The Hungarian suspicion of Germany is, of course, menacing to
the solidity of the Triple Alliance, and Count von Billow
has been at some pains to dissipate it. He recently read to the German Parliament some instructions to the German Consul at Buda-Pest, in which Prince Bismarck defined a policy which the present Chancellor apparently accepts as his own. The pith of that policy is that in Hungary the interests of the Magyars and Germans are inseparable, and that the Magyars, lost as they are on all sides in an ocean of Slavism, ought to perceive that fact. Acting upon that policy, Count von Billow would not interfere to protect Germans in Hungary against Magyars, even when German opinion con- demned their treatment. This is an astute overture, for if it were accepted the Magyars and Germans together would constitute a ruling class in Hungary, and therefore in the Austrian Empire, and the Triple Alliance would always be safe; but then will it be accepted ? There is some instinctive division between Germans and Magyars, their only common bond being a dread of the Slav majority, which is not quite strong enough to keep them together. The matter is hardly important just now, but it may become so when the Emperor Francis Joseph passes away, and every party within his seventeen States demands either more liberty or a more perfectly organised ascendency.
