Tue great event of the week in Europe was the unveiling by the German Emperor on the 22nd of March of the monument to the Emperor William. The Times says The national nionument to the Emperor
many, was unveiled yesterday by his grandson William, the first Sovereign of United Ger-with the military splendour befitting the occasion. The day was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the old warrior-King, whose long life covered more than ninety years of the eventful century that has gone by since he first saw the light in the capital of Prussia. For over sixty years of that period he was but a subject, for nine years he was the monarch of a North German State of great ambitions bat desti jes as yet unknown, and then for eighteen years he rei over the most powerful military em Continental Europe. His life comprised the period of the deepest humiliation and the period of the proudest exaltation of his house and of his country.... It wasa career to try a man, and the festivities of yesterday are but one of 2 thousand proofs to show how proud are the old Emperor's countrymen of the manner in which he stood the test. They call him William thie Great," and history may perhaps confirm the title. He was, indeed, great, not in the breadth of of his views or the profundity of his insight, Wut in the manly sobriety of his judgment, the manly firmness of his, and the manly thoroughness of his devotion to duty. All Germans do well to honour him, not as prodigy of intellect and genius, but as a wise and a good King who loved and served his Fatherland with his whole heart, and knew how to make his love and services conductive to her enduring welfare.
The Morning Post has a thoughtful article in which it says Not a few observers see in the temper of the German Emperor and in his attitude towards popular thought and feeling the seeds of future revolution. That is perhaps an unnecessarily hopeless view. It takes two tides to make a revolution, and the growing movement of German thought will hardly take the form of violence. The Emperor sometimes talks as though, in cases of difference of view between class and class, force were a remedy. But the real dynamite is in the power of ideas, which have a rending force akin to that of the growing tree. The German nation is greater and wiser than all its Royal houses. Its greatness during the years when William I was Prince of Prussia was in the qualities of mind and heart revealed by its best men—its thinkers, its students, and its That greatness was revealed when William the Modest became its King, and with the quiet purpose of a true man gave the example of duty in action. The people that Prouced, Lessing and Goethe, Kant and Schiller, Stein and Scharohorst, Bismarck and Moltke, will think itself through the greensickness of Social Democracy into a society suited to its needs, and will not in the long run be diverted from sound sense either by shallow agitators or by an infallible Emperor.
What could not fail to be noticed in the celebration was that Prince Bismarck, who made the German Empire, was left alone and unrecognized.
The relation of the Powers to the concert of the Europe was well explained in a letter to the Standard from its Vienna correspondent The Powers are not actually so much at variance as certain German papers would have us believe. England and Russia are in complete accord; France and Italy hold them-solves in reserve for the present; Austria does its best to reconcile any opposing views as they arise, and even official Germany is not so hard to deal with as might be imagined from the language of the Berlin and Cologne nows-papers. The Concert is not on the point of breaking up; not a single Power is disposed to separate itself from the others, and those differences of opinion which are bound to exist are adjusted by the slow means of diplomacy, principally by adduce ing arguments and counter-arguments. The basis of the recent rumours was the British proposal, which reached the other Cabinets on Monday, that before deciding on an ever tual blockade of the Gulf of Vole, the possibility of a conflict between the Turkish and Greek armies on the frontier should be removed. Deeply as Greece has sinned against the law of Europe—and Lord Salisbury, in his last speech was very explicit on this point—it appeared to the British Government unfair to her to stop the only ready means for the transport of troops, ammunition, and provisions to the Thessalian frontier, vid Vole, by sea to that harbour, and thence by rail to Larissa while the Turks, who are already so much the stronger, would not be impeded from sending to the front as many more troops as they thought fit. But in the British proposal it was distinctly provided that should Greece refuse to withdraw her troops from the frontier to the same distance as the Turks, so that a neutral zone should exist between them, any possible objection to the blockade of Vole would be jed removed. The: pourparlers that have been ex. changed between the Cabinets since Sunday or Monday have shown it to be desirable, in the first place, to ascertain whether both Turkey and Greece would be willing to withdraw their forces a certain distance "from the frontier, and as soon as the proper form has been agreed upon, the two patties, who cannot as yet be called belligerents, will be invited or Summoned, as the case' may be, to retire. The question of an eventual blockade of Vole will then be dealt with separately, dition of Crete and to the feeling in Athens. according to practical necessities, to the con-If disturbances of a serious nature were to occur on the island, the international fleet could not well be divided, and if yielding mood is observable in Athens the Powers will not be so pedantic as to resort to the second stage of the coercive measures.
As regards the massacre of Armenians at Tokat, it appears that that town was singled out in pursuance of a determined policy, the object of which is to crush the Armenians at every populous centre. The massacre; which was entirely unprovoked, lasted for eight hours, and as there was constant telegraphic communication during the day between the local officials and the Sultan's Palace, the massacre might easily have been stopped by orders from Yildiz.
The Standard correspondent at Constantinople wires that the Governor of Erzeroum had reported that two Russian divisions from Kors were encamped on the frontier, and when he remonstrated he was told that they w: re there to keep out the plague.
The Daily News has the following appreciation of Mr, Gladstone's letter on the Cretan Question to the Duke of Westminster:—
It is twenty years ago and more since Mr. Gladstone, whd even then had richly and gloriously earned repose, descended again into the dust and turmoil of political strife to fight 1 battle for the cause of freedom, Since that time he has been thrice Prime Minister of Great Britain, and has crowded into two decades a political record which for might) issues and burden of toil would compare with the whole life's work of many an illustrious statesman. Ho is now in his eighty-eighth year, and his ambition, as he says pathetically on the first page of the pamphlet, is for rear and rest alone." But he hears the call of duty within him once more, and with that imperative voice sounding in his ears, he knows that inclination does not. suffice to ju: silence." The result is this stirring pamphlet which for intensity ing, vigour of language, and nobility of spirit, is worth of remembrance in the same category wit the great, Bulgarian pamphlet of 1676. Be. Gladstone's marvellous energy, his eloquence, his stores of knowledge and experience, are things of themselves apart; but in his devation to duty, in his high standard of political morality, in his moral fearlessness, we may all of us, in our several degrees and to the measure of our opportunities and abilities, find an encouragement and an example.
The Money Market note in the Econsmist of the 20th of March is as follows The continued maintenance of the 3 per cent rate by the Bank is not relished by those who may have to go to it at the end of the month for advances, aug it is not the usual policy of the Bank to press any harder than is necessary upon the market at the time when its command of Government money gives it a certain advantage. But the critical position of affairs in the East may be taken as the reason why a reduction of the offal rate which would otherwise have been fully justified by the position of the Bank has not' been made. Outside rates have again fallen slightly during the week, the raling quotation for best three months' bills being now 1} per cent, with occasional transactions a shade lower. The requirements of the market, however, always increase ip the closing; days of the quarter, and doubtless there will then be some stiffening of rates, but so far as can at present be seen, that will only be very temporarily.
For solid, non-partisan, good common sense there is no writing'in the London papers that excels that in the Economist, and its first leading article on The Policy of Quitting the Concert" is an excellent illustration of this quality. The gist of it is that for England to abandon the Concert of Europe would do more harm than good to Greece and Crete. France has determined to stick to Russia; Italy is not
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.