The Washington times., 1901-08-07
FOREIGN TOPICS.


The activity of all the opposition parties
In France would seem to foreshadow an
onslaught on the Republic at the elections
next May. Recently the whole of the
front page of the Figaro was occupied
by interviews with Prince Victor Napo-
leon and the Duke of Orleans, and a syn
thesis of the views of the Imperiallst
and Royalist leaders, which may be re-
garded as constituting the electoral pro-
gramme of the two parties.
1t is curious to note that both Prince
Victor Napoleon and the Duke of Orleans
Insist that the qualification of party
applied to their partisans is incorrect.
According to Prince Victor Napoleon. a
party necessarily supposes exclusivism.
With the plebiscitary doctrine. which
offers the same refuge and the same
protection to all under the aegis of the
national will, exclusivism must not and
cannot exist.
The personal declarations of the Duke
of Orleans to his interviewer were to the
effect that he witnessed with grief the
excessive zeal of some of the Royalists.
They do not understand that the white
flag is today Utopia" The Pretender
expressed complete approval of all the
declarations which had been made to the
representative of the Figaro by M.
Bezine, chief of the Royalist political
bureau in Paris. That gentleman had
affirmed that the Royalists do not con-
stitute a party in the real Specification of
the word. They have higher ambition
that of uniting all Frenchmen on the
ground of national right. Action, he
said, assumes numerous forms. II the
occasion presents itself we shall not
shrink from any. Remember, we have
for chief a prince who said: one comes
back as one can.
The Duke expressed his assent to this
declaration by a vigorous movement or
the head; For the Royalists the elections
furnish the means to affirm to the French
nation their conviction that the restora-
tion of the monarchy is the right solu-
ton. Thev will accept coalition with the
regime, but in supporting other tsan
Royalist candidates they will not conceal
their monarchical principles.
The Austrian Government has sent two
cruisers to cruise on the Albanian coast.
A demonstration on the part of Austria
may be herein discerned, as the Albanian
question has lately become rather dis
quieting.
Montenegro has spread the report that
Austria has intentions on Albania which
threaten italian interests there. Owing to
the closeness of the relations existing be-
tween the Italians and Montenegrin Courts
it is only natural that the italian press
should take up hostile attitude toward
Austria, in consequence of which Italy
feels Obliged also to send ships to those
waters.
The direct cause of the decision of the
Austrian Government was a speech by
Prince Danilo, of Montenegro, the heir
apparent, at a banquet In Cettinje, con-
taining u concealed threat against Aus
suited and challenged. but, though q
small State, was brave, and would know
how to defend Its interests.
That matters are somewhat acute In
the Balkans is shown by the refusal of
the Porte, for political reasons, to allow
Greek squadron to enter Turkish waters
to visit Smyrna, Salonica. and Athos. For
the first time the international policy OF
Power in time of peace has forbidden
the fleet of another to enter her harbors.
King Edward of England recently pass
ed a week at the Staffordshire estate of
the Grand Duke Michael Michailovitch,
who ten years ago offended the late Car
by contracting a morganatic marriage
with Sophie, Countess of Merenberg The
marriage closed his career in Russia. He
was reconciled a year or two back to
the Russian autocracy in the person of
Car Nicholas, but he has remained a
European cosmopolitan. and wanders over
the British Isles and the adjacent conti-
nent, taking his game wherever he finds
it-for he is mighty sportsman. No one
living has done more for the town of
Cannes-which, by the way. lord cham
cellor of England, Brougham, invented or
the Grand Duke Michael
There he spends every winter (or what
passes on the Riviera for wlnter). and to
be asked to his wife's ''at home" is to
receive the imprimatur, and be at once
in Cannes society, which is nothing If
not exclusive. To him the golf club at
Cannes owes its foundation. but lawn
tennis is his real love and he is very hard
to beat at 1t. His wife was ennobled by
the Grand Duke Of Luxembourg as Count
ess Torby.
1t is the opinion of certain London pa
pers that Earl Russell. who was recently
sentenced by the House of Lords to three
months Imprisonment as a criminal of
the first class" on the charge of bigamy,
might have been treated with more Ie-
niency had his case been tried In the
Assizes. 1t is pointed out that his case
is probably unique among bigamy cases
in that the convicted man practiced de-
ception upon no one, and that, according
to eminent legal authority. he was free
to contract a second marriage. That au-
thOrity had been mistaken. That was ALL
Moreover, it is shown that the prosecu-
tion recognized the extenuatinP circlIrn-