The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-31

O6 bDOulu nave QOu6 MS UTMOST 10 moving,
finally lured him into the blunder of moving
when he should have stood still-fooled him
into declaring war whose least doubtful re-
suit must be his own downfall. His last
appearance on the throne of France is
scarcely in a more dignifed character than
that of puppet worked by the Prussian Pre-
mier. He was tempted in 1866 by the allur-
ing bait of the Rhine frontier. 1t seems to
be monomania with the French nation that
it will never be happy till the commonplace
Rhine is its eastern limit. Because that was
once the limit of France, and France lost it,
the nations pride is bent on its recovery;
and Napoleon saw the prestige it would give
to his reign and reflect on the dynasty if he
could restore that glory. With the hope of
the chance to seize it, or the promise that he
should have it, he stood still; and the war
ended and the promise and the opportunity
slipped away for ever. But in 1870 he saw
slipping away not only the chance for
Rhine frontier but the glory of keeping intact
the dignity and honor of France. He saw
the nation Inundated in his reign, and the
nation, skilfully initiated by the arch enemy,
saw things the same way, and thus he was
thrust and duped into war.
Napoleon's vanities and peculiar position
uncovered him to the arts of Bismarck His
intellectual furniture is made up in great part
of the splendid rubbish left by the resolute
SOlQler OF fortune, us uucle. NapOl0On knew
how to utter on occasion things that seethe
with the spirit of democracy He never
suffered himself, however, to be controlled
by them. The nephew treasures these utter
ances as a dynastic gospel, and does not dis
tinguish between what the first Emperor be-
lieved in and what he said to humbug others
He is thus involved in continued incon-
sistencies, and it is because of the prao-
tical application of one of these pretty
imminent peril. 1t is because there is q
united Germany that France finds herself
in the hands of an overwhelmingly pow
erful foe; yet Louis Napoleon tried to
excuse to France his inactivity in 1866 by
taking q position for the Bonapartes on
political formula that assumed to reconstruct
Europe by the aggregation of peoples accord
ing to nationality. This would do many
things in Europe that France might contem-
plate without displeasure. 1t would give all
Italy to the Italians, and so prove fair stroke
for the Latin nations. 1t would rend Austria
piecemeal 1t would put the British empire
in liquidation. 1t would disturb Russia. 1t
would take from Prussia her half digested cut
of Poland. All this would be satisfactory in
a Napoleonic view, perhaps But there is
one other thing it would do, that in its danger
to France would infinitely overbear all self
complacent views of the disasters of
others: it would give her great German
nation for her next door neighbor-a nation
of people hostile by tradition, opposed in
character and sentiment, and having century
long scores of humiliation to revenge 1t
would at one step forfeit that supremacy
through the division of others that the politi-
cal policy of every French dynasty has built
up. Committing himself to this philanthropic
blunder, Napoleon made it easier for Bis
marck to assimilate all the Northern German
States, and to approach the States of South
Germany with the conditional alliance that
now puts Bayaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg
side by side with Prussia in arms. And who
doubts that the Emperor has at last helped
the Prussian over his most difficult ground
by furnishing the war whose fire shall fuse
these all into one nation?
Yet what are all these events but so many
lessons teaching the people their power? Bis
marck and the Prussian monarchy move in
whirl of success and supremacy just now,
because their purposes coincide with the ma
tional development and tendencies of the
great German people. They assist and give
the opportunity to this development, and in
SO doing they encourage, beyond all calcula-
tion, its further progress. What is naturally
the ultimate aim of this progress Not to
satiate the ambition of few Prussian
princes, but to emancipate q great people
from all tyranny, and enable them to work
out their destinies, subject only
to such rational control by
Government as they may then in their
own intelligence and freedom choose to
submit to. In other words, the tendency in
Central Europe to-day is towards a grand
German republic In setting free the forces
that have enabled them to conquer France
and overthrow Napoleon, the men who now
direct the Prussian policy have set free the
forces that will drive them out-that will
tumble the Prussan throne, with other
thrones, and by which the people can conquer
their right of self-government. In the brain
of universal Germany this idea has come by
such imperceptible steps that it may be called
growth-first to be, next to be free; first to
be assured of existence, next to
qualify the modes of that exist
ence. Germany is now essentially one. The
people of all her States have fought side
by side for common German purpose ex-
cepting only the people of the Austrian
States, who have, however, given their active
sympathies and open encouragement. Thus
the first great stage is secured, and the second
is not far away, for we live in time of rapid
transition. The next study of the Prussian
King and his Minister may be not how to
further develop and WELD the power of the
German people, bat how to control and sup
press it. The Austrian monarchy and the
French monarchy are two foes the German
nation has crushed. The Prussian monarchy
must be the next victim.