The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-08

but AZ the Triple Alliance has ettl many
years 20 run II IL scarcely credible that
FRANCIS JOSEPH would debate its merits
and its burdens with an outsider. An
other theory is that King EDWARD would
like the Austro-H ungarian sovereign TO
use his influence at Berlin 10 bring about
a restoration of the former cordial rela-
tons between Great Britain and Ger
many. IL may be true that the ties OF
blood are oftener weaker than those OF
self-interest, but certainly IL would not
be digniied for an uncle to admit that
he needs anybody's intercession with a
nephew. On the face Of things, more
over, Germany has more need Of Great
Britain's good will than has the latter
country Of Germany's friendship.
Evidently we must look elsewhere for
the motive Of the coming conference
between the British and Austrian mon
archs. IL we should assume that the
request for the meeting now close at
hand came, not from London, but from
Vienna, we should find 1t less difficult
TO divine the incentive. FRANCIS Jo-
sEPH, who is now not far from eighty
years Of age, finds himself in a position
of perplexity and anxiety not unlike that
occupied by his ancestor CHARLES VI.
who had no sons and only n daughter,
MARIA THERESA. He desired, IL will be
recalled, that she should inherit all the
States composing the Hapsburg realm,
although these, as a whole, had eve
before been transmitted 70 any but heirs
male. To that end he procured the as
sent of Hungary. the Austrian Arch
duchies and all his other possessions to
the so-called Pragmatic Sanction, and
spent a large part of his reign in seeking
the acknowledgment of his daughters
right of succession by the other Eu-
ropean Powers. Nevertheless. his death
was quickly succeeded by FREDERICK the
Greats invasion Of Silesia, and the War
Of the Austrian Succession, followed as
il was by the Seven Years War. plunged
Europe in turmoil for almost a quarter
of a century.
The death of FRANCIS JOSEPH threatens
to have similar consequences. The Cis-
Lothian and the Hungarian kingdoms
are held together by nothing but their
common respect and affection for their
aged ruler, and his destined successor
has few if any friends in either realm.
The early disintegration then of the i'll
compacted territories for the moment
loyal to FRANCIS JOSEPH seems inevita-
BILE unless they can be kept united by the
pressure of exterior force. II is thus a
matter of deep concern to the Haps-
burg ruler to obtain from all the great
European Powers assurances that no
encouragement will be given 10 the
secession among his subjects; that no
stimulus shall be applied to those disrup-
tive forces which are expected to reveal
themselves on the demise Of the present
sovereign. From this point of view a
pledge of amity from Great Britain would
be peculiarly desirable on account of
that country's intimate relations with
France and Spain and of the moral in
fluence which she would now be able
to exert, not only at St. Petersburg,
but at Rome.
1t is, in a word, the preservation of the
prestige of his dynasty and of the terri
torial integrity of his dominions that
lies closest to the heart of the Hapsburg
Kaiser, and the furtherahce Of that end
is doubtless the real motive which has
prompted him TO court a personal and
confidential conference with King Ed
WARD VII.