NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TEE Germans are greatly concerned about a project which they attribute to the Emperor's Government. His Majesty intends, they believe, to ask for a large increase to his Army, especially in cavalry and artillery, which will increase the Estimates by £5,000,000 for the first year, and 22,000,000, at least, but probably more, for every year thereafter. The outlay will be met by fresh taxation, especially upon alcohol and tobacco, and the Liberals declare that they cannot bear it, and will, at all hazards, reject the Bill. The reports appear to have some foundation, and public feeling is deeply stirred, but it must be remembered that the official explanation is not yet before the country. It consists, we believe, in the absolute necessity of securing two armies, to meet a double invasion by Powers whose forces have of late years enormously increased. Germany might be flooded by a million of foreign soldiers, and, to defeat them quickly, must have the control of enormous masses. We imagine that, when the facts are accurately known, the Germans, who have all some knowledge of their danger, will shrink from opposition, especially as the Staff, though they will not give up the right to enforce three years' service, will promise that in practice it shall only be two years. The Government, moreover, will borrow the first year's expendi- ture, and perhaps reduce the permanent expenditure to a less formidable amount. The situation is most oppressive to the taxpayer ; but the real argument, that training might make up for numbers, does not strike the common soldier, and nine Germans in ten are, or have been, common soldiers. It is a strange and ominous result of the "scientific development of war."
