Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-07-23
FRANCE AND ITALY.

The indications are that there VIII be
war between France and Italy in short
time. The symptoms in this case are not
those which occur in quarrels between
dynasties. This is far more threatening
and intractable situation, for it is really
quarrel between peoples. 1t is perhaps
unnecessary to trace back the misunder-
standing to its source, though if this
were done it would probably appear that
the first aggressive and insulting actions
were committed by the French. The truth
is that the French have peculiar tendency
towards this kind of challenge. As peo-
pie they are inordinately conceited and
vain. This is shown in their wonderful
complacent ignorance of all countries
but their own. 1t takes French con-
ceit to reach the hight of the as
sumption that there is really nothing
in the world worth knowing outside OF
France. but there can be no question that
just this preposterous belief is seriously
held by millions of Frenchmer. It is of
course an evidence of barbarism, and not
of civilization. The French entertain this
belief in common with the Chinese, and
with sundry Central African tribes. It
was owing to this national vanity that in
1870 the French army was found to be to-
tally unsupplied with French maps. They
had plenty of German maps, but they had
not provided any of their own country
because they expected to march to the
Rhine in couple of weeks. Now the
French people prefaced the German war by
precisely the same kind of manifestations
as have lately been made against the Ital-
ians. The French people, that is to say,
expressed their animosity towards the Ger
man people long before the respective Gov
crnments declared war. The Marseilles
riots resemble with ominous exactness the
preliminaries of the war with Germany.
1t is noticeable, too, that the present
French contempt for italian military Prov
ess is very close copy of the French con-
tempt for German prowess shown years
ago. And though presumably the present
French army is stronger than the Italian
army, the superiority of the Gallo forces
is by no means absolutely certain. Italy
has an army of $50, 600 men, with reserves
of equal strength, and beyond question
she has the most powerful ironclad fleet IN
the world. She can put $50, 900 men in
the field in two months, and can double
that force in four months. 1t has never
been pretended that Italian soldiers were
not as brave as French ones, and seeing that
all modern armies are almost equally well
armed, there is really no just ground for
the French assumption of military superb
ority. In any case it is apparent that
Italy is quite strong enough to insist upon
being treated civilly, and that she is also
strong enough to go to war with France in
the last resort, without apprehending the
fate which befell her at the close of the
last century France is growing restless and
arrogant again, however, and it is apparent
Sudt BIG Will AOt DC ISotldluC0
from engaging in war. The presumption,
and by no means a strained one, is that she
has already made up her mind to humble
Italy, and it is now suspected that the
Tunis expedition was directed more to this
end than to the extension of French infu-
ence in Africa. As the attacks upon Italy
and Italians have been wanton and brutal
and bullying, and as there is an unavoidable
suspicion that France would have taken
very good care not to insult in this way
people she thought her equal in strength,
the world would not be sorry if it should
prove that she had made another mistake
in this case, and had in fact caught a
Tartar.