The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-08-11 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11TH, 1866.  PEACE NEGOTIATIONS.  "Thou shalt do no murder !" one of the commandments—graven upon stone hard as adamant—Moses received on the sacred Mount! from Wm who ruleth all things well. There is no equivoke about this most impressive sentence from the Almighty: plain and homely as the simplest language could make it—that it might be as clearly understood by the illiterate as the learned—there is not a loop-hole by which the deadly crime can in any manner be justified. Nevertheless, in defiance of this-solemn warning and command, King William, at the opening of the Prussian Parliament, "thanks God" for having " assisted " him and his people in the "sacred struggle" of dismembering Germany. Surely there is something more than ordinarily blasphemous in associating His name with the perpetration of wholesale murder ! To devastate a country of all that renders it glorious, beautiful, and prosperous; to lay waste its fields, towns, and villages; to hew down and transform to hideousness those made after His immage, is appalling in the highest degree; and this too well the Prussian King himself knows and feels; but 'tis necessary not only to stand well with the world if possible, but also to have an excuse to one's conscience. Except in the spirit of aggrandisement, or the mistaken idea of the "divine right of kings," no excuse whatever can be offered for the bloodshed lately inundating the continent of Europe, and carrying sorrow, poverty and wretchedness to many a previously happy home and smiling homestead. For years past the King and his minister Bismarck have been ruling their country with a hand of iron, felt keenly by the people and constantly resented by the national representation in their refusal to grant the ;means for what appeared to be a "personal government." Even up to this period the lan. guage of the King is rather that of a master than a constitutional sovereign, although the belief is gaining ground that the struggle for influence will be based on principles sufficient. ly liberal as to satisfy the aspirations of the people about to be annexed. Let us hope that, having done so great a wrong, the King now sees the error of his ways, and in asking fol. a bill of indemnity he desires to make the best reparation in his power.  It seems to be the 'opinion of our French contemporaries that when the Treaty of Peace is signed by the high contracting parties, all peoples under the guardianship of Prussia will be happy and contented ; but we see nothing whatever in the preliminaries of any concessions to France, and unless there is some secret understanding between the Emperor of the French and the King of Prussia, the former potentate is not likely to allow matters on his confines long to wear a roseate hue, for Napo icon HI. is represented as being very unpopular amongst his subjects, and it is said that more uneasiness exists now in France than has been known at any previous period since the empire was established. The cause of this state of feeling is the belief that Bismarck has out B• 71 1  4i614.41  manceuvred Napoleon. French vanity has therefore suffered a grievous slight. And, again, amongst the latest items of foreign news is one to the effect that Russia is concentrating troops on the German frontier, apparently with the design of exercising a pressure upon Prussia. The "Moscow Gazette" says "The sound policy of statesmen in Russia can never wait for a combination in which Prussia might become a dangerous neighbour." In the meantime the Czar has suggested the assembling of a European congress, although its objects are not exactly defined. As to "family ties" or associations in any way influencing the conduct of Russia, experience affords no evidence of anything of the kind ever presenting a barrier to the insatiable desire of that country for aggrandisement and conquest, and the sons of La Belle France have been too long inactive not to require a something by which their military glory may be again sated.