referred in his farewell speech to the
"nations amies et alliees" (August 26, 1897).

The treaty has never been made public, but a version of it appeared in
the _Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung_ of September 21, 1901, and in the Paris
paper, _La Liberte_ five days later. Mr. Henry Norman gives the
following summary of the information there unofficially communicated.
After stating that the treaty contains no direct reference to Germany,
he proceeds: "It declares that if either nation is attacked, the other
will come to its assistance with the whole of its military and naval
forces, and that peace shall only be concluded in concert and by
agreement between the two. No other _casus belli_ is mentioned, no term
is fixed to the duration of the treaty, and the whole instrument
consists of only a few clauses[273]."

[Footnote 273: H. Norman, M.P., _All the Russias_, p. 390 (Heinemann,
1902). See the articles on the alliance as it affects Anglo-French
relations by M. de Pressense in the _Nineteenth Century_ for February
and November 1896; also Mr. Spenser Wilkinson's _The Nation's
Awakening_, ch. v.]

Obviously France and Russia cannot help one another with all their
forces unless the common foe were Germany, or the Triple Alliance as a
whole. In that case alone would such a clause be operative. The pressure
of France and Russia on the flanks of the German Empire would be
terrible; and it is inconceivable that Germany would attack France,
knowing that such action would bring the weight of Russia upon her
weakest frontier. It is, however, conceivable that the three central
allies might deem the strain of an armed peace to be unendurable and
attack France or Russia. To such an attack the Dual Alliance would
oppose about equal forces, though now hampered by the weakening of the
Empire in the Far East.

Another account, also unofficial and discreetly vague, was given to the
world by a diplomatist at the time when the Armenian outrages had for a
time quickened the dull conscience of Christendom[274]. Assuming that
the Sick Man of the East was at the point of death, the anonymous writer
hinted at the profitable results obtainable by the Continental States
if, leaving England out of count, they arranged the Eastern Question _a
l'aimable_ among themselves. The Dual Alliance, he averred, would not
meet the needs of the situation; for it did not contemplate the
partition of Turkey or a general war in the East.

[Footnote 274: _L'Alliance