Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-04-25
The Eclipse Of Eurone.

maghzlne declares, IN recent paper OF
the present aspect Of European affairs
that the collapse Of France is less a col
lapse of France than an eclipse of Eu
rope. He maintains, and with mucl
force, that the effect of the great Franco
German war has been less to annihilatI
France than to abolish Europe. By thil
he means that the concert of civilized
nations known as Europe in the politics
of mankind has come to an end, anC
| that the Old World has entered upon {
new phase of history, in which, as o
old, after the downfall of the Roman
empire, its populations await the do
minion of some one huge power vas
enough and unscrupulous enough L
overawe and absorb them all. Whether
that power shall be imperial Germany
or more imperial Russia, or whether thu
one great European State Of Grea
Britain, which still lies outside the con
tinental circle, shall be found vigoroui
and influential enough to arrest the pro
gress of either and Of both these empire!
toward an uncontrolled supremacy, anC
to restore the equilibrium of things po
litical, are, for this writer, the grave
questions Of the hour abroad. While
these questions remain unanswered, il
may be worth while for us in America tc
note what is passing practically unno
ticed under our own eyes, in regard tc
the momentous changes of the current
time. We mean the composure with
which in the Western world we are ac
cepting the events of the day across the
Atlantic ftHkNa
Call it annihilation of France OF
eclipse of Europe, or by what name you
will, it is certain that such change has
come upon the great European system
of nations as can only be paralleled by
the submersion of the empire of Charlie
magne, or the crash of the great Spanish
domination in the sixteenth century, or
the downfall of the first Napoleon; and
yet this change is practically found to
effect us not much more nearly than a
political cataclysm in China or Peru.
We were much more deeply interested
in the progress of last year than we are
in the results of to-day. The catastro-
Plies of Metz and Sedan moved us dram
atically; but the conversion of gay and
brilliant and civilized Paris into a furn-
ace seven times heated of revolutionary
rage and madness neither seriously dis
turbs our affairs nor enlists our anxiety
Something of the growing apathy with
which we turn away from this bubbling
caldron Of hate and folly and despair
must be credited, no doubt, to the thor
oughly uninteresting character Of the
witches and wizards who supervise the
brew. Never did events so stupendous
evoke actors so uninspiring. 1t is i'm
possible for any rational man to work
himself up into enthusiasm over the con-
vulsive imbecility of the Versailles party
of order on the one hand, or the fran
tic attitudinizing of the Paris Commune
on the other. 1t would be as easy to
fall into raptures with the princely piety
of Kaiser William or the successful di-
plomatic gambling of Count Won Bis
marck. The German vietors and the
vanquished French have alike lost all
their hold, and deserve to have lost their
hold, on the interest of Americans. The
stage remains colossal; the performers
are seen to be dwarfs. One cause of
this decline in the relative significance,
so far as we are concerned, Of the decom-
position of old Europe clearly is the i'm
manse relative development of the Eu-
ropean races out of Europe. Colonies
which in the time of the first Napoleon
were almost literally invisible on the
European horizon have now become
States quite as important in the world S
economy as the secondary European
kingdoms of that day. Chill and Peru
are richer and more active in human
affairs in 1871 than were Portugal
and Tuscany in 1900. Lands then
almost unknown are now populous
and busy. Australia has a commerce
in 1871 which more affects the welfare
of the race than did all the trade of
Spain and Russia put together in the
days of the Berlin and Milan DEGREES.
The United States alone are more power
full now for good or for i'll than was the
banded Europe which Napoleon overran
and England subsidized. These things
have come upon us quietly, stealthily,
like thief in the night; and we stand
amazed at them now, only because we
are ourselves part of their coming
and drift upon their tide. Had
any man ventured, even five years
ago, to say that city like Paris
or Berlin might be struck out of the
worlds economy without deranging
it hopelessly he would have been consid-
cred lunatic. But we see Paris en-
quilted to-day with scarce a ripple from |
the seething vortex breaking the surface
of our life; and were Berlin tomorrow
to be drawn down afterit the catastrophe |
would affect us no more vitality. The |
pathetic wall of Tennyson' dismal lover |
Is requiem of national as well as of |
private importance in this tremendous |
unfolding of the resources Of mankind |
which we vaguely call the progress of
the ages.
g The individual withers. and the world is
more and more. HHl tfftI3
Not the least useful lesson to be drawn |
from it though, after all, may still be |
drawn by the individual If Paris or
France, or Germany or Berlin, be Of
such slight significance, what can be said
Of Victor Hugo or John Jones, of gen.
erals or presidents? Is it not coneeiv-
able even that the apparently illimitable /
James Fisk, jr., himself might be swal-
lowed in a moment Of dramatic excite
ment by his own elephant, without abso-
lutely shakingthe spheres or dismantling
so much as one palace-car on his own
Erie railway
Yankee War Material in France.