West Feliciana sentinel. (St. Francisville, La.) 1876-1877, 1877-06-09
WILL TT SPREAOS
New Orleans Picayuno.l

WILL HI o600AUV
CNew Orleans Picayuno.l
Mr.. Evarts uneasiness in regard to the
situation in France and tho further sprosd
of the Turko-Russian war is shared BY
many far-sighted men. 1t may not ap-
pear at the frst blush that there Is any
necessary connection between the recent
disagreement of President MacMahon
and his ministry, in reference to . press
law, and the casus bcli which has forced
the Russians into open warfare with the
one but careful student of the Euro
pean situation to understand how . TO-
action of monarchical tendency should
be construed as in any way hostile to
German interests and aspirations. In
order to throw a little light, If possible,
upon these dark places i'll diplomacy, We
must remind our readers of certain inti-
nations more or less definite which have
during the last few months been finding
their way from time to time into the
public journals, mostly English, to the
effect that the Vatican authori-
ties and diplomats were maturing u
scheme for the recovery of the Pope's
lost temporal possession. Any move
ment of that sort would, of course, meet
with immediate and utmost opposition
from the Government Of Victor Emanuel,
and the plan as matured at the Vatican
must therefore be based upon o possible
and prospective alliance with one or
more great Catholic powers. Which,
then, ;. Ould those powers bef Spain
is crippled in her finances, divided at
home and at var with a distant and
powerful colony. Austria is composed of
| a heterogeneous population, and she has
long found it necessary to employ policy
OF extreme caution to hold together her
mixed nationalities under their federal
head, the Kaiser; she has not yet entirely
recovered from the disastrous war which
ended at S:ldowa, and if she goes to war
again in this generation it will be to pre-
serve the threatened integrity of her own
territory. France in some respects is in
better plight to take part in this rumored
plan of restitution. She is financially
sound, she has paid her war indemnity,
she has reorganized and increased her
army, she is the traditionaly ally of the
Papal See, and she has old scores still
bnrdening her memory which the COM
plications, inevitable in such a war as
that would be, might give her an op-
portunity to settle. The difficulty hith-
erto has been that the Chamber has been
under the control of the Left, that is to
say of the so-called liberals and radicals
| ~, !, oil iS,
either anti Catholic i'll sentiment or en-
| tirely opposed to the adoption of any re-
| ligious policy whatsoever. When, there
fore MacMahon defied the Left and CON-
stituted the rev Ministry from the op-
position, it was Immediately charged
that the change was made under ultra
montare influence. Of course, this was
nothing more than q suspicion, because
there could be no way t. verify it; but
Immediately the jealousy of tho German
Empire was aroused, and there was an
ominous shaking of hands among tho
sage diplomats Of Europe. Prussia is =
Protestant power, and Prussia is Germany
to all intents and purposes; moreover,
she is the close ally of Italy, and a move
ment looking toward an eventual attack
upon that country, for whatever cause,
would be equivalent to declaration of
ar against the Empire of Germany.
! Now, the statesmen of the Vatican are,
perhaps, the longest headed of any in
Europe, and it is not for one moment to
be supposed that they would invite or in
stigate war without fair prospect of
success. tits clear enough that Germany
and Italy combined would be more than
a match for France alone; but if the war
becomes general, it is impossible to say
what combinations q skillftl manipula-
tion may not contrive, and when it is
all over, and the new map of Europe is
drawn, the Paoal possessions may be re-
turned to their old proprietorship.
| But all this is but surmise and specu-
lation. Before long its accuracy or in
accuracy will be demonstrated by tho
actual course of events.
| An old saving land not altogether an