The Bee-Hive. — 1876-05-06 (London, England)

NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.  The retirement of Herr Delbruck from the German Administration excites notice, but is not likely to draw after it any great consequences. He was in some sort a representative of Prince Bismarck in that leader's absence, but, though useful, was not essential to the maintenance of his power and authority in the State. He had much to do, and he did it ably; but, if no other single man can fill his place, two might divide the task between them. In short, should Bismarck himself disappear, another would be found to take up his work. Delbruck was not the only enlightened and competent advocate of free trade and a sound political economy; and, in the main, his prime recommendation was that he did as he was bid; until, perhaps, he saw some prospect of his being called upon to forego a portion of his own settled views in compliance with the personal policy of a self-asserting leader whose statesmanship is limited by no fixed creed.  The three Powers that find Turkey more than a handful fcr them, are conferring at:Berlin, whither Count Andrassy has proceeded. to join Prince Bismarck and Prince Gortschakoff in considering what can be conceived, proposed, or done. If sve unt3r trust Russian report, the Czar is about to make a new protestation for his part, that the peace of Europe must be regarded as Para" mount. While Mukhtar is claiming victories over the insurgents, we learn from Constantinople that we are not to believe anythiug, he affirms, unless, indeed, he should let out the 'secret of his own recall. At the same time, we have, from a trustwortbY source, a picture of the state of things in Turkey, than which it were not easy to conceive anything worse. The Sultan is Emperor indeed, but of an empire slipping away from between his fingers, with no one, unless it be the Russian representative, to give him the least hint of the actual state of things. Nothing can savo the Danubian provinces, nothing, apparently, can save Turkey herself. Should the Bashi Bazouks be let slip, the slaughter might be dreadful, but the result would be suicide' Already trade is at a standstill, and public bankruptcy beyond doubt or redemption. The national independence of the Selavonic race seems, as in the cases of Italy and Germany, the natural, if not the inevitable, consummation. The revictualling of Niksie, which the Turkish General claimed the credit of for himself, i 8 now attributed to a sally of the garrison themselves, who seized the provisions stored at Prejuka, and carried them into the town A. on their own shoulders. The boastful commander has indeed taken a single insurgent entrenchment; but be was compelled to retire, and is now, or was at the last accounts, surrounded by the bands he pretended to have dispersed. The Sclavonic papers aver, that, in four days' fighting, the Turks lost two thousand five hundred in killed, and the insurgents four hundred. In other quarters it is current that the Three Powers have studiously refrained from urging on the Porte any " categorical demand."  M. Ganibetta, in France, has a difficult part to play. It Was unfortunate that he should find his candidate for the Seventeent.ll Arrondissement of Paris opposed by a working man, whose justification was that M. Pascal Duprat is a less decided and reliable Republican than the astute leader who adopted him. However, M. Duprat was elected, though by a bare majority. But the third candidate (M. De Heredia,) had retired in M. Chabert's favour, and this helped to gain him a majority in three of the four districts, which M. Duprat more than neutralized in the fourth, his own. The inference, on the whole, is, that Paris is decidedly Republican.  The ill-considered proposal of ceding the British settlement on. the Gambia to France has been abandoned, thanks to the efforts 01