We have no " information " to give our readers
on the subject, but there is every reason to believe that the Czar is
in hearty accord with the Queen's Government as to the policy to be pursued. His Majesty holds, it is said, that if Russia, France, and Great Britain pull together, a great calamity, the premature break-up of the Chinese Empire, may easily be averted. As Russia is not ready, the Trans- Asiatic Railway still needing three years' more work, the Russian Ministers agree with their master ; and as France will follow, and British policy has an identical object, the only danger of international dispute arises from British and Russian popular suspicions. There is, however, some readi- ness here to lay those suspicions aside, and a cue to the same effect must have been given to the Russian Press. At least, the Novosti, a respectable journal of St. Petersburg, declares that the Chinese question proves the " community " of British and Russian interests in China, and even asserts that fresh acquisitions in China would be burdensome to both countries. The general policy thus indicated is not only satisfactory, but sound, though the last assertion of the Novosti must have been written by some one who regarded Manchuria as already Russian. The possession of that province is vital to Asiatic Russia, and will never cease to be a primary object with St. Petersburg. Why should she not have it ?
