The New York herald., 1871-09-16

from George Wilkes.
| The letter of Mr.. George Wilkes, which we
print to-day, has in it just enough of truth
to make it valuable and just sufficient extra
vagance to make 1t interesting. In his own
line Mr.. Wilkes is unequalled; but he is inva-
riably an advocate who fights desperate con-
tests with the creatures of his own imagna-
ton. No man can raise up more respectable
spectres or slay them with more tragic force.
Even Disraeli, when he marsha allied his large
assortment Of plotters and intriguers, in ''Lo-
THAR, did not charge the Church Of Rome
with designs half 80 astounding as those which
Mr.. Wilkes conjures out Of his brain. But for
all this his letter is good reading, and its
faults only help to give it piquancy.
1t may be true enough that the second en-
pire was never favorite with the Vatican /;
but nothing could be less worthy of serious
consideration than the assertion that the
Church of Rome had taken bond against the
Emperor's desertion by placing him under the
influence of Spanish wife. Napoleon was a
man not likely to marry to please any one but
himself, and the influence Of Spanish wives is
never to be depended upon. This, however,
is small matter in comparison with the seri-
GUS charges which Mr.. Wilkes brings against
NJ. Theirs. Always a monarchst and long
recognized as the leader of the Orleanists, it
was not to be expected that the French states
man, even as President of the republic, would
be hearty republican. But he has shown
more candor and honesty than we expected
from him. He has done nothing to thwart
the will of the people OF to overturn the govern
ment which it is his duty to cement. If the Ver-
sailles authorities were unnecessarily severe
toward the Communists, it was not because
they were prompted to it by the Church Of
Rome. This is fallacy that has never been
excelled in extravaganza; but to say that the
hostages in the hands of the Commune were
left to their fate by the Church rather than
forego the ferocity of butchery is to say what
not one person in ten thousand would believe.
Events in France have been the logical results
of the conditions by which the French were
encompassed, and Frenchmen, both at Paris
and Versailles would have acted as they did
if there had been no Church of Rome.
of the enormities of the Church, as we'll as of
the perfections of the Commune, is over
drawn. When writer tells us that the native
population of New York has sunk to the con-
dtion Of conquered race we know what he
means, because we know what he ought to
have said. His extravaganza of language in
such case is amusing, and we are not de-
ceived by it. In his letter to the HERALD Mr..
Wilkes has committed the same folly through
out, and, by using ''strong language" has
misrepresented facts. The Church of Rome has
had more influence with NJ. Theirs than
some people would be willing to admit and
less than Mr.. Wilkes would have us believe
The Commune had more good in it than its
enemies accorded it and fewer virtues than he
clothes it with. Mr.. Wilkes mistake, aside
from the extravaganza Of language by which
he magnifies and distorts every idea he ad
vances, is in treating everything which has oc-
CURED in Paris from tho capituiaton and be-
fore it, up to the present moment, as the result
of design on the part of one party or another.
The Germans permitted NJ. Theirs TO pass in
and out Of the city of Paris during the siege,
30 that he might forestall the republic and
pave the way for monarchy. The Church of
Rome used his elevation to power as the step
ping stone to the ascendancy of the Papacy in
France, and the whole state of affairs, from the
elections of February to the proposed disarm-
ing of Paris, was q Church plot. The Com
mune even did not act without prearranged
,>Io fbo IaGo ~ Do, I,
of rational, worthy, well-conceived design,
undertaken for the purpose Of enabling France
to think. This is the gist Of Mr. Wilkes philo-
sophy of the massacre of Paris but, like most
new philosophers, it settles nothing, and only
opens the way for new animosities and fresh
controversies.
Though Mr.. Wilkes may not intend it, his
aspersions of the American people and his
reflections upon the American attitude toward
France are downright calumnies. We are
slow, indeed, to take our opinions on any SUBJ
ject from England. We uphold republicanlsm
everywhere and give our sympathy to every
republican endeavor. We have not trusted
implicitly in NJ. Theirs, and we have not con-
demned the Paris Commune without discrimi-
nation. But the tearing down of the Column
Vend6me was not the building up of republ-
can institutions. The fury of Lullier and
Ferre and Asst was not the Inauguration of a
reign of universal brotherhood. The slaughter
of the hostages was not necessary to the free
dom or happiness of France. These we have
condemned, and we denounced also the inhu
manity and bloodthirstness of the Versailles
army and the government of M. Theirs. The
HERALD notably opposed every wish for
French interference in behalf of the Papal
temporalities, and in this it expressed the gen.
eral sentiment of the American people. At
the same time it must be confessed that there
has been great darkness, which letters like
that of Mr.. Wilkes will help to dispel; but his
are the one. sided arguments of the advocate,
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