thousand soldiers, now prisoners of war, any of these masses are resolved into their awaiting in Germany the commands of parts, the units, too, of which they are those whose capital they once thought to formed have each had their separate trainenter on another errand, and with a differ- ing, and each is capable of acting alone in ent bearing. There is, indeed, something his own sphere. Undoubtedly, the conalmost of miracle or of magic in the ad- duct of the campaign on the German side inistrative perfection, to which the com- has given a marked triumph to the cause Lined action of necessity and sagacity of systematic popular education. "Diu has worked up the Prussian system. Or, magnum," says Sallust, “intra mortales cerif we dispense with the language of figure, tamen fuit, vine corporis, an virtute animi, and if we set aside for the moment the res militaris magis procederet." The mind moral of the case, we surely must conclude has now gained a point in the competition that the army of the North German Con- with its material partner, its "muddy federation has been brought by the skill vesture of decay." But the moral of the and wisdom of its rulers to the highest case must not be set aside; and moral mechanical perfection ever known in his- forces, too, it must be owned, wrought at tory. the outset with an undivided efficacy in The nation has put forth its whole pow- favour of North Germany. The material er, with all the order and symmetry that and mechanical process could not have belong to bureaucracy or to absolutism, been so consummate unless it had been and with all the energy and fire that be-backed by the elements of a higher long to freedom. In Prussia proper, and strength; and the world is not yet so denow as it appears through all Germany, pressed, nor the law of the stronger so the most consummate army ever known is absolute, as that physical power and the put into the field with the greatest expe- calculating faculties should alone deterdition, and at the smallest cost. Besides mine the great issues of combat. There all the known and usual departments of was of old some secret might which activity, those services which lie outside enabled Greece to withstand Darius and the common routine have all been studied, Xerxes, and Switzerland to withstand and all developed with an equal prudence German and Burgundian invaders, and and care. The quantity and quality of Scotland to withstand England, and Amerthe artillery have been alike remarkable, ica to withstand both. The sense of a and have, like the skilful massing of supe- good, that is, speaking generally, a defenrior numbers, contributed largely to suc- sive cause, of fighting for hearth and cess. If the steady fighting of the Ger- home, of delivering no blow except in mans is admired, their flying service, which answer to one given, or intended and prescours the country, presents itself at a pared, is not only a moral warrant, but a thousand points at once, and makes per- real and fertile source of military energy. fect the stock of information, is viewed A strong undoubting persuasion of being with nothing less than wonder. Other in the right, of itself, though it be not armies can destroy a railway; the Germans omnipotence, is power. carry the means, in men and tools, of mak- This immense advantage the Governing one. It seems that even gravedigging ment of France most rashly and wrongly is provided for by a special corps. We gave over into the hand of its already forneed not be surprised, then, if their com- midable antagonist. War was proclaimed missariat has fed in a foreign land, with- and waged by France. Doubtless the out apparent difficulty, more than double spirit of her soldiery and of her people has the number of mouths for which the been aroused by a sense of duty to their French had to provide on their own soil; country. But even the sense of duty to a duty, which they did not perform with- our country cannot have that moral comout grievous complaints of insufficiency pleteness which is necessary for the entire and failure. Every man seems to be in development of human energies, unless his place, and to know his proper business. the country, which commands the services The finished intelligence, of large reach of her children, has herself obeyed the and measure, which presides over the higher laws of public right. The Frenchwhole strategic operations of Von Moltke, man capable of reflection could hardly is proportionally represented in every escape from the sad alternative - either military organism from the corps d'armée the war was aggressive, or it was dynastic ; to the company. Miscarriage or mistake in the one case Germany was to be a vicseems no more to adhere to their ordinary tim, in the other France. What, then, operations, than to the working of the was the immediate plea, which France machinery of a cotton factory. But when alleged for this deadly quarrel?

The first question in order which arises is upon the original theme of quarrel. Did the Hohenzollern candidature, with its expected acceptance by Spain, afford such a cause of complaint to France, as would have justified the resort to arms? Upon this point it may certainly be said that, even if the negative be true, yet the affirmative, when considered in the light of European history and tradition, involves

and feeling of the world. And yet, perhaps, it might be fairly asked whether if France, in 1870, was entitled to object to a Hohenzollern in Madrid, Europe might not with as much reason have objected, in 1852, to a Napoleon in Paris?

Though it is painful to lay open a dis- Government which rules perhaps the most mal chapter in the history of a great and richly-endowed nation in the world, they famous nation, yet truth compels the ad- appear so wholly unaccountable, upon any mission that a spirit of perverse and con- of the ordinary rules of judgment applistant error seems to have governed from cable to human action, that they are the first the ruling powers of France in almost perforce referred by bewildered the conduct of the diplomatic controversy, observers to blind theories of chance and which preceded and ushered in the war. fate. We shall state the facts as they appear on the face of the papers presented by Parliament. It appears as though an adverse doom were hovering in the air, and a lying spirit had gone forth from the courts of heaven to possess and misguide, with rare and ineffectual exceptions, the prophets of the land. The late French Government, for whose faults that gallant people is now paying such tremendous forfeit, selected first its own ground of quar- no violent offence to the common reason rel. In this it had no small advantage. The foreign policy of Prussia, if it has been sans peur, has assuredly not been sans reproche. One stain upon that policy it scarcely lay in the power of the Imperial Government to notice, for, when in 1863-4 the British Government proposed a combination of the two Powers to prevent any violent settlement of the question of Schleswig-Holstein, their proffer was very decidedly declined, and the German aggression was left to take its course. Still it is believed that acuteness and skill far less than France has always at her command might have availed to show at least plausible grounds of complaint against Prussia for her proceedings in and since 1866, and to represent some of them as constituting offences against the law and menaces to the tranquillity of Europe. Be this as it may, that chapter of argument remains unopened. Prior misconduct of Prussia, though it might have been brought into the account, yet actually constitutes no part of the res gesta which laid the ground for the war. It was the candidature of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the crown of Spain on which, and on which alone, the Imperial Government chose to raise the quarrel.

However, we assume, as the British Government assumed, that on the whole the French demand for the withdrawal of the candidature was so far legitimate, as to entail a very heavy responsibility on those who could resist it.

But, at the very first moment, the demand had been associated with proceedings tending in the highest degree to increase the difficulties of compliance with it. The case was one in which the Imperial Government ought evidently to have invoked the aid of a friendly State, and for the time to have placed their cause in its hands. Or, if they were not prepared to make over its advocacy to others, they ought at least to have addressed their request through the usual channels to the two Powers complained of. Prudence and principle alike enjoin the rule that, when an injury is alleged by the party supposing himself wronged, and redress is demanded without any prior proof of the case before an impartial authority, at Now, viewing the case with a cold im- least the manner of requiring the removal partiality, and deeply impressed, as we of the alleged wrong shall be such as will have ever been, with the value and import- not inflict public shame on the person, ance not only of friendly relations, but whose guilt is, after all, only proved to even of something in the nature of a spe- one side. But, instead of this rational cial amity, between France and our own mode of action, it was to the Legislative country, we sorrowfully place upon record Chamber that the very first communication the conviction that the whole proceedings of the French Government was made, with of the French Government in the conduct an intimation that, if the demand were not of its controversy constituted one series complied with, the quarrel must be carried of unrelieved and lamentable errors; er- to the last extremity. Thus the Ollivier rors so palpable and wanton that when Administration, while urging a requisition men observe them in the conduct of a in itself open to controversy or cavil, did

all it could, by its unwarrantable method cumstances would he consent to the reof procedure, to make concession difficult for the Powers from whom it was required.

vival of the Hohenzollern candidature. It was not possible that anyone conversant with the laws of just self-respect, to say nothing of those of punctilio, could suppose the King of Prussia would, or ought to, comply with this demand. But, heap

The aid, however, of the British Ministry, and that of other Powers, had been requested by France. Whether because of the advantage of proximity, or of aling blunder upon blunder, the Government more disembarrassed promptitude of ac- of France overlooked the fact that, in the tion, or because the world has been more view of the world, Prussia could at most fully informed of our national part in the be only regarded as an accessory to the proceedings than of that taken by other offence, whereas Spain was the principal. countries, the British Government appears Yet the principal was absolved upon the to have been principally concerned in ob- mere abandonment of the candidature, taining the withdrawal of the candidature while the accessory was required to deby Spain, and a renunciation by the father clare he never would offend again. Once of the Prince in the name and on the be- more we say, this inequality could receive half of his son. Spain undoubtedly de- in the eyes of the world only one explanaserves credit for the readiness with which tion- that the situation, the military preshe acceded to the demand; and the more parations of four years, the start supposed so, because after all the difficulties which to have been gained over Prussia, were too she had encountered in her search over good things to be parted with. It is hard Europe for a King, it was no small sacri- to say that a motive so indescribably fice to the general good which she made when she surrendered an arrangement which for her own purposes, among which we do not suppose she reckoned a war with France, she had reason to think eligible.

wicked was consciously and deliberately entertained by the Emperor, or by the Cabinet then at the head of affairs in France; but, setting aside this odious supposition, what a picture of folly, inconsistency, and temerity is presented to our view in the France of 1870, as she has been unworthily represented by the Imperial Government!

So far all went well. But as Prussia, by an act of the Sovereign, if not of the State, had been a consenting party to the proposal that Prince Leopold should take the We need scarcely stop for more than a Spanish throne, it was perfectly just to ex- moment to remark that, in their almost pect that she should also declare in the preternatural perverseness, the French same manner her consent to his with-Government had certainly given to the drawal. Without this, indeed, the with-friendly Powers, whose aid they asked, a drawal could not be considered to be very serious ground of complaint, had complete; and Prussia might, in some fu- there been a disposition to take advantage ture contingency, have made it a ground of it. Let us consider how the case stood for the revival of the design, or a matter between them. A State lays its grievance of controversy or quarrel. But this point before its neighbours. It desires their asalso, notwithstanding the ill-starred mode sistance for its removal. They accede to in which the demand had been preferred, the request, and commit themselves in the was gained, and the King became a party cause, not in obedience to any clear dictate to the cancelling of the whole arrange- of justice, but on grounds of policy and ment. What was, hereupon, the conduct prudence, and because of the great importof the French Government? They had ance of giving satisfaction, and so predefined for themselves the cause and the venting bloodshed. They succeed in oblimit of their complaint. It was now fully taining the demand they were asked removed. They acknowledged the re- to make. The complaining Power then moval, and they declared the quarrel to be changes its ground, and refuses to accept closed as regarded Spain. But, to the at the hands of its friends what it had laid astonishment of the world, they imported a new term into the controversy, and thereby gave some warrant to a suspicion that they were determined not to part with their grievance, but to turn it to account. The Duc de Gramont announced, But, if the Government of France was that the communications with Prussia were less than courteous to its allies in this not yet at an end; and he required of the strange proceeding, it was more than cruel King an engagement that under no cir- to itself. It is beyond all doubt that,

before them as the object of its desires. We contend that this is a breach of a virtual covenant spontaneously undertaken. and is a proceeding wholly at variance with international obligations.

terrible of the Furies, the fury in the breast of man, the Ollivier Administration pursued its insane career.

when the candidature had been withdrawn, | ground that the matter in question was not France stood possessed of a great diplo-suited to a reference of this nature. And matic triumph, gained with a marvellous thus, driven on by that worst and most rapidity. She had the option of retiring as victor from the field, of leaving the Prussian Government under a soupçon of discredit, and of closing the question with a manifest increase of credit and influence in Europe. But, instead of quietly harvesting their very considerable gains, her Ministers thought proper to advance a fresh demand which only a great amount of military success could have covered from severe and immediate censure, and which now adds a real disgrace to the conventional dishonour of adverse fortune in

arms.

We must not, however, omit to notice that in this most strange history the errors of detail, grave and constant as they have been, were swallowed up in one master-error. The course of the Bismarck policy in Germany had not been one of the smooth and easy progress which, from what has now happened, we might be apt to suppose. That policy was threatened from a variety of quarters. The democratic party was intent upon more free institutions. The The British Government evidently felt Ultramontane party, with its root and centhat, having become a mediator of France tre in Bavaria, abhorred the transfer to a at her own request, they were now entitled Protestant Crown of the ruling influence and in duty bound to pass judgment, in Germany. Local attachments, among though in the mild and measured terms the populations of the absorbed and the required by friendly intercourse on the menaced States, dreaded the power of cenulterior proceedings of their ally; and ac- tralization. The members and friends of cordingly, without losing a moment, Lord royal houses which had suffered abounded Granville represented at Paris that the in ill-will. The unscrupulous character of demand made on Prussia by a prospective many of the Prussian proceedings must engagement could not be justified, and have tended to estrange upright and tender ought to be withdrawn. This representa- consciences. True, all these forces were tion was at once parried by the reply that overborne by the one instinct which made an insult had just been offered by the King Germans desire to find their strength in of Prussia to Count Benedetti, the French unity, and by a state of facts which showed Ambassador, which rendered it impossible them that their hope of unity must, in orto consider the British representation. der to be practical, have Prussia for its baThe ground for this plea was a paragraph sis. But they were dissipating and disin a newspaper considered to represent the Prussian Government. Shortly after it proved to be erroneous. But what can we think of those who could declare the appearance of such a paragraph to be a reason, not for explanation or apology, but for the refusal to consider the request of a friendly Power, and for an immediate resort to the arbitrament of war?

Yet another effort, however, was made by the Government of this country. The Congress of Paris, in 1856, had recorded in a Protocol its unanimous opinion that, before having recourse to arms, any Powers engaged in controversy would do well to refer their cases to arbitration. An appeal founded on this Protocol was addressed to both Prussia and France. The Prussian Government replied to the effect that they were passive in the whole affair, and that it did not fall to them, accordingly, to take the initiative. But the terms of this reply were such that, had France been willing to move, Prussia could not, consistently, have refused her concurrence. Unhappily the answer of France was, though not a discourteous, yet a positive refusal, on the

turbing forces; they were drawbacks and deductions from the might of a great people. One way there was to rally them, in so far as they contained national elements, and to drive into utter insignificance such elements of their composition as were wholly dark and irreconcilable. It was that an attack should be made on Prussia by her ancient enemy, not for her sins, which may have been many, but for her virtue, which was one, and which to the German mind, not unnaturally, outweighed and eclipsed them all-namely this, that she was the strength and hope of Germany. The Germans knew that there had been promulgated in France almost a gospel of territorial aggrandizement at their expense; that the statesmen and orators of that country were largely imbued with the idea; * that of its recognized parties,

In the "Daily News" of September 15, there appeared a letter, friendly to France in its general sage. We fear that the list it contains is not far upshot, from which we extract the following pasfrom being correct: "The Orleanist, the moderate Liberal, the Republican, in short, the whole of expressed it; the Roman Catholic Montalembert,

France shared and still share it. Men of all parties

either none wished or none dared to disavow it; that the evil traditions of former times taught or tempted every French Government to assert the right of interfering in the transactions and arrangements of neighbouring countries, on the ground of the exigencies or interests of France. The demand which was made on the King of Prussia received from the heart and mind of Germany but one interpretation; it was taken to be an assertion of the right of France to dictate, and a proof of her intention to use that right so as to stain the honour, baffle the hopes, and degrade the destinies of the German race.

contrast with the boast uttered by M. Rouher in a moment of unhappy exultation, that the last four years had been spent in bringing the warlike preparations of France to perfection. But we shall consider the military features of the campaign in another part of this Number, and we do not propose to dwell on them here.

The same perverseness, which had marked the diplomacy of the Duc de Gramont before the war, still clung to that infatuated minister. It seemed not merely that many things must be done wrong, but that nothing could be right. Even when there was a case, yet from want of So much for the diplomacy anterior to skill nothing could be made of it; and the war on the side of the Government of when the action chanced to be a proper France; a chapter which, for fault and folly one, it was to be spoiled by the mode of taken together, is almost without parallel acting. Of this there was a conspicuous in the history of nations. But wonder example in the case of the treaty proposed rises to its climax when we remember that by the British Government to the belligerthis feverish determination to force a quar- ents for better securing the neutrality of rel was associated with a firm belief in the Belgium. The proposal reached Paris high preparation and military superiority sooner, by several days, than it came to of the French forces, the comparative in- the knowledge of Count Bismarck, and its feriority of the Germans, the indisposition first reception, according to the statements of the smaller States to give aid to Prus- made to Parliament, was favourable. But sia, and even the readiness of Austria, soon the Duc de Gramont began to haggle. with which from his long residence at Vi- First one explanation was necessary, and enna the Duc de Gramont supposed him- then another. Nor was its principle left self to be thoroughly acquainted, to ap- without criticism. The treaty might be pear in arms as the ally of France. It too signed, but the French minister could not soon appeared that as the advisers of the see the use of it. Now, surely, it required Emperor knew nothing of public rights, very little discernment to perceive the use and nothing of the sense of Europe, so of it for France, whatever it might be for they knew nothing about Austria and the Belgium. The Bismarck-Benedetti project minor German States, and less than noth-had startled and had shocked the world. ing about not only the Prussian army but even their own.

Some degree of mystery still hangs over the faults of the military administration. We do not know in what proportions were combined the various elements of neglect, weakness, or corruption, in the conduct of the Emperor, in appointments great and small, in recruiting, in the provision of matériel, and in forwarding to the frontier. The result was in universal and dismal

The explanations which followed amounted to no more than a game of battledore and shuttlecock, in which the charge remained exactly as it was, and was tossed backwards and forwards between the two disputants on very even terms. Indeed, the case was rendered worse by the allegation of each party that not on this occasion alone, but on many more, his virtue had been solicited by the busy iniquity of the other. Under these circumstances it was a great advantage to have an oppor

the apostle of free trade Michel Chevalier, the Or-tunity at the earliest moment of manifestleanist Thiers, the moderate Republican Jules Favre, the Republican poet Victor Hugo, the soci alist Republicans Louis Blanc and Barbès, and all their parties and followers spoke or wrote of the necessary acquisition of the left bank of the Rhine. The whole of France, of all parties and Goverments, the present generation and the present Republican Government included, advocated the policy of Richelieu and Mazarin, viz., acquisition of the left bank of the Rhine, and the division and humiliation of Germany." It is right to state that a defensive plea, whether sound or unsound, has entered at times into this claim; the plea that the transfer of the old Ecclesiastical Electorates to Prussia had materially altered the balance of power to the prejudice of France, and that the existing French frontier was open to invasion.

ing the sense at least of the actual Government of France, by giving an undertaking to England, not only to respect but to defend Belgian neutrality. This advantage Count Bismarck at once perceived. One and the same day sufficed for him to form his own judgment, to obtain the consent of his sovereign by telegraph, and to bind himself, by a conclusive acceptance, to the British Government. The lagging answer of the French Ministry, thus distanced in the race, was some time after