We have dealt elsewhere at length with the German Emperor's
message to the Daily Express, the new halfpenny London morning newspaper—a paper which, we may add, seems full of promise—and we will only say here that the message is in no sense overdone or exaggerated, but very fairly represents the wish of the average Englishman as to relations with Germany. He wants to be on as friendly terms as possible with Germany, but not to be entangled in an alliance of any kind, or to let friendship for Germany mean hostility to either France or Russia. In connection with the message may be taken the series of facts as to the extraordinary progress of Germany contained in the Report of Mr. Gastrell, our Commercial Attaché at Berlin. Take one example which he gives. The national income of Prussia in 1880 was £40,000,000, now it is £120,000,000. Specially note- worthy are Mr. Gastrell's remarks upon the expansion of the German mercantile marine. "A recent official calculation states that at least 70 per cent. of all German commerce is now carried by sea. Moreover, in actual tonnage German shipping now stands second in the world, with 1,594,596 tons, and its steam tonnage in 1899 was about ten times as great as that of 1872. During the last twenty-five years the relative proportion of the mercantile marine of Germany to that of the whole world has risen from about 5 to over 8 per cent." No wonder Germany is determined to build a Fleet large enough to protect that commerce, and dreams of some day obtaining the command of the sea,—that abridgment or epitome of empire, as Bacon described it.
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