The New York herald., 1871-02-20
The Former Distresses Of France-A His.
fOricaI Parallel.


toricaI Parallel.
Guizot, the historian and statesman, has
written that England owes her existing liber-
ties to having been overrun and conquered by
the Normans. This assertion, which at first
seems to be paradox, is found to be very
fully sustained by the testimony Of fact The
Saxons also loved liberty, but at the time
when the new invaders appeared the sturdy
spirit that once animated them had begun to
wane, and it required the stimulus impaired
by the arrival Of William the Conqueror
and his splendid warriors to revive It, Sub
sequently victor and vanquished alike shared
the benefit of manlier life and healthier
institutions.
There are very many who believe that the
modern William who now wears the imperial
crown of Germany, in the palace of the French
kings, at Versailles, is destined indirectly to
infuse similarly fresh vigor into the laws and
into the blood of France, since, although, for
the moment, he sits upon an eminence apexed
with bayonets, beneath which is vast union
of States hitherto earring and discordant,"
but now closely pressed together by common
national feeling, it is true, but also by rigid
military system which is as near an approach
to real despotism as our peculiar period will
tolerate, the inevitable intercourse of his
armies with the people among whom they arc
| temporarily stationed will, in the long
run, be mutual benefit. Others
contend that France is so exhausted
and prostrated that her present CO .di-
tion is complete downfall-that she can
neither fight any longer nor govern herself in
peace without assistance and surveillance. It
is not this question that we propose to discuss
to-day, since it refers to the future, and, in
such cases. one opinion is as good as another,
the only difference being against that rude,
dogmatic assertion without proof which is but
sounding brass" Our object now is simply
to glance back at two or three periods in the
history of France when that great nation
| seemed to be utterly crushed, and thence to
| draw some illustration of the marvellous recu-
perative energies which it has always dis
| played. In doing this we must consider all
things relatively, or we violate both history
| and common sense. Each age has had its
own weapons and its own military systems,
and the compact discipline aud improved arms
| of the Germans bear no higher relation to the
| previously supposed skill, valor and superb
| equipment of the French than did the dash,
| agility and numbers of the Paynim hosts who
swept over Southern and Eastern Europe
more than thousand years ago to the prowess
of the races they assailed. If the Prussians
had needle-guns the French had the Chasse-
pots, which ''did such wonders at Montana :"
if the former were flushed with Sadowa, on
the Gallo banners glistened the Inscriptions
of Magenta and Solferino; if William, the
| soldier king, headed the one host the other
had the magic name of Napoleon at the
| tete ddrnoee. MacMahon and Bazaine were
| thought to be a sufficient set-off to Won Moltke
| and the Crown Prince. One side or the other
must win, and when the struggle is over there
| is no lack of learned reasons to show why.
In the meantime things are relative to-day as
they were yesterday and will be tomorrow.
1t was in 1872 that Abderrahman, flushed
with the conquests Of Africa and Spain,
poured over the Pyrenees an almost countless
campaigns, thoroughly disciplined, perfectly
skilled in the use of weapons and inspired
with the traditionary romance and valor OF
the East The Saracen light cavalry-the
! uhlans Of those days-spread over the whole
| south of France like swarms of singing locusts,
which slew as well as devoured Villages
and towns were ruthlessly burned, all the
strong cities fell, one after the other and the
whole land blazed with confagration up to
the very gates of Tours. Not only France
! but all Northern Christendom was terror
| stricken, and it is no less an authority than
Gibbon who writes that the battle of Tours in
which Charles Martel finally arrested this food
of woe, was the event that s'rescued our an
cestors Of Britain and neighbors of GauI
from the civil and religious yoke of the
Koran Such was the tremendous number
Of the invaders that in the one battle alone.
as the monkish chroniclers relate, three hun
dred and seventy-fve thousand Arabs were
slain. Yet, previous to this defeat, the whole
region OF Narbonne, Toulouse and Bordeaux
had been scared like desert, and the river
Garonne Hoated thick with the bodies Of the
unfortunate people who had dwelt on its
banks At Tours, which the Moslems had at
first succeeded in storming, ''their fury and
cruelty toward the inhabitants were those
of raging tigers" Even after the fight
of the Saracens back into Spain
the south of Gaul was thought to be ruined
beyond recuperation; but in less than thirty
years, or before the beginning of the period of
Charlemagne, it was blooming like garden
and was full of population. Yet there
were no railroads, telegraphs nor steam ves-
sells in those days to facilitate and hasten
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