly avowed purpose,
it has been the absolutely dominant
motive, of the policy of her rulers to pre-
pare her people for such war. To keep
her army ready for it, to increase the
efficiency of that army, to feed its spirit
of battles, and to reinforce its offensive
machinery, the government of Count Bis
marck has devoted its best energies ever
since the signature of the Treaty of
Prague.
Count Bismarck is striving to
gain time in 1870 by the same means which
he used to the same end in 1866. He is
dealing now, however, not with the slow
and i'll organized empire of Austria, but
with the fiery and compacted empire of
France. And it is hardly to be expected
that the delay already accorded him will
stretch beyond very few hours to come.
For France on her side began to move her |
troops before her antagonist, and each |
moment brings these charged and electri- !
cal clouds of war dangerously nearer and
nearer together. Behind the moving hosts,
too, of France as well as of Prussia the
popular passion of great nation moves.
II Prussia has been threatening France for
four years past, for four years, also, has
threatened France been straining with ILL
concealed anger at her leash.
Our dispatches of this morning,
indeed, inform us-and it is on the whole
the most important piece of Information
which they bring us-that in the Legisla-
tive Body yesterday NJ. Gambetta, a bril-
liant Radical orator who leaped last spring
at a single bound to a recognized position
as the first speaker of the House, gave no
tice that he should call upon the govern
ment to force this matter to a conclusion.
We mean, of course, the fifth article of the
Treaty of Prague, concluded in 1866 be-
tween Austria and Prussia, under the direct |
auspices of France. By this article Prussia |
bound herself to accept from Austria all the |
Austrian claims upon the allegiance of
Northern Schleswick, subjectto the express
condition that 'tif by free voting the dis
tricts of North Schleswick shall manifest
the wish to be united to Denmark, the dis
tricts in question shall be ceded to Den
mark" The honor of France was engaged
to secure the fulflment of this condition.
1t has never been fulfilled. The Prussian
government has evaded every appeal for its
fulflment, whether made by Franco, by
Austria, by Denmark, or by the people of
Schleswick themselves.
What NJ Gambetta-speaking, be it OBJ
served, not for the Imperiallsts but for the
Radical Republicans of France; not for
the dynasty of Napoleon but for the rights
and homer of his nation--now proposes,
must be taken to signify that, in the opin-
ion even of all the Radicals Of France
who are not bent on subordinating their
natriOtiSm itself To their hatred of the Inn