Newspaper Page Text
that they always escape my most exact
scrutiny. There is no one who is not
able to say with truth that he is a sin
ner, and even a great sinner. He who
says that he is without iniquity, is a liar,
says St. John. God forbid that, to so
many crimes, of which I know myself
guilty, although I do not see them all in
detail, I should still add this monstrous
crime of pride and of falsehood. But,
Lord, You are not pleased with this gen
eral avowal. You wi.-h me to make to
Your Ministers an exact and circum
stantial derail of all rny weaknesses. It
is necessary then that I pierce the chaos
of my heart. But, alas! what shall I do,
and to what shall I resort in order to
succeed therein ?
0 my soul, sinful soul, sullied with
crimes, annihilate thyself before the God
of Purity ; feel the weight of thy sins
which overwhelm thee ; groau over the
powerlessness in which thou art to break
thy fetters, and have recourse to the
God of strength, to the omnipotent God,
Who alone is able to bring tbee back to
Himself.
I know, my God, that there is no
thought* in my mind, no movement in my
heart, no phantom in my imagination ;
I know that there is no one of my actions,
Deither of my steps, which is able to
steal away from the piercing glance of
Your eye. Alas! if I knew myself,
such as you know me, I should not be
able to bear with myself. But, my
God, this is precisely what I wish: for I
know that you will commence to look
upon me with an eye of pity, as soon as
I shall look upon myself with an eye of
indignation. You will commence to love
me, as soon as I shall commence to hate
myself.
Say, then, 0 my God, say: “Let there
be light,” and there shall be light all at
once in my heart.
Command chaos, and darkness
which cover it will be dispersed.
Holy Spirit, carry Y"our torch into all
the recesses of my soul; nothing shall
be able to bide from its divine light.
Open my eyes, fascinated by my self
love ; the deceitful mask, which disguised
my passions from me, will fall. Fix my
too inconstant imagination—fix it upon
myself. Make me find again and follow
all the traces that each one of my senses
has left in my memory. Nothing shall
escape my inquiries, since it is You,
Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, Who will
deign to guide me and to conduct me.
View Mont, Albemarle county , Va.
July 5, 1800.
(TO EE CONTINUED.)
EUROPEAN NEWS-
Paris, July 24. —News from the French
army will be furnished to the press from
the War Department, based upon official
despatches.
The Czar of Russia will be neutral so
loDg as Russian interests do not suffer.
Meantime he will do all possible to miti
gate the horrors of war.
London, July 24.—Yacht Dauntless on
the 13th was in latitude 43 north, longi
tude 36 west.
In consequence of the attitude of Aus
tria toward Bavaria there are renewed
rumors of warlike attitude of Russia.
England has resolved to make prepa
rations for putting her army on a war
footing.
The channel squadron has received or
ders to get ready for sea. Its destination
to UDffe with the Mediterranean squadron
at Gibraltar to form a fiyiDg squadron
under a command of Admiral Hornby,
who has been telegraphed at Valparaiso
to return to England immediately.
A special despatch from Berlin to-day
announces that the passenger traffic on
railways will cease to-morrow.
Reserves and landwehr are being for
warded:
The army is in excellent spirits and full
of confidence.
Tlc official journal of Austria says the
government having exhausted* all means of
mollifying Napoleon and preventing war,
has resolved to observe a strict neutrality,
but at the same time keep up a careful
watch for the chances of a peaceful settle
ment.
Russia announces her determination to
use all means of limiting the theatre of
war and abridging its duration.
The Prussians have blown up the eastern
end of the bridge connecting Strasbourg
with Kebl.
Strasruro, July 24 —A panic occurred
here this moraine, occas.oned by the report
of a loud explosion. The Prussians bad
blown up the abutments of the Kebl rail
wav bridge.
Marshal McMahon is expected here to
morrow.
The Emperor is expected atNancv.
French troops are massing at Meta and
hieonville.
Havana, July 24.—The report that
volunteers had murdered forty-two citizens,
and that women worked-on the chain-gang
in Remedies is untrue.
The Spanish Colonial Minister tender
ed more troops for the Cuban army,
which Deßodas declined.
Berlin, July 24.—The only written
document which Prussia has received from
France since the beginning of the quarrel
reached Berlin on Tuesday last and was a
declaration of war. It declares the Em
peror of France is obliged to consider the
proposal to elevate a Prussian Prince to
the throne of Spain a3 an attack on the
security of France, and he desires Prussia
to disavow the scheme. This Prussia re
fused to do, reserving her right to be
governed by circumstances. The Emperor
says he is forced to consider this deter
mination as equally menacing to France,
and the' European equilibrium, and par
ticularly as it was rendered more signfi
cant by the communication made by
Prussia to the cabinets of Europe, giving
an account of the refusal to receive the
French Ambassador.
The paper concludes that the French
Government, therefore, is taking steps for
defense of its honor and injured interests,
and having adopted all measures which
circumstances render necessary considers
itself at war with Prussia.
London, July 24.—The following dis
patch has been received from Paris :
Foeeach, Department of Mozelle, )
July 24, 1870. )
The Prussians have been repulsed at
Carling, and a reconnoisance on Prussian
soil has been made by French troops.
Berlin, July 24.—A proclamation an
nouncing the strict neutrality of Italy in
the pending war was issued to-day at
Florence.
Large demonstrations have been made
in Milan, Padua and Genoa in favor of
Prussia.
Despatches from St. Petersburg, dated
yesterday, declare Russia will maintain
neutrality.
London, July 24.—The French Govern
ment insists on adhering to the policy pre
viously announced of treating neutral
shipping the same as in 1854—n0 regard
being paid to the Paris Convention.
London, July 23, p. in.— No war news.
Prussians are cruising in the Channel
and North Sea to intercept French coal
supplies.
Forbach, July 25, n00n. The Prussians
have been repulsed at Korlic. A rccon
noissance has been made on Prussian soil
by the French.
Paris, July 25, noon.—Viscount De
Freeklard, the present French minister to
Chili, succeeds Paradol at Washington.
London, July 25, noon.—The inhabi
tants of an island near the mouth of the
Elbe have been removed, leaving the
French without pilots.
A body of the Uhlaner lancers passed
the border near Saapbruck, tore up the
railroad toward Metz for a long distance,
destroyed the Viaduct, and returned to
camp without loss.
A French force is concentrating on the
coast near the Belgian frontier.
Dublin, July 25, p. m.—The sympathy
of Ireland is almost unanimously with
France
Large meetings were he’d at Dublin,
Cork, and elsewhere in Ireland yesterday,
at which stroog resolutions in favor of
France were adopted.
Paris, July 25. p. m. —One hundred
and ten thousand voluLteers have already
enrolled in France.
It is tolerablz certain that Duke De
Pahkao will be commander-in-chief ot the
army of the Baltic.
The Journal Official ot this morning
publishos a decree closing the sessions of
the Senate and Corps Legislatif.
The Journal has several other official
declarations—one touching the inviolability
of reutrality of neighboring powers, and
another in regard to strengthening the ior
tiGcation3 of France.
It is reported to-day that the Emperor
has gone to Cherbourg to visit the fleet.
It is now said that the Emperor will go
to the front about next Thursday.
No report of a battle yet received—in
deed none is expected for several days.
The Journal Official contains the fol
lowing declaration : The French Govern
ment has issued orders that in the prosecu
tion of the war commanders of French
forces must scrupulously regard with re
spect neutral powers, and the rules of
international right, and that they espe
cially conform to the principles of the
declaration of the Paris Congress of 1850
as follows: Privateering is abolished, and
a neutral flag protects the enemy's mer
chandise except contrabands of war. Mer
chandise of a neutral except contrabands
of war is not seizable under a foreign
flag. The blockade must be effective,
although Spain and the United States
did net adhere to the declaration of 1856.
French vessels will not seize property of
the enemy, when such property is the car
go of a Spanish or an American vessel,
if it is not contraband of war.
France will no ionger claim the right to
confiscate property of Americans or Span
iards found on board vessels of the enemy.
The Journal Official announces that the
Minister of War nas given instructions to
commence putting in a state of defence
and readiness for active service the old for"
tificatioDs ot Paris and forts beyond the
present line oi woiks.
London, July 25, p. m.—The French
base of opetations extends from S'rasburg
to Thionviiie, a few miles north of Metz.
The centre is between Bitchscbe and St.
Arnold. The second line at Metz is capa
ble of expansion to the centre and Thion
viiie.
Deserters from the Frerch army are
very numerous. They are continually
coming within the Prussian lines.
The secret treaty which was .projected
between France Prussia monopolizes
the attention here of the public press and
Parliament, Intense indignation is mani
fested at the duplicity of the powers con
cerned. The action of Napoleon is con
sidered insulting to England. Complete
MS 818 ©I WM
ignorance of negotiation is professed at
the French embassy.
A dispatch from Brussels states that
the account of the treaty projected be
tween Franco and Prussia, which was
printed iu the London Times this morning,
isperfcctlyauthentic. The Belgian Govern
ment knew of its existance a short time
ago.
In the House of Lords Earl Granville in
reply tG a question from Lords Stratford and
Redclitfe said he was unable to state
where the Times obtained the text ot the
treaty. After the announcement of the
existence of such a remarkable document
it would be the duty of France and Prus
sia immediately and spontaneously to ex
plain the matter to Europe.
Florence, July 25, p. m.—The Italian
Chambers passed a law authorizing the ne
gotiation of a loan of six millien livres.
London, July 25, p. m. —The Morn
ing Telegraph , to-day, prints in large
type a communication reciting an inter
view had with the Emperor Napo
leon a fortnight ago. The Emperqr
had no thought of war on Prussia. He
was still unprepared, but France was slip
ping from his hands, and in order to rule
he must lead France to war. The Emne
ror related the contents of despatches
between himself and Bismarck, cl&imiag
that the latter wanted too much and want
ed it too soon. The Emperor demanded
Luxemburg in 1866 as an equivaic-nt for
h|s neutrality in Prussia’s contest with
Austria. Bismarck replied by demanding
Holland as an equivalent for Luxembourg.
The Emperor replied to this demand of
Bismarck that should the independence of
Holland be attacked by Prussia it would
be regarded as a declaration of war.
Count Benedetti was present at the in
terview when these facts were elicited.
Saarbrttck, Sunday, via Berlin, July
25, p. m.—Yesterday (Sunday) a body of
Prussians crossed the frontier near Saar
bruek. They penetrated into the country
several times, and at length found the
French in considerable force near the town
of Gersmieller. Sharp skirmishing ensued
between the forces. The French soon re
tired, leaving ten killed and wounded on
the field. No loss on the Prussian side.
This action has demonstrated that the
needle gun is superior to Chassepot. Sub
sequently a company of Prussians, the
17th regiment of the line, captured the
French custom house at Schrecklingen,
the officers of the custom house made a
stout resistance and were all killed or cap
tured. One Prussian officer was slightly
wounded iu this engagement.
Paris, July 24. —The Journal Official
of this morniDg publishes the following
proclamation from the Emperor to the
people of France:
''Frenchmen: There are in the life of a
people solemn moments when the national
honor, violently excited, presses itself irre
sistibly and rises above all other interests,
and applies itself with the single purpose
of directing the destinies of the natioD.
One of those decisive hours has now ar
rived for France. Prussia, to whom we
have given evidence during and since the
Wir of 1866 of most conciliatory disposi
tion, has held cur good will of no ac
count, and has returned our forbearance by
encroachments. She has aroused distrust
in all quarters, necessitating exaggerated
armaments, and has made of Europe
a camp, where will reign disquiet and fear
of the monow. The final incident has
disclosed the instability of international
understanding and shown the gravity of
the situation. In the presence of her new
pretensions, Prussia was made to under
stand our claims. They were evaded und
followed with contemptuous treatment.
Our country manifested profound displea
sure at this action, and quickly the war cry
resounded from cne end of France to the
other. There remains for us nothing but to
confide our destinies to the chance of arras.
We do not make war upon Germanjq
whose independence we respect. We
pledge ourselves that the people compos
ing the great German nationality
shall dispose freely of their destinies.
As for us we demand establishment
of a state of things guaranteeing our se
curity and assuring the future. We
wish tO’ conquer a durable peace,
based .on the. true interests of the people,
and to assist in abolishing that precarious
condition of things, when all nations are
forced to employ their resources in arming
against each other. The glorious flag of
France which we once more unfurl in the
face of our ehalleogers, is the same which
has borne over Europe the civilizing ideas
of our great revolution. It represents the
same principles, it will inspire the same
devotion.
Frenchmen ! I go to place myscll at the
head of the valiant army which is anima
ted by love of country and devotion to
duty. That army knows its worth— more, it
has seen victory follow its footsteps in four
quarters of the globe. I take with me
my son, despite his tender years; he knows
the duties his name imposes upon him,
and he is proud to bear his part in the
dangers cf those who tight for your coun
try.
May God bless our efforts. A great
people defending a just cause is iuvincible.
[Signed] Napoleon.
From Utah.
Salt Lake City, July 25, p. tn.—Last
night at a reception given by Col. Finley
Anderson to Gen- Auger and staff, a large
crowd of Mormons gathered in front of the
house and insulted ?he Colonel and his
guests, and finally broke up the party.
George Cronin, * prominent member of
the anti-Brigham Young government, was
found dead to-day. It is said that be com
mitted suicide.
KING WILLIAM AS AN ABSOLUTIST—
THE CAUSE OF THE WAR
[From the New l r ork World ]
The direct cause of the final rupture
between France and Prussia seems to
have been, as the direct causes of such
ruptures are too often apt to be, a per
sonal collision of an unpleasant charac
ter between t o eminent p rsonages.
These were the King William, of Prus
sia, and Count Benedetti, the French
ambassador at the Prussian court. King
William was at Etns, near Wiesbaden,
a p ] ace where neither his Majesty nor
the Prussians are particularly admired,
but the waters of which are found to be
beneficial to the venerable and rather
morbidly bilious constitution of the
monarch. Where the King is there is
the court, and the French ambassador
consequently was at Ems, also, con
ducting the negotiation ■; set on foot by
the sudden explosion of the Priin-Bis
inarck contrivance for getting a Prus
sian prince upon the throne of Spain.
The negotiations were rather delicate,
since they were intended by France to
bring the Prussian sovereign to a fiat,
disavowal of any hostile intentions in
permitting the Prince, his kinsman, to
accept the Spanish crown. The per
sonal temper of the King was therefore
an element of particular importance in
the conduct of the affair; for King Wil
liam well knew both that the intention
of Bismarck in organizing with Prim the
candidacy of Prince Leopold really had
been hostile to France, and that he him
self had for years desired nothing so
much as an opportunity of relieving his
soul of a profound hereditary hatred of
Frenchmen in general and of the Bona
partes in particular. Yet, at the same time,
he was well aware tiiat he could not pos
sibly afford, in his capacity as European
sovereign, to confess that he had conniv
ed at the aggrandizement of a member of
his own family with the express object
of insulting and circumventing a friendly
power. Had Count Bismarck been
intrusted by the King with the manage
ment of the affair, even out of this disa
greeable complication peace, with honor,
might have been, perhaps, evolved.
For Count Bismarck, with all his con
tempt for abstract right and his love for
brusque and peremptory solutions of
diplomatic imbroglios, understands and
appreciates the importance of the public
opinion of Europe and of politic forms
very much better than King William,
who, indeed, neither understands nor ap
preciates them at all. But Count
Bismarck has been growing out of favor
with his master for some time, exactly
in proportion as the King has become
reconciled with Count Bismarck’s bitter
personal enemy, the Crown Prince. So
King William insisted upon managing
his intercourse with Count Benedetti
himself. A sketch of the two men will
satisfy the reader how inevitable was the
result of this royal wilfulness. King
William of Prussia is one of the oldest
of reigning sovereigns. He was born in
the midst of the first French Revolution.
Asa child he witnessed the humiliation
of Prussia, of his father, and of his family
by the first Napoleon, and as a youth he
took pait in the cvenging campaigns of
1813 and 1815. These events gave a
decisive color to his opinious and his
character for life. A younger son, he
gave himself up to a military career, felt
and professed openly the utmost con
tempt for democracy and constitutionalism,
and made himself so obnoxious to all the
Liberals of Prussia that in 1846 he was
forced to fly the kingdom after doing his
. J . , o n
utmost to induce the government to al
low him to drown the revolution in the
blood of the Berlinese. Camphausen con
trived to get him back after an exile of
nine months in England; and iu 1849 he
sigualized himself by his victorious and
rnereiless campaign against the people
of Baden. In 1854 he was made Gover
nor of the Gen. Rhenish Pri sda, and dur
ing his residence at Mayence he ccntribut
edgreatly to intensify the hatred with which
Prussia has long been regarded in that
city, doomed by the military strength of
its position to see all its splendid com
mercial advantages reduced to nought.
Lie bitterly opposed the neutrality of
Prussia in the Crimean war, longiDgthen
to lead an army against Fiance. lie
became Regent in 1857 by the declared
lunacy, and King in 1861 by the death
of his childless brother, Frederic William
I\ . \\ itli his reign began the new
military career and Policy of Prussia.
In October, 1861, he had himself crown
ed with great pomp, and declared that he
held his throne not from the people or
the constitution, but “from God alone.”
This brought an open conflict between
the Crown and the Parliament, during
which the KiDg never for a moment
bated his haughty absolutism. When
the Liberal party carried the election in
1862, the King refused to open the ses
sion of Parliament, and when the Parlia- 1
ment rejected the enormous appropria
tion asked for the army, the King sent
for Bismarck, then Ambassador at Paris
to help him conquer these obstinate con
temners of divine right. The House of
Peers backed the King. The Commons
persisted. The Peers voted the money
refused by the Commons. The Com
mons declared this vote illegal. The
King thereupon closed the session, and
coolly proclaimed that the appropriations
had been made. This was the first in
stance of a successful royal revolution
against the rights of the people in the his
tory of Europe since the days of 1789.
It was followed by persecutions of the
press, by an alliance with Russia to sup
press the Polish insurrection, by an or
dinance suppressing the liberty of the
press; and when the Liberal party suc
ceeded in 1863 in carrying the elections
again by a great majority, the King at
once flanked them by opening the war
w.tli Austria against Denmark for the
conquest of Schieswig-Holsten.
Foreign war thus became, as it had so
often before become, the grave of domes
tic liberty. The war of 1866 against
Austria completed what the war of 1863
against Denmark had began; and King
William of Prussia is to-day as complete
ly the representative of armed and ir
responsible kingly power in Europe as
was the Czar Nicholas in 1854. He
looks the character as throughly as he
believes in it. Stalwart, deep-chested,
with a square, rugged face, a bristling
gray mustache, cold, implacable eyes,
which rather twinkle than glitter, ami a
heavy jaw, King William is the beau
ideal ot a veteran cuirassier, as ready to
ride down shop-keepers and kiwyers iu
Beilin as to charge the cavalry of France
at Jena. The hereditary malady of his
family, which carried oft* his father in a
state of religious mania and his brother
as a hypochondriac, betrays itself in
King William through an inconceivable
O .
worship of his place and prerogative.
He believes in the infallibility of mon
archs as devoutly as Pius IX in the in
fallibility of Popes. So firm is his faith
in the divine nature of his position that
he keeps, and has for years kept, a minute
daily diary of everything which happens
to him, and w .eutve ■ ary new emer
gency arises he turns to mis diary to
see what he did or did not do on the cor
responding day in all the previous years
of his life of now seventy-three years.
Ilis contempt for all men not soldiers nor
nobles he finds it so difficult to conceal
that he did not design to bestow the
slightest attention last year on the Hum
boldt celebration; and all the efforts of
Count Bismarck have been needed to
make Mm treat Americans at Berlin
with even a show of courtesy since a
plebeian German, Mr. Kreissman, whom
President Lincoln sent out as consul to
Berlin, insisted with success, on getting
admitted to bis court, from which con
suls had always been, and indeed still
are, excluded as absolutely as merchants,
bankers, lawy< rs and tradespeople of all
sorts. With this forward and fanatical
old prince M. Benedetti was left to
debate the peace of Europe. NT. Bene
detti, the Corsican son of a Greek father,
was trained in early life at Cairo and
Constantinople to manage the suscep
tibilities of Turkish Pashas not a whit
more obstinate and opinionated than
King William. He had acquired a great
experience of European affairs as Direc
tor General of the Foreign Office in
Paris, and Secretary General of the
Congress of Paris, as well as in the
post (which he filled for three years) of
French, Envoy at Turin, when he was
sent as French Ambassador to Berlin in
1864. With Count Bismarck M. Bene
detti had gradually obtained a good deal
of influence, and had the Prussian Chan
cellor been with him at Ems matters
might perchance have been smoothed
over again at ibis time between the two
states, as they were three years ago at
the threatening crisis of the Luxem
bourg question. But King William
would himself settle an affair which con
cerned his own princely bouse. He allow
ed M. Benedetti to gain a first step by
securing the retreat of Prince Leopold
from the candidacy, and, this having been
done, he insisisted that Prussi had no
more to do. In vain did M. b nedetti
point out to him that the only ;.«on why
Prince Leopold’s candidacy was ob
noxious to France consisted in tin fact
that as a Prussian prince he was held by
the French people to symbolize a hostile
intent on the part of the Prussian govern
ment, and that it was therefore incum
bent upon bis Majaesty to take an official
part in withdrawing him. The King
flatly repelled the suggestion at first, and
when it was pressed upon him again b
flatly repelied the ambassador. This act.
of course—the precise details of which
are yet to reach as —closed the discussion
and the closing of the discussion
equally, of course, opened the dreadful
vials of war.
3