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retinue of Ministers; and even were these absent, more business can be done at interviews between chiefs of States, each of whom is his own Foreign Minister, than when one is the official head of a Republic or a constitutional king. Nicholas II., again, is known to be peculiarly susceptible to the influence of the latest adviser, and it may be remembered that at previous meetings with the Kaiser-notably, that of Björkö in 1905-he received and acted upon the advice of Wilhelm II. Still, we see no reason to doubt the German semi-official explanations, echoed as they are in Vienna and supported in the Russian Press. It is only natural that the Tsar should wish to see a sovereign with whom he is closely connected by ties of blood and by common interests, and whom he cannot very well visit on land. The meeting was of his seeking, and the Russian Liberal Press has hastened to point out that even if the Tsar were induced to give way to German and Austrian aspirations in the Near East, he could not afford to run counter to the universal feelings of the Slav race. The interview may so far improve the situation as to modify the unpleasant impressions left by the recent diplomatic triumph of Germany and Austria-Hungary over Slav aspirations in Southern Europe. It is easy, of course, to raise apprehensions as to the stability of the Russian understanding with Great Britain and France. But no ruler of Russia can now afford to disregard the feeling of the Russian people, or, at least, of that part of it which is politically active, and that section is decidedly in favor of the Western Powers. Moreover, even were the interview to weaken the triple understanding, it would be effectively counteracted by the coming visit of the Tsar in August to the French President at Havre and to Edward VII at Cowes. But a better reason for rejecting such apprehen

sions is afforded by the state of Europe.

What points are likely in the near future to concern the Powers jointly, and how far are they likely to lead to divergence? The Morocco question is, happily, for the present, put outside the danger-zone. The Congo question is a cloud on the horizon, which has been made a little more menacing by the suggestion of the King of the Belgians at the close of the Antwerp festivities that Belgian capitalists may be induced to provide their country with a mercantile marine out of the profits of fresh concessions to be granted them in the Congo colony. But this at present is hardly practical politics, and the King's eulogies of the potentialities of the colony are not likey to be confirmed for some years to come. Besides, though Belgium might conceivably find supporters in a crisis which, after all, will probably be averted, the fate of the Congo natives is not likely to concern Europe as a whole. The Baltic Agreement of last April has so completely removed the Swedish suspicions of Russian aggression in the Aland Islands that the Tsar is sure of a cordial reception at Stockholm, and the Rigsdag has almost unanimously refused to allow the Socialists to raise a debate which might offend the Imperial guest. The succession to the throne of the Netherlands is, happily, safe for the present, and the Dutch elections have assured the continuance of a stable, though, unfortunately, reactionary, Ministry for a time long enough to allow of an amendment to the Constitution, which will prevent the anticipated dangers from recurring in the same form. No doubt the Near East is still full of dangers, but on these both Germany and Russia are drawn different ways at once. It has been their interest in the past to support a decaying régime. It was the interest of Russia, at any rate, to look on at its decay. Now that an unexpected revolution has opened

a new era, it is obviously to her advantage to stand well with the new rulers, and not to promote a crisis which would set up new and unpredictable difficulties, or provoke a strong Mohammedan reaction against all Western influences. The Cretan question, no doubt, is menacing, owing to the promise of the protecting Powers last autumn to withdraw their troops, and to the impatience of the Greek Cretans to effect the union of the island with Greece. Were this done, the members of the Turkish mission now in Paris have intimated that Turkey would immediately attack the Greek kingdom; and that would reopen the whole Near Eastern question at once. For this the Powers are unprepared; none of them could definitely support either of the belligerents, and they are still less able at present to face the European war which might be the eventual result. Were Greece to get Crete, she would go on to press her claims in Epirus, Servia would demand fresh compensation at the expense of Turkey, and the Turkish Government, already engaged in disciplining the Albanians, would have to fight two or more of the Balkan States in Macedonia, while sympathy would be divided in every country in Europe. It seems probable, therefore, that some solution will be devised for the Cretan problem which will involve the maintenance of the nominal Turkish suzerainty for the present, and "save the face" of the reformed Turkish Government. There remains the problem of Persia, which inspires some English Liberals with justifiable apprehensions, and in which Germany seems inclined to take a purely financial share. Of course, it is difficult, as it always has been, for the Russian Government to control its agents, or for the agents to give up their old theories as to the expansion of Russia towards the Indian Ocean and India. But British friendship during the next few

years will be worth a good deal more to Russia than the virtual annexation of a region whose economic future she already controls. It is to Great Britain, the ally of Japan and the friend of China, that she must look to smooth difficulties arising in her economic expansion in the Far East. She has every reason to wish to stand well with Great Britain; and the worst possible way to promote her domestic reforms and the peace of Europe and Asia is to play into the hands of her reactionaries, and estrange her moderate reformers by protesting in Parliament or in public meetings against the expected visit of the Tsar.

In the immediate future we see no urgent reason for alarm. The prospect a few years hence is less reassuring. At present all the great Powers, except ourselves, are either struggling with serious financial difficulties, or approaching them; and while Mr. Lloyd George's Budget would in a few years give us a more than adequate revenue, we do not yet know how much of it will pass into law. The new German proposals will hardly solve the German problem; France has to meet further heavy expenditure out of a national income which is slackening in its rate of increase; Austria is declared by the reporter of the Budget Committee of the Reichsrath to be in presence of a heavy deficit, and her debt charge is nearly £15 10s per head; Italy is spending her present and prospective surpluses in securing her North-Eastern frontier, and anticipating the efforts of her present ally and ancient enemy to secure preponderance in the Adriatic. The "silent warfare" of which Lord Rosebery spoke at the Press Conference is all the more exhausting in that it is not intended to end in actual warfare. Its aim is, in the first place, to avert attack; in the next-at any rate, in the case of some of its promoters-to obtain commercial advantages and diplo

matic support from other Governments by the menace of war. From any taint of this last intention Great Britain is happily free. Too little attention has been paid either abroad or at home to Sir Edward Grey's admirable summary of our foreign policy at the Conference to keep what we have got, to consolidate and develop it, to quarrel with others as little as possible, and to uphold for the world at large those ideals which we value for ourselves. But on the exhausting conflict between the nations in preparation for warfare -which anticipates and annihilates any

The Economist.

prospective economic advantage that war might bring-Sir Edward Grey endorsed Lord Rosebery's words. Нарpily there are counteracting influences in the peaceful intercourse of the various peoples, and in such formal exchanges of public hospitality as the visits of English Labor members and Ministers to Germany, and of German municipal authorities and members of the Russian Legislature to England. Moreover, even in military empires, the people, after all, ultimately count for more than their emperors.

VANDALISM IN PARIS.

One of the patent signs of Repub, lican mediocrity in France is the steady indifference of the City Fathers to the amenities of Paris. History and tradition are cast to the winds before what is euphemistically termed "Progress." There is nothing sadder than the daily destruction of the beautiful and historic, which has been going on since Baron Haussmann took in hand, with an Early Victorian savagery, the rectangular "improvement" of Lutetia. (There is something ironical in the evocation of the old Roman name.) Everything has been done to minimize the ancient glory of the city of brilliant courts and kings. The pick of the demolisher shows a fiendish activity whenever it encounters some relic of past times. With a ruthless hand the Ediles have ruled straight paths through a tangled mass of streets where lie hidden, under gabled roofs and twisted chimneys, under gilded cornices and fantastic carven faces, the history and sentiment of five hundred years. The broad course of the new Boulevard Raspail, which pushes brusquely its modern way across the most interesting part of the

Pays Latin, has shown a Juggernautic faculty for pressing under foot old associations and archæological documents. The most grievous example of municipal zeal in clearing is the "Abbaye aux Bois," a large rambling old house, full of beautiful oak carving, around which clustered memories of saintly women and memories, too, of the beautiful Madame Récamier, who was here a "pensionnaire" and received the homage of adoring wits and gallants. Pitiable is the story of the destruction of the Latin Quarter. Fire could not have worked more havoc of old-time buildings and hôtels.

If one crosses the Seine one's feeling of sadness at the vandalism of the modern Parisian increases. In that glorious area of the Cité contained between two arms of the river, where formerly were seventeen churches, today there remain only the "symphony in stone" of Notre Dame and the superb Sainte Chapelle, serving as the official temple to the Palais de Justice. In its queer and crooked streets history and romance lie asleep. In this quarter and the adjacent one of the Marais the visitor who is at once a

student and an artist may still encounter some splendid vestiges of mediæval and early modern times. But almost as bad as the destruction of these shrines of great figures in the national archives is the neglect into which many of the buildings have fallen. Villainous trade signs, decay and dirt and modern excrescences in the form of badly designed sheds and stables disfigure some of the most wonderful houses in a part of Paris associated with the literary genius of Mme. de Sévigné and, later, of Victor Hugo. If steps have been taken to turn aside the hand of the destroyer from the Place des Vosges, it is in recognition of the Republican sturdiness of Hugo and the Roundhead tone of "Les Châtiments." In this particular section of the town existed, until quite recently, the exquisite Hôtel du Prévôt, in the Passage Charlemagne. This building belonged to the fourteenth century, and was the official residence of the Councillors of Charles V. Afterwards the King bestowed it upon Provost Aubriot. It had beautiful turrets and an open stairway, and particularly fine windows overlooking a court. Under the shadow of Notre Dame workmen have just completed the destruction of the interesting old Hôtel-Dieu, or, at least, such parts of it as most eloquently speak to us of the past. Again, near the Sorbonne has disappeared another building consecrated to the service of the sick, the old Amphithéâtre de Médecine, with Gothic arches and curious circular theatre.

An unfortunate genius for obliterating the relics of former generations seems to possess the city architects whenever they have to apply an ancient building to modern purposes: Nor has the excavation necessary for the Métropolitain, or Underground, of Paris been accomplished without the loss of picturesque features. Public

transport, of course, is one of the most pressing problems of a great city; at the same time rapidity of transit is dearly bought when it involves the uprooting of past-time glories.

The student who wished to follow step by step the bloody progress of the Revolution in Paris through its bricks and mortar would have the greatest difficulty nowadays. As M. Georges Cain points out in his delightful "Vieux Coins de Paris," transformations of a surprising and apparently unnecessary sort have taken place in such a building as the Conciergerie, where the judges held their horrible deliberations and where the prisoners condemned to the guillotine walked and sat and thought and prayed. Identification of the ancient apartments is no longer possible. Oddly enough we have here to blame the Restoration for obliterating revolutionary landmarks. Nor would you find it easier to locate the sites of other Revolutionary tribunals. The same senseless spirit of change has been upon the builders and tinkerers of the city.

An article of more than usual weight in "La Revue" has accused the Third Republic of its patronage of the mediocre in Art. The writer points with scorn to the official salons, where the official painter, with his mechanical pictures of banquets and presentations, is honored at the expense of and, indeed, as a direct affront to real Art. The anonymous author might have completed his diatribe by inveighing against the contempt for the decency and amenities of life which allows the soiling of the streets and boulevards with the litter of a hundred thousand circulars. Years ago the City Fathers took a pride in the appearance of the city. None was allowed to cast a handbill upon its spotless pavements, to throw newspapers where he would, to cast anything that encumbered him into the gutter.

A

fine would have followed such impropriety. To-day there is no active regulation of the sort. The untidy aspect of the Parisian thoroughfare shocks the eye of the Londoner. Even he lives under a régime more attentive to the details of the daily municipal toilet. From this it appears that The Saturday Review.

the mediocrity in government, which finds its daily expression in strikes and the threats of State functionaries, extends to those smaller matters of the cleanliness and good order of the byways and highways of the capital. "Ex pede Herculem...."

A DOUBTFUL AFFAIR.

The factory hooter proclaimed to the world within its range the fact that six o'clock had arrived. Its deep-throated, stentorian buzz, stifling all other sounds, penetrated into the depths of distant engine-rooms, crept through the rumble of the grinding-mills, and echoed across the water from the heights beyond. Loose papers, held in the hands of the office clerks, responded to the vibration of the air by a faint "tickling," and the invoices on files rattled. Two miles away, in the town, when the wind was right, people set their watches by the swelling note, which at that distance became musical; while close at hand, amid the dust and clatter of the mills, the men of the dayshift heard it as a welcome signal of release.

The entrance of the boiler-room abutted on the narrow quay-side. From the opposite wharf, on the sunniest of days, it showed as a black, cavernous hole in the high, weathered wall, with two or three luminous specks gleaming in its remoter recesses. If the onlooker were sufficiently curious to stroll round the dock-head and enter, his eyes would require a minute or more to accustom themselves to the gloom, and then, in the dusky light of the nude, yellow gas-jets, he would distinguish the shadowy circles of four immense boilers frowning down on him like black, impassive faces, and he would notice that the air was sur

feited with a certain ceaseless, sleepy hiss that carried with it a rather alarming sensation of power held in leash. Before he had time to note much more he would probably find that the blue eyes of Tom Burton were looking into his from a smeared but genial face; and Tom, if the stranger showed an enquiring turn of mind, would most likely give him a handful of cotton-waste and take him round.

Tom stood at the door, having closed his dampers to check the draught (for there was an hour's interval at six o'clock, and the chief snubbed you if he came round and found the steam roaring off), to watch a big coalsteamer coming in to the opposite quay. The strong rays of the summer sun painted a bronze-like sheen on her dark, curving side, and as she emerged from the golden haze of the harbor she took upon herself the airs and graces of a liner. At her not unshapely bows a lessening curl of foam made a speck of pure white; all the rest was color: blue of the harbor, gold of the sky, grays and greens and faint, fine purples of the middle distance, where several indeterminate shapes of vessels took their way along the buoyed channels. Yet with all this color the eyes were rested by regarding the scene, for not a single tint was intrusive or flamboyant; it resembled a delicate pastel drawing, and seemed as though everything had been softened by a curtain

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