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| £ Uss «|krS^N' ' o£ ; 'r:s' : 4##=? i J pv A...!:SWvt-y’g:: igjpi U j -rM l rk. '' “ agsi\ y* i.Ofc ' U\V ■ 1 /.«tSk ' !: -=, r; : H*- *"'’* i VOL. 111. [From the Picayune.] Heart-Flowers. BY PERDITA. “Thanks to the human heart by which we live— Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, its fears; To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.” Out in the twilight shadows, Gleaming purple and amber and gray. W e sat in the mystic gloaming, And gathered a sweet boquet; Bound up the lillies an 1 roses, With voilets purple and blue, But did not forget the daisies— Simple and sweet and true. Twenty years have glided by swiftly. With their summer and autumn rain, Bringing their blushing Verbina, A\ ith roses and Pansies again To-night 1 take from my drawer Yellow leaflet all withe cd away, Tis the same sweet olden heart-offering— That scentless and faded boquet. llow like to each fluttering stream Was my heart, oh, bonny sweet flowers; Now the lily’s parle shining leaflets Is the ghost of those bright, lost hours! The violet’s tearful eyes gleaming As blue as the truthful sky. Was my soul’s most innocent dreaming Too pure—so it flitted by ? Now I brush out the vacant old drawer, And hide my poor blossoms away; The pain is all gone, and the parting, But ah, my heart is so gray ! Oh, flowers, don't look with such mean ing k rom your life's white stainless bier, Speaking, by silence, so mutely, Os all i have lost from here ! Don't tell of the dear, dead fingers That gathered and gave you to me; My heart o'er that tombstone lingers, V here lies buried life’s flower, and— thee ’ And memory leans on the marble, Twined with sad liilies pale, And raises her blue eyes meekly To her God—He’ll never fail ! PRANCE AND PRUSSIA. WHY PROTESTANT AMERICA SHOULD SYM PATHIZE WITH PROTESTANT GERMANY IN* HER TRESENT STRUGGLE WITH CATHO LIC FRANCE. To the Editor of the Xashville Repub lican Banner: “Editors vaguely account this man (Frederick the Great) ‘the creator of the Prussian monarchy,’ which has since grown so large in the world and trouble some lo the editorial mind in this and other countries. He was, indeed, the first who, in a highly public manner, noti fied its creation, announced to all men hat it was in very deed created, stand ing on its feet there, and would go a great way there on the impulse it bad got irom him and others, as it has accordingly done and may still keep doing to lengths lit tle dreamed of by the British editor in our time.— [Carlyles Frederick the Great. Since the declaration of American In dependence there has happened no event that promises so much for the cause of humanity as the war now waging between I ranee and the North German Cor fede ration. The wily, selfish ruler of the French people, blinded by his selfishness and egotism, has unwittingly made him sell a tool to unite together the deep- j hearted, earnest Germans in a determin ed effort to overthrow Bonapartism and Popery, and all the quackeries and diabol isms appropriately included under those two terms, and to secure the triumph and establishment of republicanism and free thought in Europe, The defeat of Bona parte establishes in France the Republic; it hurls from Rome the supreme Quack and Hierarch of men; it unites the Ger man tribes under one common govern ment, and thereby secures to enlightened Nineteenth Century Protestantism and progressive human thought, a potent ally and representative on the continent. “Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” This selfish, shallow man, Napoleon is infatuated and blinded jby the worldly success of his family. He ; claims France lor his own, in fee simple. ; Like a lost animal picked up by some farmer and branded with his brand, and from long use claimed as his own, such is France to him. Every government building in France is branded with the letter N. Every bridge across the Sffine at Paris is branded with the letter N. The wonderfully rich and magnificent new opera-house in Paris glitters all over with golden letter N’s. France is burned aud stamped to the flesh with the letter N, so that all the world may know that she belongs to the Napoleons. French men have protested against this, against this foe simple claim of property in them and their country. And this is the real meaning of the present war. A strong, sober Republican party has grown up of late years in France, opposed to the Na poleonic dynasty, opposed every to dynastic form of government. The wily Emperor sees this, seems himself growing old, an 1 knows that in the event of his death his son, who is yet quite tender in years, will meet will great difficulty aud oppo sition in placing himself on the throne. Therefore, the schemer seizes a flimsy pretext and plunges the country into a terrible, devastating war, thereby hoping to arouse and enlist in his behalf the martial enthusiasm of the French people, for which they are proverbial all the world over—plunges France into a bloody war with her life-long enemy. Why has France been the life-long enemy of both England and Germany ? Because they represent the antipodes of human nature. Because God and Nature made the one light-hearted and skeptical, and the other two deep-hearted and religious. Yes, religious, despite the ignorant sneers ab ut German infidelity and atheism from the mouths of men who know no more of the German character and German literature than they do of Sanscrit. I assert the German people to be eminently a devout, earnest, religious people. Tncy gave to the world a Protestant Reforma tion; neither did they stop there, content with what they had already done. Luther never expected them to stop there. God did not make the world and then let it run round his little finger. All of hu man thought and progress cannot be extracted from God by any one man or any one generation of men. Germany has advanced since the Reformation.— The literature of Germany of late years is the literature of Europe. Nowhere can there be found so deep, and true, and devout a literature this side of the old Hebrew literature. Men who fear human thought, who lift up their hands in holy horror when other men dare to doubt long established theories, who are afraid ot tree, houest inquiry, are men who I think have been of but very little use to the world. Galileo was a doubter, and was condemned by this class, yet even they will now admit the world moves. There never was a great thought born in the world, or a great deed done in the world that was not the product of inquiry and doubt. “There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds. But surely this is a strange charge to bring against Germany, in be half of France, the land of Voltaire, and Rousseau, where, only a few years back, AUGUSTA, Gj±., SEPTEMBER 3, 1870. was written over every cemetery “Death is an eternal sleep.” Yet it has been brought against her, and is being brought against her every day. No, Germany, of the two, does not deserve that this charge should be brought against her, and least of all by Protestant Americans, Germany stands alone on the Continent the representative of enlightened Protest antism, the representative of progressive human thought, whereas Fiance is the backbone of Popery, upholding with her bayonets for many years past the old de crepid quack of a Pope, against the wishes of the Italian people. Even now those soldiers have been withdrawn, for they are needed elsewhere, and the universal Papa of Christendom trembles at the ap proaching tramp of the avengers of blood, the soldiers of free human thought No, Protestant Germany docs not deserve this sneer from Protestant America, for she is the only Protestant power on the Continent, boldly representing Protest antism there against Roman Catholic Franco, Austria, Italy and Spain. All Protestants, all the woild over, should rejoice to see the day at last arrive when Protestantism will have a great, mighty nation, no longer divided but now united, to plead and represent her cause on the Continent. The Roman Catholics of Ireland, the Roman Catholics everywhere, tumultuously extend to Catholic France the right hand of sympathy and fellow ship. And will the Protestants of Ameri ca unite with them against their great Protestant ally and sister, Germany ? I cannot believe it. It is not my wish to write one word ag'aiust France or the French people. I believe that it will prove better for France aud the French people, if in the present struggle Germany should triumph. lam not for any one nation, but I am for that cause, with all my heart, whose success I believe will redound to the best, the highest interest of humanity. And I be lieve there are many Frenchmen who feel thus likewise, who sincerely desire the overthrow of the Bonapartes, the unification of Germany. It is not my wish to speak a word disparagingly of the French people. I know that they arc a brave, gallant, high-toned race, but no more so than the Germans. I don’t wish to judge men, or even race3 of men, though God knows the great German race, the race that gave to "the world the Reformation, the printing press, a litera ture second to none on the earth, have no reason to fear a comparison. A deep hearted, a deep-brained, quiet, earnest, devout race of men, not perhaps superfi cially or outwardly polite, but courteous, and hospitable, and singularly kind. Dur | ing a six months stay in Germany, I had ; ample opportunity to note the simple, unaffected, cheerful character of the peasantry. They never tired of doing kind, unobtrusive favors. And I wish to bear them this testimony, now, that a more cheerful, smiling, intelligent, hos pitable people -it has never been my lot to see on all this earth They are all re quired to attend school for a certain time, and consequently are all more or less educated.. But the highest school they are required to attend, from which no class is exempt, from which no amount of money can buy exemption, is the army. Rich and poor alike must serve three years in the army, unless a college diplo ma exempt them, or rather reduces it to one year. The country peasant is con scripted and made to serve three years iu the army. At the end of that time he is returned with confirmed habits of order, and cleanliness, and sobriety. Thus all the inhabitants are cleanly, and sober, and industrious iu their appearance. The reason why Protestant America should sympathize with aud favor Protest a.it Germany in her present struggle with Catholic France is, that Germany represents Protestantism, represents the advanced thought cf the world, represents the cause and the hopes of humanity. Frank Reid. THE OTHER SIDE. NO RELIGIOUS ASPECTS TO THE EUROPEAN WAR. To the Editor of the Nashville Repub lican Banner : As Irish-born, and therefore Catholic, but Tennesseean by rearing, education and prejudice, ailow me a few words in response to Frank Reid, Esq. Error has become so bold that it were criminal for truth to be hidden longer. Queerest amoug the accidents of this war has been the uproarious sympathy of our German brethren for Prussia—the synonym of despotism. Since Wil helm’s advent to the throne, the stream of German immigration has increased daily until, of late, it has exceeded even that from dewn-tredden Ireland. Twenty years ago, the bulk of refugees from European oppression were Irish. To day the stream from France, or England, or Scotland, or Italy, or even vexed Spain, is the merest driblet. But the Germans—and throe out of four North Germans—have been fleeing by the thousands. And now our new-fledged, freedom-shrieking American citizens turn round to kiss the hand that drove them from Fatherland! Imagine Irish men besieging the rostrum to proclaim their sympathy with the government whose allegiance they have forsworn! The Hessian, the Hanoverian, the Frank furter, even the Prussian himself stands in just this predicament. How, explain? Well, if the truth must out, these philosophic Germans do not understand the American idea of freedom, nor do they appreciate our institutions. Watch them, and you will find as a rule, that the Prussian sympathizer in our midst was lately a sympathizer in the crusade against free States on our own soil, and is to-day a Radical. Put a pin there. They are apt samples of the Continental Liberals and Republicans, whom some American editors praise because they know so little about them. But we mustn’t breathe this in public, forsooth; because the German vote is needed in the coming elections. The Radicals will tickle them by sympathy for Prussia. And it won’t do for Democrats to prick this sympathetic bubble. So we go; and through policy, the American people will never be told the other side, be cause there are no French votes to catch. But this attempt of Mr. Reid to cipher out a war of religions will never do. Os the 800,000 who have thus far so valiantly upheld the Prussian standards, over COO,OOO are Catholics. I doubt if there be more of the practical sort on the French siJe. If ic were a religi ous war Prussia could not hold her own together. Bismarck is wiser than that. In proof, allow me to relate an anecdote of Sadowa: On the eve of that eventful conflict, the Catholic Prussian soldiers were afforded every opportunity to se cure rites o r their religion in prepara tion for death. They threw themselves upon the foe amid the prayers and ben isons of a host of Jesuits. Y r es, nothing less than Jesuits -would suit Bismarck, the now vaunted defender of the Prostet tant faith. And on the other side, at Sadowa, how did so-called Catholic Austria treat the religious yearning of her soldiery in the hour of mortal peril? In all Austria no one could suit the blundering Vienna cabal as Commander-in-Chief but the Protestant Benedek. And he, in an in discriminate order, like one of Grant's on the Tennessee, had ostracised the clergy from the army with the camp fol lowers and bummers. The result wa3 the Prussian Catholics fought like im mortals, while the Austrians threw clown their arms. History tells the result. So much for Austria as a Catholic power. Americans are liable to be misled by names. And France is no more so. ’Tis only this past Spring tnat Antoneili told Daru in plain terms chat the Government he represented was not a Catholic or a Christian power— that its representatives could have all the courtesies that Rome extended to Mus selman Turkey—and no more! Both France and Austria wanted represen tatives in the Ecumenical Council, but they were told to mind their own busi ness. Vienna takes her revenge by abjlishing the Concordat—that is. iu plain English, violating a solemn treaty. Napoleon ! takes his revenge by with drawing his pitiful contingent—-a hand ful of soldiers, not sufficient to garrison a barracks. And Napoleon is the champion of Popery, says Mr. Reid. In the same breath he tells of a Pope trembling at his approaching doom, because the Frenchman has abandoned him! This view will never do. Napoleon, who abandened the Catholic Maximilian— who has, by his secret machinations, made a chaos ot Catholic Spain—who a few years since sacrificed the bulk of the Pontifical States to ill governed, tax, oppressed Italy—-who a few days since, and before disaster came upora him, sold the Pope himself to the excommunicated Victor Emanuel, in return for barren good will—who is batt’ing at great odds to-day to prevent the Catholic Leopo’d from ruling a Catholic people—this Na poleon, the nephew of his uncle, the champion of Popery! Heaven keep us out of the mad-house, when we imagine u such a tiling. Wily, selfish, blind, vain, ambitious, incompetent, a charlaten, a parvenu—Louis Napoleon is all these as the whole world can see, since he has been unmasked —but champion of Popery, never. He has vainly striven to follow the footsteps of His uncle. Let us in charity hope that he may iu the end have at least like leisure for repen tance. We are told this war hurls from Rome-the supreme Quack and Hierarch of men. Well, that has beeu the aim of over-wcening ambition, from Frederick Barbarossa down to the Bonapartes. And the Hierarch has been hurled from Rome time and again; but he returns as sure as the morning sun; and on mere human speculation, judging the future by the checkered past, that dynasty will exist when Bonapartes and Hoheuzol lerns are lost iu the twilight of Ghen»is Khan. W o arc further told this war estab lishes in France the Republic. One might imagine that the world has had enough of the French republic. It is such a “strong, sober, republican” in stitute m! But let Mr. Bcid glance over his ar ticle again with me. What does lip mean by “Protestant America.” I am a Roman Catholic; have I not as much interest in this country as he? Is it not my country as much as his, and the country of my religion as well as his, in its hitherto perfect freedom of con science? If not, give me back my Bri tish citizenship, where the established religion is restrained by law. For tLi-: religion of Mr. Reid breathes of Mahon et’s style of propagandist!!. The su cess of Prussia secures to Protestant ir*-- a potent ally, says he. How potent? By the sword? Shall the conqueror dictate his relig on to the conquered? Or, would he have men change their religion like a garment, to make grace with power? Or does he advocate the merging ot Church and State? NVe have lately been hoping that England would abolish that relic of the Reformation, as France has already virtually dme by supporting all creeds alike. We are told that the highest school iu Prussia is the army—that rich and poor must serve alike. Is this the highest .-.eh X iu his creed? Is this a part of hu iCiigion! Does he indorse No. 25. »