6 OCTOBER 1883, Page 3

There is peace, but the nations are growing more suspicions

than ever. France and Italy are now "taking precau- tions" against each other. The Italian Government, having a large fleet, is beginning to fortify the island of Mad- dalena, which it regards, for reasons not given, as the "

key" of its maritime position. Thereupon the French Government appoints a military Commandant of Corsica, and the Italian papers see in that evidence that France intends to seize Sardinia and to paralyse the Italian fleet. All that is surely very melancholy. Italy, with her northern frontier exposed as it is, is not going to strike at France by sea; nor is France, if she means mischief, likely to waste time and men in Sardinia, where a corps d'armee would be about as dangerous to Rome as -if it were in Marseilles. The litt4rateurs of France seem all to have gone crazy with suspicion and anger, and to be ready to fight Germany, England, Spain, and Italy all at once,—and all for nothing. Imagine Italy risking its existence in order to get back Corsica, instead, of Nice !