PRUSSIA AND GERMANY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 127, 8 October 1875, Page 16

PRUSSIA AND GERMANY.

The New York ' Nation ' considers the relations of Russia and Germany not so cordial as formerly. It thus sketches the position of the two Powers since 1855 : " The alliance of Russia and Prussia, which hag been since the Crimean war the centre round which Prince Bismarck firmed all his plans, is not yet on the point of being dissolved, but it is gradually losing its force. Bismarck felt that Russia had" been injured by Europe, harshly treated, outlawed. Ho knew that Russia would think of nothing but the preservation of her Polish provinces and the revision of the Treaty of Paris. He steadily kept this in view, and if you study by the light of this single idea the history of the Polish insurrection, of th^ Danish war, of the •war with Austria, of the war with Prance, you will, I believe, hold the thread of German diplomacy. The situation is now different. Russia is now no longer a sort of outlaw m Europe ; she is perfectly secured ; she has revised the Treaty of Paris, and herself dictated the terms on which she would have the revision made. She is courted not only by Germany, but by all the powers of the Continent. A Russian Princess of great intelligence, the favor lie of her father, has entered the English royal fatnily. Russia can choose her friends : and she may find that Germany has perhaps become too dangerous a neighbor. The moderation and the personal feeling of the Russian Czar will, in all probability, keep things as they are, and peace is not likely to be broken for awhile. Yet it is well to study the new directions of the great political forces. Germany has abused her victory ; she has done what Napoleon I. did in his time ; and the whole world is silently protesting against the despotic temper of the new masters of Europe."

The Aemies of Etjeope. — Europe has five millions of soldiers all ready for fighting, with fifteen thousand cannon and a million and a quarter of horses ; its united fleets consist of 2,089 vessels, manned by 280,000 sailors, and carrying fifteen thousand guns. The cost of these immense armaments is five hundred and sixty millions of dollars annually, three-fifths of the amount being consecrated to the armies.