24 AUGUST 1912, Page 2

Last Sunday the Emperor Francis Joseph celebrated his eighty-second birthday.

The Vienna correspondent of the Times says that the usual rejoicings throughout the Dual Kingdom were stimulated by the knowledge that the Emperor is as fresh in mind and body as at any time since the beginning of the century. The life of the Emperor is precious to all Europe, not merely because he is admired as the embodiment of a sense of duty and of a high adaptability in the most respectable sense of the word, but because his person is a sort of pledge of the continuance of the status quo in Europe. Austria-Hungary, as we have pointed out in a leading article, is the country which counts above all others in the Balkans at present. All Englishmen join in wishing the Emperor more years of health, happiness, and honour.