The Times of the 26th May, 1875, published the following telegraphic despatch from its Paris correspondent, to which we would call the attention of politicians :

"GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

"In an article suggested by Queen Victoria's birthday, the Cologne Gazette says:

"We have great and permanent interests in common with England, and we gladly remember that during her long and happy reign Queen Victoria, like her earnest, brave, and noble husband, has always been the faithful friend of Germany. German policy, moreover, has always endeavoured to respect England's interests, and is especially bent on preserving harmony between England and Russia. At Constantinople, especially since 1872, we have always sought to avoid injuring England's interests, and have directed our exertions to moderating the jealousy of both Powers in Asia. The anxiety of the English as to the progress of the Russians in Central Asia seems to us exaggerated. Sir H. Rawlinson argues that as soon as the Russians occupy Merv the English must make themselves masters of Herat and render it impregnable. That is still a very remote contingency, and the Russians must not, at any rate, be credited with the folly of wanting to conquer India. If they do not want this, they have no motive for overthrowing the English rule in India and shaking to the foundation England's power, so beneficial for the European political system.""

Here we perceive the Cologne Gazette, while protesting what deep sentiments of friendship Germany entertains towards England, endeavours to lull to sleep English opinion and to veil the clouds obscuring the Eastern Question. But anyone capable of "reading between the lines" will see clearly from the article of the Prussian paper towards which quarter the

sympathies of Germany lean. Now, politics are made up of self-interest and not of sentiment. Political sympathy is, therefore, synonymous with identical aims and aspirations.

On perusing our subsequent remarks, the reader will at once perceive that, to discover the secret motives of the intimate alliance between Russia and Germany, we had no need of this new manifesto.

On the other hand, a telegraphic despatch of the previous day (25th May) from St. Petersburg, announced that the Council of Railways in Siberia have decided that the line for the service of that country shall take a southern, and not a northern direction.

As the natural consequence of this, the line, in the first place, assumes the character of a means of communication constructed exclusively with a view to political interests; and, in the second, becomes an integral portion of the grand whole that has already taken the name of the Great Russian Central-Asiatic, with which it will be connected in the direction of Moscow, Nijni Novgorod, Ekatirinenburg, and Orenburg.

THE DUALISM OF ENGLAND AND

RUSSIA IN THE EAST.

THE GREAT RUSSIAN CENTRAL-ASIATIC RAILWAY.

On the 3rd December last, the Russian Government granted a concession for constructing a short line of railway of not more than some 200 miles in length, starting from Samara, on the Volga, and terminating at Ouralsk on the Ural.

This line, undertaken, as we are informed, solely with the object of benefiting the internal trade and resources of Russia, will unite the two basins of the Volga and the Oural, and, besides opening up a reach of steppes wonderfully productive in cereals, will form one more step towards connecting the basins of the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian. Such, the world is asked to believe, is the object of the new line, and such, no doubt, will be its immediate result.

But Russia has aims of a very different kind in Asia, and we shall probably surprise no one when we state that, in the eyes of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, those aims are far more important than any simply commercial interests.

In reality, the Samara-Ouralsk line is nothing more nor less than a base of operations, a portion of the immense system of railways which, one day or other, will bear the name of the Great Russian Central-Asiatic, and which,

starting from Warsaw, will terminate at the Anglo-Indian frontier-until such time as it is prolonged to Calcutta.

To carry out this gigantic combination, two plans have, it seems, been proposed. According to one of them, which, by the way, is recommended by M. de Lesseps among other authorities, a line starting from Samara would first run to Orenburg, pass to the north of Lake Oral, touch at Samarcand, and thence continue as far as Peshawur, a point common to both the proposed plans, on the road towards Delhi. On this hypothesis, the Samara-Ouralsk line would be merely a branch, and the town of Orenburg, the seat of an important fair whither are brought periodically the products of Hindostan, would become really the chief station of the great new line, the course of which would take in, besides Samarcand, Cashgar, and other strategic points of considerable importance.

According to the second plan, on the other hand, the line, on leaving Ouralsk, would run to the south of Lake Oral, extending thence to Khiva and Herat-places no less strategically important from a Russian point of view than those already named.

It is not for us to analyse the respective merits of these two plans. We would merely draw attention to the striking fact that both the one and the other have as their starting point the central rendezvous of the Muscovite forces, and, as their terminus, the frontier of the British Indian Empire.

Thus much with regard to Central Asia and the extreme East. Let us now turn to the western portion of Asia, and to what is commonly called the Eastern Question.

In 1873, the Persian Government granted Baron Reuter a concession for carrying out certain lines of railway. This concession, so extremely important as regards the material