The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-08

is sincere she cannot, with any show OF
logic or consistency, object to a provi-
sional suspension of arms Mt the seat OF
war. Finally, doubt Is cast on the effect
which a battle between OYAMA and
LINIEvITcH might have upon the temper
of the belligerents.
That an armistice should be wanted
in st. Petersburg is natural enough.
The wavering Car and his worried adj
visers have had their fill Of modification,
and they forcsce that if lINIEV1TCH is
beaten and driven out of Manchurla
their cup of shame will overflow. IT, on
the other hand, they could manage to
secure an armstice without asking for
it, they would be able, by and by, to de-
Jude the muzhiks with the legend that
peace had been mercifllly granted by
the Little Father to the prayers OF an
exhausted foe The Gear, in truth, at
this conjuncture is in a position similar
to that occupied by NAPOLEON ILL., just
before the battle of Sedan. If an armls-
tiCe could then have been secured from
Prussia and the groundwork OF treaty
of peace agreed upon the Second En-
pire would have had at its disposal the
armies under IMAGINATION and BAzA1NE,
and the September instruction would
never have been witnessed in Paris, or,
had it occurred, it could have been
suppressed Even after the capitulation
at Sedan, had BISMARCK been willing to
treat with the captive Emperor or with
the fugitive Empress. the provisional
Republican Government would have
found it difficult, if not impossible, to
cope with the garrison of Metz, which
numbered more than 100000
1t was not Germanys cue, however to
save the French Second Empire, any
more than it is Japans to shield the Rus
sian autocrat from catastrophe. More
over, a peace made in September, 1870,
would have seemed to BISMARCK pre-
mature, because he had not yet suffi-
GENTLY rectified Germany's western from
tier and was not in position to claim
Alsace-L Lorraine and colossal money
indemnity. He must have recognized,
moreover, that better guarantees OF the
permanence of a peace would be attain
able from a Republican Government
commanding the confidence of the French
people than from discredited empire,
which, like the monarchy of Louis
XVIII, might be looked upon as propped
by foreign bayonets. Nobody can fail TO
see in retrospect that the statesman who
had German interests at heart was right
in rejecting negotiations until Metz and
Paris had surrendered.
The points of likeness in the present
situation are obvious What is Japan
fighting for: Not only to expel Russia
from Manchuria, but to put an end to
her dream of military and naval ascend
ency in the Far East. Neither of those
capital aims can be regarded as attained
so long as LINIEvITCH is permitted to
hold Kirin and Harbin and so long as
Russia retains the naval fortress, N9di-
vostok. By the middle Of August, when
the plenipotentiaries are expected to as
semble, or, at all events, by the time that
Russias representatives can be pinned
down to the acceptance of a definite
basis of peace, LINIEvITCH may have
been forced to surrender, or to retreat
west of Lake Baikal, and Vladivostok
may have been invested by sea and
land
There is another point of view which
many a liberty loving American may be
disposed to take-that, namely, Of the
Russian revolutionsts. From one end
of the Cars dominions to the other it
is known that this war is Grand Ducal
war. Its success would have been the
glory of the Grand Ducal coterie: its
failure means for them disgrace and
perhaps humiliation. If the champions
of autocracy can manage to evade the
consequences or mask the depth of their
incompetence and folly, they may be
able, with the aid Of LINIEvlTCH' S veter-
ans, to stife the peoples wrath and in
dignation, which now threatens to ex-
plode. The army massed in Northern
Manchuria has to-day for the reaction
lists and bureaucrats of st. Petersburg
the significance possessed for French
imperialsts in so by BAzAINE's great
host at Metz. 1t represents their SUI
preme resource; the last card left for
them to play in the desperate game of
which the stakes are the destiny of a
nation.