The herald., 1894-06-12
DARK CLOUD OF WAR.

|
trophe OF Sedan. it has been the fashion
to regard the Emperor Napoleon Ill. as
pin headed msn, with neither ability
nor good qualities Of any kind. 1t is too
much the fashion of the public
to indulge In too much adulation
when man Is in the zenith of his for
tune and to throw mud at him when he
is down. Thus the splenetic judgment
of Victor Hugo has been generally &C.
copied as the true estimate of Louis
Napoleon that he was, compared to the
great Bonaparte. as the Augustulus Of
the later Roman empire to the Augustus
Of Octavius Cesar. This is, ia all prob
ability, a highly strained and unjust
verdict upon the best emperor of the
French. Some of the diplomatic per.
formances Of that ruler were really re-.
msrkable. and his browning achieve
ment was the bringing about of a cordial
rdpprochemern between France and Eng
land. No one ever expected to see the
legions of France and England fighting
shoulder to shoulder against a common
foe, either in the Crimea or anywhere
else, and yet this miracle Of diplomacy
was brought about by the ex-
prisoner of Ham. Strangest of all WAS
it to see Queen Victoria sffix the garter to
the knee OF Napoleon LII. at the cele-
bration of the com pletion OF the great
work OF building the harbor OF Cher
bourg, which was almost az much an
English as q French demonstration.
Those things occur to ones memory in
view of the marked arrangement which
has lately come about between the two
countries, beginning in Asia and culmi-
mating in Africa. A noted European
politician some tins ago gave uttersnce
to the opinion that, contrary to all ex-
pectation, the next great war would
grow out Of complications in the Dark
Continent. This idea was not regarded
as at all serious, but in the light OF re-
cent events there seems to have been
some ground for the expectation. The
recent treaty made by England and the
Free Congo state, and which gives the
former power an uninterrupted territory
from Cairo to Cspetown, is by no means
satisfactory either to France or Germany.
The language of Monsieur Hanoteana,
the French minister OF foreign affairs, in
the chamber of deputies, is almost war
like, He calls the action OF England q
breach OF the peace. In such an
inhsmmsble body aa toe lower
house of the French legislature,
it is not difficult to create q
crisis. The German emperor is also said
to be not a little irritated by the ag-
gressive course Of England. To the dis
interested observer, not the least pc
culiar feature of the matter ia the fact
that the African himself counts fol
nothing in the episode. The chic
role which the black man 10 expected
to play in such transactions is to allow
himself to be moved down by rapid
firing machine guns. There was no enc
of outcrY when the United States in
sisted upon holding several millions o
the negro race in slavery, but when i
comes TO the wholesale murder anc
looting OF the Inhabitants OF an entire
continent, everything appears to be &C.
cepted as in the natural order of things
So bellicose is the attitude OF bott
France and England in this matter
that it would seem to require unusus
diplomatic skill to avoid hostilities.
brush between the two countries woulC
be of absorbing interest, as it would
tell the world what it has long bear
anxious to know, and that is the value
of the enormous iron and steel monster
that constitute the modern navy, snC
OF the prodigous guns which have so ia
only been used upon targets set W
against banks of sand. Many doubt
would be resolved by such war.