NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10099, 7 April 1896, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

"v—♦" —> Here are two \ TS 0 f the Triple Alliance. Accordir. a wr jt-er in the Fortnightly Reviei officially the Triple Alliance was as a league of peace; in the press> 10 fatherland it was made use of as ' popping stone by which Germany sougl j. 0 ra ; so herself

upon a pedestal, whenco V 9 m jghb dictato to Europo and the won g llt in trut the Triple Alliance, whet* composed of Germany, Austria, and first, or {of Germany, Austria, at, Itaty a3 at present, was, and is, neither rQ nor ess than a banevolent associate f or fc ] lo purpose of allowing Germany , 0 c jijr o3 |i in peace the heavy, unwholosv 0 s i, CC!} • of territory carved from France. 1 It was for this that the Py g 0 f | Europe were persuaded to stand lR |. to back, quixotically attitudinising ant i foolishly squandering enormous ?u 3 t0 guarantee, as they in their simplify believed, the peace. None of these na, nß ever obtain any tangible advantage £ m the arrangement. Austria's position v wards Russia was not bettered one whl on the contrary, in spite of the strenuoi efforts of her Ambassador at St. Petersburg Count Wolkenstein, Russia's hatred o Austria increased a hundred-fold. Italy, who ground down her children to the dust in order to obtain the hard-earned millions with which to raise her army and navy to the level Unqualified hor to become a member of this German Digesting Club— is now confronted with financial ruin. All tho advantages secured by tho league flowed into the pockets of the Fatherland, who assumed the role of tho spokesman, disposed of the friendship and hostility of tho allies, and made numerous bids for Russia's aliianco on the strength of it, whilo Austria was sedulously shielded from the corrupting influence of Muscovite intrigues. France's hatred of Italy kept constantly simmering, and tho mutual distrust of Russia and England fed by a regular flow of rumours, reports, insinuations, and alarms." In other words, Germany uses each Power in turn to her own advantage exclusively.

' The other view is supplied by Mr. Frederick Greenwood, probably one of the best informed journalists of the clay on foreign questions, but on this f.nd one or two other subjects somewhat quixotic. "In the Triple Alliance, when taken at its best, Germany is the head, Austria nearly helpless, Italy troubled by a preponderance that cannot be counted on for steadiness. And the common idea amongst Englishmen who aro shy of the allianco evidently is tint these conditions would remain after wo entered into it—England being on much t.he same footing thab Italy is condemned to. But that is a mistake. Tho addition of England to the alliance would change a good deal in it; not arbitrarily, but by the mere operation of something like dynamic force. A loyal and reasonable Austria would be no longer helpless. Italy would cast off all her uncertainties—in a moment, as in the twinkling of an eye. What Italy was relieved from could have no existence for England. Political eqanimity, of which the smaller German States also know the neod, would bo added to the complete invincibility conferred by England's fleets. In every respect, without and within, the alliance would be more truly and perfectly a League of Peace. For incidentally, the ovorlordship which has been a little too preponderant, erratic, incalculable, would shed its faults. In short, England would stand on equal terms with Germany at the hoad of this commanding alliance—perhaps a step in advance. In that foremost position, and on behalf of self and partners, she would see to the proper limitation of overlordship in an agreement for mutual peace and comfort and, further, that its simplo purposes were never overstepped." England, however, docs not lovo alliances, and we aro afraid that Emperor William's telegram to President Kruger has made any alliance between England and Germany impossible for a generation at least,

M. Berthelob, who has just explained why ho resigned his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the French Cabinet, stood far above his colleagues in intellectual distinction. Dr. Pierre Eugene Marielin Berthelot is certainly one of the leading chemists of Europe and probably there are not a few of his scientific compeers in other nations who think it a matter of regret that one of the foremast scientists of our generation should have accepted the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, and wish that he had stuck to the lecturer's desk and the laboratory. l)r. Berthelot was born in Paris on October -sth, 1827, so that he enters upon the post of French Foreign Minister in his GBth year. Ho was a pupil of the Lyctse Henri IV., where in the year 1846 ho received the honorary prize for philosophy, and soon after he obtained a doctor's degree in that faculty. His impulse, however, was towards chemical studies, and in ISSI ho was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry at the Collfigo do France, and Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Apothecaries' School. He distinguished himself by his independent research, and his discoveries and writings made him famous beyond his own fatherland. During the period between 185G and 1894 Dr. Berthelot has published more than 600 contributions to chemical scinnce in the protocols of the Acadimie dcs Sciences, the " Annals of Physics and Chemistry," and various other scientific periodicals. So long ago as 1873 his eminent sorvicos were recognised by the Royal Society of London, of which ho was olectod a mcmbor. His functions in his own fatherland at the time when M. Bourgeois invited him to a seat in the now Cabinet were numerous enough to occupy most of the time of a very busy man. Ho is the Permanent Secretary of the Paris Academy of Sciences, VicePresident of the Council of Education, President; of the Sanitary Commission, President of the Commission for Inquiry upon Explosive Materials, Member of the Council for Fine Arts, Member of the Council of the Agricultural Society, and occupied, upon a dozen other influential societies or commissions.

It is a marvel how a severe thinker, who enjoys the quiet labours of the scientific experimentalist-, can have found any spare time for political work. Bub in this combination of scienco and practical politics Dr. Bertholot resembles his groat German contemporary, Dr. Virchow. One part of the day he will be lecturing to his pupils upon alchemy in the Middle Ages or upon chemistry in the ancionb world, and another part of the day find his relaxation in a Parliamentary debato upon instruction in the French common schools. Dr. Berthelob was president of the Sonata's Commission upon the secularisation of the common schools. His first appearance in t!io political world was in 1870, when he had passed his fortieth year, and 110 one dreamed of him as a statesman. Ten years later ho became a Lifo Senator. He then inscribed his namo in thelißbaof the "Gauche R6publicaine" and tho " Union R6publicaine." He belongs in spirit and temper to the Moderate Republicans, though the Radical M, Goblet offered him the Ministry of Education in his Cabinet in 1880, and the Radical Mr Bourgeois persuaded him to accept the apparently leas congruous

work of. a Minister of Foreign Affairs. Wide as is Dr. Bertheiot'a acquaintance with foreigners of all lands, he knows them only as the brotherly fellow-workers with himself in the huniano fields of science • and tho learned chemist can hardly be said to have shown an equal capacity for dealing with the not very brotherly intrigoea of foreign diplomacy, His great predecessor in the annals of French chemistry, Lavoisier, upon whose life and work he has lectured, paid dearly fur combining chemistry and politic-, as be was executed by the guillotine in 1794 as a criminal against the Republic.

Ib is, perhaps, only natural that th« British advance into the Soudan, which ippears to have been undertaken with ;reat secrecy—that i?, no inkliuy of what .vhs intended leaked out until evcrythinu os in readiness for the undertaking should have given grave umbrage to tin French, who, because of a sentimental interest in Egypt resent very bitterly the prolonged occupation of that country by the British, and who see in this new departure the extension for an indefinite time of that occupation. Hut fortunately their government is nob wholly influenced by sentiment, otherwise we do not see how war could bo avoided. M. Bourgeois has been censured by the Senate, bub so long as he commands a mairity in the Chamber of Deputies that does H very much matter. An unexpected light '? been thrown upon tho whole situation k.tho statement of M. lie-thel< t, the ex. J'Wn Minister, who stated that the reasoriwhy he resigned was because Russia r; tically vetoed his Egyptian policy, whiij means, if it means anything, that Ruim. is to be no pauy to embana-fing EnglanJ i, her sphere of influence in £^ [JC and the fcmdan. According to the Paris of a London evening paper an understands ms eon arrived at between France and England. The Matabela rising is being sup refgec l and all serious danger is apparently,ver. The organ of the Boers, the Volksteinjxpiespes surprise and di*ap. pointment thajjr. Cecil Rhodes was not arrested by tliejew Cape .Ministry. The Boers evidcntly SX peeted that the first act of Sir J. Sprig would be to clap hij predecessor in - ao l. a serious tire in Manilla has decoyed 4000 houses and rendered 30,000 p?sons homeless.