New-York tribune., 1870-09-09
pE1DE D1WNTNE

we do not credlt, tnougn We pilh' oii', "ii
NAV read and form their own conclusions, the
story that an alliance, offensive and defensive,
between Russia and France is on the point of
realization. We don't believe it for number
of good reasons. In the first place strong ma
tions do not make alliances with crippled ones,
particularly when the neighbOr of whom they
are invited to make an enemy lives next door.
Perhaps when France becomes strong again
and Prussia becomes aggressive, Russia may
think it worth while to do something more
than mediate But for the present the great
bear is peacefully inclined. Russia sees
nothing enticng just now In the friend
ship of France; she has everything to dread
from the enmity of United Germany. The
story, the responsibility of which our London
correspondent does not assume, is improbable,
for the further minor reason that Ministers,
however inexperienced, do not confide pending
negotiations of this character to the delegates
of political parties in foreign States. If France
has asked anything of Russia it is probably
mediation, not alliance.
We hope she has not asked even this. We
trust to see France manfuly make her own
peace, partly because we do not believe she
can win, but more because we do not think
she has the moral right to continue a war
against which she protested as openly and
boldly as under the Empire she burst protest,
and the responsibility for which she has since
repudiated. We cannot conceive that it would
be any disgrace to this people if their Ministers
were to go to King William and say, "This was
the crime of Napoleon, not of France. The
French people, unwillingly abetting then,
"repudiate and condemn it now" Such an
act would at once place the responsibility for
the continuation of the war upon the Ger
mans Then indeed King William would
not dare face the responsibility before the
world and before history of continuing
the war. Better still for France, he could
not venture TO face the responsibility
before Germany, whose enlightened sentiment
at once strengthens and restrains him. The
French will find in Russians, in English, i'll
Italians in Spaniards no friends more faith
full than the German people, whom they now
call enemies. The penalty for participation
unwilling though it was-in the crime of the
Empire cannot be wholly avoided by the
Republic; and Germany unquestiOnably has a
right to demand not only that its peace shall
henceforth be guaranteed, but that the vast
expenditure which it has been forced to incur
in preventing ACKNOWLEDGMENT shall be re-
paid by the Power that caused it. The equity
of this no nation of Europe can afford to deny.
| 1t has for some days been clear to close OBJ
servers of the political aspects in France, that
the new Ministry, abandoning all schemes OF
| alliance and mediation, must resort to negO-
tiations direct with King William. There are
strong indications in our dispatches that such
negotiations have been resolved upon, if not
actually begun. Reports from every quarter
agree in saying that the neutral Powers con-
template mediation. The circular of Jules
Favre, at first condemned as meaning war,
is now interpreted to indicate a desire
| for peace. Lord Lyons, and Chevalier Nigra,
the Italian Minister, are reported on their
way to King Williams headquarters rs en-
vOys of peace. Count Bismarck it is now
said, has reduced the indemnity demand of
Prussia by more than S4OO,OOO,0O0 and has
consented to refer to a Congress of the Powers
the question of the annexation of the con-
quered provinces. These are most encOurag
ing indications, and inspire great hopes of an
early declaration of peace before the war de-
generates into one of conquest and of hate
A few days more at furthest, must decide.