The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-29

in this country unfit us for perceiving the
force Of such necessities. To our Republ-
can notions of the subordination of modes to
consequences to our American ideas of
prompt action in emergencies-many of the
occasions of bloodshed in the present war, as
well as the war itself, appear not to have
been entirely unavoidable 1t looks to u.s.
for instance, as though the capitulation of
Sedan, known in that city to be inevitable
by MONDAY on the 1st inst, should have
taken place then, and not four or
five hours later in the day. We fail
to appreciate dilemmas as to by whom,
and how, and on what bastion, the white flag
should be displayed, or from whom should
come the request for truce while in the in
terim brave men were slaughtered by thou
sands in a hopeless contest, and bursting
shells and burning villages were every mo-
ment adding fresh havoc to a scene of devas-
tation. We are even inclined to accord to
the Emperor, for ultimately assuming the re-
sponsibiity of surrender and putting stop
to the carnage, praise which we should hesi-
tate about comforting on any previous act of
his existence.
Similarly, Americans in general cannot per-
ceive the necessity of the heroic defense of
Strasburg, or more especially of that which
is in prospect for Paris. Very gratifying and
very glorious to Uhrich and Trochu and their
admirers, no doubt, are such defenses Their
special value, we are told is that these exer-
tions place France in a better position to
effect a peace. Herein is another of those
things wherein Americans are so obtuse. We
cannot even help fancying that these matters
of form, which involve the loss of so many
lives and bring ruin on an incalculable num-
Der of individuals in and around those cities,
might perhaps be dispensed with to advan-
tage. 1t does seem as though Bismarck
might be right; as if the best way to obtain
liberal terms of peace might not be found in
exciting the citizens of the beleaguered cities
to prolonged defense and the people of
France to desperate war.
But family though we perceive these neces-
sites of form on the part of a nation that is
now a republic, an utter blindness comes
over Americans in the endeavor to see the
absolute requirements of propriety in Italy.
Though most of the panes in the glass-heuses
elsewhere in Europe be broken, what there
are left in that locality seem still to be of
conservatory kind. His Holiness the Pope
was perfectly conversant with the impractca
bility of defending Rome, but it seems that
the proprieties of the occasion required show
of defense. The States of the Church, it is
explained being pontifical property could be
yielded only to force. Hence some fighting
was necessary-merely for effect-and four
men had to be killed and thirty wounded be-
fore the flag of truce could be properly pre-
sented and The occupation of the city take
place. People on this side of the Atlantic
cannot help questioning whether the repre-
sentative of the Prince of Peace might not
have saved the lives of those poor fellows,
even at the sacrifice of little political
punctilio.
1--WE pity the dumb victim at the altar:
Doth the robed priest, for all our pity, fater?"