12th January.
Sir Epwarp Dicey in the current issue of the "Nineteenth Century" discusses the future of Great Britain and Russia, His. standpoint. is that of a far-seeing Englishman, without a tinge of Russophobia, "I am no Russophobe," he says, "I am no believer in' the possibility of apy European coalition to check by force of arms the further aggrandisement of Russia. The same instinct which led the Goths and Huns to pour over Europe, after its power of resistance was impaired by the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, prompts the Slavs of the North to move onwards to the South. Russia has as much right in my o, inion to pursue her manifest dest-y as England or the United Star But he recognises that unlimited expansion from various centres must of necessity bring the expansive forces into collision, What then?
glance at the past is enough to point out the blunders of Napoleon's invasion of Central Russia and of the Allied invasion of the Crimea, since when, says Sir Edward, "the stars in their courses have fought in favour of Russia" He shows her escape from the revolutionary troubles of 1848, traces the steps by which she has made the Balkan States "outlying provinces of the Russian Empite," points t" the great benefits derived from the French alliance and her comparative gain in strength from the decline of Austria Her rapidly growing homogeneous people are a further source of strength, and her expansionist form of Goveramen
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.