The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-06
SPIRIT OF gau PRnss,
Editorial Opinions Ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current TopiOs-C Compil ed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
FRANCE AND NAPOLEON.

campaign, and terrible as the disaster is which
has Just overtaken the Emperor's armies, we
look to see France arise from her humiliation,
no longer, it is true, with her old prestige,
but with possibilities of future grandeur and
a temper chastened by suffering. With
abundant natural wealth, developed indus
tries, skill in tho arts, and, above all, a brave
and generous people, France is hard to
crush; we do not believe that external vio-
lence will ever bring her permanently very
low. Even the defeat under which she is
now smarting is only in part the work of the
German armies. In the long run Prussia
would in any case have been too strong for
her, but the beating would not have been so
awful and so sudden had not the
Empire been rotten at the core, and its
apparent military strength glittering sham
The worst foe to France has been neither
Bismarck nor King William, but Louis Napo-
leon. So to-day but one voice is heard from
the defeated French--a cry of execraton
against the sovereign who has brought them
to such plight, cry of anger mingled with
profound contempt. None have been more
violent in their denunciations of the imperial
prisoner than Frenchmen who only few
weeks ago were the most ardent of Napoeons
supporters 1t was the general remark in
this city yesterday that the French-Americans
who had hitherto adhered to the dynasty
were now the most bitter of its enemies. In
moment the mask has fallen, and Napoleon
ism appears what it really is
The whole career of the ex-Emperor has
been a series of false pretenses. When he
first offered himself to the French nation at
. Strasburg, when he landed at Boulogne with
his tame eagle, when he took the oath faith
Tully to administer q republican government
when he made himself Emperor by pretend
ing to crush fictitious conspiracy, when he
deluded the nation with the farce of ple5iscite
and the show of unreal reforms, and more
than all when he claimed heirship in the
military genius of his uncle, he was acting
huge shams, sometimes full of ridicule,
sometimes full of disaster. 1t has cost
France a good deal to learn all this; but
Napoleon is found out at last, after he has
corrupted the country, disorganized every
branch of the administration, and ruined the
army. For eighteen years he has masqueraded
IN the character of a great commander. 1t
has long been known that he has no ability as
general; 1t now appears that he has for
years had only the appearance of an army
the canker OF personal government" has
eaten out its heart. One push from the Prus-
sian sword, and the whole fabric crumbles to
pieces, and personal government lies buried
IN the ruins. The utter overthrow of the
system which has brought about the French
misfortunes is the best ground for hoping
that France will rise again to greatness and
prosperity under better auspices.
SOME LESSONS FROM DEFEAT.
From the ". Y. Times.
The misfortunes of great nations are often
their best instructors. Prussia would never
have been what it is now, but for Jena and
the humiliation which succeeded it, 1t
needed that disgrace to break up its rotten
aristocracy and to cause the kingdom to be
entirely reorganized. In our own civil war,
we can see clearly now that the defeat of
Bull Run, which appeared 80 utterly pros
trating when it took place, was necessary to
excite the deepest earnestness, and to stimu-
late the most thorough organization for the
national cause, and to uproot our great evil
slavery. British history has been full of
defeats which, in their final results, have
been better than victories. In France ITSELF
nothing but the calamities and passion
ate outbreaks of the first revolution
could have broken up the legalized oppres-
sion of the peasantry, or purified the social
atmosphere of the court. Similar results
will in all probability follow the present mill
tary failures of the French Government and
the misfortunes which have fallen on the
people. No right-minded American can look
at this time on the calamities of that brilliant
nation, remembering all its immortal achieve
ments in the field of literature and science
its great services to modern civilization.
and the heroic assistance it gave us in the
time OF our need, without profound pity for
the wealth destroyed, the arts interrupted
and the thousands of gallant lives uselessly
sacrificed in this unfortunate struggle.
1t is easy for bystanders to moralize on the
misfortunes of their neighbors, and the French
will receiye henceforth no lack of kindly
critical advice from other nations which have
not attained their glory or reached the depth
OF their fall. A fall it unquestionably is, and
one of the most astounding in modern his
tory. For military nation, in the height of
its renown and the abundance of its wealth,
which had sacrificed all political and popular
considerations to welding itself into one
gigantic weapon of war, to be stricken to the
earth in a six weeks campaign, and in a war
it had itself provoked, and to find its armies
beaten, its richest territory overrun, and its
capital threatened, if not taken, is one of the
most remarkable catastrophes on record
Even in this age of the world, war is the
ultimate test of the quality of a nation. It
tries its organization, tests the soundness
of its administration, and shows what disci-
pline and heroism and devotion lie in each of
its citizens. Final victory is the victory; not
of brute strength, but of science, of disci-
pline, of individual intelligence, and national
resources. That the French will critically
earoh out and thoroughly reform the intel
lectual defects or mistakes which have caused
their reverses, we do not doubt. They are
too intelligent nation to fail in this There
is something darkly ominous now, to those
who know the French nature, in the entire
silence maintained in regard to the present
military regime. Whether the theory that
the clamors of the people forced the Emperor
into the present war is correct or otherwise,
they undoubtedly consider it point of honor
not to abandon their leaders till they have
beaten their enemies