THE CEREMONIALS OF THE WEEK. T HREE political ceremonials have been
performed this week, each of them in itself rather striking to the imagination ; but probably no one of the three will have any political effect. The Czar, after holding back for two years in a way which involved a marked discourtesy, has at last brought himself to return the German Emperor's visit ; and on Tuesday the Imperial cousins met at Kiel, the port being chosen rather than the capital, because it can be reached in a conveyance difficult for Nihilists to blow up. They are the two most powerful individuals in Europe, able almost to enforce the peace which both, though for different reasons, most sincerely desire ; but they came to no arrangement, and probably tried to come to none. Each, though nominally absolute in his control 'of foreign affairs, is really fettered by considerations which he cannot disregard, and which forbid him to tie his own hands by pledges be may be unable to redeem. The German Emperor cannot pledge himself to a truce of five years without the assent of Austria and Italy, which the latter, in particular, could not give, lest she should be left alone with Prance; and the Russian Emperor could. not venture so far to disappoint the aroused hopes of the Army, which is, after all, the foundation of his throne. Each must provide against " contingencies " by remaining free to act. The two Sovereigns have met, as any other great gentlemen might meet who had. disputes, or rather rivalries, to divide them, have found plenty to talk about other than those disputes, and have parted with their political ideas and resolves practically unchanged. They will, it is said, be personally more friendly just because they have met ; but when men feel instinctive antipathies, personal intercourse is not always a cement of friendship. It is most probable that the meeting in the harbour of Kiel will remain a picturesque incident in both lives, but one with no more result of con- sequence than usually flows from a stately ceremonial. The visit of M. Carnot to Nancy has been also an event of the ceremonial kind, in a way gratifying, but scarcely politically important. Its success shows to all Frenchmen that the Republic is now too strong to fear German dis- pleasure, which at first was strongly excited by the selection of the old capital of Lorraine as the scene of a State festivity. It shows them, also, that the Government is firm, and can, when it pleases, prevent not only emeutes, but indiscretions, as completely as any Monarchy. And it shows them that the governing men of the Republic have not forgotten the lost provinces ; that they watch and care about North- Eastern France, which in the event of war would be the invaded district ; and that they think of a future in which Nancy, now a frontier town, may again be the centre of a great and a French territorial division. As it chanced, too, the festivity brought home to all Frenchmen certain facts which they think exceedingly pleasant facts. The clergy took occasion to indicate that in this division of France at all events, no doubt the least fanatical division, they accept the change of policy which Pope Leo XIII. has prescribed, and acknowledge the Re- public as a form of government which there is no impiety in obeying and improving by their support. They are not very cordial, far less fervid ; but still, they are no longer irreconcilable, and that is a great advance. Then the sudden visit of the Grand Duke Constantine, known everywhere to have been paid by order of the Czar, greatly comforted Frenchmen under the news from Kiel, giving them the feeling that Russia was still friendly, and that their President was as much respected in Europe as a King. That seems a small matter to Englishmen ; but Englishmen, besides caring but little for outsiders' opinions, are not sore with a conviction of twenty years' standing that, in losing a great campaign, they have lost prestige among their equals. And finally, French politicians were immensely delighted with the arrival of a deputation from Bohemia, which convinced them that, whatever the policy of the House of Hapsburg, the Slav populations within the Haps- burg dominion sympathised with France. In reality, the demonstration was a student affair, intended mainly to give the ultra-German party in Bohemia a gentle slap in the face ; but Frenchmen can never be convinced that any party which shows sympathy for them is not the party which is coming to the front. Altogether, what with the cultivated respectability of M. Carnot, so different from the 'respectability of M. Grvy, and the reticence of the Lorrainers, and the lively applause of the Slays, and the entire absence of unpleasant incidents, the Fete was made a great success ; but we do not see why it should have any political consequence. It does not alter the relation of France to her neighbours one iota. The Great War will not arrive a week later or sooner for anything said or done in Nancy ; nor when it does arrive, will the antagonists of France be either fewer or more numerous.
Even in internal politics the impression will be but slight, for the Republic before the Fete was convinced of her own strength ; and the submission of the clergy, so far as they have submitted, was already a fact discussed to its minutest details. Politicians will go on their course as before, and so will events calculable and incalculable, the Fete re- maining in all men's minds only as a picturesque incident, one mark, and not a great though an unusually visible one, of the revival of France.
The third ceremonial, the reception accorded to her King by Hungary on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his coronation, was the most picturesque of the three, may in fact, in all probability, furnish a landmark to the historian of the future. It was indeed, from one point of view, a most striking event. The representatives of all Hungary turned out to welcome with a kind of personal enthusiasm the monarch who less than forty- two years ago was regarded by the Magyar caste with a kind. of loathing horror, as a cruel tyrant who condoned any crime, even the public flogging of great ladies, if it were only to his own advantage ; who would commit any outrage in defence of his own despotism ; who had brought in foreign troops to massacre his own subjects ; and who purposed, if there were no other way, to drown the civilised Magyar among the uncivilised Slav wearers of sheepskin. Worse words were never flung at a Sovereign's head than Magyars of all classes flung at the head of their hereditary King, who now rides into Buda-Pesth surrounded by repre- sentatives of every noble family in the country, acclaimed by the whole population, and as much their ruler, though the method of exercising authority be different, as ever was his ancestress, Maria Theresa. A Hungarian cere- monial is always magnificent, because, last of all Christian peoples, the Hungarians have retained the habit of splendour in their dress ; and as the brilliant procession wound its way to the bridge, what thoughts there must have been in the mind of the melancholy King, whose life has been one long struggle with his foes ; who has never won a battle ; who has been the victim in his own palace of the most terrible misfortunes ; who has been hated by his own people as even tyrants rarely are ; and who yet rode there triumphant over what seemed his fate, with of any of their Kingdoms quitting them without absorption into a personal conference. What he could possibly into some dreaded Power, remains precisely as it Was; and so know of these desires on May 31st that he did not know does the Hapsburg weakness, their imperfect hold over either on May 1st, it is not easy to say. The object of those who the affection or the convictions of the Southern Slays. If wish to see the hours of labour fixed by statute has long they can keep that, they may survive greater misfortunes been clear. What is not clear is the means by which they than they have ever yet sustained ; but the spectacle of propose to give effect to the law when it is passed ; and Monday will not help them, for it only registered the on this latter head the resolutions of Congresses and pardon accorded to the dynasty by the caste which revolted demonstrations afford no light whatever. To use language in 1848, and which then, as now, was distrusted or detested with which Mr. Gladstone is familiar, the difficulty lies, by the Slays. The position of Europe, in truth, is un- not in framing the resolution, but in drafting the Bill. All altered by any of the events of the week ; yet they are all that we know at present is that the Trades Council is of striking enough, and new enough, to deserve comment as opinion that no workman should be employed for more well as record. There is something of the histrionic in than eight hours out of the twenty-four, and that we have them, no doubt ; but if all the world could witness a play known for some time. What we want to know is, by what at one and the same time, scenes in the theatre would gain machinery the prohibition is to be made effectual, what is something at least of educative importance. to be the penalty for disregarding it, and by whom this
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