Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-02-22
tgalnhman s. Journal.
WEDNESDAY,, FEBRUARY y, 1871.
Rennhlican Francr.

u not paid within three months.
Republican France.
Republic has 1t last been born in Franc
after long and terrible throcs AND agonie
The Empire was overthrow at Sedan. III
Rcd Republican counterfeit was demolishe
by the fall of Paris The Constituent A.
scmbly has met at Bordeaux elected VI
Greyy as its presiding officer, moderate
conservative republican, aud NJ Thers as Oh
chief executive officer Of the nation, or Presi
dent Of France. Theirs is an Orleanisi an'
his election indicates that the Orleans an,
Conservative Republicans have united, an,
that the BonapartIsis and Radical Republican
have been defeated Some Of the nblest mei
Of tho nation have been called t. the Cabinet
Jules Favro hold. the ministry Of Foreign
Affairs. For the first time the forms Of ,
republican government have been adopted
and 10 the reconstruction Of the nation the
best elements in it are put at the head The
imperial aud radical ideas have both beer
procipitatol in the hot alombic Of The war
and the fate Of the nation now resides in th,
hands Of its ablest and best statesmen
A committee has been appointed, Of which
NJ Theirs is the head to arrange the term.
Of peace and conclude negotiations with the
German government. Then can be little
doubt that on the conclusion Of the armsticc
peace will have been declared and The Prussian
forces will be on their way home.
Thus terminates one of the most remarkable
wars in history The leaders in It, on both
sides will probably never see another of equal
magnitude or Of equal result King William
and Won Moltke are both past seventy years
Of age Napoleon and his morshals will
probably never command armies again
Both Germany and France will be willing
now to rest for many years and recover the
strength that has been wasted and the blood
that has been poured forth ike water France
suffers the most aud will need many years to
recruit her energies. Another generation
may renew the struggle, but this generation
has had enough of the fearful desolations of
war
The war leaves Germany with an Empire
its States all united and consolidated under
the imperial regime. 1t leaves France with
a republic, having cast down and broken in
pieces the autocratic government which COM
menced the struggle. France seems to have
learned something already by her adyersties.
She has learned that the power Of the State
resides not in the will Of one man, and that
it equally resides not in that coterie Of radi-
cal Jiatlerslites who have always frothcd and
iumed on the surface of French politics. The
idealists and the absolutists are both at dis
count now. They have not been able to nayi-
gate the ship in rough weather. At the
time when the State needed strength they
have given it only weakness.
The terms Of peace so far as they are pub
lished, as proposed by the Germans, are very
severe. We have no fault to fud with the
requisition Of Alsace and Lorraine. If the
French had been successful, they intended to
annex all German territory on the left bank
of the Rhine. Now that the fortune of war
is against them, and the same measure is
meted to them they meant for others, they
have no just cause Of complaint But to de-
mand in addition more than a thousand mil.
lion Of dollars and twenty ships Of the line
anda French colony, is both ungenerous, harsh
and humiIiating. But these cruel and mort.
flying exactions will render another war need
tul byc-and-bye One war most always lays
the foundations for another, and the strifes Of
nations are begun at the close Of every quar-
rel The bitterness of defeat and of hard
terms Of peace rankles in fhe breasts Of the
vanquished and breaks forth at the first op-
portunity. To-day Germany remembers Jena.
Tomorrow France will remember Gravelotte,
Metz aud Paris. 1t seems as if the victor
could never be magnanimous in the hour Of
triumph.
But whatever the future may have in store
for Germany and Frame there is reason tC
rejoice that the war is now ended that th,
wrath Of destroying armies no longer smitei
the beautiful towns Of France; that no NOR,
blood is to run into her already redeemed soil
and that her sunny fields are no longer to b,
trampled by the heels of angry combatants
There is reason for congratulation too in tn,
manifest ascendancy of moderate counsels anC
able and judicious men in this hour of tn,
mighty exigency of France.