The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-03

The long struggle Of King william in the
early part of his reign with the Prussian
Chamber and the liberal stat,,1men which it
followed had for its object the extension of
that part of his army which correspon ded to
the permanent armies of England,
France, and Austria. On the
other hand, the French system,
always in some degree removed from one of
purely meroenary organization by the con-
scription, has been brought much nearer to
the Prussian arrangements by the augmented
importance of the Garde Mobile What
Europe is in danger of is the establishment
in every continental country of combina
ton of the two systems Every man, from
youth to old age, will be under liability to
military service; all labor, skilled and un-
skilled, will be liable to interruption at the
most critical epochs, and the sources of
plenty, ease, and comfort will thus from
time to time be suddenly dried up. But this
will not save continental populations from
having large amounts of capital subtracted
and labor withdrawn to keep up armies in no
respect substantially different from merce-
nary armies, and equally at the disposal
of gambling statesmen and intriguing
monarchs.
When Count Bismarck declined the English
proposal to disarm, he stated that, owing to
the difference between the French and Ger
disarmament would be very difficult to regu-
late Knowing what Count Bismarck knew,
it is hard to conceive his giving any answer
which did not convey refusal; but, as mat
ter of fact, the two systems are not nearly SO
incommensurable as they once were. 1t is
the transformation of part of the Prussian
army into something not very unlike other
|. continental armies which has made it as for
midable for attack as, before the present
IL
feuse. The argument, at all events, is not
one that ought to prevent the most strenuous
exertions on the part of the statesmen who
will have to settle the terms of peace. II
those terms include no securities against the
multiplication of vast armies, resting univer-
sally on armed populations, the wisdom of
diplomacy is indeed foolishness, AMI Europe
has never had darker future before it.
ASSESSMENT OF COLORED VOTERS.
From the Harrisburg Patriot.
The Pottsville Miners J0u7aal says that in
some Democratic counties the assessors have
refused to perform the duty of registering
the colored voters, and that for this reason
Governor Geary ISSUED his proclamation
calling upon the commissioners of the several
counties to see the law enforced Now we
distinctly repeat that there has been no dis
position to refuse registry to the negroes in
any Democratic county of this State. Frau
dulent as the fifteenth amendment is the
Democrats and conservative Republicans
mean to obey it, but at the same time punish
its authors at the polls. Governor Geary has
no evidence in the executive department
which justifes his silly proclamation, and the
Miners Journal cannot make good what it so
recklessly asserts.
The simple story of Geary's proclamation
is soon told. The Warrior is a rival of Came
ron for the Senate of the United States. He
has an exceedingly small political capital to
carry on business against so powerful and
willy rival. Fearing that the people were
forgetting him, Geary thought he would star
tie them with another proclamation. There
was nothing left him for a subject but the
fifteenth amendment. 1t was little to him
that the conservative, moderate and law
abiding people of Pennsylvania, everywhere,
render obedience to the amendment, and the
laws passed to enforce its execution. He
could not forego the keen pleasure of spread
ing himself on paper even though he should
libel his fellow citizens in an official docu-
ment. By his proclamation he meant to convey
to the country the. false impression that a
portion of the people of the State which has
the misfortune to have him for chief magis-
trate were conspirlng to disobey the laws.
For the sake of making little poor political
capital and gratifying his disgusting vanity,
he did not hesitate to issue a false and
libelous proclamation. Not another radical
governor in the United States will have the
meanness to conceive and execute a work Of
such vile and contemplate partisanship. All
that he gets for his pains is the con-
tempt and scorn of the radicals them
selves, who do not fail to see through
the motives that have dictated this proclama-
ton. The Miners Journal will struggle in
vain to impart dignity to this document of
Geary, or suggest high and honorable pur-
pose in the issuing of it. Governor Geary is
as great on proclamations as the Dutch Gov
ernor of New Amsterdam. The Miners
Journal has not forgotten that Supple
mentary proclamation" which was issued for
the purpose of defrauding Henry D. Foster
of his seat in Congress, on the pretense that
new evidence of illegal voting had been re.
! ceiYed in the Executive Department