The New York herald., 1874-12-21
Arnim-Blood and Iron-Martyrs and
Their Uses.

o cl0cE IN We epent7g, teuntng on We arm % ntS
SON, looking very pale and haggard. The crosod
rose syrnpatheticaly as he entered the roorn and
remained standing until the presiding Judge
asked the iuustrious accused 10 be seated" The
above words, quoted from our special Berlin
dispatches to-day, form strange picture and
teach universal moral When Jesus Christ
was brought before the high tribunal, bound
and scourged and cruci6ed at last the very
sepulchre in which He was placed became the
birthplace of new idea for the world. To
kill Him was the fatal error Of His foes,
for they could not kill the spirit of His doc
trines. Thus Christianity was born. Then,
in its infancy, the apostles were prosecuted
and slain; but out of their graves the religion
rose with new strength and fervor The per-
secutions of the Christians under the Roman
cmperors followed, and the very acts of cru
city which were intended to exterminate the
sect added immeasurably to its numbers.
Through persecution Christianity became
so powerful that it turned upon itself, as
when tie Catholic Church in the Middle
Ages exacted too much of the people and
Luther was made possible. Pt otestantism
arose out of the tyranny of Rome and swept
through England like the plague, and poured
through Germany as the Nile fertilizes Egypt
with its floods. In France the prosecutions Of
Catharine and st. Bartholomew made the
Protestants more strong, and Milton's appeal
in behalf of the Waldenses-
Avenge Lord, Thy slaughtered saints. whose
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold
has had its answer in the history OF Europe.
Professionalism itself became tyrannical, and
the emigration Of the Huguenots to the Caro-
linas had its counterpart in the emigration Of
the Puritans to New England and the
Catholics to Maryland. The Puritans in
their turn prosecuted the Quakers and SO in
time constituted that sect power, to tyran-
nize in its own turn over other faiths. Always
in history persecution has defeated its own
purpose and the martyr inevitably becomes
the founder. John Brown was hanged as
helpless, lonely telon- Yet only few years
afterward the song which bore his name in
spired the Northern armies as they marched
into Richmond and through Georgia to the
sea. He died SINGLE but his resurrection
was an armed and conquering host
1t has always been so, and must be, and no
example Of this law is in our time more strik-
ing than that Of the arrest and trial of
Count Won Arnim. This eminent man, it is
now confessed by his enemies. had COM
mitted no crime, and yet has been treated like
criminal He was arrested as if he had
been q traitor, imprisoned as if he had been
q wretch like Kullmann. who attempted
the murder Of Bismarck, and subjected
to indignities which only traitor or q MUIR
derer could deserve. He was proclaimed
before the world TO be not only false to his
sovereign and his country, but to be COM
mon thief, such as may be seen any morning
in the Tombs. The attempt was made to
ruin his reputation and destroy his influence,
even before he was tried, and it
SO far succeeded that the world was
for time persuaded that Count Won Arnim
had indeed committed some startling offence
against the State. Nothing else could be
inferred from the extraordinary severity with
| which he was treated. But the moment he is
brought to trial the fabric of the prosecution
falls to pieces The principal charges are de-
vindication is complete-not the less SO that
he is nominally punished for an offence which
every one understands to be ridiculous. His
real offence was that, in behalf of Germany,
he opposed Bismarck, and his real triumph is
that Bismarck has been beaten on his own
chosen field. Persecution has again failed,
and in this case has not even the feeting glory
of O temporary success. Bismarck might
have learned from history the folly of his
course He has simply repeated the error Of
all men who, becoming great by serving the
people, imagine that they are the people
and that national greatness is embodied
in their own lives. Cesar did this
wrong to Rome; Napoleon did it
to France Grant, three months ago,
would have done it to America. Bismarck
would be the master of Germany, not its ser
want but the power by which he rose may
be the power by which he will be destroyed
The nation will revolt against policy which
the creation of religious feuds and the concen-
tratin Of power in the hands of single man,
who lifts an empire to crush personal foe
with its weight
These are the results Of the policy Of blood
and iron. But is there to be no end of this
policy? Germany naturally asks this ques-
ton as she remembers her three wars and
sees new issue which may be more terrible
in its results. 1t was thought that the
humiliation of France would usher in an era
OF lasting peace; that the feud of generations
had been fought out that the Father.
land, ''where German is the name for
friend and Frenchman is the name
for fend," had at last been consolidated. But
no sooner is the war with France at an end
and with an appalling loss of men and treas-
ure than q new war is threatened. The