New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-01-27
TIE PRICE or PEACE.

There is TO confirmation Of yesterdays ri
mors OF tho cspitulatiOn of Paris. Our dis-
patches bearing upon this important question,
though indicating that surrender Is cohtem-
plated, do not announce that the terms havo
been agreed upon. That early submission
on the part of the IarisGns is u
foregono conclusion, il admitted on al
sides. and interest il no longer excited by con-
sidcration of the Issue OF the siege. Pubic
authorization has advanced far beyond mat
noint, and 1t is the price of peace which Is now
discussed. When Paris falls the French de-
Tense fails. This is so clearly apparent that
there arc actually found French politicians
wiling to acknowledge il and bold enough to
discuss with tho German who dictates 1t The
cost of failure to France.
Negotiations for the surrender OF Paris have
certainly been begun 1t Versailles. n. Jules
Favre delays his trip to London, evidently
assuming that Attendance on the Conference
there is matter Of secondary importance, and
halts nj Versailles to talk with Bismarck of
terms Of surrender, and, better aud wiser
still, of peace. TIE German Premier,
and, indeed the whole German people,
remain ineXoTable in the demand for
Alsace and Lorraine. This was, of course,
to be expected and we may safely assume
that the dispatch which enumerates this among
Che conditions insisted upon is thus far cor
rect, and that no abatement on this point will
result from the interview between NJ. Fayre
and Count Bismarck. But temporary pos
session of the Champagne province and
the Paris forts, it is said, is to be in
sisted upon as pledge for the payment
of the war expenses. These are bitter
and huniliating terms, against which the French
naturally protest in feeble and ineffective words
The terms are harsh, the demands positive, and
dictated perhaps by might rather than right;
but dismissing all sentimental considerations,
and regarding them with cold, judicial, ard
appropriated vision, who shall declare them
uniusti Doubtless all of us would rather see
Germany magnifcently generous in this hour
of her great triumph, because OF the
good to France, the glory to herself which
magnanimity would now confer; bat in view
OF her grave provOeation, her exhaustlnS
efforts, her unqualified triumph, she has ex-
cuses for insisting on terms which will for
ever secure her peace and safety. 1t is great
penalty which France is called upon to pay
for past crimes in disturbing European peace
Dut Dcccusc III toCS ldl 'oNdiu SONh'~iS '''
future tranquility OF the Continent, Germany Is
justified in enforcing the punishment.
The negotiations now pending cannot, we
imagine, end otherwise than in the surrender
Of Paris. There remains hardly doubt of
It's helpless condition. The army, the Govern
ment itself, is demoralized, and only the
patient and enduring people appear to have
maintained their resolution and borne in
logged silence their great priyations. Let us
hope for their sakes that the hour OF relief
viii not be deferred in The mistaken zeal of
French leaders for French honor. That is no
longer at stake. There can be no deeper
humiliation in reserve for them than that
into which criminal and imbecile Governments
have dragged them.