The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1883.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 6986, 12 October 1883, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1883.

Tfts insult offered lately by franco to the King of Spain is all of a piece with the recent conduct of the former country. When King Alfonso, who came as a friendly guest to Pan’s, was publicly hissed and hooted at in the streets, it was well known that the manifestation was not ono on the part of a few ill-bred roughs, acting on their own responsibility, but was given with official approval, because the King of Spain had thought fit to accept the; honorary appointment of Colonel in a Uhlan regiment, a»d the old hostility against Germany still rankled in tho minds of tho people. No attempt, indeed, was made by the French Government to arrest and punish the offenders, and, indeed, in the official apology aftewards made hy Franco it was not, we believe, pretended that this was a lawless outburst of feeling on tho part of a few irresponsible persons. The apology tendered by tho President of the French Republic, M. Grew, does not seem to have been at all of a satisfactory character, and there is just now anything hut a friendly feeling existing between the Cabinets of France and Spain. In order also to emphasize tho action which Franco has thought fit to take, the Emperor of Get many has written to King Alfonso to state that he regards tho insult as directed against himself; and such, without a doubt, it was. Franco is, of course, still looking out for tho time when she can regain Alsace and Lorraine, and wipe out in some future glorious success tho memory of her tremendous defeats in the FrancoPrussian war of 1870. Perhaps, however, that time may never come. Any attempt at present in that direction would apparently only end in another series of crushing defeats, and the levyingofanindomnityof £400,000,000 sterling in place of £200,000,000. Prince Bismarck has avowed that he was too moderate in his demands on tho former occasion.

Prance, or rather the French Government, does not seem to understand the existing position of affairs with regard to its own position in Europe. It does not see the entirely altered condition of things since the time of Louts XIV., or that of Napoleon Buonaparte. At the former epoch, Conde, Turenne, and Luxemburg led on the French armies constantly to success; the navy of England was comparatively little developed, and was under the control of the paid traitor, Charles II.; and at Home the country was very wealthy, and entitled to a commanding position by its eminence in literature and the arts. So, also, in -the time of Napoleon Buonaparte. Notwithstanding the vices and meannesses of his character, the Emperor sbood unrivalled in the civilized world as soldier and statesman combined. But France is now only one of the six Great Powers of Europe, and not the greatest of these Germany is stronger on land, Great Britain at sea, and both Germany and Eusaia can each bring a larger army into effective force at any time. Besides that also, France has now scarcely an ally or a friend left. Great Britain, with good cause, from her treatment in Egypt, Madagascar, and the Western Pacific,is not friendly; Spain has been insulted j Belgium more than once threatened with ex tinction or annexation; and Germany, Austria, and Italy are combined in a defensive, if not also. an offensive league. Under such circumstances it is a grand mistake to play the bully. Tet that is the part the French Government has chosen. A little while back the influential German paper, the Nerd Deutsche Zeitung, stated truly that France was the one obstacle to the peace of Europe, and the statement has been telegraphed to every part of the civilised world, and been acquiesced in. It still seems impossible for the political Frenchman to understand that he has anything to do as a public man but to enjoy “ gloire ” and “ victoire,” and to have all the nations of the earth at his feet. His dream is like that of Joseph —that all his brethren are bowing down to him. But in his case all the brethren won’t bow, because they know that there is no one particular in which he- cannot be surpassed. The idea that it is man’s part to work and to do his duty is one which seems never to occur to him. When he talks of colonisation, it is the colonisation of the savage, aggressive warfare, and enslavement of the vanquished, if ho is victorious. For this reason the French are almost always bad colonists, and bad neighbors to all those who pursue colonisation in a legitimate manner by industrial settlement and the granting of free and equal rights to all industrial settlers. It will be an evil day for us as colonists when the French get any strong foothold as settlers at this part of the world. It will be a still worse day for us when settlements are formed at no great distance from us composed, not of average Frenchmen, but of the worst among them—of the emptyings of their streets and gaols. Tet that is just what is now being openly attempted. It is all the more necessary, therefore, that all Australasian colonists should unite, and determine that they will have very material guarantees against French aggression. We have gone quite far enough, and so has the English Government, in tolerating the French penal settlement of New Caledonia within a short distance from our shores. Certainly, wo ought to insist upon it that New Caledonia shall not be duplicated by adding New Guinea, and triplicated by adding the New Hebrides. If Mr Gladstone, whose eye is admitted to be wonderfully clear with regard to Home affairs, is stark blind when ho looks far abroad; he will be compelled, doubtless, before long, to take into partnership in his Ministry some longsighted English statesman, who will find out from us what British rights and interests at the antipodes are, and will insist on their being preserved and attended to.