The nobles in Galicia as well as Posen are evidently
alarmed by the German Emperor's attitude towards them, and have put forward through the Gaceta Narodowa a rather striking argument to prove the loyalty both of Austrian and Prussian Poles. They are, they say, devoted as of old to the cause of the independence of Poland ; but they hope at present to win it through the action of the Triple Alliance, which therefore they can cordially support. They are, therefore, while that Alliance lasts, loyal subjects both to Vienna and Berlin. The journal refers, we imagine, to the possi- bility that if the great war comes off, and ends in moderate advantage to the Alliance, the two Empires may reconstitute Poland as a final and effectual barrier between themselves aud Russia. That is not quite impossible, and the defence is certainly clever ; but the difficulty of race remains. The Poles are Slays, and oppressed as they have been, sympathise instinctively with the Russians whom they understand, rather than with the Germans whom they do not comprehend, and with whom they jar at every turn. For the present, however, it is well, both for Austria and Germany, that their Polish subjects have found a valid excuse for abstaining from worrying opposition.
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