The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-11
WAR NEWS BY MAIL.
ENGLISH NEUTRALITY.

NJ. GUIZOT ON THE FRENCH HsITUATION-LETTER
TO MIR. GLADSTONE.
In the long letter which NJ. Guizot has ad-
dressed to Mr.. Gladstone, he holds that the
valuable principle of neutrality is capable of
much wider application than it has yet received.
Why should not tie two banks of the Rhine
cease to be a standing menace to France and
Prussia, and cease throughout a given length
and breadth to bristle with fortresses and eau
mons? There can be no doubt that If such a
stipulation is really just and valuable it must be
reciprocal; Mayence and Landau must be dis
manGed, as well Strasbourg and Metz.
Nothing could give more certain proof that
both France and Prussia are anxious to secure
real and lasting peace" The second great
means OF preserving peace, according to NJ.
Guizot, is ''the maintenance of the balance of
power in Europe, and the value of congresses
and conferences of tie great powers to main
tain or re- establish tbis.equilibrium. That the
work of different congresses Ito which he
reters) has been faulty and defective, and that
mediocrity and petty feeling have had large
share In them, NJ. GuiZot Is we'll aware. ''But
l am equally certain" he says, ''that the bal
aDce of power in Europe has always been, and
will always be in principle, just, reasonable,
and liberal; and that on the whole its results
have been most favorable both to peace and
progress throughout Europe"
NJ. GuiZot closes with an appeal to Mr.. Glad
stone to take up the cause of the balance of
power and the maintenance of peace in Europe:
Will you not (he asks) defend them against ambi-
tiOus despots and conquerors? surely in the nine
teenth century this would be the grand the natural,
and the historic duty OF England. For fifteen years,
in your noble struggle on their behalf, you had
France for an adversary; for The future, may not
rather say now, you have her as an ally. Modern
France has had her feverish dreams OF ambition and
conquest. She has paid dearly for them, and dark
fate stu frowns upon her the sins OF her past are
visited upon her when their season Is over, when
they only seemed to recur for a moment that she
might prove she had rehOunced them. grant that
In This ardent and impetuous nation there still
traces OF the Old tastes aud old faults. She is
easily led ast,ay, by brilliant novelty and by the
pomp aud glory OF arms Nevertheless, this Is not
now her real inclination and her true meaning-it is
only the movement that still disurbs surface OF
the ocean wnen the tempest is ended. The real and
earnest desire OF France now is for peace and the
development OF her fruitful industry. France is
country OF assiduOus agricultural, Industrial, and
commercial work; country In which we lind prac-
tical and scientific civilization, strong vitality, aud
yet love Of peace. she now wants time to reap the
fruit OF her past experience and to learn the value
OF that political freedom for which she has not
ceased to sigh for thre9-fourths OF century,
although she has never known how to use 1t or to
keep IT, In such path England is her most natu-
raj and valuable ally.