The German Press throughout the week has been full of
excited articles in regard to the situation, and of attacks on this country of varying degrees of intemperance. We- shall not attempt to answer in kind ; but we feel compelled to point out that there is a certain note of insincerity and over- emphasis in the indignation expressed which suggests that there is something behind the Press campaign. Is it not possible that this something is to be found in the very alarming condition of affairs in Austria-Hungary? If things reach a crisis there, the German Government will no doubt desire to play a part, and a great part. But this they might find easier to accomplish if in the initial stages public attention were attracted in an entirely opposite direction. Diplomatists, like conjurers, often inaugurate a specially startling effect by inducing the audience to watch the hand which has nothing in it. In any case, we need not take the German Press very seriously. Germany is not going to war with us because she pretends to have suddenly discovered what she, of course, knew all along,—that if she fell upon France and tried to destroy her, she would have to reckon with us also.
