M. Jau4s, perhaps the most eminent and thoughtful orator whom
the French Chamber has recently produced, and a reflective politician, though classed as a " Socialist," has published in the Humanite of November 23rd his opinion on the future of the war. He does not believe that either Russia or Japan will crush her rival, but maintains that the expansion of Japan must be allowed, with full access to the Asiatic main- land, and that Russia must abandon her insane and exhausting foreign policy in the East, and devote herself to internal reforms. When she has accomplished them on the lines suggested by the Presidents of the Zemstvos, and has removed her selfish and incapable bureaucracy, she will " radiate her economic and moral influence over Asia." That opinion, with which we fancy all French politicians sympathise, is based on the soundest principles, but implies that the Russian people, once free, will be less ambitious of direct expansion than their Sovereigns. It may prove so ; but if we can trust the teaching of history, it is not a certainty. The free nations—France, America, and Great Britain—have expanded their possessions with considerable rapidity. America wishes for nothing just now, but she is immensely larger, through conquest and purchase, than she was when she won her independence.
