Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-01-03

rtntly insulted England. But II has not
been year Of marked German progress
at homo or abroad. And It is not now
an inspiring spectacle to find the great
German Chancellor using Stanley us a
tool and seeking private interviews with
Premier Ferry, both OF whom in his
heart and boots he thoroughly despiscs.
The pivotal question between Ger
many and England is not so much, wha.
will Bismarck do aboat Englani's
financial management OF Egypt, or
what will England do about Bismarck's
African colonizationg England Is in-
elincd 10 help rather than hinder that
in proper ways. The great question is,
How will Bismarck back out OF the en-
eouragcmcnt he has given Russia in its
anti-Biitish advance toward India? or.
Eow will Germany and Russia and
Austria meet England and her possible
allies Of Italy and France in case OF
great European war? Ii is no small
game that raw men can presume to
understand, much less to criticise. But
at the end Of the year and at the
beginning Of the new it is clear to those
who understand the case that Bismarck
ard not Gladstone is the most vcxed
and anxious man in the Old World.
With Russia in the last year the case
has been far more simple. but not
without It's large and important bear
ines. The Gar was no sooner crowned
than Bismarck undertook to make him
the pet and tool of the Emperor Will
liam. For several years Russia has
understood that any deprcdations to-
wards the frontiers of Aighanistan or
any attempt to occupy Merv would be
construed in England as an act of war.
But during the last year the Merv
Turkomans haze been coaxed and
wheedled into voluntary submission to
Russia and virtual choice of the
Gar as their. protector. Russia
has, besides, pushed her projected
railway from the Caspian across the
Kara-koum desert far toward the Af-
ghanistan frontier, and so has virtually
declared her purpose Of establishing
first communication between herself
aud English possessions, and then a
chain of forts from the Caspian to He
rat, bringing in the hour that England
has dreaded since she set foot on India
and concluded to make it her own.
Russia has also strengthened herself
along the line that divides her from
Northern Asia, and has taken advantage
of England's preoccupied condition to
stamp out the final spark of indcpend-
ent nationality in Finland, and so has
made her Baltic provinces more secure.
With France the past year has been
one of petty intrigucs and strifes, grow
ing mainly out of the fact that long
before she had secured republican and
settled national unity at home she un-
dcrtook to carry schemes of colonial
conquest in Southeastern China, and
while the Ferry Cabinet has been un-
usual for its length in these times, it
has only held together by constantly
appealing to French vanity and ambi-
tion. and by intimating that through
friendship with Germany England could
be held in check, if not Inundated, for
its presumption in ousting France out
of Egypt, and that so the French, Chi
ncsc. and other schemes might at last
prevail.
This in briefcst outline is the Euro
pcan outlook for the last year, with
Austria always playing second fiddle to
Germany, and Italy and the entire Mo-
hammcdan world at the beck and call OF
England, if worse comes to worse, any
doy