A certain odium said to attach itself to comparisons has never yet. been predicated of contrasts. There is a piquancy in contrasts. The then of 1870 and the now of 1014 provide an example,—Both deal in war, but only two of the combatants now engaged were belligerents then, In the additions lie the difference.
During the Christmas week of 1870, part of the triumphant German army lay round Paris while others Were sweeping up the fragments of French opposition from Rouen to Tours, and from both of them eastwards to. the Belgian and Swiss frontiers. Since that fateful fourth of August France had seen the best of her troops depart, some to the hospital, some to the grave, and the rest to Germany, Her Em:
Berar was a prisoner, his Empress and the Prince Imperial were txile. Except Belfort, most of the French strongholds had surrendered, Germany had captured some 4,000 guns, half a million chassepdt: nearly a hundred eagles and stand ards, and about four millions sterling' in money. The debacle was practically complete. France, though still struggling, lay at the feet of her conqueror. Nor was there a sign of effective intervention. The diplomacy of the Second Empire had not been such as to attract friends under such conditions, and when the Republic had been proclaimed, M, Thiers hurried hopelessly from capital to capital only to return as friendless as he went.
Austria had for a moment thought of revenge for Sadowa, but the thought lad passed. Russia, bene volently neutral, was watching he England largely pro-German at firs was beginning to cool, th taining to the end consequence, conditions, except for an ineffvetive blockade of her ports, were very fom what they now are.
dustries, smaller then than now, languished to some—extent, but otherwise there was joy in Ge many.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.