On the whole, the general military situation is distinctly good.
The more the matter is examined, the clearer it is that the Germans made their great retirement on the Western front, and gave back to France so large a portion of the territorywhich they have occupied and defiled for two and a half years, because they were obliged to do so, and for no other reason. When a commercial house greatly restricts its trading, shuts up branch establishments, and goes out of business in certain lines, it does so because it is compelled by motives of prudence, though this fact is no doubt always covered up in the report of the directors, in the ease- of a company, by allegations that their position will really be improved by what they call concentration of effort. Lord Salisbury at one time used to be chaffed because he made a speech in which he defended the action of the British Government in the " eighties " in joining with the rest of the Powers to force Turkey to give up territory to Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro, by saying that this shedding of provinces would add to the concentration, and therefore to the power, of Turkey—a remark which led to the grim comment that a man whose arms and legs had been cut off might be more concentrated, but that he hardly gained in power.
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