FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ENGLAND.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 741, 24 November 1870, Page 2

FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ENGLAND.

[From the Daily JVews.]

A month ago France was nearly on the Rhine, and making no secret of her coming victories. Germany was to be overrun, Berlin was to be occupied, and from the Prussian capital was to be dictated a peace which in contenting and appeasing France could not fail to satisfy Europe ; for, according to a famous formula, it is only when France is satisfied that Europe can expect to be tranquil. How, then, an expectant Europe asked itself, can Franco be satisfied? M. Guizot used to say that she was rich enough to pay for her glory ; but the glory of signing the preliminaries of peace at Berlin would probably have to be paid for as the glory of emancipating Italy was paid for, by a voluntary " compensation " in the shape of p, strip of frontier, including a valuable coal basin and a line of fortresses. Nor was this all. France, in her solicitude for the equilibrium of Europe, must be made secure against German aggression, by a return to the arrangements provided in the Treaties of 1815, which left Germany divided between the hereditary rivalry of Austria and Prussia, the subordination of the southern kingdoms, and the discordant helplessness of the smaller states. The Rhine was to become a French river, the German frontier was to be thrown open and disarmed, and if the Napoleonic confederate of the Rhine could not be re-established, the North German Confederation would be dissolved, and all the consequences of Count Bismarck's policy and of the war of 18G6 annulled. Germany would henceforth be parcelled out into three great political portions, Austria, Prussia, and the southern kingdoms, the minor States gravitating to either of these portions according to natural affinities. And over all this happy defensive redistribution of the German Fatherland, delivered from its evil dreams of unity, the protectorate of France could reign supreme. Such, or somothing very like it, was the programme of French policy at the opening of the war. It was not, of course, official. The official programme avoided details, and went no further than that safe generality, " the equilibrium of Europe." The "equillibrium of Europe " meant the division and defensive impotence of Germany. Public opinion on this side of the channel forbore to discuss the effect of such an " equilibrium" on the security and interests of Great Britain. "Once assured of the safety of Balgium, neither iu the Parliament nor & the press was the quostion of Fronch

aggrandisement and predominance debated. Not a syllable was broached in Parliament or out of doors, of anxiety about tho effect of a French conquest of Germany upon the " equilibrium "of Europe. No ono seems to think that this country would be a penny tho worse for any extension of French territory in Central Europe, any dismemberment of Germany, or any victories of a French army of invasion or aggression. The course of "military events," as King William modestly describes them, has relieved Euglish statesmen from the painful possibility of contemplating a French equilibrium of Europe. Instead of this, some speculative or sympathetic English politicians are hegilining to ask in a tone of grave misgiving what is to become of England if that great neighboui'ing Power, from whose territory nothing but the narrow seas divide us, and to whose stimulating proximity wo are indebted for the increase of our army, the reconstruction of our navy, and the creation of our volunteers, should actually be forced by German arms to renounce its pretensions to predominance in Europe, its theories of compensation, and its imperious conditions of European tranquility ? How will the interests of England be affected if Alsace should revert to its original proprietors, if Germany should claim a mountain and language instead of a river frontier as a security against aggression, and a French manufacturing and industrial province should be nuited to the Zollverein ? How shall we be situated as a maritime and commercial nation, if Germany takes the place of France as the preponderant military Power in Europe ; if Germany, in short, affirms and consolidates her national unity, like France or Italy ? Will not Germanny, in her turn, become an aggressive power and demand that no dog shall bark in Europe without her leave ? Will she not perpetuate the miserable uncertainties of an armed peace by incessant menaces to the safety and integrity of her weaker neighbors and by kindling in the breast of France an inextinguishable spirit of revenge ? The most reasonable of these questions we have stated last, for it is one that concerns the future happiness of all Europe and of Germany herself, and not of England exclusively. So far as any exclusive interests of England are concerned, why should we hesitate to avow a conviction which history and geography alike support that there can be no alliance more natural, nor more unobjectionable, than one between a strong united Germany and Great Britain. That very military system which has enabled Von Moltke to organise victory makes Germany the greatest defensive power iu Europe. A strong united Germanny is a counterpoise at once to Eussia aud to France, and all the victories she has won in a war of resistance to aggression will not extend her seaboard or make her a threatening rival to England on the seas. There is no point at which England and Germany can come into collision ; while race, language, character, and even religion bring them into constant and friendly contact in all parts of the world. Those who declaim against the aggressive spirit of Germany can only point to remote possibilities which may safely be left to the care of some future generation. Enough for us to take Germany and the Germans as we find them. None can be more heartily and sincerely desirous than we of living in the most cordial amity with our nearest neighbor ; none more honestly anxious for the peace, prosperity, and grandeur of France; nor is it from imperfect sympathy with that noble and amiable nation that we have spoken of Germany and England as natural allies.