The New York herald., 1870-08-19
NapolesnSs DimcuIties and Dangcrs-Ena-
land Offers n Chance Of Escape.


England has offered to the French Emperor
o way of escape from the difficulties and
dangers which threaten his overthrow and ex-
pulsion, and the re-establishment of the re-
public in the further prosecution of this war.
Englands proposition is simply q treaty 0i
peace. Napoleon intmates through Lord
Lyons that he is ready to bury the hatchet,
but King William replies to the special mes
senger of Queen Victoria that if France wants
peace she must ask an armistice in the usual
way, or leave the issue to the arbitrament OF
war. This reduces Napoleon, then, to the war
or an armistice, and while by war his empire
may be lost, through an armistice the empire
and his dynasty may yet be saved. 1t is pro-
bable, too, that with very little urging on the
part of her Britannia Majesty the Emperor
will be persuaded even to an armistice.
Why not? Excepting suspension Of hos
tilities with treaty of peace, what alternative
Of safety is offered to Napoleon? With the
presence of the Prussian invading army in
front of Paris ''the republic" is threatened,
and from present appearances this in
vading army will not be arrested till in
front Of the walls of Paris. Stout old
King William, over the most formida-
BILE obstacles of the most difficult line
of approach from her Eastern frontier, has
passed into the heart of France. Through
network Of fortified cities and towns, over
mountain ranges and difficult rivers, fighting
and routing at every step the flower of the
French army, its best generals and its best sol
diers, the massive columns of the German
Confederation have maintained their resistless
advance towards the French capital. Com
pared with the natural and artificial obstruc
tons they have passed the obstacles which lie
between them and Paris are comparatively in
significant They have shown that against an
invading army, powerful enough to protect it.
self in the open field, front, TANKS aud rear,
detached fortified towns and Cities mountain
de6les and river crossings are no impedi-
ments; that all such distractions may be
swallowed up in the general advance. 1t fol-
lows, then. that, having driven the French
army from the strongest defensive lines which
lie between the French Rhine border and
Paris, there is nothing that can arrest the
advancing German columns except more
stubborn and effective resistance in the open
field than any resistance they have so far en-
countered.
The invading army OF the Germans is
ported as exceeding in numbers half million
of men that each Of the powerful and expan-
sive wings of the Crown Prince and Prince
Frederick Charles numbers two hundred and
fifty thousand men, and that the veteran Stein
metz, who appears to be a second edition of
Blucher, holds in the centre a chosen body of
nearly hundred thousand men. Nor is this
all for it further appears that second Ger
man army, one hundred and fifty thousand
strong, is following King Williams to protect
his rear and his communications, &c. This
German campaign, therefore, in France
dwarfs the most imposing campaigns of the
First Napoleon; for even the mighty army
with which he marched into Russia, French
and Germans, hardly numbered, all told, four
| hundred thousand men, In half dozen or
more of the recent battles, from WOerth to the
| line of the Moselle it would appear from the
reports received that the Prussian force alone
has exceeded in numbers the strength of all
the three armies engaged in the battle of
Waterloo
The great mistake of Napoleon, then, it
would appear, in entering upon this war was
in his calculations concerning the German
army he would have to meet in the
field. He evidently supposed that a fight
ing French force of two hundred and
| fifty thousand men would be sufficient for all
the requirements of short triumphant cam
paign to Berlin and under this erroneous
| calculation he advanced TO the Prussian from
tier and opened the ball in the little deceptive
affair of Saarbruck. We say deceptive, for
only few days after it thhs rejoicDgs of Paris
were changed into panic with the news OF
| the defeat of MacMahon by the overwhelming
, forces Of the enemy. BY one-half Napoleon 5
| estimates have fallen short of the actual Ger
| man army to be overcome. Can he now repair
this blunder? Can he even repair his losses
with his new levies of raw troops? The odds
are heavily against him. He can hardly
recover bis strength short of retreat with
his disabled army to Paris. In the stubborn
ness of despair the tide of battle may, perhaps,
be turned but this alternative involves all
the hazards Of crushing defeat.
The only perfectly safe alternative of Napo-
leon in the crisis, as it appears to us, is the
armistice suggested by King William and a
treaty Of peace. This will give the Emperor
the strong hand over Paris, through his still
powerful and loyal army, and then, through a
conference Of the great Powers, which Prussia
can hardly deny, looking to the general inte-
rests OF peace. France, under the empire, may
be- regularly acknowledged by all the great
Powers and still be maintained intact. Eng