M. Delcasse, the great Foreign Minister of the French Republic,
resigned on Tuesday. The immediate occasion was the rejection of the French proposals by the Sultan of Morocco in favour of a Conference of all the Powers who signed the Convention of Madrid. ' This is represented to be the will of the whole Moroccan people. This refusal was followed by a Cabinet Council in Paris, at which the Premier and all the Ministers expressed inability to agree with M. Delcasse's policy, especially as regarded Germany. He is succeeded for the present by M. Rouvier ; but it is supposed that the portfolio will ultimately be given to M. Constans, now Ambassador at Constantinople. The real cause of this important event is the pronounced hostility of the German Emperor to M. Delca.sse, and the conse- quent spread of an impression throughout France that if M. Delcasse remained in power relations between the Empire and the Republic might become strained. As France is for the present devoted to peace, M. Delcasse was sacrificed, to the huge delight of the Emperor, who announced his content by bestowing on Count von Billow the higher title of Prince (Furst). As we have pointed out else- where, the whole transaction constitutes for the Emperor a great diplomatic triumph. France having receded before him, he becomes the most feared Monarch in Europe, and since the fall of Russia, the most powerful—we had almost written the only powerful—Sovereign on the Continent. How
he will use his new and singularly free position remains to be seen, but he and his people alike desire before all things "ships, colonies; and commerce."
