THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1845, 21 January 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1880.

The Kalisch incident is evidently a matter of great interest to the public in Europe. In the present excited state of all minds with reference to the relations between Germany and Russia this is not to be wondered at. Incidents unimportant in themselves have frequently acted as the spark which has set fire to the train leading to a general explosion. An alleged slight offered to a French diplomat was the immediate cause of the Franco-Prussian war. When the minds of two people are bent on war, then any little pretext is eagerly seized upon, and the most ordinary event is magnified tenfold. To judge of the real importance of the Kalisch incident it will be far better to gungo ihe foolinga of the two nations than to dwell on any of the minor matters connected with the brawl itself. For when two people are at the heart sincerely desirous of peaco it is wonderfully difficult to rouse them to the fighting point. The episode of the French majors which happened during the existence of the Second Empire will naturally suggest itself to those who have taken an interest in such matters. The vaporings of these fire-eaters were something terrible. Nothing short of the capture and sack of Xiondon and the total overthrow of perfidious Albion would suit their enthusiasm. But England and France were not really eager for war, and the affair blew over, causing considerable disquietude, although combined with a certain amount of amusoment. With tho scraps of intelligence received by the cable it is, of course, difficult to form correct conclusions on the barometer of European feeling, but, apparently, thero is nothing in what has lately reached us to make us fear that the war parties in either country are so prominently in tho ascendant that an excuse only for war is wanted. The Franco-Russian league may or may not be a fact, but if it is a fact it was more probably made for purely defensive purposes than for offensive purposes. Frenchmen are at present pretty fully occupied in their own homo politics, and it can hardly suit the leading men in that country to stay the development of thoir institutions, in either one direction or the other, by engaging in a gigantic war. Bismarck with his usual foresight has always favored the French Republic. He has always been aware that a Republic is not a fighting institution, and however eager the French may be to revenge Sedan, it is hardly probable that they will attempt to do so at presont unless hard pushed, for their material prosperity, which is the wonder of the world, would receive a serious chock. The war party in Russia, though occupying high positions in tho official world, does not embody the good sense or enthusiasm of the nation. The outcome of the war with Turkoy has not been such as to foster the Pan-Slavist platform. Tho alliance, too, between Germany and Austria is not aggressive in its nature. Russia, no doubt, is sore about it, but it must recognise tho fact that nothing beyond the provisions of tho Berlin treaty is at present aimed at, and that the surest way of giving a now scope and direction to tho newly formed friendship would bo to take up tho sword. A conciliatory attitude on the part of the Groat Powers concerned would soon reduce the Kalisch incident to its proper dimensions, as being merely an effervescence of military ardour uncorked at an inconvenient moment.

The reported formation of a frontier province in Afghanistan possesses considerable interest when taken in connection with tho recent utterances of individual Ministers in England. It would

appear, although there is much haziness in the telegram, that the new province extends along the frontier of Afghanistan from the Kyber Pass, in the North, to Hurrund, in the South. Tho new province would thus includo the whole of the " scientific frontier," tho acquisition of which was one of tho objects of tho present war. Its formation, moreover, would hear out the late Ministerial statements to the effect that no further addition to our territory is contemplated, and that tho Treaty of Gundamuk will be strictly adhered to. The now province would include all tho passes leading from Afghanistan into India. The Kyber, the Kurum, and the Kohu passes would all fall within the now territory, which would act as the mountain barrier over which any power wishing to invade India from the west and north-west would have to pass. What is to be done with tho remainder of Afghanistan is, of courso, still an open problem. Whether it will be possible to appoint any ruler who would obtain the allogiance of the various tribes, it is impossible with our limited information to ascertain. But at any rate the present Government are not at all eager to posses the wholo of the country. They have carried out their original programme, and are evidently desirous of dropping the curtain at the earliest possible opportunity.