THE FUTURE OF EUROPE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 124, 10 September 1875, Page 8

THE FUTURE OF EUROPE.

The Tiew taken by the 'Pall Mall Gl-azcile' is that the fate of Europe depends on the will and the lives of three men — Prince Bismarck, the Czar, and the Pope. " How much," Bays the ' Gazette,' " depends on the duration of two of these livos ; .how much might he changed by the termination of the third ! And is thera even the average security for the long duration of any of the thrco ? This week Pius IX. entered upon his eighty-fifth year. Prif.ce Bismarck is neither in point of age nor in point of heall.li a life to which one could confidently add another decade. He is an overworked super-sensitive man of upwards of sixty, bearing a greater load of official anxieties and responsibility than has been borne by any statesman of this century. He inarches under it — but less erectly and with not so firm a step, noticeably, as he was wont to do. The Czar is not old, biit then he is not strong. He has been for somo tune in that stale which is described as 'giving anxiety to his friends ;' and observers of his appearance at Berlin report the improvement in his health in very guarded terms. The life of no one of these three is euch that men of prudence would count upon its long continuance with any degree of confidence, and the death of any one of them might, and probably would, alter the •whole aspect of European affairs." The death of the Pope no doubt, might be made a pretext Dy Germany for an alteration in her policy toward the Papacy — a policy which has destroyed her safety and •trength. The death of the Emperor Alexander would be fraught with momentous consequences in another way. It would remove the control of the policy of Eussia from the hands of a Sovereign who is at least on a footing of personal sympathy with the German Emperor, to place it in the hands of a successor whose sympathies and likings are believed to incline strongly the other way. And a Czar sympathizing with France would not be the most likely or the best qualified moderator of the hatred with which a large portion of. his subjects regard Germany. The ' Gazette' says :—": — " On the effects of the death of Bismarck it is unnecessary to speculate, for every one must feel that the removal of a statesman whose policy has been more emphatically personal than that of any statesman perhaps within living memory, and whose individuality makes itself felt at every turn of German or even European politics, would be far-reaching indeed. But the death of the Emperor of Germany himself — another aged mm — might also seriously affect the future The strong will and the keen vision of the statesman would yet remain, but they would energize under different conditions ; the material upon which the Imperial Chancellor ■would have to work would be altogether^ changed, and therewith the results of its operation, probably." In this relation we may say that there is no fear that the health of the Pope is breaking down. The Roman correspondent of the ' Journal de Bruxelles' writes that in the course of a conversation which he had quite recently at the Vatican with one of the Pope's medical advisers, that gentleman said to him :—": — " Undoubtedly he is eighty-four years of age, but his sight, hearing, memory, intellect, vivacity of repartee are those of a man in full vigor. His health is good and resists incessant work, misfortunes and vicissitudes which would bring down an ordinary constitution. He is, in fact, in perfect health, has no infirmities, &vA may still live for many years. I must also declare that he submits himself willingly to our prescriptions, which he did not formerly. Last week he was bled, as he is always at the changes of the seasons. His medical advisers follow the old -practice, and he has not to complain of it."— 'Pilot.'