The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-10

back upon for consolation? IL is more than |
probable thattt will avert its eyes from recent
disgraces, and it knows too much Of the Ger
mans to be in any hurry to face them again.
But it will remember the lessons which il
learned during the twenty years of the Empire
the contempt for the civil population which
was carefully instilled into 1.-THE votes
which it was invited TO give for the purpose
of showing 1t that it was not body separate
from the rest of the nation-the opinion con-
stantly impressed upon it that it was the
legitimate source of civil power. Here are
the featuresin which the France of the future
will have the strongest and the most GU
rious resemblance to the Spain of the present
There are some extreme partisans of the
German cause who have all along oontended
that the condition to which France is in
danger of being reduced is exactly that to
which she ought to be reduced. The only
way, they said, in which the great disturber
can be made incapable of disturbance is to
affict her with the moral and material infirmi-
ties of Spain. She is so full of the elements
of disorder, her divisions are so inourable,
her vanity is so inordinate, that you have
only to humiliate her sufficiently and she will
fall into more than Spanish confusion, and
consequently into more than Spanish help
lessness Assuming the result to be attaina-
ble-and we admit that it is far more attaina-
BILE than could have been supposed even a
the most awful of disasters and the most
formidable of perils to every single con-
tinental country, Germany Included. We
are persuaded that Europe could not bear a
Spain in the position of France. Except our
own country-and our own country only
within certain limits-thsre is not a single
community which would not stand in jeopardy
every hour if the spectacle and example of
Spain were close at its door, 1t is doubtless
ctr hat hoc tha
contagion of her disorders so little among
her neighbors But then she has been sim
eularly isolated ever since they began. The
knowledge which both Englishmen and
Frenchmen had gained of the Spanish
people and territory during the Peninsular
war gradually died out. With the loss of
her American colonies, the commercial
intercourse which might have made her
better known became slack in the
extreme; her language was less studied
than any European tongue except the Rus
sian, and but for her insolvency she would
have commanded less attention than Walla-
CHA or Bessarabia. Still with all her isola-
tion, it may be doubted whether her military
Instructions had not much more influence
over events in France than is commonly be-
lieved. However that may be, Spain with
Paris for its capital, with language spoken
by the educated class in every country, and
literature universally read, with an empire
over fashion and taste of which nothing
could deprive it, would be q volcanic
force which would convulse the world or
compel the world to extinguish it alto
! gether. 1t would be hard to say which
! would be most dangerous-the perpetual
! dynastic or democratic revolts of which
! France in this state would be the theatre, or
the military alliances which they would COM
mand and by which they would triumph.
| There are plenty of the elements of social
disturbance in Germany itself, as would be
admitted by Count Bismarck himself, who is
said to be even now hesitating about turning
the turbulent population of Muhouse iuto
! German citizens and bects. But far more
| infectious than the example of civil disorder
would be the example of military insurrec-
tion. Nobody who thinks on the vast armies
which will presently fill Europe from end to
end-nobody who recollects how artificial are
the constitution and moral code of
the best ordered armies, of armies on the
! German system as much as any others-can
! let his mind dwell without dismay on the
| prospect of pretorian warfare perpetually
waged in the very centre of Europe. We
have little hope that the German statesmen
in their present temper will resign any part
of the advantages they have extorted; but
we are not the less sure that if they knew
the true interests of their country, they would
| at the final settlement of the terms of peace
at least consider whether, by doing SO much
| to render all future French Governments uu-
popular, and therefore temporary, they have
not provided for themselves a permanent
and irritable neighbor.
|