17 OCTOBER 1896, Page 3

The Russian Press grows more friendly, and the French follows

suit, but the German Press, probably under instigation from very high quarters, is angrier than ever. It is of course delighted with Lord Rosebery's confession that Great Britain has grabbed so much that the country can no longer fight, and suggests that we should retreat in Africa to the Cape Colony,—that is, surrender Zanzibar, Shire, Rhodesia, and Bechuanaland, doubtless to German settlers. The references to Zanzibar are, and are intended to be, peculiarly irritating, for Zanzibar was sold to us at the price of Heligo- land, which these sharp practitioners do not propose to resign. We agree with the Times that they are producing one marked result, the extinction of the old friendliness between Great Britain and Germany. Even the popular conception of the German character is filtering, people here now reading into it an amount of jealous spite from which it was supposed to be entirely free. The Germans are capable, if their newspapers indicate their true feeling—which we doubt—of going to war to get a profitable contract. We hope the feeling will pass, but it will affect foreign politics, and some English alliances.