The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-24 00:00:00

AN OUTLOOK ABROAD.

Politics at home are for the time dull and
listless. Not that there is any lock of public
speaking in the provinces, for one legislator
after another has been taking his constituents
into his coutidence, and recounted the work
which has been done iii the first session of the
new Parliament. It was an exceptional session,
and no doubtjthe best Willi made of it. Beginuing
its work fully six weeks after tiwe, with a new
set of Ministers, many of whom were ueaccua•
towed to the trausaction of departmental duties,
the legislative year was necessarily a short one,
and not so productive in adding to the statute
book as many of its predecessors had ben. But,
so far, during the present recess, there has been
an absence of any declarations of policy on the
part of the more prominent of our politicians.
The Prime Minister has been unwell, and has
had to abandon the hides of leaking a public
appearance in Ireland. Mr. Gladstone has not
conic forth front the retireineut of Hawardeu
and P,mtuaeumawr. Mr. Bright hos ben
throughly enjoying himself over his favourite
sport of salmon fishing, although the letters of
the right lion. gentleinau upon pnblic affairs,
written in enswer to some eiejniring correspoud-
outs, occamicually uppear, and exhibit the old
power which made itself so felt a generation ago.
in fact the recess is inure than usually quiet
one. Twelve mentos age this very week—it was
on the Vuil October, 1873—Mr. Bright broke
the silence of nearly four years, and in a Mas-
terly address to an iiumeuse gathering of his
constituents of Birmingham supplied food for
comment for several weeks afterwards. So far
as can be discerned, there is no chance of a man
, of Mr. Bright'e calibrellappearing in the political
arena beween the present date and the ineetiug
of Parlieineut.

Therefore, in the absence of home topics, we
instinctively turn towards the sea. The people
of this country are doubtless as favourable to a
policy of uuniutervention tie they have been for
many years pattt ; still, the dividing hue betweeo
them and their ntighboura is so narrow thatthey
take it deep interest in Nil that concerts the
peoples who dwell nearest to USOII tim contiueut.
Motley has teen made so rapidly of late that
travelling throagli Europe is no longer u luxury ;
mid thus it conies to pass that foreign polities
are more extensively studied than they formerly
were. Who can forget the eagerness with which
every incident in the Franco•tiertuati war was
followed by tia: people of this country. Larie
numbers of us hal actually visittiel the scenes if
conflict, althea fit the granter portion were
compelled to rely upon the information suppled
by the press. Well, wo now see France en-rgeti-
cony preparing for another streggle with her
morel foe. Iler htitesn eu lu nut tell us as itt
so iooiday eords ; t would be moult. sty intii,criet
to alio that. II it the reargailis is ion of Is tr nadi-
r. try fii,es is It. in actively carried (el. and the
elang at mons rings is her tiockcardtt. Not Visit
Frimee will be 1111XilPIS to. elect nu • • Gar.
lowly 41 a allgie-hall.teli fight. nem:lnnen
...n•ld tell you that List y will hide their thus, that
Si or m as brcw.ittf but Wee., ficrulany stiff Russia,
it when Bassi,' refit tee the demand of
ii,rsiany for ere lion iof the Baltic Pcovinct a,
aat alit be hoc, it alibi hi-tweet' those colosoi,ol
mil tar y Poso;ra. FrAnco will theta seiseo the
oo,iiwor unity t • attack her ',owe' NI enemy oit her
anti we tuay rely upon it that in case of the
r lan: fiing the iiikatitia4e, Li rrible will he the
reakoaittg. The pa) sties .L of two Inuelred sulk
.totts teething, us at war infleionity, the font
in siege of Paria, thr tritimpli el entry of
the Gerinotil froops lobo tlool ioir capital, the
meutories of Meta and of Sedan, the utter
prosi rat liii wlsich followed —all these would rise
Li, the naiads of the French people, and they
would unite out that measure which lied been
meted to them. Germanc is so assured of lip,
approaching teuipestthat she is actually organis-
ing the Landsturtn, the last hue of defence c tiled
into retjuiwition iu case of • foreign itivasion.
Sill, ail might be wall if Germany herself re-
'twined quiet. France, though full of resentment,
and burning for revenge will not again commit
the fearful mistake of July 1870, Whell site
rushed into war with Prussia totally unprepared
for so !relocations a condict. Nor is Germany
in danger of being invaded by Russia, for the
uortheru Power has no cause of offence and no
lack of territory. The danger se that the German
people, having drunk deeply of military glory,
and thirsting for more, will demand front Russia
the German speaking provinces of the B iltic—a
demand which Russia would most certainly re-
fuse. It is then only too probable that the
Germans, conscious of their enormous military
strength would seek to obtain by force of artns
that which they had failed to get by diplomatic
means, end that. as we have already said, would
be France's opportunity.
There is another country to which puhliti
attention has been directed of late, separated
from France by the chain of the Pyrenees moun-
tains. Spain, as is well known, is diffracted by
jot, real political discords no less than by the
civil war which has So long devastated her fairete
provinces. It is alleged by the friends of the
Republic in Government that tho Carli.ts are
supplied with war ni,iteriel from the French
frontier, stud a few (lays ago the Spanish Miutster
at Paris presented to the French Foreign °dice
a despatch, in which Marshal Serrano, taking a
higher tone than the position tend power of Spain
woul I epparently. justify. plainly intimated to the
Cabioet of Verseilles that it lutist °hinge its
functionaries on the faultier, with a view to the
more effectual prevention of the army of Doff
Carlos drawing its supplies from French soil.
There are those who profess to discover in this
incident a great deal lucre than appears upon
the surface. It is signed that Spain would
never have adopted such a dictatorial tone to-
wards France had the Government of Martha'
Serrano not been prompted to do so by a greater
Power. Those who take this line profess to see
in the presentation of such a despite?, a deep
design on the part of Hisses, k to embroil France
in another war before slte is again able to cope
properly with Germany, and tints dually to
prustrate her before he enters upon a campaign
against Russia. We see • great deal of human
wickedness, but we should hesitate to believe in