Show EUROPEAN TOPICS one of the remarkable signs of f the times is that the movements of di diplomatic Plo matic agents seem to have lost their terrors there was as a time and that not very long so 90 when the visit of a bismarck to tt gland would have been considered a grave event not so at tile the present moment which does not eem tn favorable to an extension of power by political alliances it is only y necessary to cast a glance at the he map of europe to be convinced of 01 this on all sides ades the present of political alliances is falling rato to pieces in hungary in the alkan peninsula and even in URIT ly there is irremediable disaster irk Q these countries the policy that hitherto it herto governed is now pronounced a failure and its exponents see se power falling from their hands u 11 the other hand the good understanding between england and rus sta sia which the much abused sir bert morler seems to have IrO drought about has certainly put a check eck to any aggressive movements iii central europe the value of the triple alliance has ya been hotly discussed in both austria hungary and italy and its advantages vantages and disadvantages corn com td there are those who see in ine heavy armaments of europe a sa of impending danger but wilether nether it is so may be doubted u the contrary the very fact that 11 u european nations are armed to the e teeth and are pretty pretta much on equal ask terms as to equi equipments m e ants is bakker er favorable to I 1 peace ce than n otherwise A belligerent nation has the tuf art rt for prancing ab about out a la mix tape tr taken out of her when she is anet ia on all sides by forces equal to her rown own in the case of a nation able ie to crumple up her adversaries sea a piece of paper she might find temptation tation to break the peace of dumpe the drope too strong to be resisted e consciousness that any contest bt be upon equal terms therefore questionably makes for peace the n aftem attempt t of any nation to make i the to dominator of europe has ay already proved itself an egregious despite the triple alliance bloh loo looks 9 more fierce on paper ahll n it is in reality the ae Ine meeting eting which has just taken gace between queen victoria and atee christiana has evidently no iteal significance except so far 48 it t shows that spain has at length definitely into the european wm and that spain has before her a prospect of steady government queen christina has shown herself an able as well as a popular ruler and her unimpeachable private life has told in her favor with a nation not accustomed to regard their rulers as models of virtue and duty in her business of sovereign queen christina has been ably supported by senor agasta who has performed wonders in keeping together the warring sections of the spanish liberal party on the other handtke hand the chief of the conservatives senor canovas del castillo has displayed an amount of forbearance and self abnegation quite unusual in a spanish political leader and has given an honest support to a liberal government rather than peril the regency by insisting on his io g lotical claims during the past few w years span spain has been fairly prosperous and and has made considerable political progress no small portion of which is due to one of the best and most correct of spanish sovereigns in the death of edmond scherer prance has lost one of her purest literati Ute radi and one of her most thoughtful and patriotic citizens in 1842 he became connected with the ore toire in geneva the president of which was the celebrated merle W d aubigne the hU historian torian of the reformation professor scherer was without doubt the ablest teacher in that institution for many years his subsequent quent career in paris as a writer as one of the literary editors of le temps and as a statesman are too well known to need a eulogy the fact that mathew arnold the great english essayist so often refers to ers judgment as a kind of touchstone to correct the bias of english and german writers is sufficient to indicate his intellectual standing here is what mr arnold says of him in one of his latest essays effi aYs IM M edmond scherer is an exceptional frenchman he is senator of france and one of the editors of le temps newspaper he was trained at geneva that thai home of large instruction and and lucid intelligence li gence he knows thoroughly the language and literature of england italy and germany as well as of france well informed intelligent disinterested open minded and and sympathetic h his i s death would leave a gap in the commonwealth of letters the german criminal code is at this present time being critically examined by the federal council with the view of increasing the stringency of its already stringent provisions the new bill would place all newspapers whatsoever at the mercy of the the government should the proposed bill become law the german press would then be in the same position as that of russia where a free parliament does not exist and where the gag is universal it is quite possible that when the bill billib Is presented to the reichstag it will be rejected despite the enormous influence which will be exerted in its favor the influence of the german language and german literature is beginning to be felt among oriental nations since the beginning of the year there appears at tokio japan a scientific monthly in the german language entitled from west to east entirely edited by japanese former students at german universities for the purpose of promoting the german aerman language in japan of acquainting their countrymen with german manners customs and ideas by the reproduction of man works and translations into german of original japanese works the properties of that wonderful metal aluminium have been long and favorably known but some intelligent tell igent persons may not be aware that it is most useful when alloyed with copper in the ratio of from seven to ton per cent of the latter metal when mixed in this proportion the compound is less than half as heavy as iron as strong and tough as the best beet of steel and jn in color resembling gold and capable of receiving a very high degree of polish until lately the price of such a compound has been about five dollars a pound and this fact has as prevented the metal from coming into general use but the discovery that it can be made from common clay at the rate of twenty cents a pound or at a still less price will make a revolution in the manufacture of many articles the swiss government has experimented with cannon made from this metal and found these cannon both lighter and stronger than similar articles made from brass or steel As this new compound Is ia so very light strong and not liable to rust it seems destined to become a favorite favorite in the manufacture of farmers and car pantera pen tera tools household utensils and the thousand and one articles where brass nickel or copper is now employed the swiss arms manufactory at Newba usen is now experimenting with this compound with the idea of us using ag it in the manufacture of rifles pistols etc for the swiss federal army the greatest difficulty hitherto encountered in the manufacture of aluminium is the great heat required in order to melt the clay from which the metal is formed the heat of the ordinary furnace as used in the melting of iron is totally inadequate the heat produced by electricity t ia a the only artificial heat known to man that is if sufficiently intense preparations are now in progress to utilize the great falls of the river rhine the greatest water power in europe in order to produce sufficient electricity to heat beat a smelting smelling sm elting furnace for the production of this metal A great turbine wheel or rather a series of turbine wheels the largest the world has ever seen will be here built for the purpose of driving dynamos for the gen generation bration of electricity what a strange idea indeed when one only stops to think of it to use the waters of a mighty river to produce a heat with the exception of volcanoes the most intense that man has ever seen during the month of march the countries on the north shore of the mediterranean experienced some strange vicissitudes of weather even far down on the peninsula of italy between the adriatic and the A mediterranean the snow fellin fell in greater quantity than has been creater known for many years the hills around sorrento and naples were white for several days the great olive orchards were sadly damaged ageland and millions of oran oranges were ake hurled from the trees by the e wind the oranges beaten down will no doubt be of advantage to the poor poo r who can buy them cheaply but the owners of these orchards will suffer a great loss the oranges of southern italy are usually exported largely arge y to new ew york or and london I 1 w where are they command a good price because of their beautiful appearance and because they will keep a couple of months at least whereas american oranges delicious though they be will spoil in a few days old vesuvius was covered with a cloak of the beautiful snow from top to bottom except a black patch on its northern side which indicated that last yearns outflow 0 lave lava was not yet cool the of march 1889 was the first time for more than a hundred years that vesuvius was decked in a snowy mantle J H WARD EUROPE april 1889 |