New-York daily tribune., 1861-05-13
EgUOPE.

II was May in EuEope when the Great East
cru left, yet the long threatened hostilities had
not broken out, and there is now O chance that
1861 may pass without Wholesale slaughter.
Each nation would seem to be waiting for the
conflict to commence in some other quarter, as
if aware that the struggle will be one Of life and
death, and reluctant to draw upon itself the
first fury Of the fray, The Poles brave despOt-
ism, and are moved down by volleys Of grape
and musketry, but they wisely hesitate to pro-
woke contest that is certain to result in their
discontinue, after decimating their adult males
and desolating their country. Hungary visibly
strengthens herself daily for tho struggle that
must come, but is resolved to exhaust every pos
sibility of peaceful solution before giving the sig
nal for combat. Italy is fixed in her
all but unanimous resolve to be ore
independent n0tiou; but she waits the
withdrawal of the French garrison before
removing her government to the seyeD-hilled city,
and pauses before the frowning front of the
Quadrilateral without at all foregoing her deter
mination 10 plant her standards on the towers OF
Venice and assert her right to rule the homes as
she already does the hearts Of all who dwell be-
tween the Alps, the Adriatic, and the Mediter-
ranean. The dispute between Germany and Den
mark with regard to Schleswig HOlstein seems
incapable of peaceful settlement, yet the con-
stanty threatened appeal of Germany to arms Is
still held in abeyance, apparently awaiting the
favorable hour France glistens with bayonets as
never before; yet Napoleon continues to give
pacific assurances that arc signally belied by bis
preparations, and promises to withdraw his re-
naming troops from Syria early next month.
England regards with impatience the enor-
nous burdens which the immense nrmaments
and uncertain purposes Of her powerful
neghbor compel her to maintain, but can
not modify his policy and is no wise pre-
pared to merge her dissatisfaction in open quarrel.
The Ottoman Empire, bankrupt, paralytic, death
struck, still lives the mutual jealousies and ap-
prehensions Of the Great Powers keeping the
breath in its worthless and hopeless carcsse long
after life should have been extinct. Austria, toe,
seems to thrive by bankruptcy aud anarchy,
though il is evident that her sudden conversion
to constitutlOnalism has not achieved the expect
ed success. She has sacrificed the simplicity ana
unity of despotism without securing the intelIi-
gence and energy Of democracy Austria leans
on Russia to-day, and, if unsupported from with.
out, evidently totters to her fall; while Spain,
mainly because abe haA been poor and pbwerless,
and thus bound over to forty years of peace, has
steadily and silently grown within these years
from insgnifcance aud contempt to the stature
of a secOnd-class power.
great war 10 Europe, to clear away existing
complications, is inevitable. 1t is likely to be the
grandest, the blOodiest that the civilized world
has yet seen. Should the belligerents be France,
Great Britain, Italy, the Poles, aud the HuDga-
rians, ptted against Austria, Russia, and perhaps
the Germanc Federation, it can hardly be closed
without blottDg out some existing nations and
creating or reviying others. Should it be COM
menced on a smaller scale 1t can hardly fail TO
extend until oil the Great Powers, with possibly
Turkey, Denmark, and Spain, are involved in
the cOn1agration. 1t is now as likely to
break out cut among the ill-gOyerned, dis
contented principalites and provinces CON-
posing Turkey in Europe as elsewhere; it
may commence by the march of a German
force into Holstein, followed by the advance of
great Frenoh army to the Rhine. But where
ever begun, the next great war in Europe is not
far off, and its results will be felt for thou.
sand years.