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Show ENGLAND'S ATTITUDE. Gladstone's cabinet has, it seems, got waked up at last to interfere in the Franco-Prussian war, and al at once manifests on astonishing degree of activity ac-tivity in the matter. There are grave reasons for suspicion in the anxiety displayed dis-played by Great Britain, as well as Jjj Italy and Austria, to brine about 1 peace at present; and it is little wonder won-der the French doubt the sincerity 01 the overtures being made by "perfidi-oas. "perfidi-oas. Albion." The pro.-pects of France do not look near so dark, in a nationa' point of view, as they did af'er the hu miliatiug day at Sedan. The nation roused to the necessity of a struggle f t self-preservation is putting forth it? strength for the conflict; and after al lowing a large margin of discount foi the iate reported French successes, there is little doubt that the situation of Prussia is daily becoming less assured as-sured while (hat of France is in eoua ratio becoming strouger. Winter l.- , f.tst approaching, and the German armies ar-mies are far from their base of sup- . plies, with a country around" them ravaged and poverty-striken, peopled ; by infuriated hosts driven to despera-tion despera-tion and .figl ting for their hearths and homes, their country and their very existence. ex-istence. A large portion of , France is yet free from the invaders,1 and there the annas of the new Republic ' are ' being formed.';. There . is 'no Prussian force sufficiently strong to invade those portions of France without with-out weakening the armies around Paris and Metz and the other -. leas strongly fortified towns, . which retard theii triumphant progress. The immense force inside Paris is training daily in a school of war that will soon make them formidable enemies:-" New camps are being formed, iu which' hew troops are being drilled. -Arms- are multiplied - with great rapidity; and altogether the effective forces of France are not only . numerically inuch ', stronger, but will soon be betteranned "arid equally as well drilled as were the French armies Kt the opening of the war. It is under such eircumstauces that intervention is . so urgently proposed. It cannot, be to avert danger from Paris, for Paris was. threatened weeks ago as lunch as it is now. - It cannot be to save Prussia from defeat, for there i9 no evidence yet that she is not able to successfully continue the war It cannot be to save France, for France is practically stronger than" she was a month ago. -, It can only bo he-cause he-cause : the strong aud determined attitude atti-tude of republican France is encouragement encourage-ment to republicanism all over Europe, which threatens nearly every" crown ed head on that continent, "and the only conclusion we can reach is that a coalition is being formed to crush republicanism in France and in Europe by the re-establishment either of the Empire or of a monarchy with one of the Bourbons on the French throne. If . so,, and - the indications seem like it, the monarchical ystcm of government will receive a heavier blow in Europe than has ever yet been dealt it, whether the plot temporarily succeeds or not, for the age is too far advanced and the spirit of individual sovereignity too widely felt, fcreuch schemes against human liberty to be long successful. |
