The Czar is said to have acted at the Berlin
meeting the part of l'ami de la ,naison,—not to have stood on his rank, but to have played the mere admiring nephew to his imperial uncle ; and joined in treating the Emperor Francis, on the other hand, with the utmost deference and ceremony as an invited guest. Prince Gortschakoff is re- ported to have left the conclave for Switzerland, breathing his thankfulness that nothing had been committed to writing,
Surtout je suis content qu'il n'y a rien d'dcrit,'—the kind of thankfulness which people feel when they have escaped explicit engagements rather than when they have taken any. The rumour that, in accordance with orders issued by the Czar before the conclave, the Russian Army is being mobilised and its reserves called out, cannot mean,—which in some quarters it has been interpreted to mean,—preparation for approaching war ; but if it be true at all, refers only to some testing of the new and as yet exceedingly imperfect military system of Russia. War is not yet.
