A monument is to be erected to Pascal at Claremont. The municipal council there has voted 3000 f. towards the estimated cost of 20,000 f. The war between the Sultan of Sheir and the Sultan of Mucullah still continues. The Times of India relates that the former potentate recently conceived a brilliant plan for obtaining a decisive naval superiority over his rival. He purchased at Genoa a steamer twenty-three years old for the sum of 73,000 rupees, and in order to avoid complications with the British Foreign Enlistment Act he manned her with an Italian crew, and resolved to keep her well out of British waters in general, and of the port of Aden in particular. But the best laid schemes may be overturned by trifles. The Italian crew had stipulated for proper food and plenty of it, and as chance willed it fresh provisions became very scarce some three or four weeks after the voyage commenced. The Italians became mutinous, and it was resolved to run for a Turkish port where supplies could be got, but on its being found that there was not coal enough in the bunkers to enable the steamer to steam to the haven of refuge, the crew mutinied outright, and took the unfortunate Sultan’s man-of-war, bought at so great a price, right into the very lion’s mouth—into Aden itself, where it was at once pounced upon by the British authorities, and where it will have to remain until peace is restored between the two Sultans. The article on “ The Military Future of Germany,” which Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney has contributed to the September number of Macmillan's Magazine, is in its way quite as valuable an addition to our political knowledge as the now celebrated Blackwood article on the French army. Colonel Chesney does not deny that there is a “ war party” at Berlin, and that the ‘ ungeist in uniform” is still too powerful in the councils of the Empire. But he explains in a novel way the mischievous uneasiness of this party. It is not of the French revanche that Count Moltke and the rest of the military party are afraid ; it is not to disab'e France for the vengeance which is muttered in some French newspapers that they would again throw Europe into confusion. But the excitement of the Germans is generated by, and in its turn intensifies, the ambitions of Russia. “ German officers,” says Colonel Chesney, “avow it to be their next du*y to the Fatherland to chastise the Russian pride.” It is against a Russo-French alliance that all their preparations are directed, according to Colonel Chesney’s interpretation of their motives :—“ It is for this dread ordeal the new Empire is deliberately preparing. The danger lies in the possible simultaneous assault from the east by Russia, while France does her share on the Rhine ; and it is to ward off such a double attack that the military policy of Berlin is directed. That the double contest thus prepared for will ever come in our day, or what its issue should it come, are questions no prudent man would pretend to give absolute answers to.” But though Colonel Chesney thus leaves the future in doubt, the balance of his judgment inclines to the side of Germany. He concludes that, in spite of all disadvantages, in spite of the revival of France and the rapid development of Russia, “ Germany’s chances, viewed thus distantly, seem to weigh down those of her supposed adversaries, who could not possibly rely on the union and promptitude of action with which they would certainly be met.”
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Globe, Volume IV, Issue 445, 17 November 1875, Page 4
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597Untitled Globe, Volume IV, Issue 445, 17 November 1875, Page 4
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