14 AUGUST 1886, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

SOME of the omens of the week are not very pacific. The meet- ing of the Emperors of Austria and Germany at Gastein which has taken place this week, appears, if we may trust the report of a conversation between General Ignatieff and the corre- spondent of a Servo-Austrian newspaper quoted by the Vienna correspondent of Thursday's Times, to have given offence to Russia. Russia, according to this report, said General Ignatieff, has always been friendly to Germany, but since the Berlin Treaty, Germany has shown herself ungrateful. "Bismarck is a more dangerous enemy to us than Napoleon I. was, and we must be on our guard, for a war between us and Germany is inevitable. Germany, however, will find that it was a mistake to forfeit Russia's friendship, for between us and the French they will be between two fires." That is very ominous language; but of course General Ignatieff is not M. de Giers, and equally of course the language actually used may have been exaggerated in the process of transmission or translation. Still, it does seem from many indications that the relations between Russia and Austria are not at present cordial, and as Austria leans on Germany, Germany comes in for the resentment and spleen which Austria in the first instance excites.