THE SITUATION IN THE EAST.
So far Russia has said “check” to every movement of England in the exciting game that is going on upon the diplomatic chess-board. England demands that Greece be represented at the approaching Congress, because Greece is interested to check the progress of Russia, and has a wild hope of a revived Macedonian empire in place of that of the Turk. Russia replies that she has no objection; but, of course, on the same principles Servia and Montenegro will be entitled to representation. England demands that the entire treaty shall be submitted to the Congress; Russia replies that the Congress will decide what of the provisions of the treaty concern Europe and what are matters of only private concern. England orders up her Mediterranean fleet to the mouth of the Dardanelles to co-operate with that which has already entered the Sea of Marmora; Russia advances her troops to the Isthmus of Gallipoli, and to the neighborhood of the Bosphorous, north of Constantinople, so that in the event of hostilities the fleet in the Sea of Marmora can neither get out to the Mediterranean nor the Mediterranean fleet get in to co-operate with the ships in the Sea of Marmora, and neither of them can enter the Black Sea, without reducing Russian fortifications or leaving them behind. Meantime the political heavens are certainly not clear. The barometer is perhaps rising, but the weather prophet can certainly say no more than “cloudy and clearing weather.” The Austrian government is not satisfied with the present situation, though the appropriations voted to the administration are only adequate to put the army in a good defensive condition; but the court and the people are divided in interest, the Slav and the King sympathizing with Russia, as against the Turk, and the Hungarians and Andrassy with the Turk, as against Russia. Russia’s claim to recover Bessarabia, which was taken from her in the Crimean war, is met with a decided resistance from Roumania, which alone is, of course, powerless to resist her stronger neighbor, but it furnishes a ground of resistance from other powers in the Congress. The report from France that she will object to any territorial changes must be taken for what such unofficial rumors are worth; which in this case we judge to be—nothing. Finally, the reader must remember that it is not always easy to discriminate between rumors which are put in circulation from a diplomatic desire to produce certain results, and those which are guesses with some basis of truth; and that the best of them are but guesses. Bismarck and Gortschakoff do not supply the cable with its news.—Christian Union.