New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-09-15

PRUSSIA AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.
| Our special correspondent at Berlin sends
us this morning an explanation of the recent
report that King William has resolved not to
recognize the French Republic, but to make
the restoration of Napoleon one of the con-
ditions of peace. The King has indeed declared
that the Provisional Government has no va
lidity de jure, and he will not treat with it:
the only authority he can recognize in France
is that of the Senate and Corps LGgislatif,
with the Ministry of the Regency, though for
| Napoleon personally he does not concern him
self. AS soon as peace is concluded the ex-
Emperor will be released, and France will be
left free to adopt whatever government her
people prefer
1t seems TO us that France has already made
it perfectly clear that she will have no more
of the Empire, and whatever form OF govern
ment she may ultimately prefer, the one with
which King William insists upon treating is
that which she emphatically rejects. The Re-
gency is in exile Before the Prussian demand
can be complied with, the Empress must return
to Paris, and the administration which France
has deliberately overthrown must be formally
restored Germany has no right to exact
such condition. If state of civil
war prevailed in France the King would
have q right to elect which of the contending
parties he would recognize, and to insist upon
the submission of the other before he granted
any terms But here there is no conflict of
parties. The Empire has been OyerthrOwn, the
Republic inaugurated, by the peaceful action
of the French people. The Provisional Gov
eminent, however it may have originated, Is
accepted without a protest by the whole ma
ton. 1t cannot be ignored without just that
unwarrantable interference with the domestic
politics of France which Count Won Bismarck,
in conversation reported in our columns this
morning, disavows any purpose of exercising.
Ii may be replied that the Germans have a
right to demand that guarantees for the pres
ervation of peace shall be given them by some
permanent and responsible authority, not by a
government born of the popular clamor of the
hour and likely TO be overturned as suddenly
as it was formed There is reason In this ;
but if there is any form of government which
more than another cannot now be permanent
and responsible in France it is imperialism.
1t has fallen beyond the possibility OF restora-
ton. There may be question In France be-
tween the Republic and the dynasty of Orleans
but the Empire, so far as we can per-
ceive, has not friend iii the whole
country. It's restoration, by the free
will of the French people, is utterly
hopeless If restored by the Prussians,
it could only be kept in power by foreign
bayonets. Even the French army would re-
fuse to support it. The King may treat with
it if he please, but France would never hold
herself morally bound by the treaty, and as
soon as the Prussians returned to Berlin the
rotten dynasty would fall again.
We trust the views of the Prussian premier,
who in this as in previous instances has shown
himself much more in sympathy with the
spirit of the age than his royal master, will
ultimately prevail, and that Germany in the
hour of her glorious triumph will not
repel the sympathies of every free
people by wicked and desperate
attempt to bolster up a ruined dcspOt-
ism. The forcble restoration of Comparison,
either in the person of Napoleon or in the
form of a NapOleonic regency, would be "A
crime at which all enlightened men must cry
out. If the Regent is to be recalled merely
for the purpose of signing treaty of submis-
sion, her presence in Paris will be a diplomatic
mockery and an additional humiliation to the
French people; if there is to be an attempt to
restore the tyranny Of which she was the
representative that attempt will arouse the
: indignation of the world.