The Continent is greatly interested in the question whether the
Emperor of Germany and the Czar of Russia are to meet at Stettin next week. The officials, from Prince Bismarck down- wards, deny that each a meeting is intended ; but the believers are most obstinate, and declare with one tongue that the meeting has been arranged, and that these official disclaimers have no meaning. It would seem most probable that the meeting was suggested, and that the suggestion was not adopted ; but it may have arisen only out of the circumstances of the situation. Such a meeting would mean that Germany, with Austrian consent, had devised a compromise in regard to Balkan affairs which required a real understanding among the dynasties, but which the Emperor of Austria, for Hungarian reasons, did not wish to acknowledge too openly. That is possible ; but such a solution must involve partition, and the statesmen both of Vienna and of Pesth assert most eagerly that the notion of partition has been abandoned. We shall see in a week, but at present the only thing certain is that Prince Bismarck is courting the Russian Court more assiduously than ever.
