M. de Giers, the Russian Foreign Secretary, has visited Vienna,
and has returned to St. Petersburg, pursued, as usual, by volleys of contradictory reports. It is affirmed, on the one hand, that he has consented to the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and the Herzegovina, and that the Hapsburgs will this year extend their rule down the Balkans, even to Salonica. Russia, of course, receives, as a consideration, the eastern side of the peninsula. It is maintained, on the other hand, that he has failed ; that the distrust of Russia in the Hofburg is too. great, and that he is covering retreat by spreading all these rumours. It is impossible to discern truth amidst these reports, and the old rule to believe that statesmen are guided by their immediate interests is probably still the best. If that holds good, Austria and Russia have come to no grand arrange- ment; but they have agreed not to quarrel over details, and consequently the final absorption of Bosnia by Austria will not be opposed by St. Petersburg, nor will the fusion of the two Bulgarias by Vienna. Neither arrangement seriously modifies the facts of the situation, even the Sultan losing- nothing beyond nominal rights. Some understanding, more- over, has probably been arrived at as to the navigation of the Danube, a serious matter, involving the possibility of half-a- dozen wars, about which a Conference is immediately to sit in London, under the presidency of Lord Granville.
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