The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3075, 27 December 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1872.

Although the mosA linking features in 'European, politics arc telegraphed, and become known to ns generally; -within a wock after they occur, the del-ails arc ,uOi. without interest, especially when associated with the hopes and fears io vvliieb they give rise. The doings in Europe affect us more and more in proportion to .the development of our trade and commerce, What, a few years ago, would have been immaterial, ’is becoming most important to Welfare. Excepting as members of the liynmu family, it mattered little twenty years W'o whether France and Germany, Russia, Italy were at peace or war ; but jt is notfjo now. The experience of the past three years has shewn us that the prosperity ,ol every industry in this Colony depends much upon tin; good behaviour of the nations oi Europe. _ T\ e have ;flll heard of tjie mccvmg of the throe Emperors at Devlin: the of Germany, Austria, and Russia. Very likely those potentates were only at a friendly visit to each other; but nobody at Home believes that, although # the Times s correspondent knows'‘positively that the three Sovereigns only met to assure each other of their amicable intentions for the time being.” Now, as this very amiable feeling on the part of each might have been equally well expressed by -the electric telegraph, or still more familiarly and emphatically by letter, it seems a.very small thing to travel so far to tell. It is very unfortunate that meetings of Monarch s are so cdttf. open to suspicion. Men never read of siuß re-unions but they imagine some infamous

plot is hatching against territorial rights or human liberty. From the when the Holy Alliance parcelled out huropc as a I’armor lays out his farm, and disposed of nationalities as a tanner s 'vvilc dispenses butter and cheese to her household, to the present hour, the consultations of crowned heads seldom bode g»'°d to mankind. With peace on their lips, those magnates carry aggression _ m their hearts, and each is only restrained from appropriating the rule of the world, i by the counter ambition of nations equally ! powerful, with which he would have to j contend, No wonder that the conviction , drawn from experience is arrived at, that there was something behind which deep those three Emperors together. > No wonder that (ho Mail, the reprint of the reading mat tor of the Timex, has an article headed “ Peace Prospects.” based upon the rumors that leaked out respecting the objeel oi the Conference. Very possibly the Monmvhs tliemseUes might lie too polite to each other to touch upon delicate ground. The}’ had no necessity to sav a word likely tojead to controversy, for they had their Ministers ■ there, who would take the trouble off their hands. Not only did the Mouarchs meet, , but the Ministers too. Bismarck of Prussia, Goutchakoit of Russia, and ■Vndrassv of Austria formed a diplomatic conclave. What thev talked about nobody knows. What Andkassy did. immediately ou his return to "\ ienna, was to advocate an increase of the Austrian Militaiy Budget. He asked four million florins, in addition to the former expenditure; professedly to enable him to keep recruits three years at servin' instead ot two. It seems doubtful to what end this additional outlay was intended to he directed, 1 had it been granted: but it was not. Iho . eyes of some politicians arc directed towards Turkev : others see in it a plot for a crusade against the unity of Germany. They judge, that although the Emperor F rax ns josiTU of Austria has given up the idea of regaining his former lending place in Germany, there are men in the army who arc not content with I rnssiau supremacy: because four Ausiiian Generals, sixty-two Staff Officers, and a largo number of subalterns, have ud- • dressed a letter to the editor of a newspaper in Vienna, asking to ho ‘ led fort 11 against the new Genua nr. which so sadly interfered with the traditions their their military and political past.” The Times's correspondent pronounces the letter harmless, hut significant of Austrian feeling. No document of the sort can bo “harmless” that tends to a wanton waste of human life; and though we have no belief that such will be the effect, it shows the old vice of standing armies is there; war is their trade, and they are not content to be preservers of peace. M e do not gather from the article that any immediate danger is apprehended, notwithstanding it appears to be the impression that there are " sundry matters to be sot right: that the day for their adjustment might he drawing near; and therefore it was expedient to prepare for contingencies as though no Conference hud been held at all.” Meantime we are let into the secret of the increasing cost of an armed peace ; a new line efforts is to he erected at Strasbourg, of which the live principal are to lx* 7,0! to or 8,000 moi res from the city. This is intended to exempt the pity from dangers incidental to a siege. Torts are to bo erected at Kiel and Fricd- , riehsort; the whole of the German army, excepting the Bavarians, have boon armed with now needle guns, but even these are already condemned to be superseded as soon as a couple of million rifles after a new model arc completed. _ The new “ luurdcryy-.’i instrument is designed by a Wurtemherg guysmith named Manser, and its amiable properties are said to be to enable its "happy owner to UU ' twenty-six men per minute, provided he ! hits them.” . , , ”If rnpior tells true, it is a onc-harrelled gun, with metal cartridge, central ignition, and a range exceeding the Chassepot and NV order, Amongst' other warlike gossip that may ’ be interesting to onr Volunteers is what the writer terms " a usefuUnnovation,” i which being described, consists in forming the hag containing the cartridge of silk, “which cleanses the barrel from , slime and srl-, and supersedes the necessity of wiping it out, ”