The Emperor of Austria is said to have observed to
a diplomatist at Vienna : "Why, all the rag tag and bobtail (Strolehe) of Europe seem to be banded against England !" A correspondent, writing from Vienna, calls our attention to the interesting expansion of and commentary on this remark which appears in Die Information, a small but exceptionally well-informed sheet, published daily in the Austrian capital. The writer, after referring to the fact that in the war with Prussia Napoleon had all the German criminals on his aide, continues, "a similar phenomenon is now visible in connection with the war in South Africa. The whole of the great army of the declasse's, the whole of the international demi-monde, is mobilised against England. Wherever there is a cashiered officer, an expelled official, he is physically or morally to be found in the anti-English camp. That the murderer Briisewitz should have placed his sword at the dis- posal of the Boers is more than a mere chance, it is, so to speak, a psychological necessity. Let me not be mistaken, a number of the worthiest and most honest men are, from the most diverse motives, arrayed against the English ; but in the Same camp are to be found all the vagabonds of the universe. Political extremists of both sides are included in this Armada. All the reactionaries and absolutists on the one hand, and all the revolutionaries and red republicans on the other, are anti-English. Naturally enough ! for England, by her prosperity, gives the lie to the theories of absolutists and revolutionaries alike This remarkable combination, this alliance of the blacks, the reds, and the international demi-monde, is one of the most interesting occurrences of our time."
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