The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-25
Grenius Ttlegraph
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY rs, 1871.
TIE PEACE PROSPECTS.

The latest reports from the other side of the
Atlantic are that treaty of peace has been
eigned between France and Germany, and
even il thess reports should not prove true,
it is certain that terms will be agreed upon
ere many days between the two antagonistic
powers. 1t is not possible for France longer
to offer any effective resistance, and pro-
Iongation of the struggle would only increase
her humiliation and make the Germans more
exorbitant in their demands. The terms
which the Germans have probably insisted
upon are the cession of Alsaoe and
that portion of Lorraine which in-
oIudes the fortress of Metz,
together with a money indemnity. Under all
the circumstances, these terms cannot be con-
sidered other than moderate except by those
sentimentalists who profess to think that the
Germans ought to have stopped fighting and
returned home after the fall of Sedan. In
view of the fact that France in a, most arro-
giant and insolent spirit, commenced the war
with the avowed purpose of crushing a rival
whom she feared might become too powerful
such proceeding would have been supreme
act of folly, which long headed and practical
men like Bismarck and Won Moltke were
little likely to commit. AS in the case
of our own Rebellion, there was
but one course to be pursued, and
that was to fight the fight out to the bitter
end until one or the other of the combatants
was forced to cry enough. When we consider
what Prussia and the other German States
have suffered from French aggression in the
past, the terms which have been granted by
the victors in the present instance cannot
but appear to impartial men as singularly
moderate. The Germans are entitled, by
all the laws of warfare, to reap the
practical benefits of their victory, and it is
nothing but common prudence to take such
measures as will prevent France at any early
day from repeating the wild experiment of
last summer. That the humiliation of the
present crushing defeat will rankle in the
breasts of more than one generation of
Frenchmen cannot be doubted, and desire
of revenge will prompt them to
renew the attack upon Germany
whenever they think they can
do SO with a probability of success. Before
France can cope with her present conqueror,
however, there will have to be number of
radical changes consummated, and the Ger
man armies will have to be met with better
material than ignorant and bigoted peasants
and half-savage African Arabs. Education
has won the day for Germany, as it did
for the loyal North in our civil war,
and if France expects to have success in the
future she must adopt the only possible
means Of obtaining it in these days of gene
raj enlightenment. The humiliation of such
defeat as France has suffered was lesson
that the French people and their political
leaders sadly needed, and they have good
cause te be thankful if they come out of the
war with only the loss of province or two.
For eighteen years they allowed themselves to
be the slaves Of mean tyrant, and as they lost
the respect of the world by submitting to a
despotism as degrading as any the world has
ever seen, so must they now bear the con-
sequences of being accessories to the crime
of the Second Empire, and the humiliation of
crushing defeat will be a blessing in disguise
if it teaches them to appreciate the true
meaning of the words liberty, civilization,
and glory France, with all her culture, has
been for eighteen years the shame of the na-
tions, and the sympathy that misfortune
must ever excite should not be
allowed to obscure the fact that her fate was
deserved. Apart from all consideration of
the merits of the quarrel between Germany
and France, there is cause for hearty congra-
tulation that the war is practically at an end,
and that peace must come in some shape or
other; and the rights or wrongs of the war
should not prevent the people of this country
from contributing literally to the relief of
the thousands of poor people who have beer
deprived of their means of subsistence.
nIoDAHJI nN ado WnV Du nTn DT/ "