The latest report about Continental affairs is that the Russian
Government, having quarrelled with that of France about the Hartmann incident, is now deeply interested in re-establishing the league of the three Emperors. Prince Gortschakoff, it is stated, is to be decorously removed from office, retaining the name of " Chancellor " while he lives ; and M. Giers, his successor at the Foreign Office, is to show himself friendly to Prince Bismarck. The Emperors of Russia and Ger- many have again exchanged loving letters, carefully pub- lished in the Gazettes ; and the three Imperial Powers are to support a proposal to establish an international agreement for the extradition of political assassins, which may give rise to much diplomatic trouble. All this talk is probably talk merely, founded partly on the personal friend- ship of two Sovereigns, who, as against Nihilists, strongly sympathise with each other, and partly on the undoubted wish of Czar Alexander to be free of foreign complications for a time. His steady policy, too, may be deflected by personal irritation at the conduct of the French in refusing extradition, which he looks upon as the result of pestilent Republican ideas. Any cordial amity between Russia and Austria is, however, in the present situation of affairs, most improbable. Russia is protecting and Austria trying to coerce the Serbs, and both are struggling for influence throughout the Balkan peninsula.
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