28th December.
THosE whose memory carries them back forty-two years, to the time when England had sent a demand to} the United States for the rendition of the two Confederate delegates whom Commodore Wilkes had forcibly taken out of the British mail-steamer Trent, will remember how the occasion. inspired Sir John Tenniel to! produce one of the finest cartoons he ever drew for " Punch," " Waiting for an Answer." The attitude. of Great Britain then is the attitude of Japan now; still hoping for peace, but prepared for the worst. Forty-two years ago the United States sent back the olive-branch, for President Lincoln and his Secretary of State, Mr. W. H. Seward, were great men, and were not afraid to own that Commodore Wilkes was in the wrong; it is to be hoped that the Czar and his advisers will be equally magnanimous. It. is certain that Japan will not rook now any such delay as Russia made before answering the proposals that were submitted two months ago. It took Russia forty days to decide to tell Japan. that what. Russia was doing in Manchuria was no concern of hers, but was entirely China's affair; and that Russia could not consent to allow Japan pre-eminence even in the south of Corea, because her communication by sea between Vladivostock and Port Arthur would thus be endangered. As the" Jiji" says, "it is not conceivable that Japan could thus tamely agree to be thus quietly thrust aside to be told, in short, to mind her own business, so far as Manchuria is concerned, and to be placed in a worse position with regard to Corea than that now actually occupied by her. In all sincerity, therefore, she has asked Russia to reconsider the situation. Should reconsideration lead to no more satisfactory terms, then unhappily nothing will remain except an appeal to the sword." This the Japan Mail" considers a true presentation of the circumstances, and it goes on to say "What_ suggests itself to onlookers is that Russia has fallen into the error of imagining that Japan will not fight. Otherwise it is hard to understand the nonchalance shown by St. Petersburg and its manner of trifling with Japan's proposals. Yet did the statesmen of St. Petersburg consider the question carefully, they would see that this, is a matter of life and death to Japan, whereas to Russia it is merely an episode in a cay ire-building. Tf Japan allow her-gigantic programme of aggressive
self to be effaced now, it means permanent effacement. It means that she must either step out of Corea, where her interests enormously outweigh those of all the other Powers
struggle of intrigue and complication But ingather, or engage there Jin a which cannot fail to end either in war or in final expulsion. No one seriously imagines that she will submit to such a humiliating sacrifice of her interests. Even supposing thatthe things said of the present Japanese Cabinet by its enemies were true, even supposing that the Ministers of the Crown and the Elder Statesmen were disposed to endure any natural disgrace rather than to draw the sword, there remains the Japanese nation which has very clearly displayed its mood. We can scareely think that Russia labours
yet no other hypothesis fully accounts under such a gross misapprehension, for her procedure."
The statesmen at St. Petersburg are ina sufficiently difficult position, It is Russia that does not want to fight, and that will incur a serious loss of prestige by at this eleventh hour accepting Japan's proposals. She is further troubled by the tact that notwithstanding all the efforts of her representatives in China in the last few years, the Empress Dowager has determined that China must fight to recover Manchuria... The latest. telegrams. of Reuter.that. we publish this morning must not be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.