Tar French-Italian dispute as to Massowah was attracting graver attention at home when the last mail left. The Spectator sees in Signor Crispi's reply to M. Goblet a singularly severe snub to the French Government, which would not have been inflicted had not Italy another Power at her back ready to bear the brunt of th anger which that wound would inflict. Signor Crispi's Note was scornful and was followed at once by his journey to Friedrichsruh, ' where Prince Bismarck's reception of him was as significantly cordial as the Note had been scornful." This, the Spectator thinks, is hardly explainable on any other ground than that Prince Bismarck had known beforehand Signor Crispi's intention and had approved of it.
Itisnotevery day that a powerful State Tike France is accused by a Power which is greatly its inferior in physical force, of exciting "a peaceful population to dis the law and to defy the authority of the established Government," or that such an accusation is immediately succeeded by En'Eerope of an ostentatious friendliness to yy on the part of one of the greatest accuser. Moreover, it is impossible not to connect this diplomatic by.play with the young German Emperor's extraordinarily rated and entirely uni declaration that before giving up a single stone of the recent German acquisitions, the forty-two ions of the German people and the two millions of her national Army should be left on the field. Such a statement is too violent in tone to be businesslike, and sounds wilfully melodramatic. And as'there had been no threat from France to which it wasan answer, it fs impossible not to find mit a deliberately provocative element, and equally impossible separate that provocative boast from the the statue to the Red Prince was delivered on already, no doubt, fully aware of the tone taken in Signor Crispi's Note, One can hardly doubt that the German Emperor calculated his words so as to show that if the provocation came from Italy, the danger to be incurred in fo would proceed from a still more ite.
The Spectator does not view with satisfaction the isolation of France, and thinks that Germany is now confident in her ability to keep Russia quiet, The article following is on the reappearance of General Boulanger as " power of some sort or other in French politics, It finds it hard to say why he mid have been successful in three departments after having been beaten in two. It tries to account for his victories by saying that political parties are different-distributed in France, and that the Departments which retuned the General before given the Reactionaries a majority. It perceives that the dist con: dition of the Republicans is the General's strength, and sees no trace of any intention on the part of the Opportuniats to turn the interval of the year between now and, the eneral election to account, by forming such a party as would attract the support of the conservative electors. Their principal in the press, the Temps, can only formulate a "cry" of "Republican concentration" which is likely to be as effective as Mr, Tadpole's or Taper's "Our young queen and our old constitution," On theas victories of General Boulanger the Saturday profound an feet as hit Rist tumnpbant His triple victory has produced nearly as election for the Nord. It is even all the more impressive as coming immediately after not merely one defeat, but a whole series of failures. One thing may be taken to be proved by it beyond question. General Bou followers who are proof aguinst all the ridicule has manifestly the support of a body' of and all the argument his enemies can use, is a strangely heterogeneous body—extreme Radicals are to be found there with extreme Clericals—the peasants, the most Conservative class in France, and the rabble of the great towns both supply him with support, and he has the avowed help of Bonapartists and Royalists, who affect. to despise him and his most conspicuous friends. But, however much they may differ from one another, they all agree that General Boulanger must be brought into power—if not for his own ake, then because he seems more capable than another to punish the hated third person. The loyalty and the amount of this support, as shown in these last elections, has already surprised, and even somewhat cowed, the Opportuniat and Radical Republicans, " There fe now a somewhat notable difference in tone in the comments of their press on the General's success. Much less contempt is noticeable, and much more fear. In many quarters there are signs that people who have no particular liking for the General, or who have hitherto not thought him likely to prove a sufficiently successful adventurer to be worth any considerable amount of sycophancy, are now beginning to think that he is, in the common cant phrase, inevitable. So they are swarming round him with congratulations and offers of service, The fears of the Radical: and Opportunists are very intelligible. It would not require much to put the General at the head of a majority. The Bonapartists and Orleaniste have made their minds up to work with him. At the last general election they carried Dept, Theis ruocess was tributed, on nearly a third of the seats in the Chamber of Very good grounds, to the widely-felt discontent with the petty anti-Clrical policy of the Republic and the neglect of administrative work. Certainly neither the one grievance nor the other has been amended since the election.
Mr. Parnell's appeal to the Scots: law courts in his action against the Times is the occasion for a curious and amusing article on "Legal Fictions." It says of the methods by which the Courts extended their jurisdiction in actions for againat the veiling person beyond the seas, and threw a shield
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.