The death of Count Julius Andrassy on Tuesday is an
immense loss to the Emperor of Austria. The Count, though he had quitted office for eleven years, still retained an almost dominant influence in Hungary, and always used it to keep the Empire together, especially in foreign politics. We have said enough of him elsewhere, but may mention here that he held a great war between Russia and Austria-Hungary to be inevitable, and thought Count Kalnoky wrong in staving it off. "Kalnoky," he was accustomed to say, "is only giving Russia time to arm." The opinion shows that Count Julius Andrassy belonged to the older school of politicians who held it right to declare war from policy, and without immediate provocation ; and the Emperor's course, besides being more in accordance with modern opinion, may prove the wiser of the two. We all write of Russia as if her policy were immutable ; but it may be subjected to great changes, not only through deaths, but through internal movements. The unceasing rush of her population to the South and East is already affecting policy, and nothing would surprise us less than to see the march towards Constantinople suspended, and the warlike energy of the people concentrated on the conquest of Persia.
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