GERMANS IN A.D. 277 AND IN A.D. 1873. (To THE
EDITOR. Or THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—The following scraps from recent reading may be of interest :—
" Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had confined their ambition to a defensive war against the nations of Germany, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed his invincible eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Neckar. He was fully convinced that nothing could reconcile the minds of the barbarians to peace unless they experienced in their own country the calamities of war. . . . He exacted a strict restitution of the effects and captives which they had carried away from the provinces; and he even entertained some thoughts of compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms, and to trust their differences to the justice, their safety to the power, of Rome."—Gibbon.
Extract from a letter, Lord Odo Russell to Lord Lyons, March 14th, 1873, from Berlin:—
. " The two great objects of Bismarck's policy are: (1) The supremacy of Germany in Europe, and of the German race in the world. (2) The neutralization of the influence and power of the Latin race in France and elsewhere. To obtain these objects lie will go any lengths while he lives, so that we must be prepared -for surprises in the future."
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