THE POSITION OF FRANCE.

Southland Times, Issue 1335, 15 November 1870, Page 3

THE POSITION OF FRANCE.

(From the Times, Sept. 7.) Nations may put aside their rulers and may repudiate fcne policy they have pursued, but cannot avoid the responsibility of their acts, as far as such acts have been completed before they were deposed. There is reason to fear that the Provisional Government of Prance have not quite mastered this truth. It is certain that it is altogether neglected by many Frenchmen who affect to speak in the name of their nation. "We have got rid of Napoleon," they say, addressing Germany, " and we entirely abandon his policy towards you, and the war may at once cease." The conclusion is much too abrupt. The Eepublic inherits the war. It inherits also the burden of the penalties that must be suffered in consequence of the declaration of the war. Sepublican France must be prepared to pay for the follies, and even for the crimes, of Imperial France. What may be tbe degree of retribution that must be accepted as just and proper is a question upon which, we do not now enter, but it is in -the interest of the regenerated Eepublic — it is otherwise impossible that the Eepublic can abide and prosper — that the fact should be recognised by the :srovisionalJ3pyernment chat France must answerlor the acts of her late ruler. "In abolishing the dynasty which was responsible for our misfortunes France accomplished an act of justice, and at the same time performed an act of necessity for her own preservation." It is in this language , that the provisional Government has addressed the army, and it was in a similar strain that it issued its proclamation to the people. The sentence is unexceptionable so far as it goes, but it is imperfect as expressing the circumstances of the present emergency. France has accomplished an act of justice — upon whom ? The answer is, of course, upon the Emperor ; but there remains the debt of justice to be rendered to the German nation for the acts of the Emperor. It may be premature to speculate on the proper and adequate way of paying this debt. But ifc is a matter, of urgent necessity for France that the'existence of such a debt should be acknowledged. Unless this be done the war must be prolonged till fresh horrors, equal to those that have already happened, perhaps exceeding them, be accumulated on the old.

A Split in the JKoman Camp.— Eumor has it that Dr Manning returns a Cardinal, and that Dr Cullen, feeling that the English people will outflaunt that of Dublin, refuses to play second fiddle tothe Saxonconvert, between whom and himself there has never been any love lost.