The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-29
SPIRIT or THE PRHss.
Editorial Opinions ofthe Leading ] ournals
Upen Current Topios-compiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.

OUGHT GERMANY TO MAKE PEACE
From the N. Y. Times.
Duelling is a barbarous institution enough
but as practised among civilized men it
has recognized code, in which humanity
and common fairness are not altogether for
gotten. The man who had wounded his
antagonist in a personal quarrel, but who
should decline to lay aside his arms until
the fallen foe was hopelessly manned and
dsigured for life, would Justly be accounted
little short of wild beast. A nation is but
an aggregate of men, and it is difficult to
imagine any good reason why a course of
action that would dishonor the Individual
should be held to be creditable to the mass.
The unit fights for what he calls wounded
honor and desists when it is satisfied; the
combined millions of units fight sometimes
for an equally empty phrase, sometimes
for the more tangible reason of national CO.
heson or defense, but in either case are
equally expected to desist when the pre-
scrbed object is attained. The solidarity of
these nations has become in these times
more than nero verbal expression, as France
discovered when she declared war against
Prussia, and was confronted by a united
Germany, and as Germany may find should
she isolate herself from the moral support
of every free State ia the world. When the
Second Empire menaced the internal cohe-
sion of Germany by provoking a causeless
quarrel, the sympathies of the great
majority of onlookers were instinct
lively turned against the aggressor.
1t was patriotism on the one side
against the lust of conquest on the other; and
even the share market, which knows no
country, and concerns itself but little about
abstract right or wrong, rose with the an
nouncement of each German victory from
the hopeless depression into which the pro-
bable advance of the French arms had at first
thrown it. But all this has changed now
The patriotism has shifted to the French side,
and the aggression seems to perch upon the
German banners. The empire that began
the war is dead beyond hope of resuscita-
ton, and Prussia now wars against people
who have but newly resumed those sovereign
prerogatives for whose abuse they are but
partially responsible.
A nation that stands in the front rank of
modern civilization and culture persists in
protracting the most desolating struggle that
the world has seen. Weighty and potent
reasons alone could Justify war under such
circumstances, and from an educated and
religious Germany humanity expects ex-
ceptionally good reasons for such q course.
German unity was in peril. Bismarck him
self cannot pretend that it is so any longer.
France was an ambitious and encroaching
neighbor. She is ready to give all the guar
antees that one nation can expect from an
world expected the triumph of the German
cause to inaugurate an era of peaceful pro-
gress, and to discredit forever the theory
of national conquest. The foremost mill
tary power in Europe could have held
military ambition forever in check
Instead of that it seems on the
point of becoming the most relentless and
malignant of conquerors that the Old World
has seen since Attila and his Huns earned
the title of ''the scourge of God" The
s'pitiless logic" of their native Hegel finds
more than counterpart in the terrible ear
nestness with which the German leaders push
their plans to their utmost developments.
Two hemispheres stand aghast at the porten-
tous spectacle of Paris besieged. They are
becoming stirred to indignation at the re-
cital of cruelties inflicted upon women and
children, for which the responsibility of the
authorities elsewhere quoted demands a
certain degree of credence. France is being
goaded into desperation, and may any day
rise en- ntGSSe upon the invaders, with all the
instincts of a wild beast, for whose blind
fury those who provoked it must be held
responsible.
To such very excellent reasons for con-
cluding an honorable peace with France,
there is now added the important one of
growing discomfort among the people of
Germany. Stern and implacable abroad,
Prussia has been compelled to become arbi-
trary at home. An odious war has begun
upon the organs of public opinion, and argu-
ments that cannot be met are conveniently
silenced 10y the agency of prison bars.
Liberal democratic Germany has no quarrel
with a free and republican France, and in
spite of repression and persecution, it will
continue to lodge its protest with growing
emphasis against war that threatens popular
liberty at home as we'll as abroad ket
Prussia beware lest the national unity,
which at the beginning of the war
sprung at once into a new and vigor-
GUS life, should ere its close become a
hollow and uncertain thing-shattered by
the ordeal of success more fatally than il
could ever have been by the direst adversity.
Recollections of As are not dead yet in
Bavaria, Baden, or even in Prussia itself,
and much as the Germans value liberty with
union, they may once more elect to have the
first, though the last may be thereby endan.
gered. The cohesion of great people may
be quickly formed; time alone can confirm
it. The triumphs of the field of battle MAY
be more brilliant and alluring than those in
the sphere of constructive politics. If pur
sued for their own sake, there is no quicker
road to national degradation, and no surel
symptom of latent decay. No candid OBJ
server processes to see in the Prussian term:
lately reported any evidence of desire tC
conclude the war. They were unnecessarily
severe, and as such were made but to be re
jeeted. Meanwhile, therefore, Germany hai
assumed the responsibility of a destructiv,
and unnatural contest, whose dire results NJ
man living will survive to see effaced
would be rash to assume that King William
and his advisers will much longer retain thei
attitude of uncompromising hostility, but i
is greatly to be deplored that they shoul,
kol-a