The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-14
SPIRIT or Tzn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics-compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
FRIENDLESS FRANCE.

other day they surrounded the United States
Legation, and cheered for hours together.
On Monday, as the telegraph informed us
yesterday, Mr.. Washburne was recognized in
the street, and instantly the crowd began
to cheer In q few minutes the crowd in
creased-it does not take long to bring
large assemblage together in Paris in these
excited times-and the American Minister
received q ''most enthusiastic ovation"
The explanation of this outburst of feeling
is not difficult to find. When q man is
plunged in very great distress, his heart over
flows towards those who utter the first words
of sympathy in his ears. It is the same with
nations. France has gone through bitter
experience. The whole world has been
against her-in quarters where she looked
for kind words she heard only denunciations.
Never was a nation SO solitary in the midst
of great disasters. At last the Government
and people of the United States sent over a
message of gentler meaning. The proud
spirit of a defeated but not humiliated
people at once is softened, and they send
back to us their gratitude for what it has
cost us very little to give them.
When it became question of king against
republic, the sympathies of this country were
pretty sure to be transferred to the side of
France. Now that Napoleon has disappeared
from the roll of monarchs there is no more
thorough representative of arbitrary govern
ment left in Europe than the King of Prus-
sia. He has opposed every liberal reform,
and only the success of his crafty Minister'S
policy in strengthening the position of Prus-
sia in Europe has induced the independent
States to cast in their lot with the Kings. 1t
is not Prussia which has won in this cam
paign, but united Germany; and our best
hope must be to see Prussia subordinate in
the future to the general Confederation.
That cannot happen while an upholder of
the principle of the Divine right of
kings remains paramount. Intrigues
have evidently been set on foot to
make King William Emperor" of Ger
many. We should prefer to see, as one
result of the war, a republic established
in both Germany and France. France has
already freed herself from Imperial rule and
now we are told that King William stands
aghast at this part of his work. He treats
Napoleon as reigning sovereign. He looks
upon the Provisional Government with scorn.
Can it be supposed that the American people
will extend to him their sympathies when he
occupies position so much at variance with
their own political instincts? Germany fight
ing for the integrity of its soil against an
Imperial army is one thing; Germany fighting
at the bidding of despot against republic
is another. We are on the side of people
struggling to be free, and therefore, we are
now once more enabled to resume our old
cordial relations with France.
Our policy has been tolerably straight
forward, and hereafter will bear examination.
But what verdict will history pronounce on
the conduct of England throughout the
struggle? Between the pernicious influences
of the Court, the usual blind infatuation of
the London Times whenever foreign ques-
tion arises, and the imbecility of the Glad
stone government England has been led into
course which will reflect eternal dishonor
upon her. She has fawned upon Prussia,
and only been spurned by Bismarck in re-
turn. She has heaped all kinds of insults
upon the Power with which it was to her best
interests to be at peace, and covered
with obloquy ruler who on several
occasions encountered the unpo-
pularity of the French people in his
efforts to strengthen the English alliance.
eff, said Mr.. Bright in the House of Com
mons, on July 21, 1859, ''there be one thing
which is more distinctly marked in the policy
of the Emperor of the French, since his
accession to the throne of France than an
other, it is his perpetual anxiety, by every
means consistent with his own safety, and
with the interest, as he believes, of France
to ally himself with England, and with the
foreign policy of England" What return
has England nade? She has seized the first
convenient opportunity she found to heap
indignities on the French people and their
late ruler at the same time. Can
anything be more disgraceful than
the language which the London
Times has systematically used toward
France since the war begun? 1t has rendered
itself the organ of Count Bismarck, only to be
treated with contempt 1t has made itself
the slavish mouth piece of a court which has
always thought more of its German connec-
tions than the honor of England What is
the ancient repute of England compared with
the Queens cousin, daughters, and sons-in-
law? What does England owe to the House
of Hanover but revolted colonies, miserable
wars, gradual degradation from a first to a
third class power, and whole world embit-
tered against her? If England can never
have Queen like Elizabeth again, or King
like William III, the flag of republic cannot
float too soon over her royal palaces
''The English people," wrote NJ Edmond
About lately, stimulate their cold hearts
with all the generous blood our soldiers have
shed upon the battlefield, and cast a thought
neither towards Belgium nor Holland, nor the
Dutch colonies, nor to that rivalry of the seas
which would avenge our defeat upon them
selves if the fate of arms condemned us
without appeal. If Englands proper place in
this struggle was not by the side of France
and We are not prepared to go so far as to
contend that it was-at least it was her duty
to have refrained from outrageously insulting
brave and noble people overtaken by sudden
and vast calamities. Has France made any
compact with England that she has not faith
fully observed? 1t is easy enough to turn
upon her with jibes in this hour of hel
misery. But the Times, which is foremost
in doing the dirty work-was it not the first
to prostrate itself in the dust before Napoleon
after the coup detat? Has it not contriyed to
render England detested all over Europe, and