The New York herald., 1871-02-27

Tho Europeaa War Cloud Rolling TO the
East-From Madrid 60 Cairo, and from
LONDON 60 Athens.
Almost identical with the HERALD de-
spatches which report the closing scenes Of
the war between Prussia and France come
our kilograms by cable from Europe fore
shadowing the roll of the dark cloud of diff
Guilty and danger eastward. Spain and
Egypt, Italy, England and Greece are becom-
ing uneasy; we may say, indeed, irritable.
The symptoms which indicate the approach Of
q change of the existing relations between
these Powers are still more apparent; the
evidences Of an attempt at 'rectifcati0n"
toward the territory of Egypt, and it may
be-perhaps must be-toward CONSTANT
nople, multiply. The Spanish flag has bHen
insulted in Cairo. So it is asserted. at least,
in the kilograms. An official employed
in the Spanish Consulate in that city
sustained some personal offence, and this has
been resented in such marked manner by
the representatives of King Amadeus that it
was stated yesterday in London that "all the
Spanish consuls had quilted Egypt" King
Amadeus, who appears to have in him good
deal of the cool pluck of his warrior ancestor
of the "Iron Head" instructed his agents in
the East to act 'energetically," while from
the Foreign Office in Madrid was despatched
an ultimatum-a word of very ominous import
when used at the commencement of an Old
World difflculty-to the Egyptian Viceroy.
The neutrals of Europe apprehended serious
trouble; for we are told also, in our series Of
cable kilograms, that "several of the European
Powers have offered mediation between Spain
and Egypt"
England, Power which apprehends CON-
ing danger with the keen sense of an expert,
has already, as it appears, shifted the breeze.
She has determined to be out in that direc-
ton resolved to ''see whatever can be seen."
Great Britain has consequently sent gov
ernment despatch to Athens, in which Earl
Granville demands that the names of the mur-
dered subjects of Her Majesty the Queen shall
be appeased, and the recent massacres at
Marathon be atoned for. Queen Victoria asks
a judicial retrospect of the cases of the native
prisoners who have been already acquitted
by the Greek tribunals Of justice. When we
recollect how easily Britain can "drift' into
war at a suitable moment-when we remem-
ber that the theft of hatchet and goat by
an African near Cape Town produced the
Kafiir war, and that the question of creased
cartridge brought on the Sepoy war, we may
reasonably presume that the exhibition of the
mangled corpses of some of her subjects on
the plains of Greece will be quite sufficient
to lead England into a conflict eastward,
should the government deem such
war safe and profitable. Can it be safe or
profitable ? Is the Eastern question about to
be solved without the counsel of the London
Conference? Is the protected" kingdom of
Greece in the way; or will Greece be "neu-
tralized" to obliteration, and a new plan Of
territorial settlement eastward, from Florence
to Athens and Cairo and Alexandria, be at
tempted according to programme which will
render the highway to India still more secure,
and bring the Greek and Latin churches still
nearer to Constantinople?