Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-23

Had comparison been made year ago be-
tween France and Germany, the former country
might have claimed superiority, not only in
wealth and resources, but also in military and
naval strength, and at least an equality in point
of population. Nor was there any advantage
on the German side in the equipment of armies.
The chassepot and the nlitrdileltSe which the
French took into the field are weapons of de
struction that have no rivals in the Prussian
arsenals, the former especially being incompara-
bly, more valuable than the needle-gun, or zund-
nadelgewher. AS, in 1866, at Sadowa, so, in
1870, at Metz, Sedan, and Paris, it was not the
needle-gun but the school master that gained the
victory. The strength of Prussia came from her
com pulsory system of universal education; the
weakness of France, from widespread ignorance
Ignorance in diplomacy, which knew neither
the history, nor the tendencies of Germany nor
the attitude likely to be assumed by the differ
ent states-ignorance of the French marshals
and generals, who knew little or nothing of the
organization or tactics of the Prussians-igno-
ance in the French officers, who were constantly
liable to be surprised and bewidered even in
their own country-ignorance in the French
rank and file, who lost their wits when they
Unexpectedly found the German private soldiers
as brave as themselves, and more familiar with
French localities than the officers of the French
armies-fnally, ignorance, unbounded ignorance,
in the French press, which cried, "On to Der.
lin," as men cheer favorite racer at the
Derby.
Contrasting the two nations from an educa-
tional point of view, it would be hardly an ex-
aggeration to affirm that nearly one-third part
of the French people are as ignorant and ineffi-
Gent for the great concerns of modern life to-
day, as their ancestors were, when they were
chased from their homes by Caesar and his vic
torious legions. A year ago, on the other hand,
a census was taken in the Prussian army, and,
of $4,000 men, only tloo could not read and
writel Why, little Wurtemberg alone has been
devoting more money to superior Instruction.
to her schools of high grade-than the whole of
France; and this, while the gold of France has
been employed in maintaining the ladies OF the
ballet, in constructing palaces and barracks, in
erecting monuments, and in clearing away the
moral and religious obstacles in the path of
luxury and selfindulgence, and now, seedtime
and summer being over, the season for reaping
the whirlwind has at last arrived
What calamities, originating nearly or remotely
IN the ignorance of her people, are yet to befall
France, imagination cannot picture to herself;
but in view Of the formidable difficulties that
menace the republic, and the utter instability
that threatens any return to imperialism or
monarchy, it is impossible to lay entirely aside
the fear that France, like certain other so-called
Latin nations, is in imminent danger of laps
ing, from revolution to revolution, into that
hopeless state of decay whence nations, once
fallen, never rise again. The spectacle is sad,
but full of instruction, especially so to the peo-
pie of the United States, since ii is easy to trace
to the same source our late civil war, and the
blighted prosperity of the south; for, maniestly,
but for the ignorance of the lower strata of the
white population in that section, secession would
have been impossible.