ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 6

ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

[FROM OUR OWX CORKHSPOSDKNT.I PANSLAVISM AND TKUTOMSM.

QrKsTioss of domestic legislation, however pressing and important, do not prevent public attention being directed to events of thrilling interest, and pregnant with great events at present proceeding on the Continent. Tlie Vanslnv ghost has again risen in the Kast; and Herzegovina is once more the scene of conflict. The "peace with honour " which Lord Beaeoustield brought homo from Berlin, and which consigned the Adriatic provinces, with their .Slav population, to tho cruel mercies of an alien Govcrnniou't, has produced its natural result. Whether the trouble is spontaneous or fomented from without, is beside tho question. Xomesis, as usual, has followed in tho wake of the suppression of nationalities, and the struggle for national life, formerly against the Turk, and now against the Ati.strian, is once more likely to involve most of the great nations in a contlict of terrible severity. That the movement is encouraged from Russia is beyond question. The Czar and the Court party are pacilic, but, absolute iiinn- j arch though lie is, it seems probable that ho I will be carried away by a force which lie j cannot control. The critical character of j the position has been considerably intend- i ficd by certain speeches recently made by I General Skobeloll', who is recognised not i only as Russia's ablest and most ilistin- I flushed soldier, but as the loader and mouthpiece of the war party. In the latter of these speeches, delivered to the, Servian students in Paris, he declared that the reason why Russia was not eijual to her patriotic duties was that she was held in check by a foreign influence, "And if you wish to know the name of this foreigner, this intruder and intriguer, this enemy so dangerous to Russians and .Slavs, I will name him. It is tho German. 1 repeat it, and 1 beg you will never forget it. This enemy is the German. A struggle between j the Slav and the Teuton is inevitable. It] will be long, sanguinary, ami terrible, but the Slav will triumph." These speeches, -so distinctly Pan-Slavistie, and so pointedly hostile to German and Austrian rule, coming as they do from the recognised leader of the great Slav party in Russia, have almost been accepted by the allied empires as ;i national challeuge, and have been answered by the German L'ress with a united scream c>l duliancc. Meantime Germany, by a special mission to Constantinople, has been cultivating the good feelings of the Porte, while, a Franco-Russian alliance is regarded as a contingency sure to follow, on Germany being involved in war. The outbreak is decidedly threatening, and though the utterances of I the hero of Plevna have been repudiated by < the Russian Government, and General Skobelotl'has been ordered back to St. Petersburg, the mischief has been done, and the excitement caused among the Slavs and in Germany and Austria, shows no sign of abatement. AFFAIRS IK KGVPT. In Egypt the joint financial control exercised by England and France has been confronted by an unexpected and singular ditliculty. The military party in that oll'shoot of the Sultan's dominions has executed what is little short of a cot'p</'c/at, and with much show of courtesy, and <iiitirely in a constitutional way, have forced the Khedive to dispense with his advisers, and to accept their "nominees. The Chamber of Notables, with whom they are in sympathy, assert the right to tho control of the budget, and the two Governments are clearly accepting with a good grace the new order of things. Tho movement is interesting, as evincing unmistakably an awakening of national life on the banks of the Kile, which public feeling in England and France would be reluctant to suppress. One of the first acts of the new Government in Egypt was the taking of steps for the peremptory suppression of slaVory, not only in Egypt, but the neighbouring provinces, and altogether the movement, threatening as it seemed at first, must lie watched with considerable interest by all who sympathise with legitimate national aspirations. The sudden event seemed at first to involve complications between the two Western Powers, and Germany, Austria, and Russia, but diplomatic interchanges have smoothed over the difficulties, and France and England are left to arrange matters with the new party which has come to the front, and which, while asserting its independent rights, professes the intention of observing all financial obligations. THK JEWISH PERSECUTION IN RUSSIA. Russia has been attracting an unenviable notoriety by the occurrence within her borders of the most systematic and fearful outbreak of sectarian fanaticism that has ever disgraced modern times. In tho southeastern provinces, in Poland—in fact every place where Jews reside—that most peaceable and law-abiding race Ins been subjected to outrage on person and property, the recital of which has sent a thrill of horror ! throughout the whole civilised world. Tlic Government of St. Pctershurgh excuses itself by the unexpectedness of tho outbreak, and in a, semi-oliicial way asserts that the Jews had to some extent brought it on themselves, and even apologists have arisen who, writing from places neighbouring to the scenes of outrage, declare that tho Jews, by their money-lending and extortions, had reduced tho populations around them to misery, and that the people, driven to madness, "had taken the law into their hands, Hut nothing can palliate the atrocities narrated, which, if half true, throw the Bulgarian atrocities entirely in tho shade. In every part of -Britain and America meetings of sympathy and indignation have been held. It has been the subject of frequent questions in Parliament, and deputations to Government, and whether under the pressure of the universal execration of Europe, or from real desire to deal fairly between its subjects, the Russian Government has taken very prompt and severe measures to repress the evil.