The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-02
TIE GERMAMS IN PARIS.

accept cneerIully emplOymenV tndt Will give
them support if they do their duty.
THE GERMANS IN PARIS.
The New York World, and in its following
all the extreme sympathizers with France
are indulging ia unmitigated abuse of the
Emperor William, because of the alleged
severity of the terms of peace die
tated to France. "It is" says the
Word, unworthy of great aud
msgnanimous people, like the Germans, aud
confirms the general opinion of the naughty
arrogance of Bismarck and the despotic self
ishness of his imperial master" But the par
ticular point on which the French sympa-
thizers lay the greatest stress is the occu
patton of Paris-"s trivial thing, " in the eyes
of the Word, which "can bring no advan-
tage to Germany, and tends to exasperate a
brave and sensitive people" The occupation
of Paris, however, was SO strongly insisted
upon by the victors, that President Thers
in his proclamation, says the Government
was able to secure an extension of the
armistice only by consenting to it. There
was a great deal of hluster on the eve of the
occupation. Paris, having failed to repel the
besiegers during the investment of the city,
was determined to do something when the
enemy was actually within the enceinte. Like
'Young Gosling" in his encounter with "F OK
Fowler, the women and the urchins clamored
for rifed cannon, and swore a solemn oath to
annihilate every German who ventured to
pass the walls. The mob unearthed hun
dred disabled guns and score of broken
down mitrailleuses, and hung and drowned
half dozen policemen, to show that they
meant business. And then, when the grand
moment for action came, they listened to
wiser counsels and betook themselves to the
churches. So the victorious Germans filed
into the capital yesterday morning at ten
o'clock, and, as far as the dispatches have
gone, not q son of the Fatherland was mo-
Tested.
The do-to- others as-y ' ou- would have-others-
do-unto-you policy is, after all, the best
policy, aside from all the scriptural injunc-
tions by which it is enforced. 1t is, more
over, as applicable to nations as it is to indi-
viduals. No community which habitualy
disregards it can secure permanent prosperity.
But there is a class of persons to whom it is
impossible to extend it. The desperate
criminal, on general principles, must be
made an exception to the rule, and the nation
which places itself in a position of caussless
antagonism to its neighbors must be so dealt
with as to be convinced that its evil courses
can not be INDUCED in with impunity. France
rushed into the war against Germany without
a decent pretext. The cry, at the outset, was
'On to Ber!in!" Napoleon started it, it
is true, but all Francs took up the
menace and echoed it with enthusiastic
energy. If the French had succeeded ia
penetrating to the Prussian capital, they
would not have hesitated to follow the ex-
ample of the First Napoleon after jena
Berlin would have been occupied, without re-
gard to the sentimental. opposition of its
burghers, without thought of maguanimous
forbearance, without the slightest tincture of
generosity towards a fallen foe. But the
French did not get as far as Berlin, and the
Germans did reach the walls of Paris If
they had turned their backs upon the city on
the declaration of peace, they would have
done generous and magnanimous deed; but
France would have given them no credit
for so doing. The omission to parade
their victorious columns on the Champs
Elysees would have been laid at the door of
cowardice. To convince France, and above
all to convince Paris, that the Germans had
the best of it, the partial occupation of the
capital was even more necessary than the
cession of Strasburg and Metz. Powerless in
the grip of the victors, France has been made
to pay exemplary damages in the grand Ger
man pageant which took place yesterday.
She has simply suffered the punishment
which, as a convicted criminal among the
nations, she fully and richly deserved.
Whether Der aggressive propensities have
been eradicated or not by the humiliation and
suffering which they have entailed upon her,
time alone can develop. Certainly she has
been shorn of her strength and deprived of
! her power for mischief for many years to
come; and to convince her that such is the
! case, the occupation of her capital will go