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Both Prussia and Russia at once abated
their claims, and Prussia was content
with a part of Saxony, consoling herself
with the prominent position given to her
self and Austria in the new Germanic
Confederation; four votes out of seven, if
they could only pull together, giving
them all the preponderance they could
desire.
But all the while Napoleon, in his is
land prison, was not idle. He kept up
a constant correspondence with IB ad
heionts in France and Italy, and Murat,
ever changeful and ambitious, at once
threw hpns< If heart and soul into the
conspiracy, which was rapidly' forming
and spreading 1 through the army. On
the 20th of February Napoleon escaped
fo m El a; on the Ist of March he land
ed in the Gulf of St. Juan; on the night
of the 20th his carriage drove into the
court yard of the Ttiilleries. The great
powers, England, Russia, Prussia and
Austria, entered into a treaty on the
2oth of March, by which they engaged
to unite their forces against Napoleon, to
prevent his troubling the peace of Europe
solemnly binding themselves not to lay
down their arms till they had completed
the destruction of Napoleon. With an
exhausted treasury, empty arsenals (12,-
000 pie ces of canncn alone having been
ceded to the allies by the treaty ofParis),
with a regular force under arms, which
did not amount to 10,000 men, Napo
leon set himself to oppose the whole of
Europe. lie raised 30 battalions of ar
tillery, added 40 battalions to the Young
Gaurd, and organized 200 battaliois of
the National Guard. Fortunately Louis
XV 111. had left forty millions of francs
in the treasury, while an equal sum
shortly became due; and by dint of work
ing on the national enthusiasm, borrow
ing thirty millions on' the sinking fund,
calling in arms by proclamation, repair
ing old muskets, giving treasury notes
for draught horses for the artillery and
baggage wagons, Napoleon looked for
ward to having by the first of June four
hundred thousand men under arms, one
half of whom would be disposable for ac
tive service in the field. In the mean
time Caulaincourt approached the other
European powers with a view to open
diplomatic intercourse. “We have no
peace,’’ said Alexander, “he has broken
his word. It is a mortal duel between
us.” Mettcrnich wrote: ‘Europe has
declared war against Bonaparte. The
power and freedom of the French nation
are essential to the equilibrium of
Europe. France has but to deliver itself
from its oppressor and return to the prin
ciples on which the social order reposes
to be at peace with Europe.” There
was no mistaking this, and Napoleon at
once determined to strike. His ene
mies had determined to crush him, he
would defeat them singly, and return in
triumph to Paris. Having formed a
provisional government, with his bro
ther Joseph at the head, to act during
his absence; he determined to collect ail
his forces into one mass, and by bold
ly pushing between the British and
Prussian armies, to separate them from
each other, striking first to the right and
then to the left. He recollected that
with only 10,000 men he had thus kept
200,000 of the troops of Blucher and
Schwartzenberg at bay on the plains of
Champagne; what might he then not hope
to do with 100,000 veteran troops, with
under 200,000 to hold his own against?
“One Englishman,” says Napoleon,
“may be counted for one Frenchman;
but two Dutchmen, Prussians, or sol
diers of the Confederation, were required
to make ud one Frenchman.”
On the 2d of June, Soult was appoint
ed Major-General of the army, and im
mediately took the command. On the
12th, Napoleon left Paris, arriving at
Avesnes on the loth. Here he found
the French army concentrated, between
the river Sambre and Phillipvillo, and
consisting, according to returns, of 122,
400 men at daybreak.' On the morning
alter the 15th, the French crossed the
frontier and marched on Charlerio, pass
ing the Sambre at Marchieniness, Char
lerio and Cliatelet. It was evident that
Wellington and Blucher, who had been
awaiting news from Fonche in Paris,
were not prepared for this move, and
Napoleon was in hopes that his cherish
ed scheme of separating the two armies
would be successful. He sent the left
wing of his army, 46,000 strong under
Marsha] Ney, to Quatre-Bras, lying at
the intersection ol the roads to Brussels,
Nivelles, Charleroi and Nauuer; know
that from that position he could cut off
all communication between his adversa
ries, and could direct all his overwhelm
ing force on either of their forces. He
himself, with seventy-two thousand men,
marched directly against the Prus
sian army, which was then falling back
and concentrating on Ligny. Ney, af
ter having left a strong detachment at
Quartre-Brao, was to move with half his
forces on the rear of the Prussians, the
firing of his guns in the rear to he the
signal for the attack to commence in
front, All day did Napoleon wait for the
anxiously expected signal. But about
three o’clock the signal came from an
unexpected point. The firing of heavy'
guns at Quatrc-Bras was only too
audible, it being only four miles distant
and it was evident that the British had
come up with Ney, and had engaged him
in a desperate fight. Napoleon at once
ordered a general attack, making a feint
on ids left, but concentrating all his
strength opposite the Prussian centre to
Ligny. No sooner had Blucher directed
reinforcements to resist Napoleon’s feig
ned left atlick than the main body of
French, 30,000 strong, crossed the
stream and commenced a furious assault
on the village of Ligny, Three times
was the village taken by the French, and
three times was it retaken by the Prus
sians at the point of thebbaronet,y r onet, and af
ter three hours’ fighting with evening
coining on, nothing was decided, till
about 7 o’clock part of Ney’s force made
its appearance the Prussian right.
Their appearance gave increased confi
dence to their comrades, and Napoleon
prepared for a decisive attack. Mihaud’s
Cuirassiers charged at a gallop: in the
rear of the Old Guard moved swiftly for
ward supported by D’Eolon’s infantry
and twenty squadrons of his Cuirassiers,
and the Prussians, unable to withstand
the dreadful fire of the artillery and the
charge of the Cuirassiers, began to give
way, and were soon struggling with their
artillery in the narrow country lanes in
retreat. Blucher made one splendid ef
fort, in which his horse was shot under
him, hut only succeeding in arresting the
hot pursuit of the Cuirassiers. Welling
ton after the battle of Quatre-Bras re
tired on the Forest of Loignies, taking
up x position on either side in front of
the village of Waterloo. Thither Napo
leon followed him to pay dearly for the
hard earned victory he had gained over
the Prussians two days before.
THE ITALIAN WAR OF 1859.
The war of 1859 originated in a de
mand on the pare of Austria for the
disarmament of Sardinia. The Em
peror Napoleon espoused the cause of the
Italians and declared in favor of the
freedom of Italy from the Alp.s to the
Adriatic. The usual efforts at peace
making were made by the great powers,
especially by Great Britain, which is
the pedler of peace to other nations.
These however, were thwarted by Austria
and war declared. The French troops
were at once dispatched to Italy to oppose
Austria’s pretensions, and soon after,
their arrival in that country the Em
peror himself took command. General
Forey, who was in command of the first
division of the corp d’armee, fought the
battle of Montebello on the 20th of May,
gaining the first success over Austria.
The battle of Magenta, which was fought
on the sth of June following, was fought
by Gen. McMahon, in command of the
second corp, his success being so great
that he was created a Marshal of France
and Duke of Magenta. The final battle
of the war, that of Solferino, was fought
on the 24th of June, the Emperor of
Austria being opposed in person to the
Emperor of the French and the King of
Sardinia. That famous battle, fought
in “the elbows of the Mincio” needs no
description. It resulted in giving Vic
tor Emmanuel the kingdom of Italy, and
secures for the French Empire to-day the
sympathy of that monarch in a strug
gle which may change the map of Eu
rope.
THE WAR OF 1866.
Ere the close of 1865 events began to
point toward a crisis in Germany. Aus
tria, under the leadership of Yon Beust,
believed herself the protector of Germany
and exercised her power to preserve in
tact the Central German States. Prus
sia offered to the German people the
choice of assuming their proper places
in Europe, under her leadership, of re
maining a weak federation of impuissant
territories, under the rule of Vienna.
Austria had armed with, perhaps, the
view of terrifying Prussia by her pre
parations, and the reluctant arming at
Berlin was looked upon at Vienna ms the
result of cowardice. Prussia did not
wish for war, but at last King William
determined to place himself in a position
to free bis kingdom from even the sha
dow ol the Austrian policy. Bismarck
determined that Prussia should no long
er be the second power in Germany. He
used to say that as Austria was “one,”
so also Prussia was one, and that with
safety Austria could no loDger be allow
ed a hegemony over Germany. Austria
had labored to secure the assent of the
Tedcral Diet to whatever foreign policy
she should adopt, and the Central State's
flattered at beiDg directly engaged in
questions of European policy/ eagerly
followed her lead. The Central States
by this means enjoyed a degree of
equality with Prussia. They fb?t an es
pecial delight in causing Piussia to re-
Mill® war© cflvrwwjr
j & S3iDSyOI/Js a ml tyA&L
cognize the power of the Federation, and
the securer they felt of the majority, the
more ready were they in following the
lead of Austria, to humble the power of
Prussia. The opinions of Prussia were
stigmatized as non-German, while Aus
tria was praised as the exclusive rep
resentative of Germany and German in
terests. The Prussian Press urged that
Austria would have no hesitation in
destroying the federation to carry
through her own policy. Already she
had invited the governments of the Cen
tral States to enter into a warlike al
liance with her, and place their troops
under Austrian command, in direct con
travention of the articles of federation.
On the 7th of May, 1866, au attempt was
made on the life of Bismarck—happily
frustrated—and on the 15th of June the
Prussiau columns under Yon Moltke
were in motion for the south, with what
result the world knows. Austria was
humbled and Prussia assumed her present
position, it may be said, as the guardian
of Germany.
From the Hartford Times-.
THE WAR IN EUROPE-
The war, whose distant rumblings are
carried to*our ears daily upon the magic
wire that pierces the blue depths of ocean;
that war which is waged between two pow
erful sovereigns, two extensive lands,
two mighty nations that have been
rivals tor the last titteen hundred years;
two principles that have ruled the world
ever since the formation of States; two
tendencies that lead to diametrically op
posite points; two systems ot government,
two habits of thought—in short, between
two races whose characteristics make
them opponents, and whose location
forces them to be rivais; this war has until
now simply caused astonishment among
us; and with surprise, but without thought
or judgment, have we received the news of
its declaration, and its practical carrying
cut. Our first question is—
WHY DOES FRANCE DECLARE WAR ?
The ostensible reason is plausible. Prus
sia has, within the last five years, con
quered and annexed three independent
States and parts of a fourth and fifth.
She has further compelled seven or eight
other States to give her the sole direction
of their armies, and even to introduce her
system of conscription. A treaty with
the South. German Governments partially
places their armies also at her disposal. A
prince of the younger line ot her royal
family, and a former Prussian lieutenant
of dragoons, ha3 been elected to the throne
of lioumacia ; and now another was called
to rule Spain. Let us, for one moment,
reflect on the balance of power in Europe,
and the necessity of this balance to pre
serve the peace of the world ; let us, for
one momemt, consider that, with these
highly civilized nations as with the most
barb irian. Might makes Right and the
quick growth of one endangers the exist
ence of tlm lest; and we will be able to
recognize that France could not permit the
extension of Prussian influence to Spain
without placing herself in continued jeo
pardy. Spain may be a weak principal,
but she would prove a powerful auxiliary
to aDy nation engaged in a war with
France, And we must grant that, with a
weak and vacillating Cortes, and an easily
influenced council, a King of Spain could
at any moment sway the government to
declare war agamst the hereditary enemy,
former rival, and present luster-after-her—
France.
The withdrawal of Prince Leopold him
seit, of his lather for him, and even of
King William, as head of the Hohenzol
lerns, does not amount to a row ot pin3.
Because the former two, and the latter in
such a capacity, arc not responsible parties.
It is only.the promise of William as King
of Prussia, to withdraw for the present,
and guarantee against any other Prussian
candidature in future, that could re-assure
Trance. And belorc such a promise is
given the French could not disarm, with
out having failed in their righteous effort
to protect themselves. An ounce of pre
ventive is always preferable to a pound of
cure..- But
THE REAL REASON,
it is claimed, is the loss of prestige France
has suffered, by the growing importance of
Prussia. Some also mention the provinces
on the left bank of the Rhine- For cen
turies past the latter has been the cry,
whenever France drew the sword. “Left
bank of the Ruine” has really grown a
threadbare pretence to saddle the French
with odium. For they never have tried to
possess it, or held it in modern times, ex
cept under the Republic and Napoleon I.
And he also held the right bank. But
the loss of prestige may really be at the
bottom of the affair. Since the days of
Louis XIV, France has c-ccunied, with a
fuw lapses, a pre-eminent position amoDg
the States of Europe. She has directed
tire political action of Europe, if she has
not controlled it; she has guided affairs,
if she has not fashioned them ; she has
ruled emergencies, if she has not created
them. This position, oDce acquired, is a
real, 3olid political advantage to a nation,
in its foreign relations. And it is an ad
vantage which no nation that was not bare
of power and honor, would yield to an
other without combat, mere especially if
this position is a historic heritage, and a
testimony of past valor and glory !
Moreover, France has made the noblest
use ia the world of this position. She has
extended her weights and measures, her
forms of justice, her rystem of coinace. her
manner of examining for office, hrr manu
factures, her engineering enterpri-e=, her
liberty of thought, and her reforms all
over Europe—and her methods in these
things are absolutely the best known.
Now, who wili blame France if she makes
war for a position historically hers,, when
Prussia, with the utmost impertinence,
tries to make her feel that it is not hers
anymore? and when circumstances have
placed these nations so, that both, equally
important and great, are now rival direc
tors in the political council of Europe?
To abandon this directorship without de
fending it wou’d be more inglorious and a
more positive harm than to lose a province.
But we arc apt to look upon the French
Government as despotic, and the Prussian
as liberal.
PRUSSIA’S LIBERALISM
is of the queerest kind. Known as one of
the most absolute states of Europe before
1866, and really as a State that was ruled
with the large and petty despotism of regi
mental military discipline, she was about
to enter on a season of savage conflicts be
tween King and peoi h\ on *he question of
a standing army, and the martinet treat
ment of the land in that very year. The
people and the legislative bodies thought,
and talked, of revolution. The King vio
lated that most sacred fundamental princi
ple of constitutional monarchy, the right
of the Commons to hold the purse strings,
and expended the money of the national
treasur> without grant or authority from
the repsentatives of the people, from
whose taxes th : s accrued. Then, when a
violent break seemed imminent Prussia
claimed rights to a German province
which her own and Austrian troops had
liberated from Denmark, and declared
war against all who opposed her. War
against a foreign nation always unites a
people, and the victory of Sadowa caused
the subjects of King William to cry quits
on their former quarrels.
What then? Prussia by force annexed
States she had occupied, without asking
the people’s will or consent. Is that libe
ral ? Prussia by force introduced her own
most galling system of conscription, which
takes seven years out of every sound man’s
prime, and places him at the government’s
disposal half his lifetime, into the conquer
ed States. She forced other States to join
her in treaties. She gave to Northern
Germany—Union? Yes I But Liberty?
No! The reforms which have been intro
duced, and the concessions to the spirit of
the times which have been lately made in
Prussia, are not Prussian, but universal.
All other States, except Russia and Rome
have them now; and France had them long,
long ago. Perhaps the best test of a peo
ple’s liberal ideas at all times, has been
their treatment of the Jews. That is to
say, their treatment of a nation which, in
religious tenets, squarely opposed to the
great majority, is scattered amoDg them,
in numbers so insignificant as to be at their
mercy. In Prussia it was until quite late
ly impossible for a Jew to hold a judicial
otfi *e, or even offer a idea before a court of
justice; nor could a Jew be invested with
the professorship of one of the universi
ties or become an officer of the army-
Now these things have been altered; and,
w e believe, in all Pra-sia, but two Jew
hold the first, three or four the second, and
one man the third position. In France
citizens are equal before the law, and such
a thing as denominational differences have
been unknown since the beginning of the
century. Kiug William’s government in
its recent reforms has but come up to the
rest of the world, and they have merely
been adopted because —they paid. Now
let us look at the character and record of
the two sovereigns that wage war- First of
all, because, forsooth, he is by the grace of
God, King, we consider
WILLIAM I.
William was no better and no worse
than other princes, and had very little to
distinguish h mselt, until 1848, when he
said to his brother, the King, who trem
bled before the insurgent and revolutiona
ry people that surrounded his palace :
“Sire, either you must yield and be con
quered, or give me leave to shoot down
the canaille.' 1 The leave was given, *md
the canaille , the contemptuous name given
to the people, men, women and children,
hundreds of them were cut down by the
grape-shot and the bullet, under the com
mand of the Prince. Then, when the
revolution had achieved its victories, he
fled like a coward to England, and return
ed later to accept the homage of the liberal
party, who, during the reactionary policy
of the King, were glad of any head. As
Prince Regent, be disappointed the hopes
ot the liberals. W hen he inherited the
crown he revived, and went through tiie
medieval masquerade of a coronation,
stalking through Konigsberg with his
wife, iu a cloak of blue velvet and a gold
en crown, at an expense to the nation of
eight million ot dollars. The most severe
martinet policy was displayed in politics,
and conversation of the most shocking
kind was the parole. All this until IS6G.
Then emergency forced the King into a
war, during which he discovered that lib
eralism ?.od patriotism were paying cards.
Then this abi lutist, this martinet on the
throne, this crowned King, this sustainer
ot mediaeval notions, and ruler by the
Grace ot God, became a liberal and a pa
triot. In short, he abandoned the only
qualities that dignifies such characters—a
steady adherence to their ideas, and a sin
cere belief in them.
LOUIS NAPOLEON
is the youth of constant but vain efforts to
re-establish the position cf hi3 family, and
recover the crown for the Nappleons. He
is a dreamer, an outcast, a philosopher.
A Swiss citizen and scldier. And finally a
chosen deputy of France; and a few
months later the Prince President of the
Republic, elected by an overwhelming ma
jority of* votes. After four years he finds,
as the best friends of France acknowledge
it to have been, that stability and concen
tration is necessary. He assumes the im
perial crown; but pays tribute to the right
of the people by them, and again lately,
subjecting the Bsue to their votes. He
has waged the Crimean war, and thereby
broken the iron, autocratic interference of
Russia in European politics—in fact, he
freed nations from Russia’s sceptre. He
has waged the Italian war, and realized
what had been the hope and the prayer
of Republicans the world over for fifty
years, the liberty of Italy, His endeavors
at home have been to elevate French
manufactures ; to create new indus
tries ; to provide cheap bread, and cheap,
clean lodgings, and cheap butcher’s meat
for the mechanics in large cities; to re
organize Paris with a police force, a sys
tem ol drainage and sewerage, a protec
tion of jife and property, a restraint and
regulation of social evil*, and a glory of
architecture unequalled on earth ; to open
new roads to French enterprise abroad ;
and to make the laborer’s life throughout
the country, and especially the mechanic’s,
an endurable and pleasant one. Count, all
the restrictions he put on political twaddle,
and then look on his widening and smooth
ing the way of the poor. Enumerate all
the rules of his personal paternal govern
ment, and then learn that they were so
constructed that while they limited specu
lation in breadstuflfs, they gave the poor
their quota at a reasonable rate—in short
that they might have weighed on the
rich, but re’ieved the indigent. Napoleon
has been his own minister. William is
nothing, if not bolstered up by Bismarck.
Nanoleon, one of the first mathemeticians
of France, has furnished plans for seme of
the most useful works, as dykes and
bridges, now standing, and set on foot
some of the greatest enterprises ever un
dertaken. William is a soidier, that’s the
best can be said ©f him. After all,
TIIS W'AR
is perhaps undertaken in the face of a hos
tile world, and all powers seem to frown
on France, and threaten her for the bold
ness of the measure. But, it is the cus
tom ot the Napoleans to undertake things
in the face of an opposing world—and it is
also their custom to carry them through
victoriously. Let us, in the United States,
not be cheated into countenancing Prus
sia, that has only lately assumed the sem
blance ot liberalism, and discountenancing
I ranee, the most liberal of European na
tions, and our friend, always. Prussia has
conquered ami forcibly annexed foreign
nations; I ranee has in Europe always
guarded the principle of nationalities, and
popular suffrage. Prussia has destroyed
the liberty of the free city of Frankfort, a
republic since the days of Charlemagne;
France has given Italy freedom and inde
pendence from her foreign oppressors.
Prussia has been the most absolute ot na
tions, and is the most arbitrary at present;
France has always possessed large liber
ties, and treated the rest of the world with
a high-minded courtesy and consideration.
It in the present cause of war there is sub
terfuge and insincerity, it is on the side of
Prussia, which refuses to prevent a Hohen
zollern prince from ascending the throne
of Spain, giving private withdrawals, and
assurances ot its king in a private charac
ter. as head of the lamily, but refusing to
give a square assurance of the govern
ment. One more instance of Prussia’s op
position to popular suffrage : In the treaty
of Prague she was sacredly bound, among
other things that she has failed to perform,
to allow the northern portion of the
Schleswig-Holstein Duchies to choose by
vote what country they wished to join,
Denmark or Prussia. Four years have
elapsed, and this Ims not yetfbeen done.
Prussia simply pockets those territories,
because she is stronger than Denmark.
The following is the allocution deliv
ered by the Pope on the occasion of the
promulgation of the infallibility Dogma:
Ihe activity ot the sovereign Pontiff has
been great, but it does not destroy, it
builds, it does not oppress, it sustains:
and it often defends the rights of our
brethren, that as the rights of the Bish
ops and ot Rome who have not voted
with us. Let them feel that they have
voted iu error, and let them remember that
a tew years ago they thought as we do.
Have they then two consciences and two
wills on the same subject? Heaven for
bid! We pray, then, the God, who alone
makes miracles, will illumine their hearts
and minds, that they may return to the
bosom of their father, the -Sovereign
Pontiff, the unworthy vicar of Christ, aud
work with us against the enemies of the
Church. Let it so be that we may say
with St. Augustine, “Lord you have
given us your admirable light and now
we see. May Heaven bless you all.
Fr in New York.
New 5 oi:k, July 28, p. rn.—The Rising
Star has arrived from Aspinwall.
Peace has heen-concluded between Bo
livia and Peru.
The Peruvian Government paid the
American legation two millions, accorded
the Americans by a mixed commission.
The steamer Ecuador exploded. Two
persons were lost.
There was a sharp earthquake at Lima
on June 26th. Little damage.
The steamer Maid, from Liverpool for
Callao, was burnt in Magellan Straits. Two
lives lost.
5