'Tne temporary decline of Russophobia in England is shown by the comparatively slight-attention given in the papers to the suoceas that Russo hug been quietly achieving in the Balkans, 'The full importance one of the longest steps in Russia's advance is hardly seen except by the Spectator, that atop being the abdication of Hing Milan.' A thunderbolt has fallen in Fastern Europe," are the words with which the Spectator begins its note on the subject and it shews how by it '*Servia is lost" to Austria, "Roumania is controlled by the Russophil party of the Boyars, and Prince Ferdinand's seat in Sofia has again become insecure. Russian influence is, in truth, for the moment, in the ascendant through out the great peninsula." In its article, the Spectator treats the subject of King Milan's abdication at much greater length, and shews how seriously it affects Austria Deserted as she is by King Milan, Servi must in almost any event become Russian, in sympathy, in alliances, and in military organisation, and that means most serious con-Sequences for Austria. It not only destroys her whole influence in the Balkan, and endangers the quietude of Bosnia, which the Hapsburgs will not surrender without a great war, but it places the control of the Danube in hands which may at any moment become hostile. Austria can no more surrender the freedom of the Danube than a man can surrender the freedom of his veins. Moreover, once supreme in the Balkan States, the attract force which the Russian Government, as the grand Slav Power, exercises over all Slavs, must be redoubled, and Francis Joseph would find himself Emperor only of the Germans and the Magyars,—that is, of only fourteen and a half millions out of his thirty-eight millions of nominal subjects. Even his military position would be impaired, for with Rownania and Servia friendly, Russian troops could march into Bosnia without setting foot on hostile soil, with their communications unassailable, and their line of retreat, in the event of disaster, always open. We do not believe it possi for the Hapsburgs to endure such a position quietly, or that, cautious and long-suffering us they are, they can refrain, if Servia becomes Russian, from deciding on one of two alternatives." They can occupy Belgrade and proclaim the Balkan Confederation, so commencing the great war with an act which will bring the whole peninsula to their side; or accept the Russian offer, and Balkan, thus stretching their domi wards to Salonica and the Aegean Magyars will advise the former course, which is also the nobler, and the one most in accordance with all recent promises of the House but Prin Bismarck, who dreads Russia, will Po advise the latter, and so will all the Slav subiy'the historic tradition of the Hapsburge, jects of the Monarchy, who will be supported.
shows them always victorious in in: saturday Review has a much shorter jo on the subject, but does not depre-the danger to Austria The blow which has been so much dreaded by observers of Eastern politics has fallen at last. The ever-veering mind of King Milan has at last made itself up to abdication, and the most ticklishly situated State in Euroy has a sovereign of thirteen years old, an dicated King and discredited general for Commander-in-chief, the Sovereign's divorced mother hovering about the country, a wild! Radical Constitution, a powerfully supper Pretender on the frontiers, and the most unscrupulous, if not the strongest, Power in the world, backed by a strong Servian party, waiting to take advantage of what may happen. To such motion there is no bright side, except perhaps to those paradoxers who hold that the worst never happens when it seems probable. But it must be admitted by these that the danger is very great.
absolutely impossible for Austria to permit either anarchy or the establishment of a hostile Power on the south bank of the Danube. It is absolutely impossible for her to take measures with the strong hand to prevent either of these things without at the same time giving a plausible excuse to Russia for interference, either in the affairs of Servia or in the affairs of Bulgaria, or very likely in both. Once more, and more glaringly than ever, the insensate folly of permitting the establishment of these rickety little States
that apparently will not see. The fatal analogy in the Balkan Peninsula is foreed ape eyes: of Greece (whose shical isolation has been the sole and not always the sufficient security for her quiescence) was allowed to prevail; the sentimentalists and the historical pedants had their way; and this is what comes of it—not for the first, and assuredly not for the last, time.
Austria has already begun to take measures of defence, by placing a corps of observation along the Servian frontier and preparing transport on the Danube; and the incident itself a few years ago would have been proclaimed everywhere as the re-opening of the Eastern Question, that bugbear of statesmen. Russia may thank Mr. Parnell and friends for having so thoroughly occupied the attention of Parliament, that it has allowed her operations in the Balkans to go on with hardly a remark. Before we leave the Spectator we must draw attention to its very luminous article on General Harrison's inaugural address, in which it finds the impress of Mr. Blaine's mind upon every line. Initsarticleon "The Triumph and the Victim," the Saturday again wonders why Mr. Parnell did not deny the forged letters before, and it makes a good point of General Harrison's reference to the necessity of enforcing the law in the Southern States; "As a citizen may not elect what laws he will obey, neither may the Executive elect which it will enforce," The Saturday "cannot refrain from remind ing General Harrison that he belongs to a class of American politicians who are in the habit of ostentatiously exhibiting their sympathy with Irishmen who set, and who doest of setting, his wholesome counsel contemptuously at defiance."
"The Great Work for 1889 at last" is the heading of the St. James's article on the new Admiralty programme, a programme which turns out to be nothing like so large as it appeared at first, As the St, James's The moderation of the scheme will undoubt-cally disappoint a good many people. Pract cally it comes to this: by the end of 94we shall have ten more battle-ships and nine note first-class cruisers. This is a sensible addition to our force; but it will not make us equal to any probable combination which might be formed against us. We showed the other day that to be equal to France and Russia in 1892 we should require to put into line at least twelve or thirteen more ironclads than we sess at present; and France and Russia will not be sitting still between 1892 and 1894, However, it is the glorious privilege of a War Minister, under the party system of Government, to devote more attention to the affairs of Parliament and the constituencies than to his fleets and armies. Lord George Hamilton has to consider, not what he wants, but what he is likely to get. With a patriotic Op tion only too anxious to raise an outery al bloated armaments and extravagant. exp. ture, with a Grand Old Statesman ready to employ all the resources of quence and his "glamour" to press home breeches-pocket argument on the more ignorant, of his supporters, and with a general disposi. tion on the part of the majority in Parliament to avoid a "row" in the country, the First Lord and the Chancellor of the Exchequer can hardly be blamed for doing no more than is absolutely necessary. Perhaps they deserve some cre lit for doing no less. Their proposi enough to e jeals to make much out of the ich they threaten, One important point is still unexplained; there appears to be no provision for keeping the new ships in commission when they are built. This would add enormously to the naval estimates, and that is why perhaps nothing is said about it; but if they are to be built and then put away in the reserve, half their value is lost, for they become obsolete before they have ever been to sea. The Pall Mall has always made the increase of the navy one of its great aims, and it is therefore glad that the government has taken a step in this direc. tion; but it is haunted by a not unfounded suspicion that "Ministers do not contemplate any serious effort to deal effectively with our shortcomings in guns, much the most serious blot in our imperial system of defence."
The Pall Mall is full of illustrations, some of them very good of their kind, and some of them, notably the big cartoon and the "diseased heart" sketches, execrably bad. The Paris correspondent of the Worldin his remarks on General Boulanger has a reference to a mysterious gentleman who fluttered Hongkong not long ago, and then disappeared suddenly and silently
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.