through Luxemburg, would seem to be a We shall not attempt to sketch the camatter of small account in regard to any reer or character of the man who perhaps additional facilities it could give for carry- now contemplates the undulating landscape ing the forward loads to the seat of war. from the brow of Wilhelmshöhe, as his unSomething, too, was due to the great cle from the rock of St. Helena gazed upon humanity with which the French wounded the sunset and the ocean. Some points had admittedly been treated within the of conduct, relating to the present war and German borders, and yet more to the vast the battle of Sedan, we advisedly preteramount of suffering unrelieved. But that mit. They are more likely to receive full which constituted the palpable offence in justice at the hands of Continental than the case was this, that no proof or serious of British writers. In Napoleon III. we explanation was given of the alleged should "damn the vices we've no mind to." military advantage to the enemy; no mid- But there are some things that may be dle term was proposed, such, for example, said on behalf of the fallen. Two services as the release ipso facto of all French he has conferred upon the world. He gave wounded who should pass the neutral the first, and as it proved the effectual frontier; there was only a hard and high-impulse to the restoration of the national handed assertion of extreme rights, tend-existence of Italy, and thus to closing one ing to deepen the painful impression which of the traditional battlefields of Europe. so many of the steps taken by France And he principally of all men, unless we in this deplorable controversy had pro- except Mr. Cobden, contributed not only duced. * to the development of French industry but to the principle, so to speak, of that extended, free, and essentially friendly intercourse among nations which grows out of open trade. They were not the friends of the Emperor, who declared that the Treaty of Commerce must be torn with cannon. And up to a certain time it cannot be denied that France owed him much, at least in point of influence and power. The period of ten years from the Crimean war was for France a period such as she had never known from 1815 to 1848, a period unquestionably of towering influence, prosperity, and power. But the Nemesis of the coup d'état pursued the Emperor; and the Emperor involved the Empire. To this review of the immediate causes and diplomatic incidents of the war, in itself sufficiently painful, the recollection of the long alliance between France and our own country, which has marked for good the history of this generation, adds a sadness that is inexpressible. It is not possible indeed, after the disclosures of the Bismarck-Benedetti project, to look back upon that alliance with the unqualified satisfaction in which we should have gladly indulged. We may feel the impulse to exclaim, "Numerosa parabat Excelsa turris tabulata, unde altior esset Casus, et impulsæ præceps immane ruinæ." Juv. Sat. x. 105. πῆ δὴ συνθεσίαι τε καὶ ὅρκια βήσεται ἡμῖν; Il. ii. 339. But we may also check that impulse; and rather dwell with pleasure on such recollections as those of an honourable war waged in common, of sentiments in great part concurrent on the weighty question The Mexican expedition, and the whole of the reconstruction of Italy, of generous scheme of ideas with which it was consympathy in the crisis of the Indian Mutiny, of timely support received at a critical moment of correspondence with America, and not least of that Treaty of Commerce which has done so much, independently of its merely economical results, to weave between two great nations a web of concord so firm in its tissue that, though at this moment it may naturally be subject on the side of French opinion to a strain, we trust and believe it never will be broken. * Our argument has been justified by the more re cent facts. Since the battle of Sedan, it appears that, from the sheer necessity of the case, German wounded have traversed Belgium in considerable numbers, without notice from the Government of the country. nected, constituted such a compound mass of blunders, like a huge agglomerated iceberg rising high to heaven and sinking far deemed incapable of adoption even by an into the deep, that it might have been vated what was then considered the astuteordinary human being, if it had not captithe most upright and intelligent of Ausness of the Emperor. With him it inveigled trian princes, and that pure flower of Royalty, the Empress Charlotte, who in every quality of mind and body excelled among the women of her age, and whose intensity of character received a mournful, but we will yet hope not a final witness from the disturbance of the seat of reason produced by political misfortune. In this transaction was first clearly disclosed the monly conquer or vie with the foremost singularly chimerical cast of his mind. of European nations; in national selfThe disastrous issue of the Mexican knowledge they seem to be behind the affair damaged the position and influence hindmost. France does not know, and of France, dissolved the halo that seemed cannot discover, how to constitute herself. to surround the Emperor, raised the hopes Gifted with great administrative faculties, of the enemies of his dynasty, and put him, her people have now, for near a hundred we fear, upon a series of abortive efforts years, exhibited a woful incapacity for for the recovery of what had been lost. adapting their institutions to their wants, One of these, indeed, would have deserved or for imparting to them a character of all praise, had it been followed up with durability. No French constitution lives that consistency, which is the best evidence through the term of a very moderate farmof good faith. The abandonment of per- lease. The series of perpetual change is sonal government was however too conclu- not progression; it is hardly even rotation, sively shown to be unreal, when the power for in rotation we know what part of the of appeal to the people which cannot gov-wheel will next come round, whereas the ern, over the heads of its representatives French polity of to-day in no degree enwho can, was reserved on behalf of the Emperor. The trumpery affair of the Belgian Railway, some eighteen months ago, was so handled as to indicate distinctly that there existed a restlessness among the ruling powers of France; but M. de Lavalette, the author of the admirable circular of September 1866, was then happily the Minister of Foreign affairs, and the controversy was after a time composed by the zeal and skill of Lord Clarendon. And so at length we arrived at the epoch, when the evil star of Napoleonism had mounted to the highest heaven. Disaster, by the side of which that of Moscow grows pale, has overtaken it, and it has been struck, in all likelihood finally struck, to the ground. ables us to judge what will be the French polity of to-morrow. Accomplished and consummate in the branches of an almost universal knowledge, in this single but great chapter of the appliances of civilized, not to say human, life they have yet to learn their ab c. What might France not be if, instead of allowing her mouth sometimes to water for the annexation of Belgium, she could import from beyond her northern frontier the political common sense, which makes that small country one of the best governed and most respected members of the European system? With this crudeness,ch angefulness, and barrenness in point of achieved political results, France becomes before all things a calamity to herself, but she becomes also of necessity a standing cause of unrest to Europe. She spreads a kind of tremour through its ordinary atmosphere. There is always a fear lest something or other should be required fo satisfy her dignity, to slake her thirst for fame, to sustain, almost to titillate, her consciousness of predominance. Nor, when she is unable to arrive at any stable or permanent views with regard to her constitutional government, can we reasonably expect that she should be able firmly to grasp the principles of mutual respect, and several independence, which must regulate a well If we think this great event a cause of congratulation to Europe, it is by no means because the Emperor is responsible for all that the name implies. Nor, unhappily, is it because the rival names represent opposite and sounder principles. It would be difficult to take the character of the King of Prussia for a symbol of political wisdom or moderation, or that of his powerful Minister for a guarantee of scrupulousness and integrity. But the deepest and most formidable complication of the present crisis on the Continent is, in our view, that which has reference to the internal condition of France and to the char-ordered family of nations. acter of its people. The extraordinary Now justice forbids us to saddle the rerace by which that land is inhabited appear sponsibility of these radical evils upon the to be richly, nay supremely, endowed with Second Empire. If in regard to any of every gift but one- the gift of true politi- them it was a cause, it had first been an cal sagacity. Hence it is that, while they effect. It may be said that it has had its are the greatest framers of logical pro- own special sins: the taint of its inception, cesses, and the most prolific parents of ab- the traditions of a brilliant but ominous stract ideas for the solution of all manner and evil name, and the capital and standof problems, they seem to show in their ing fault of being in an eminent degree own case little practical tact available apt to work the foreign policy of the counfor the management of human affairs. In try for dynastic purposes. But, if we are every other race of excellence they com-to bestow censure on the particular party which has recently ruled in France, for beneath, on the surface all was gorgeous; flattering aggressive traditions and for and the glare of Parisian gayety and stimulating, through a powerful standing splendour more than ever imposed upon army, that professional spirit of the sol- the eye, and tainted the conscience, of dier which, if it be a necessity, is also apt the world. It was a close and foul atto be an evil and a danger to every coun- mosphere, of which the evil odour was try, it is fair to ask what other party op- only kept down by clouds of incense and posed to the ruling one, what other period floods of perfume. Admitting freely that of recent French history, shall we select for there were good deeds, and great deeds, approval? The policy of Louis-Philippe which leave trails of light upon the course and M. Guizot was in the main pacific; of the Second Empire, we feel that for but this very fact was one of the causes of France it was a snare, a calamity, a hopetheir fall and expulsion. less impediment to solid well-being. Is there then no charge, which lies Strange indeed that, being such, it should against the Empire as especially its own? have received thrice over the solemn Unhappily there is. They were warlike sanction of an overwhelming popular sufand not peaceful memories which, cluster- frage; and happy the release from the ing round the name of the First Napoleon, illusion, though it will be achieved in the made that name a passport to public midst not only of disaster but of agony. favours in the person of his nephew; and, Nothing can compensate a people for the founded in its origin on a combination of loss of what we term civic individuality. force and fraud, the Empire perforce be- Without it, the European type becomes came thereby an example of that degrad-politically debased to the Mahometan and ing form of human things, in which right Oriental model. For many generations it is based only upon power. The Emperor has been waning away in France. The promised, and possibly at times desired, to great Revolution did not restore the instigive to France freer institutions. But it tutions necessary to rear it. Napoleon I. was only after he had held supreme power ruthlessly destroyed, in the municipality for seventeen years, that he dared to set and the commune, the remaining deposiabout what was too soon shown to be taries of public spirit, responsibility, and after all only a nominal fulfilment of the manhood. The system of Napoleon III., promise. Unhappily, he then, by the res- which worked despotic power under the ervation of the right of appeal to the peo- mask of universal suffrage, aggravated the ple over the heads of their representatives, evil by concealing it. deprived the new-born system of all that. While rank corruption, mining all within, vitality which belongs to genuine freedom. Infects unseen.' So that through the whole reign the Hamlet. French nation was really under despotic It will take long to build up this part of rule. A people so intellectual and so ad- the social edifice. Nothing, probably, but vanced could not thus forego its liberty the direst calamity could have availed to without profound injury to its national life. The highest example was not edifying. Moreover, in the midst of such a people, absolute rule could only subsist by the zealous and energetic aid of a body of satellites, who were compensated for the unsavoury character of their functions by the high rate of their wages. The profuse and enormous luxury of the Imperial family tended to raise this rate still higher. "Pro pudore, pro abstinentiâ, pro virtute, audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant." Where at head-quarters prodigal enjoyment, approaching in its character to public pilfage, was the rule, the example set by such authority was followed with a close fidelity in each lower and wider circle of administration. If such a system was adverse to public honesty, it was fatal to public spirit. While all was thus unsound Sall. Catil, c. 3. show the necessity or prompt the effort. May the time have come! for none can despair of France, and least of all those who strive to lay bare the sore as the first step towards healing it. But, until France can lay more firmly the foundations of her own government, she never can fulfil all the duties of good neighbourhood to Europe; for those who rule her, feeling factitious aids for the maintenance of themselves dependent on momentary and power, will endeavour to extract from an imposing and ambitious policy abroad the materials of popularity at home. It is a fatal condition for a people when its rulers descend from their high position to inflame its passions and trade upon its besetting and traditional infirmities, and when, in the dynastic controversies which sway the land, the aim of each party seems to be to stir the national vain glory to feverheat. Of this mischief the recent war in France, that the people will not here- has afforded a painful and egregious in- war will entail; a burden such that we stance. The reproach of a pacific policy shall not be surprised if France should from powerful opponents helped at least obtain the unenviable privilege of a pubto drive the party of the Emperor into a lic debt nearly or quite equal to our own mood determined upon war, and seeking in amount, and heavier in yearly charge? only the occasion. It was found in the The disenchantment may be effectual. Hohenzollern candidature. The victori-Such a state of ideas may come to prevail ous Germans have since been bidden to stay their onward steps, on the ground that the war was not the war of the French people. We fear that, as between nation and nation, there is little force in such a plea. It is impossible to exempt a people from plenary responsibility to another people for the acts of its Government. And yet the allegation in itself is true. It was a faction in the narrowest sense, which sympathized with the worse and overruled the better minds of the Emperor and his Government; and which, by clamour in the Chamber and intrigue in the Court, hurled France into the war, from the anticipated success of which they reckoned receiving a new lease of power and of emolument. There is too much reason to believe that the agency of the Government was employed in Paris during the early part of July to draw from the excitable, the venal, and the worthless, an artificial but violent applause, and to check and discountenance any public expression of the sober judgment of the country, which would have spoken in different accents. For many a long year France will rue the consequences of this terrible political offence. In fame, in influence, she must be content with a lower rank, perhaps even for generations to come; and though her wealth will still be vast, even this will certainly be reduced, as a consequence of the war, by several hundreds of millions of pounds sterling. very It may seem strange, after an outrage so grave, and a disaster so overwhelming, if we discover in the facts any ground of comfort or of hope; but we hold advisedly that the growth of pacific ideas and habits may be traced in the recent history of France, though not in its very latest chapter. Of the five wars, in which the Emperor Napoleon III. has engaged, none have been demanded by the public opinion of the country. The Crimean and Italian wars, which contemplated purposes useful to Europe, were certainly not forced by opinion upon the Government; while it may with truth be said that the Mexican and German wars were forced upon the people. But may we not draw hope for the future from the terrible chastisement of a rash and unscrupulous ambition, and from the heavy burden of debt which the VOL. XIX. 868 LIVING AGE. “All is passed: the sin is sinned." Tennyson's Guinevere. With We have seen on the side of the French, tradition and expectation, the mitrailleuse and the chassepot, and a supposed start all this, a feeble and corrupt army-govin the first moment of the war. ernment, and a proneness to deep military disorganization among both officers and men. Against them the Germans brought numbers, discipline, organization, a vast artillery, a complete system of scouting and intelligence, and an incomparable leadership. Nothing, indeed, can be more perfect than what we may term the cast of parts on the German side: the venerable age and hardy courage of the King, the genial intelligence of the Crown Count Bismarck, the profound strategy of Prince, the resolute will and clear eye of Von Moltke, seconded by the ablest coadjutors, and disposing of human life with an appalling profusion, though in regu We extract the following passage from a captured letter of an officer of MacMahon's army, dated August 26 : "L'insuffisance des distributions et le désordre Luneville, a jeté la plus grande indiscipline dans des premiers jours de notre retraite sur Saverne et notre corps. Partout on pille et on vole même dans les maisons; les villages ou nous avons passé sont plus désastrés qu'ils ne le seraient par les Prussiens. On se vole aussi dans l'armée, même entre officiers; c'est une démoralization abominable. Notre gé néral en chef fait depuis deux ou trois jours de louables efforts pour faire cesser ces désordres, inais il aura beau faire; notre armée, qui a déja les géne raux les plus incapables, et les officiers les plus ignorants de l'Europe, a aussi les soldats les plus indisciplines. Nos troupes d'Afrique sont une plaie; elles ont gaté le reste de l'armée sous le rapport de la dis cipline." "N.N." lated proportion to its supply and to its taken in the abstraction of French terends. ritory. Now this means French territory In the course of these observations we with its inhabitants. And the question have proceeded upon the supposition that, immediately arises, is there to be no reat some period in the history of this, as of gard paid to their feelings in the matter? former, wars, the views of the respective We do not dispute the title of Germany, parties would be brought, by the force of as matters stand, to be secured by special circumstances, within measurable distance. stipulations; to place France under such It is painful to observe, at the latest mo- limitations in regard to the exercise of her ment before we go to press, that this sovereignty in the districts claimed, as period has not yet arrived. The public shall virtually guarantee their military sentiment of this country has approved neutrality; nay, to extort the territory the evident opinion of the British Govern- itself from France, provided the populament, that the desire to do good does not tion be willing parties to the severance. relieve those who may entertain it from But not until it has proved, that transferthe duty of accurately considering the ence of the territory is the only way of means at their command, and moreover of giving security to Germany, can she be refusing to make attempts, which are not justified in even raising the question withentitled to the credit of benevolence un-out some reference to that essential eleless they proceed upon an intelligent computation of the likelihood of a beneficial or a mischievous result. But the silence of a Government need not be copied by those who, not invested with authority, aim at assisting the public mind and conscience by discussions. We, therefore, need feel no scruple in saying that it is difficult to accept the present reported position either of the one party or the other. In France, the Government of National Defence commenced its career by imprudently asserting the doctrine of the inviolability of a soil which, having recently received addition, seemed also to be capable, in the abstract, of suffering subtraction. As though raising pretension were the best way of securing performance, it was further declared that every fortification must remain entire. We will yield, it was said, "ni un pouce de notre territoire, ni une pierre de nos forteresses." Since this declaration was first made, the Germans have taken Strasburg, repulsed new efforts of Bazaine to break their lines before Metz, invested Paris, and proved, in several actions, the incapacity of the force which composes its garrison to make impression on the enormous beleaguering host. The French Government of Defence meets this state of facts by reiterating a boast which is so wofully out of proportion to its powers and its prospects, that it sounds to Europe like a hollow mockery, while it probably serves to cherish in France the most ruinous delusions. On the other hand, Germany, by the circulars of Count Bismarck, declares that together with indemnity for the past, she must have security for the future; and, laying down not less absolutely the practical application of her very just principle, adds that this security must be ment. 66 Ils nous Unhappily, however, M. Jules Favre reports that in the Conference of September 20, Count Bismarck used the following extraordinary language, in speaking of the inhabitants of Alsace and a portion of Lorraine, which he had announced his intention to appropriate : Je sais fort bien qu'ils ne veulent pas de nous. imposeront une rude corvée; mais nous ne pouvons pas ne pas les pendre." This, if it were really made, is a harsh, almost a brutal announcement. Of the whole sum of human life, no small part is that which consists of a man's relations to his country, and his feelings concerning it. To wrench a million and a quarter of a people from the country to which they have belonged for some two centuries, and carry them over to another country of which they have been the almost hereditary enemies, is a proceeding not to be justified in the eyes of the world and of posterity by any mere assertion of power, without even the attempt to show that security cannot be had by any other process. We hear much of the civilization of the Germans. Let them remember, that Italy has been built up, at least from 1860 onwards, upon the groundwork of the expressed desires of the people of its several portions; that England surrendered the possession of the Ionian Islands in deference to the popular desire, expressed through the representative chamber, to be united to Greece; that even the Emperor Napoleon took Savoy and Nice under cover of a vote, as to which no one can say that it clearly belied the real public sentiment. This is surely a great advance on the old and cruel practice of treating the population of a civilized European country as mere chattels. Are we to revert to that |