The seventieth birthday of the Emperor Francis Joseph was celebrated
on the 18th inst. throughout his eighteen States with a unanimity which speaks strongly for the unity of the Hapsburg Dominion. Every city illuminated splen- didly, and the rich vied with one another in expenditura on charities, some of them quite new. Congratulatory addresses poured in in hundreds, and there is no sign anywhere of a break in the rejoicings. The fact is important, for the unity of Austria is one of the guarantees for European order. In the present rash for "world power," Austria, which seeks no power outside Europe, slips a little out of public notice, but she remains one of the greatest of Empires, with a splendid geographical position, with an available Army of two millions, and with finances so far restored that she could support a great war. The hostility of Austria would at any moment throw down Germany from its pre-eminence, while if she allied herself with Russia no German would feel safe. It is well, therefore, that she has still at her head a cool diploma- tist who knows the true interests of Europe, and who knows, also, having for ten years been a tyrant, that no power is so real as that which ia based on the approval of a whole people. Francis Joseph, never successful in battle, has won that approval, and is therefore a great Monarch.
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