The Russian Emperor and Empress are visiting Moscow, in order,
it is said, to pray at the oldest Russian shrines that the next child born to them may be a boy, and the succession thus continued to their own descendants. The people, how- ever, who have been bemused by months of furious diatribes against Great Britain, are convinced that the Emperor will from Moscow announce his will that the war between Great Britain and the Boer Republics must cease under pain of his immediate intervention. As the Emperor has already refused to take advantage of the war, and as the Russian armies could no more reach South Africa than the moon, the report is ridiculous ; but so widely was it diffused that M. de Witte, the Finance Minister, thought it wise to summon the bankers of St. Petersburg to a conference in which he solemnly denied that any project of the kind was in contemplation. The bankers must have smiled, but the incident points to a danger which undoubtedly exists. The enemies of peace no longer content themselves with abuse of this or that Power ; they invent positive statements or narratives of fact in the hope that the consequent excitement may so inflame opinion as to compel some action which will bring on war. That seems very rude diplomacy, but we doubt if statesmen quite appreciate the depth in many countries of popular ignorance. Millions of white men believe that the Pope is a prisoner lying in a cell on straw, and millions more are certain that Mr. Chamberlain is preparing an invasion of France in order to take possession of Madagascar.
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