The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-12

mics because it is for the most part beneath
the level of what is best in American thou yht
and literature. 1t is more abusive, fsnatical,
and sensational than the best Americans show
themselves to be. The Continental press is
either official, or it is imbued with the spirit
of CLIQUE, or at best it is so very thin aud
fragmentary that there is really scarcely any
thing to read in the best foreign papers But
in England the press is as good as anything
there is in England; and it has
never shown its excellence more
evidently than now in dealing with the |
present war. The exertions made to get in
formation, to present it in a lucid FORM and |
to pass an accurate judgment on it are enor- |
nous. The views taken by different papers |
vary of course; but in all the papers of any
standing there is a most indisputable wish to
present vast variety of information, and to |
discuss both the military and the political
situation with perfect fairness. The DdSLy |
NeacS deserves special mention perhaps for
the rapidity of its intelligence and for the
copiousness and value of its military narra-
tives. But it does not stand alone. The
Standards very French, and furnishes many
facts and some fctions that tell on the
French side. But its daily criticism on the
war is not only mastery, but is rigidly i'm
partial. The history of the war; accompa-
MED by free but honest and carefully con-
sidered criticism on the war; its causes and
consequences, is being written in England,
and in England only. The belligerents de-
test this, and it needs no explanation why
they detest it. They are in far too excited
state to like having their dol n gs usfo!d
and judged. Admirable as the English press
is in many ways, and determined as we all
may be not to forego the pleasure it aft ords
us, it has, it must be owned the drawback of
inspiring great amount of enmity against
England in foreign nations.
English institutions, again, do not much
commend themselves to either belligerent at
this moment. The particular point on which
Englishmen now insist most fully and trium-
phantly is that the military despotism of the
Second Empire has collapsed in the hour Of
trial, and that all that has ever been said
against it has been justified. But then how
does the system of Parliamentary govern
ment stand just now? The minds of the
| belligerents are naturally full of war, and the
test they apply is whether this or that politi-
cal system gives strength in war. When
they apply this test to England the result is
not very encouraging. We have wealth, q
high national spirit, fondness for adventure
and plenty of men. But we have nothing
like military organization. Our mill
tary system is mere chaos. Every
day we tell ourselves and all the
world that our national army of defense
is no army at all. In case of a real danger
the men would not know what to do, the
commanders would not know what to do,
and the Government would not know what to
do. But isit at all certain that any change
for the better will be made? viii our
Parliamentary institutions permit that it
should be NADER We confess that we are not
at all sanguine. 1t is true that the press is
supposed to be great power in the country;
and on this particular subject Of the army
the whole press is, strange to say, unani-
nous. Its whole power is being brought to
bear yn the official world; but we are forced
to own that in the long run the official world
may beat it, and may succeed in getting
things left as they are We are not speak
ing merely of the persons now in Office.
There is not the slightest reason
to suppose that the Opposition would do any
better. All Parliamentary people take the
Parliamentary view. The sole Parliamentary
effect of the outbreak of the war was to raise
an interminable quarrel as to whether the
Liberals have or have not got handful of
regular troops more at less total cost than
the Conservatives inflicted on the country
1t is needless to say that we in England see
how great in other respects the advantages of
Parliamentary government are; but we are
speaking now of how this form of government
is likely to strike French and Germans; and
it must be confessed that, with our Parlia-
mentary wrangling about an additional force
that might perhaps suffice to garrison Toal
or PfalZburg, with our militia and volunteers
left useless, and with our Sovereign happily
buried far away from business in a remote
part of Scotland, we do not present ourselves
in very bright or attractive light to nations
engaged in gigantic war.
England is also supposed to be at present
the centre of diplomatic action. The rumors
of immediate Intervention or the purpose of
giving useless advice have indeed most fortu-
nately died away lately. The reception they
met with was so very discouraging that moth
ing more has been said about them. Still
as England was, for the moment at least
offered as the arbitress of peace, the bellige-
rents were led to consider the position of
England, and they certainly have expressed
their conclusions with the utmost freedom.
In the present war navies are of scarcely any
use, and what use, they ask, would be the
tiny contingent England could offer to either
side, and how could it control the action of
either. There is much truth in this,
nize it England is a great maritime
power, it is a very great Asiatic power, it
might easily have magnificent defensive
army. But it can never play more than
small part in Continental wars. The saying
attributed to Mr.. Gladstone, that we must
take care that the conqueror did not become
too strong, has fortunately been expressly
repudiated, SO that we shall not have to eat
our big words; but so long as they believed
that the Premier had used this language, the
Germans, with whom victory seems likely to
rest, naturally asked how we proposed to
take the fruits of victory away from them.
} Both belligerents are aware that if we could
J arrange the terms of peace we should think
of our own interests, and it is obvious that
} our interests pull us different ways.
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