The semi-official journals of Germany now admit that the Government
intend to ask for an increase of the military estimates by £3,200,000 a year. An increase will also be asked for by the Austrian Government; and it is believed that the addition to the German Army will not be less than seventy-five thousand men, the Generals, in fact, sweeping up nearly all the classes still exempt. The proposal, which in- dicates profound distrust in the continuance of peace, is accepted by the Conservatives under their well-known doc- trine that the Sovereign must be responsible for the safety of the State; but it will be resisted by the Liberals, even if they are assured that the term of service will be shortened by one year. The balance of power will, there- fore, be held by the Centre or Catholic Party, and all manner of rumours are spread as to their probable action.
They are said to be divided ; but we venture to believe that, when the actual division arrives, they will vote with the Government, and will shortly after receive some privilege for their Church. It is a little strange that this immense addition to the available force coincides with an increase in the doubt whether such masses of men can be handled— or, indeed, collected—on a battlefield. Even under the best arrangement of field telegraphs, the ablest General can never be certain what two hundred thousand men are doing ; and supplying them with food and water constantly over-taxes the Commissariat. The German officer who answers M. Zola in the Figaro confesses that, just before Sedan, he and his men were left almost entirely without food.
