The New York herald., 1874-09-23
The situation in Europs-ShadOws OF
Coming Events.

nent OF Europe, and even the wlsest men can
not read the signs. Hawthorne said in one
OF his publications about England that ne
| always felt in that country the sensation tha'
according to scientific laws, is said TO pres'9e
an earthquake. But Hawthorne was a curious
deep observer, apt to see the true England III
st. Giles and Bethnal Green, rather 'nan III
Westminster and Belgravia lie may
have reasoned as those reason VINO
build houses or monuments. The
builder rests his edlfice upon the
strength of the majority or the larger portion
A nation is great, intact, free, only when the
foundations rest upon prosperity and content
ment. Glass rises above class, even as layer
rises above layer and forms the pyramid. The
summit will be uncertain if we are not certain
! about the foundation. And looking at those
splendid monuments Of civilization as we see
them in Europe, We are tempted to ask what
security have we for their permanence and
their strength if there these tokens OF disaster
assume real form and have their ultimate and
terrible will.
Peaceful as Europe seems it is not whole
some peace. We cannot accept the summer
day as truly summer when clouds, rent and
torn with lightning, disturb the sky We
may have the harvest moon or we may have
the thunder storm when the sun goes down.
''Questi n" after ''question" comes tunbling
one upon another, even as we read
in the poet that ''from peak to
peak, the rattling crags among, leaps
the live thunder Never did old Europe
seem in so phenomenal condition. Eng
land gathers her skirts about her and, content
with the guardianship of her embosoming
seas, sulkily awaits the storm. France
sharpens her sabre and pike, watching and
praying for the tocsin to summon the combat
for Alsace and Lorraine. Austria, bothered
with her finance and her artillery, her history
q series Of monumental defects, prays that the
shock may not fall until her currency
is really money and she has changed
her cannon from bronze to steel. Russia,
! half civilized, half barbarian, looks with civ
ilized earnestness upon the Slavic dominions
bordering her kingdom and with barbaric pas
sion upon the ungarnered possessions OF Asia.
Spain is beaten from shore to shore, at the
mercy of every tempest. The smaller nations,
rejoicing in the weakness which has
at last become strength huddle into
the corners away from the storm,
only hoping for the safety that comes with
forgetfulness. Turkey feels that her doom is
question of time and patiently awaits her
execution. Germany pursues her destiny
with eager, brutal resolution. Between Ger
many and France the issue lies. We can
learn one side of this issue from the remarka-
bic letter addressed to the Peace Conference
of Geneva by Victor Hugo. According to the
cable summary which first reached us
NJ Hugo declared that there could be- no
peace in Europe until there had been another
war between France and Germany, conveying
the intimation, also, that the illustrious and
venerable writer rather welcomed such war.
We are not apt to be startled at any demon
stration from Victor Hugo, knowing the ex-
travagance OF his rhetoric and his disposition
to treat all questions in q thunder-and-ight-
ming fashion. But we respected his tran
scendent genius, and, knowing his views as re-
CARDS peace, would have regarded warlke
letter from him as springing from an aberra-
ton of mind.
Victor Hugo's genius, when it addresses
itself to politics, has lightning quality 1t
gives instant, lurid glimpses of the valleys and
depths, enabling US to know what is spoken
and thought and done by the large body of
socialists and democrats who live, as it were,
in the under world of European civilization.
NJ. Hugo, not strange thing in an old
man, takes despairing view of the
present. The military Empire of Ma
poleon has passed away and in its
stead we have the Gothic Empire OF Germany.
He sees no peace except after ''inexorable
combat" for the present, nothing but silent
and sombre hatred. This is because France,
having been slapped in the face, 'redness
mounts to the brow Of all peoples. For, ac-
cording to the exquisite vanity of NJ. Hugos
4 rhetoric, France is our mother, the mother of
all nations, and whoever insults her wounds
mankind. The duel which is impending is
not between France and Germany-which ma
tions we are glad to hear are actually ISIS
ters' but between two principles, republic
and empire" On one side he sees the Ger
manic Empire and on the other the United
States of Europe. And there must be an en-
counter between these two principles, terri
BILE duel, profoundly saddening to the philoso-
pher. France, "doubly wounded, in her
territory and her honor" cannot sleep, and
'at this moment everything tips towards uni
yersal gloom" The solution will be the
United States of Europe In the end there
will be the triumph of the people, which is
liberty, and of God, which is peace And SO
we shall all become fellow citizens Of universal
fatherland.
There can be little doubt we fear, that in
Europe at this moment everything ''tips
towards universal gloom" MIR. Disraeli,
u,hose rhetoric is Of q different quality from