address to the French Provisional Government. But we must pass over the ground rapidly till the third week in October, when it was officially announced that the Crown of Spain had been offered toAmadeus, Duke d'Aosta, second son of the King of Italy, and had by that prince been accepted, conditionally on the acquiescence of foreign powers and due election by the Cortes. On the part of foreign powers no objection was made. The national parties inside and outside the Cortes raised their several voices in opposition, but with no important effect; and in the formal vote of November 16th, the Prince was elected by an excess of eighteen voices over the required majority. The numbers stood thus:For the Duke d'Aosta, 191; for a Federal Republic, 60; for a Unitarian Republic, 3; for the Duke de Montpensier, 27; for Espartero, 8; for the Prince of the Asturias, 2; for the Duchess de Montpensier, 1.

After this formal expression of the national will, things went on quietly, and Marshal Prim occupied himself in making preparations for the reception of the new Sovereign, whose opening career it was to be his business to inaugurate, and for whose safe guidance it seemed as though his tried tact and knowledge of Spanish character and Spanish parties was in the highest degree needful. But a most unexpected tragedy closed the year. On the evening of Wednesday, the 28th of December, as the Marshal was proceeding from the Ministry of War to the Cortes, shots were fired at his carriage, in the Calle de Alcala, by which both he and his adjutant were wounded. The assassins, who fired from two cabs, made their escape. At first it was thought that Prim's wounds, which were in the arm, were not dangerous, and that he would recover; but, after the amputation of a finger, inflammation set in, and he expired on the night of the 30th. He retained his consciousness to the last. When made aware of the rapid approach of death, he bade his friends adieu with composure. For the safety of the new King, whose arrival at Madrid was expected only a day or two after, he expressed much anxiety. The Cortes, when it met on Saturday, the 31st, declared that Prim had deserved well of his country. It was voted that his name should be inscribed in the Hall of the Cortes, and his family placed under the protection of the nation. At the same time a vote of absolute confidence in the Government was passed. No traces were found of the plot which had had such direful effect.

On the same day that Prim died, King Amadeus I. landed at Cartagena, and received the sad intelligence from Marshal Topete, who at once became President of the Council, in the place of the deceased Minister.

CHAPTER VI.

EUROPEAN STATES.-Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, and Roumania.

NORTH AMERICA.-United States-Measures in Congress-Fenian Raid-New Elections-Relations to European War-President's Message. ASIA.-China-Tientsin Massacre.

SOUTH AMERICA.-Paraguay-Defeat and Death of Lopez.

RUSSIA, SWEDEN, DENMARK, BELGIUM, HOLLAND, SWITZERLAND, GREECE, TURKEY.

There was nothing in the affairs of RUSSIA during the early part of this year to call for attention in a general survey like the present. We must notice, however, the growing disaffection in the Baltic provinces, where the prevailing German element of the population was being systematically repressed by the Government in favour of the Panslavist or "Russification" policy: thereby evoking not only local discontent, but a dangerous expression of sympathy from the newspaper press of Germany. The meeting of the Emperor Alexander with the King of Prussia at Ems on the 2nd and 3rd of June gave rise to a little speculation, and was supposed by some to have reference to the possible assumption by the latter of the imperial title in Germany. When the contest between France and Prussia broke out in July, the attitude of the neutral Powers of course became a subject of deep interest: not least that of Russia. That Russia was occupied with the thought of improving her own position in the Black Sea, even before the commencement of that contest, is proved by an article which appeared in the Moscow Gazette about the 8th of July, and which was commented upon at the time by the English press; though in the rapid accumulation of more important events, it was allowed to drop out of sight.

Before the end of July, the intended position of the Russian Government in respect to the war was thus announced: "The Imperial Russian Government has made all possible endeavours to avert the outbreak of war. Unfortunately, the rapidity with which the warlike resolutions were taken rendered our efforts for the maintenance of peace abortive. The Emperor is resolved to observe neutrality so long as Russia's interests are not affected by the eventualities of the campaign. The Russian Government undertakes to support every endeavour to circumscribe the operations and diminish the duration of the war."

As events went on, rumours were rife that this position of neutrality was about to be abandoned in behalf of France: that Russia was resolved to prevent any alienation of French territory: that in conjunction with England and Austria she was about to propose

terms of peace. The newspaper press, in its alarm and antipathy to German ascendancy, almost unanimously advocated the cause of France. So did the so-called "Old Russian" party at Court, with, as it was reported, the Czarewitch at their head. But Prince Gortschakoff, the Russian Chancellor, was opposed to any such partisanship. He exerted himself to maintain friendly relations with the victorious Germans, partly, it might be, from fear of mischief in the Baltic provinces, and partly with a view to those designs with regard to the Black Sea Treaty, for which the prostrated condition of France seemed to present a favourable opportunity. However "French" the tone of general society at St. Petersburg might be, the Czar soon gave evidence of his own real or professed sympathies, by the honours which he volunteered to accord to some of the princely leaders of the German hosts. Thus to the Crown Prince of Saxony, on the 15th of September, he gave "in honour of the successes of the brave" Saxon soldiers, the military order of St. George; and early in November he sent a special envoy to Versailles, to bestow on the Crown Prince of Prussia the appointment of Field Marshal in the Russian army.

It was well known meanwhile that military preparations were being actively pushed on in Russia; and rumours were extant that a demand for revision of the Treaty of 1856 was in contemplation. Immediately after the intelligence of the honour bestowed upon the Crown Prince of Prussia for his successes in the war with France, the English Cabinet was startled by the communication of a circular written by Prince Gortschakoff, abruptly announcing his master's intention to repudiate that article of the Paris Treaty of 1856 which had reference to the neutrality of the Black Sea, inasmuch as its provisions were no longer supportable by Russia itself, and had not been observed to the letter by the co-contracting parties. The course of the negotiations which followed upon the promulgation of this circular, between Lord Granville and Prince Gortschakoff, and of the London Conference to which they led, are matter of English history.

In

As in the case of Russia, so in the case of the minor States of Western Europe this year, there is little that calls for special notice save the manner and degree in which their affairs were agitated by the central vortex of the Franco-German war. Russia, and in Italy, as we have seen, that war set other causes in motion, which drew events on in orbits of their own: in the Scandinavian kingdom, in Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland, the interest of local affairs was confined to the direct action of the war or the policy by which they were conducted. The Scandinavian kingdoms were inclined to the French cause by natural sympathy: certainly as to the Court and higher circles, and, in the main, probably as to the lower classes also. In SWEDEN there was the lineal origin of the reigning family to help the inclination of Court policy in the French direction: in DENMARK there was the unforgotten grudge against Prussia for the Schleswig-Holstein War of

1864. Accordingly, it is not surprising that, as the French fleet touched at Copenhagen on its way to the blockade of the Baltic, there was something of an attempt at fraternization on the part of the inhabitants. The "Marseillaise" was sung with Danish words, on the occasion, and sympathetic hurrahs were shouted. And yet it would seem as if, even then, the instinct of a common faith and a kindred race made the Danish people unwilling on the whole to turn against Prussia for the sake of France; while at the head-quarters of Government, the conviction that caution was better than sentiment, led both the Swedish and Danish cabinets to decide at once on a strict but watchful neutrality. It is said that the Danish military authorities, in their recent visits to Châlons, had become convinced beforehand of the vast inferiority of the French to the Prussian army, whose efficiency they had themselves learnt by experience; and as the successive events of the war declared themselves, there was less and less inclination to break with so formidable a neighbour as the North German Bund. It is said, too, that the influence of the Czar and Prince Gortschakoff was strenuously exerted to bring about the neutral attitude of Denmark.

In BELGIUM, where for more than twenty years the Liberal or "Progressist" party represented by the Cabinet of M. Frère Orban had had the management of affairs, there occurred in the month of June a Ministerial crisis which, after lasting a fortnight, was terminated at the beginning of July by the advent to office of a Cabinet based on the clerical reactionary principle, at the head of which stood Baron d'Anethan.

Belgium was the country most nearly affected by the outbreak of the war. She lost no time in preparing for its contingencies. To maintain her independence and neutrality was her one object; and this was carried out by the Government of King Leopold II. with great spirit and effect. The Bank bullion and reserves were at once moved from Brussels to Antwerp. A large war credit was voted. The army, 100,000 strong, was mobilised; large detachments were moved to the frontier, and a strong reserve was massed within the quadrilateral position in front of Antwerp, of which the corners are Fermonde, Malines, Lierre and Diest. But the Government of Belgium openly avowed that its chief support consisted in its confident reliance on the friendship and fidelity of England, and by this avowal it succeeded in arousing, or strengthening, in that country, a sentiment which resulted in the new Treaty engagements proposed to France and Prussia by Mr. Gladstone, and ratified by a vote of the English House of Commons in the month of August.

During the early stage of the German counter-invasion fear occasionally arose that Belgian neutrality would be violated by the necessities of one or other of the belligerents. However, the danger was warded off, and when a considerable portion of the French army routed at Sedan took their flight through Belgian territory, they laid down their arms according to Convention, and were "interned" in the dominions of King Leopold.

In the question of Luxemburg Belgium sided with Count Bismarck's policy as against the attitude taken up by the King of Holland.

Of HOLLAND's interests involved in that affair of Luxemburg we have already had occasion to speak. Otherwise, her connexion with the war was limited to placing her army on a war footing at its outbreak, and so maintaining it for a few weeks, until the struggle had fairly passed into the heart of France. On the 19th of September, when the King opened the States General, he was able to say that he appreciated the goodwill and patriotism which the Dutch people had displayed amid the grave events of the last months. "The people," he said, "have shown an unanimous will to maintain the independence of the country. The amicable relations which previously existed with foreign Powers have in no way been disturbed by the war." The King announced that it was his decided intention to persist in his neutrality. The general situation of the country and the colonies, he added, was favourable, and financial matters were not unsatisfactory.

SWITZERLAND was concerned early in the summer in a transaction which occasioned some preliminary mutterings of the storm that was soon to break out. In pursuance of a Convention made. with the North-German Confederation in October, 1869, her Federal Council granted a subvention of ten million francs towards the construction of a railway through the pass of St. Gothard. The French objectors to the route insisted on the political danger of placing Berlin thereby in such direct and easy communication with Florence; but it was replied that France had been applied to for a co-subsidy by Switzerland in 1868, when the project was first mooted, and that M. Rouher, who was Minister at the time, had expressed himself as favourable to its execution. The discussion in the French Chambers on the subject, in June, 1870, has been elsewhere mentioned. When the war broke out, Switzerland placed her small military force on a war footing; but disbanded it in a few weeks, when the danger of any infringement of her neutrality had passed away.

GREECE obtained a short and painful notoriety in European history this year in consequence of the outrage near Marathon in the month of April, when an English and an Italian Secretary of Legation, and two English gentlemen besides, were captured and eventually put to death by a band of brigands headed by the brothers Arvanitaki. The indignation of the English Government was loudly expressed-first, at the mismanagement or political corruption which could have allowed brigandage of such a formidable nature to exist so near the capital of the country; secondly, at the blundering precipitation of that attack on the brigands by Colonel Théagénis which immediately caused their death. General Soutzos, the Minister of War, to whom the blame was first brought home, resigned office. Seven brigands, captured by the authorities on the occasion of the fatal struggle at Oropos, were executed at Athens a few weeks afterwards. But the keen interest excited by this