The Evening critic., 1885-04-09

French Republic, so that in fifteen years
after the great debate ut arms ended, the
state secrets are published to the world
without the usual reserve which national
sensitiveness throws around public records
This publication enables one to understand
the mainsprings of the progress Of the war
and adequately to estimate the phases of the
conflict.
IL reads like fiction; on one side gascon-
ade and misplaced energies, aud on the
other clesr.eyed calculation and discipline
How severely Just is this balance of vitali-
ties and opportunities can be known by
every honest thinker.
The story is full of surprises, of dramatic
incidents, high actions and deep passions,
that succeed each other when tempests
shake a state but the surprise is the bold
honesty that marks the French Republic
in laying before all men the uuvarnished
tale Of the wild extravagance OF the Second
Empire, the hollowness of its governing
caste that manifested no regard for ma
tional future, that looked only to personal
gain, and grasped the wealth produced by
taxes, by forced loans aud the usual fnan-
NAaA haShAhtlg VI bitANh hViAONNAos
The Second Empire was political fraud
upon the French people. 1t was corrupt
and cruel in its beginning, corrupt and de-
moniac in its career, and corrupt aud senile
in its end. 1t resembled the last days Of
the Roman Empire moro than any other
power seen for thirteen centuries in
Europe, having the same selishness, blind
ness to moral laws and defiance of tue
painest laws of political economy. 1t was
thoroughly pretentious and bra2en, and
thought to outstare humanity and history
like political sphynx.
The war of six weeks exposed its false
hood. 1t was begun in bravado, acted in
spasms and ended in walls. The youth of
the two countries filled the files of war,
equally patriotic, ardent and heroic, buoy
ant with hopes Of a rosy future and eager
exponents of national honor-one led by
generals, the other by politicians the one
to triumph and the other to defeat, The
rapid progress of tho German arms in the
war with France was repetition of the
progress in tho Spanish campaign and in
the Austrian campaign. 1t delivered sudden
wellaimed blows, quickly repeated them,
stunned the adversary, confused his plans,
and, hy a mechanical accuracy of dispatch,
surprised all opposition and carried the
field. The remaining conquest was a mat
ter of certitude, to be evaded only by stout
hearts and iron discipline. France had the
hearts, but not the discipline. That comes
from patience, skill and foresight and
good commisrariat. Her politicians mar
shaled an army on paper and fatuously ad-
mired it as a Macedonian phalanX.
The SOW in the fable challenged Minerva
to trial Of wisdom.
France leaped to the front as in the days
of the first consul, but to find the i'm
peral prestige a sham to find strong
holds without armaments, camps without
equipage, pay-rolls without a military
chest, markets without credit, hospitals
without medicines, and all the forms of
| grim-visaged war without its snews.
| The soldery of the Red Republic and
first consulate spread before them a name
| that helped to win q military prestige
which was moral power, always to be
counted as strategic factor tangible and
valuable.
The Second Empire relied upon similar
possession because of Magenta and Solfor-
ino They did not imagine that the Goth
had worked while they had slept that the
German army on paper was in any way diff
| ferent from the French army on paper, or
that tho prestige of Sadowa was greater
than the prestige of Solferino, or that years
of peace, which had brought luxury and
t;,,,, 30 Ill 4
| preparation under the master gymnast of
the age. They expected to repeat Jena
and Austerlltz, from whose fields they
would send home Teuton prisoners of war
to till their vineyards as in the memory OF
their fathers. 1t was the likeness of a
kingly CROWN
The world knows how their city wit
messed carnival of communistic crime
how their fields were made desolate and
their future was mortgaged to the German
who was proclaimed Emperor within her
| palaces. Weary France made peace
woaried by unequal fates in unequal straits.
The victory was with the spiked helmets.
THE leading Mormon bishop declares
that the priesthood of that church has
concluded that it would be cheaper to ouy
a statehood for Utah than endure tho an
noyances polygamists are now being sub.
iected to by the enforcement of the laws
This is a now departure for the Mormons
to make. Their attempted public pur.
chases have heretofore been confined to Of
forts to buy Congresses.
!
TIE French frgate Isere will sail about
the last part Of this month from Rouen loi
New York with the Bartholdi statue oi
Liberty Enlightening the World. If the
New York TlOrH, which is the special
champion of the statue in raising funds for
a pedestal for it, does not hurry up,
Liberty when she gets here will find no
rest for the sole OF her foot.
PosrMAsrER.GENERAL Villas evidently
| proposes TO reform the names of some of tha