eem likely to regain it--yet the capitals of these two countries
hold their own. In the accumulation of wealth and population, in
science, letters and the arts, London and Paris seem to be out of
reach of competition. Other cities grow, and grow rapidly, but do
not gain upon them. Even Berlin and Vienna, which have become so
conspicuous of late years, will remain what they are--local centres
rather than world-centres. The most zealous friend of German and
Austrian progress can scarcely claim for Berlin and Vienna, as cities,
more than secondary interest. Nevertheless, these minor capitals are
not to be overlooked, especially at the present conjuncture. One of
them is the residence of the most powerful dynasty in Europe: the
other is the base of an aggressive movement which tends to free at
last the lower Danube from Mohammedanism. If, as is possible, the
courts of Berlin and Vienna should decide to act in concert, if the
surplus vitality and population of the German empire, instead of
finding its outlet in the Western hemisphere, should be reversed
and made to flow to the south-east, we should witness a strange
recuscitation of the past. We should behold the Germanic race,
after two thousand years of vicissitude, of migration, conquest,
subordination and triumph, reverting to its early home, reoccupying
the lands from which it started to overthrow Rome. The Eastern
question, as it is called, forces itself once more upon the attention
of Christendom, and craves an answer. Twenty years ago it was deferred
by the interference of France and England. France is now _hors de
combat_, and England has better work elsewhere. Berlin, Vienna and St.
Petersburg have the decision in their hands. It would be a waste of
time to speculate upon coming events. Even the negotiations plying to
and fro at this moment are veiled in the strictest secrecy. Possibly
no one of the trio, Bismarck, Andrassy and Gortschakoff, dares to look
beyond the hour. The question may be deferred again, but it must be
decided some day upon a lasting basis. Stripped of unessentials, it
is a question of race-supremacy. The downfall of European Turkey being
conceded as a foregone conclusion, which of the two races, the Slavic
or the Germanic, is to oversee and carry out the reconstruction of the
region of the lower Danube? Is Russia, already so immense, to place
herself at the head of Panslavism and extend her borders to the
Dardanelles? Or is Austria, backed by No