New-York tribune., 1870-09-05
bloody, will result finally in the expulsion for
ever of every shred of the shattered Napoleonic
dynasty from the country it has ruined.

dynasty from the country it has ruined.
----
CAN FRANCE CONTINUE THE STRUGGLEi
The French Ministers in a proclamation
which only half reveals the disasters of Mac
Mahon-which insultingly continues the decep-
tons by which the Paris people have been
betrayed-announced yesterday that the strug-
gle is to be continued, and that the victory at
Sedan will not be accepted as decisive. The
Minister of War; Count Palikao, communicated
this resolve of the Ministry in more positive
terms to the Corps Legisatif on Saturday;
while Jules Favre declared the unanimty
of the country "fOr defense until DEATH"
The Chamber, evidently excited beyond con-
troll by the grave announcement of the Minis
ter, wildly applauded the absurd declaration.
France may indeed blindly continue the con-
fict, but it will be the struggle of madmen,
certain of disastrous result. No reports of the
effect of the proclamation on the Paris pOpu-
lace have been permitted to reach us, but II is
safe to assume that this resolve of the Minis
try to continue the struggle has been infu-
enced largely by the excitement which must
naturally have prevailed iii Paris and through
out France on Saturday and Sunday, when the
truth, so long concealed, was divulged The
sober second thought of the Ministry and the
people will reveal the hOpelessness of the
French cause and occasion and circumstance
will be found to warrant the conclusion of
peace on the best terms.
France, powerful as she still is, patriotic and
enthusiastic as her people continue, cannot
hope, in her disorganized condition, to win
battle, or to raise the siege of her Capital
which must follow if Peacesdoes not. Nearly
all the important fOrtresses of the Meuse,
Moselle and Rhine yet hold out. Bazaine at
Metz has not surrendered the seventy or
eighty thousand men whom it is declared by
the Paris authorities he still directs Count
Paikao now announces that large army lies
within the defenses at Paris, and that second
is forming on the Loire, south of the Capital.
&" The military forces of France will be Or
"ganizedn y it is announced with most dis
cOuraging indefiniteness, " in a few days"
The promise is a deception it cannot be re-
deemed Before "a few days" elapse, the
Prussians will thrust themselves between
Paris and the Loire and break up the camps
before the levies can march to Paris. The
beseged fortresses, it is true, detain before
1t is true, also, that two large armies number
ing 15O0O0-perhaps 2OOOOO-of the best Ger
man soldiers are required to watch Bazaine.
But the garrisons of the fortresses and the
army of Bazaine are lost to France; and it Is
only the two armies of new troops at Paris
and on the Loire with which the French can
oppose the advance of those of the two Crown
Princes. Their armies PalkaO has estimated at
100000. Gen. Won Moltke himself calculated that
100000 Prussians and Saxons and Bavarians-
United Commissioned the grand Crescent
which in victory became fiery circle about
Sedan. But these were not all the troops of
the two armies named. Large columns had
moved west of Mezieres and took no part in
the battle at Sedan, while the front. OF the
columns marching on Paris were never with
drawn from about Troyes, Sezanne, and
Epernay Hence the estimate of the French
Minister is below rather than above the truth;
we are convinced that not fewer than
350,0O0 German troops are free to pursue
any army which the French may at
tempt to organize. The French cannot
arm, much less organize and train,
force equal in numbers to this. Years OF the
best military training-better than France has
known since the First Empire-wil be required
TO make of the present French levies soldiers
fit to cope with the Germans. 1t must not be
forgotten, by those most sanguine of final
French triumph, that it is the regular or
"active army" and a part of the reserves of
France which have been annihilated, and that
the future defense against the advancing
German veterans must be made by the Garde
Mobile and what remains of the old soldiers
who form the reserve. The insane proposition
of the French Ministry is nothing more nor
less than that quarter of a million unframed
and unOrganized youths shall attempt to stay
the advance of 100000 of the best trained and
best armed soldiers of Europe. The result
cannot be doubted.
But this unequal conflict will yet be avoided.
Events which must follow in Paris cannot but
give the control of the country to wiser and
cooler heads than those who propose to con-
time so useless a struggle. The advance of
the Prussians upon Paris will be rapid-unless
Diplomacy shall stay it indefinitely-but the
march of events in Paris will be swifter. The
Empire will set-we trust not in boOd-and
new and q better government VIII rise In ITS
stead. Its first act, in the interest not only
of France but . Humanity, should be to ac-
cept the peace which the victory of the Ger
mans entities them to dictate.