Clouds on the European Horizon
CLOUDS ON THE EUROPEAN HORIZON.—Says the Paris correspondent of the New York Commercial: "It is a strange feature in the political history of Europe at the present moment, that every state is arming and fortifying itself against some imaginary enemy, and that the works are being hastened, according to their own words, 'in the provision of events that may soon arise.' Even little Belgium is going to fortify, to the extent of forty millions of francs, one of her towns—at least a majority of her rulers favor the project—and they, like the rest, talk of the overhanging storm. Whence is this storm coming? The naval equipements and fortifications of Cherbourg, now the principal French naval station, are said to be something bordering on the marvelous for their perfection and magnitude. These works, which are to be inaugurated by the Emperor in August, will no doubt strike the English naval men with surprise, for nothing in England equals or even approaches them. One hundred English men-of-war will be present at this naval fete."