This time last year we ventured to assert that in
the very near future the world would be chiefly occupied with the question of the South Slays. We shall hardly be called rash prophets if we renew our prediction, and assert that in the coming year even more will be heard of the Slavonic question in its various forms. For the moment the problem of Hungary and the Slays may appear to be in abeyance, but as a matter of fact it is still waiting solution, and the prospect is not improved with time. This question of time suggests another consideration. As a rule time works in favour of peace, and tends to make nations less, not more, warlike. There is, however, a very important exception to this propo- sition. When mobilisation, or something very like it, has taken place, as in the case of the Austro-Hungarian Army at the present time, the financial strain becomes so great if the crisis is prolonged that Governments are tempted to the belief that peace may become as expensive as war. At the present moment the cost of the great army that has been poured into Bosnia and Herzegovina must amount to a very great sum and be daily increasing. Again, the impatience shown by the troops at being kept for a long time under war conditions is a matter which must be taken into account. Finally, the crowding of large bodies of troops along a com- paratively short frontier cannot, in the best of circumstances, but cause friction between them and the civil population. When that civil population is excitable and hostile, the risk of untoward events is bound to be very great. We sincerely trust such events will not take place, but it would be foolish to pretend that the risk does not exist.
