The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-03 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTRIGUE AGAINST THE
ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

The following is the remarkable article under the
above heading to which the Daily News has given in-
sertion from" One Behind the Scenes:"

Some newspapers yesterday morning contained a
paragraph from the National Gazette of Berlin
stating that the Continental Powers have come to
an understanding to "tacitly regard the proposals of
the British Government with respect to Egyptian
finance as disposed of" (or, as another journal has it,
"null and void ") "in the event of England not
expressly demanding an answer." I think I could
have told the public of this before it was announced
by the Berlin paper. The meaning of it is that unless
England puts herself to the humiliation of beseeching
the great Continental Powers to favour her with some
sort of reply to her proposals they will not consider it
necessary to send her any answer. "Really, it did
not occur to us "—this is the interpretation of the
meaning of the Powers—" it did not occur to us that
proposals such as yours could be made seriously, or
could call for any answer from sensible men. But of
course if you say that you really were in earnest when
you made them, and that you would rather we sent
some sort of answer than none at all, then, not to
seem rude, we will tell you in plain words what we
think of them." This is the manner in which the
Continental Powers believe themselves warranted in
treating us. But why do I say the Continental
Powers? There is no question here of Continental
Powers. It is a question of Prince Bismarck.
The decision is the decision of Prince Bismarck;
the policy is the policy of Prince Bismarck, The
German Chancellor stands between his two servants,
France and Austria, like the man in Aristophanes'
comedy between his two slave girls, and instructs them
how to mock at the neighbour whom he dislikes.
Prince Bismarck detests the present English Govern-
ment, and is determined to wreck it if he possibly
can. Austria and France will lend him their willing
and complete co-operation. The passages which the
Paris correspondent of the Daily _Arms has cited from
the French Opportunist journals are in their way an
illustration of the temper of certain political parties
in France against this country. The belief, or at least
the confident hope, of Prince Bismarck is that if he
can frustrate the policy of the present Government in
Egypt, Mr. Gladstone will have to resign. This, I
repeat, is the object of all the recent action of the
German Chancellor with regard to England and to
Egypt. Prince Bismarck believes that he has his wrongs
to complain of—wrongs which he thinks he has ad-
fered at the hands of her Majesty's present advisers.
He is very sore about the manner in which he con-
siders himself to have been dealt with in the matter
of the Angra Pequena settlement. He is of opinion
that Germany and her Chancellor were treated some-
what carelessly and cavalierly by the English Foreign
Office. Perhaps Prince Bismarck has some ground for
this belief; I only say that this is his belief. Of course
he has other reasons for his present course of action.
His desire often expressed to successive Minis-
tries, is that England should take over Egypt abso-
lutely, and make of her an English possession. This
would have been a letting out of the waters. It would
have been the opening of a great chapter of miscellaneous
and universal annexation. When England had felt
herself entitled to seize upon Egypt, and had been
upheld in that course by such a Power as Germany,
England could not have objected to any seizure Ger-
many desired to make; and the example of Germany
would have been followed by France and Italy; and
there would have to be some new maps of the world
made for the instruction of young scholars—and old
ones too. Prince Bismarck holds Mr. Gladstone and
his official colleagues responsible for a check to the
ambition of Germany, and he is angered; and he is
not a man who gets angry and then forgets all about
it. The long and the short of it is that the German
Chancellor is now making himself a factor in English
political affairs. He will leave no means untried to
overthrow Mr. Gladstone's Government, or at all events
to get rid of Mr. Gladstone. England is to be insulted
in Egypt in order that Mr. Gladstone may be hu-
miliated and may have to resign; and Mr. Gladstone
is to be forced into resignation because Prince Bis-
marck does not like him.