The Peace of Europe

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1874

The Peace of Europe.

In regard to the elements of war that are now at work in Europe, especially affecting France and Germany, the London News remarks:—

“No one can doubt that the situation itself is full of uncertainty. The two determining elements in it are the temperament of the French people and the character of Prince Bismarck,—the former excitable and impulsive, and the other swift and eager, and disposed to anticipate by a prompt blow even that quick movement of events to which Lord Derby the other night ominously referred. The German Empire is now wielded by and impersonated in one man far more conclusively than the French Empire in the days of Napoleon III. Prince Bismarck’s ascendancy over his master is complete; and one by one his rivals, Von Usedom, Manteuffel, and now at last Von Arnim, have been swept aside. If he is convinced that France has simply adjourned the renewal of the struggle until she feels her forces equal to it, he certainly will not wait for the recovery of her strength. He will strike his adversary as she is rising from the ground. This we presume, was the meaning of Count Moltke’s celebrated speech, and is the drift of Prince Bismarck’s statecraft. The real path of safety lies in the pursuit by France of a policy of peace and not simply of adjourned war.”