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Show OUR EUROPEAN LETTER. (From our regular correspondent.) Looking to the broad facts presented by Continental affairs, it may be assumed that the possibilities of a great war are deferred, but in no wise removed, and that they have been increased since a disruptive policy was initiated in 1875. A sentence attributed to Prince Bismarck has recently attracted much attention. He is reported to have said that he could not think of domestic concerns, because his time was occupied by maintaining the peace of Europe. If he really made the observation, it would prove distinctly that the chances of disturbance are greater than they appear to be on the surface. He, at all events is not likely to nourish a fond belief that his country can afford to dispense with a foreign policy, nor is he above his duty as the guardian of German interests. That he must desire peace is evident from the fact that the Empire he so actively helped to create still requires time for complete consolidation and thorough internal equipment. Yet he never ignores the perils which beset the great central State, and does not disdain to safeguard her by bold acts of policy. Among these was the alliance with Austria which thwarted more than one profound scheme, and another was the extension of help to Turkey when her old allies, who have an equal interest in the Straits, threw the weight of their moral influence into the scale of the Slavs. Recent events give the allied German Powers an influence in North Africa, as well as on the Bosphorus, and it would be absurd to suppose that, at least so long as the Midlothian policy is maintained, the power acquired will not be employed for the benefit of those Empires which have been ostentatiously put on their defense. At present the superficial indications are, as I have said, favorable to an adjournment of a struggle so full of peril for all concerned. Nevertheless it is manifest that the general peace is at the mercy of an accident, and that time will enhance, not diminish, the stimulus, the opportunities, and the pretexts. Whether England has a patriotic policy or not, when the hour comes, may and probably will exert a decisive force, upon her future. She has ample warning in the conquest of ?? and the seizure of a "base of operations against India" in the countries dominating Khorasson. To these ?? she has turned a deaf ear and [unreadable] and humiliation. Among the curious and interesting trifles, every one of which is rendered precious to its illustrious owner by some personal or historical association, that adorn the writing table of the German Emperor in his favorite morning room overlooking the Linden and Oberplatz, is an old cavalry helmet, the special use and function of which is one delightfully illustrative of the ?? kindheartedness that has so deservedly endeared William I to his people. Ever since he ascended the throne he has invariably manifested an unsurmountable disinclination to affix his signatures to sentences of death, and indeed to any penal decrees of unusual severity. Whenever, therefore, such documents are laid before him by his Minister of State, he is accustomed, after perusing them, to file them away under the helmet above alluded to. It has frequently occurred that exalted officials, anxious to obtain his Majesty's sanction to the pronouncements of the law but not venturing to remind him of his omission to sign these papers, have availed themselves of his temporary absence from his study to lift the casque and move the documents in such sort that their edges have slightly protruded from under the helmet's brim. In ten cases out of twelve, however this gentle and respectful hint has proved unavailing for the Emperor, as soon as he caught sight of the detested papers peeping out from the place of their concealment has quietly pushed them back again and forborne ever thereafter from making any allusion to the incident. In such cases, as might have been expected, the obnoxious documents have been discreetly abstracted and destroyed; it being obvious to the most pertinacious Minister that his Majesty would never be induced to sign them. August. Berlin, Germany, May 8th, 1882. |