The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-07-18
i the more appropriate tina. art should thus

II the more appropriate that art should thus
commemorate his great invention. The two
statues might have evinced more originality II
the sculptor had not relied chiefly upon the
traditional means of distinguishing them by
symbolic accessories. But the fine photographs
OF them which have been sent to us show that
they are admirably executed. They can
readily be multiplied by copies of any dimen-
sions In marble or in bronze, and they would
be suitable ornaments for railway and tele-
graph stations throughout the world.
Rosetti, the sculptor, is described AZ ga
live man, an ardent patriot and believer in
the modern age" 1t is singularly suggestive
that these statues in honor of two prime
movers in this age of progress should have
been completed in Rome at the very mo-
ment when the majority of the Ecumencial
Council is generally supposed to be trying in
the same city to clog the wheels of modern
progress, to turn back the course OF time, and,
like Joshua of old, to make sun and moon
stand still. 1t recalls to mind the famous pro-
test of Calico as he rose from his knees after
having been forced TO retract his theory Of
the motion of the earth-E pur 81 muope!
France and tho North German Confedsra-
tion-Their Numerical Forces Not an
InfnIIible Test Of Their Relative sspe.
riority.
France has population of thirty-eight mil
lions. That Of the North German Confedera-
ton, consisting of Prussia, with the annexed
States Of Hanover, Hesse- Cassel, Schleswig-
Holstein, Nassau and Frankfort, and the Ger
man States north Of the river Main, amounts
to nearly thirty-one millions. The South Ger
man States, excluding Austria. may possibly
aid Prussia in its resistance to French aggres-
sion, aud they number nine millions. Thus
the balance in point of population is slightly
in favor of Germany. The French navy, with
its fifty-Gve iron-clads and their ,032 guns,
against the Prussian navy, with but four such
vessels and their fifty guns, and similar dis
parity in other classes of war steamers, il
indisputably superior. But although since
the unexpected victory Of Prussia in 1866 the
efficiency of the French army as well as that
of the French navy has been steadily increased
and the effective force OF the army with the
reserve has been brought up to eight hundred
thousand, number larger by two hundred
and sixty-three thousand than it had at the
commencement of the Crimean war, yet the
Prussian army has also been steadily in
creased until it contains six hundred and fiji
teen thousand, of whom four hundred and
fifty thousand are in active service, while tho
reserve of Prussia, consisting Of the entire
male population of suitable age, will enable
her to bring into the field. for defensive
campaign, a full million of thoroughly drilled
soldiers. Thus, in military point Of view.
France and the North German Confederaey
seem to be not very unequally matched.
But this apparent equilibrium of their nu-
merical forces is not an infallible test Of ths
relative superiority of the two nations. For
it cannot be forgotten that the new German
Confederacy is composed of the most hctero-
geneous elements to which the homogeneous
ness Of the French population must DO a for
midable and solid barrier. German unity has
long been an unrealzed dream. The unity
which Prussia enforced In 1866 is but a tod
ding babe four years Of age, and it must bs
an infant Hercules indeed, if it can success
fully strive against the mature strength Of
French unity. 1t would seem as if all the
sharply cut distinctions between Imperialist,
Orleanist, Bourbonist and republican parties
in France were about to be obliterated, at
least temporarily, in the universal passionate
desire of all Frenchmen to make the Rhine
their natural and acknowledged boundary
line When it is remembered how reluctantly
some of the lesser German States submitted
to the revision Of the map Of Prussia, which
how impatient they still must secretly be under
the yoke of Bismarck aud William l., 1t can
DO imagined that ii French army were 10
occupy Dresden, for instance, Its presence
might revive old animositities to Prussis,
whereas the occupation Of Lyons by q Prussian
army could not awaken, even among the regolu
tionary classes in that busy town any CORES
ponding hostility to the Emperor Of the
French, 80 long as that sovereign rides, with
his son, at the head of French army, strug-
Cling against invaders of French territory. On
both sides the enthusiasm for war appears to be
almost equal. As we have intimated, the uu-
merical forces of the opponents are not very
unequal. But it will not be safe to predict the
ultimate result of the contest between France
aud Prussia without careful estimate of other
elements in the problem than their respective
numerical forces. 49,
News FROM THE ANTIpODRs. Prom Austspl-
asia we have newspaper mail reports Of tho