The weekly standard., 1870-07-27
and the North German Com

France and the North German Confed-
eratiOn-Their Numerical Forces Not
an InfallibIe Test of their Relative
Superiority.
France has a population of thirty-eight
millions. That of the North German Con-
federation, consisting of Prussia, with the
annexed States of Hanover. Hesse-Cassel,
Schleswig Holstein, Nassau and Frankfort.
and the German States North of the river
Main, amounts to nearly thirty-one millions.
The South German States, excluding Aus
tria, may possibly aid Prussia in its resis-
tance to French aggression, and they mum
Der nine millions. Thus the balance in
point of population is slightly in favor of
Germany. The French navy, with its fifty
five iron-clads and their ,032 guns, against
the Prussian navy, with but four such YES
sells and their fifty guns, and similar dis
parity in other classes of war steamers, is in
disputably superior. But although since
the unexpected victory of Prussia in 1866
the efficiency of the French army as well as
that of the French navy has been steadily
increased and the effective force of the army
with the reserve has been brought up to
eight hundred thousand, number larger by
two hundred and sixty-three thousand than
1t had at the commencement of the Crimean
war, yet the Prussian army has also been
steadily increased, until it contains six hun
dred and fifteen thousand. of whom four
hundred and fifty thousand are in active SER
vice, while the reserve of Prussia, consisting
OF tie entire male population of suitable age
will enable her to bring into the field, for
defensive campaign, full million of thor
nTTFThl lF- ri IOd pl1
-no:nt Of view, Franco and the North Ger
man Confederacy seem to be not very une-
qually matched.
But this apparent equilibrium of their
numerical forces is not an infallible test of
the relative superiority of the two nations.
For it cannot be forgotten that the new Ger
man Confederacy is composed of the most
heterogeous elements to which the homo
geneousness of the French population must
be formidable and solid barrier. Germany
unity has long been an unrealized dream.
The unity which Prussia enforced in 1866
is but toddling babe four years of age, and
it must be an infant Hercules indeed, if it
can successfully strive against the mature
strength of Fiench unity. 1t would seem as
if all the sharply cut distinctions between
Imperialist, Orleanist, Bourbonist and re-
publican parties in France were about to be
obliterated, at least temporarily, in the uni
versal passionate desire of all Frenchmen to
make the Rhine their natural and acknowl-
edged boundary line. When it is remem-
bered how reluctantly some of the lesser
German States submitted to the revision of
the map of Prussia, which her successes in
1866 rendered possible, and how impatient
they still must secretly be under the yoke of
Bismarck and William L, it can be imagined
that if French army were to occupy Dres-
der, for instance, its presence might revive
old animosities to Prussia, whereas the oc
cupation of Lyons by Prussian army could
not awaken, even among the revolutionary
classes in that busy town any corresponding
hostility to the Emperor of the French, so
long as that sovereign rides, with his SOD, at
the head of French army, struggling
against invaders of French territory. On
both sides the enthusiasm for war appears
to be almost equal. As we have intimated,
the numerical forces of the opponents are
not very unequal. But it will not be safe
to predict the ultimate result of the contest
between France and Prussia without care.
tul estimate of other clements in the prob
lem than their respective numerical forces,