The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-02

astuteness in devising complaints against
England, never objected during their own
civil war to the expectation of munitions of
war from England to the Confederate States.
Prussia supplied Russia with arms during the
Crimean war; and the English Government,
on the advice Of its law officers, deliberately
withheld the remonstrances which it had been
inclined to make against the trade. Count
Bernstorffs warning that the resentment of
Germany against England will be permanent
may perhaps be well founded; and it is
equally probable that the Pdtrje of the same
date with the North German Ambassadors
note may accurately represent the
opinions and feelings of Frenchmen.
'The Wing Cabinet" according to the
writer in the Pdt,T6, ''manifests towards
France the most hostile disposition, aud in
this it is in harmony with the Queen, whom
tho ties of relationship render exclusively
favorable to Prussia 1t is then
necessary to admit that the English Cabinet
is blinded by feeling of pitiful jealousy, and
that it assists with secret Joy in producing
the ruin of our influence, and the humiliation
of rival whose prestige has always wounded
British pride" 1t is scarcely possible that
both charges can be true, but both are credi-
BILE to those by whom they are respectively
preferred, and France aud Germany will per-
haps at the end of the war be equally alien
ated from En- gland.
At present there is more excuse for French
reclamations than for German abuse, if only
because impatience is more pardonable in
sickness than in health. Some of the French
complaints against England are natural and
unavoidable, because they are founded on
difference Of character which makes the ways
of thinking of the two nations in some
respects mutually unint eligible. Thus NJ
Louis Blanc, before his departure from Eng
land, demonstrated against the habit of be-
ieving the German dispatches and disbeliev-
ing the official reports of incessaut French
victories. French Republicans practically
adopt the theological dogma that faith is an
operation, not of the intellect, but of the
affections and the will. AS it had never
occurred to NJ. Blanc rhat credence ought to
depend upon credibility, he naturally attri-
buted to unfriendly prejudice the preference
of truth to falsehood; and his opinion has
probably not been changed by the fact that all
the German successes were actually attained
while the French triumphs were deliberately
manufactured in Paris Another cause of
annoyance is the insular dulness which fails
to understand how France and Paris came to
be more sacred than any other country or
capital city. 1t must be taken for granted
that NJ. Victor Hugos rhapsodies find ad-
mirers outside the walls of the French Bed
lam or Hanwell; but to Englishmen they
seem merely explosions of effervescing nom
sense, as insipid as they are tiatulent Neverthe-
less, regret for the disasters of France is uni
versally felt in England. In the early part of
the war it would have been criminal not to
sympathize with the cause Of Justice, main
tanned by unparalleled wisdom in council and
valor in the field. The quarrel of Germany
has not ceased to be just nor has the supe-
riority of German arms been disturbed; but
it is grievous misfortune that such city
as Paris should be exposed to the horrors and
the hazards of war. The majority
of Englishmen would prefer that the Ger
man victors should content them
selves with the recovery of Strasburg, and
with the proof which they have afforded that
their territory is not to be attacked or threat
ened without ruiDous consequences to the
aggressors If sympathy afforded any conso-
lation in the midst of misfortune, the French
would have no reason for complaining of the
coldness of their neighbors. Since the cheap
commodity of goodwill is not unnaturally
rejected as worthless, England has nothing
more at present to offer The Germans may
possibly be harsh in their use of victory, but
they have not thus far exceeded their rights.
Paris only suffers the fate which every
brawler in France destined for Berlin at a
time when Germany had given no offense ex-
cept by becoming united and powerful. 1t
would be needless to appeal to the candor and
justice of either belligerent; but Englishmen
may perhaps wish to assure themselves that
they are not monsters of iniquity.