Year: 1870




the armistice While We write it is difficult to


say how far France has agreed to an armistice.


We have no positive statement that the Tours


government Is not in accord with the govern


ment inside the walls Of the beleaguered


capital; but we lack positive statement on the


other side. 1t is undeniable that the govern


ment in Paris has accepted the proposal Of


Bismarck and signed the agreement IF the


Tours government will not follow their breth-


ren of Paris--if Lyons and Marseilles and the


other more southern centres prove to be


equally unreasonable, then we shall have a


state of things almost, If not entirely, unparal-


leled in the history of any people.


We are not willing to believe that France


will be so foolish and blind to her own inte-


rests as many people think she Is. 1t Is surely


more than possible that Tours VIII follow


Paris. that Lyons and Marseles will follow


Tours, and that thus France will make possible


a general election-the one thing which can


save her from absolute and unqualified dis


grace. If it should happen that France in this


particular instance is not Paris. then General
Trochu, backed up by the King of Prussia and
his skful hench man, Count Bismarck, must
proclaim himself Dictator, and SO do for
France what France seems utterly unable to
do for herself. Many of the facts of the mo-
ment point to this necessity; but we are
most unwilling to believe that the armistice
is not to be an accepted fact all over France.


Taking it for granted that the armistice has
been agreed to and that France In all her
borders agrees to it and does her duty
in the premises, the next question TO be
considered Is the terms Of peace. A generally
accepted armistice, of course, means that the
French people will, within twenty-five days,
elect Constituent Assembly and delegate to
that Assembly the right and the power to act
in their name. The Constituent A Aosembly may
elect President and proclaim a republic,
they may recall the Emperor, they may
restore the House Of Orleans; but their prin-
cipal business will, after all, be to arrange
with Prussia a treaty of peace. What terms
win Prussia offer? Will she insist on the
cession of Alsace and Lorraine? viii she
only insist on the permanent occupation Of
Strasbourg and the destruction of Metz and
every other fortified place in the two Occupied
provinces? Will she Germanize Alsace and
Lorraine and hand them over to baden? Is
it possible that the French people, as one has
hinted will be induced to elect to the throne
of St. Louis the present King of Belgium,
France thus obtaining Belgium as compensa-
ton for Alsace and Lorraine? All these are
possibilities. Some of them, however, are
possibilities barely. Others of them reach
almost to the region of the probable We are
willing to give up the Belgian possibility, for
the simple reason that neither the Belgian
King nor the Belgian people will fling away
the certain for the uncertain-their independ-
ent existence for absorption. We are willing
to give up the Baden idea, for the reason that
Prussia will. not do anything to aggrandize
| South Germany or encourage the Southern
States to hinder national unity. Baden,
so enlarged, would feel her semi
national importance, and with Wurtemburg
and Bavaria and Hesse she might
make Southern Germany dangerously strong.
Bismarck is not the man to create troubles for
himself or distractions to his own policy. The
presumption to-day is that Bismarck will
draw his line with sufficient skill, and that he
will speak with so much authority, that the
best parts Of Alsace and Lorraine will have
no choice but exchange French for Prussian
allegiance. 1t is not our opinion that, if
France has the common sense to keep herself
out of chaos, Prussia will interfere with her
choice of government. It is not to be for
gotten, however, that the elections, In any
event, will take place under Prussian influ-
ence, and that, therefore, they will be in favor
of monarchy. 1t is as little to be forgotten
that General Trochu, who is the man of the
hour, the master of the situation, and who,
in spite Of republican protestation which
we print to-day, is an Orleanist at heart.t
General Ney once left Paris to bring back
the First Napoleon in cage Of IRON but
when the General met his former master he
bowed the knee and gave him his sword.
General Monk was the trusted soldier of the
English Commonwealth; but General Monk
used his mighty influence to bring back
Charles Stuart to the throne of his ancestors.
General Trochu is not a better man than was
the good Lafayette; but even Lafayette re-
stored monarchy in France. Everything
depends on the French people themselves. If
they act as one man in favor of a republic it is
not our opinion that Trochu will betray them
but if they do not reveal more magnanimity
than they have shown since this war COM
menced Trochu may save France by restoring
the house of Orleans. In NJ. Theirs he will
have powerful helper.


The settlement Of this contest between
France and Germany viii raise questions of
serious import-of so serious import as to
| make the reconstruction of Europe neces-
| sity. A congress may be considered certain.
| L in oil hhat. I'll aRod