Prince Bismarck is doing an odd thing. He is so
anxious to prove to Russia that Germany is not hostile to her interests, that he is repeating the assertion that Alexander II. agreed, if Austria would remain neutral in the Turkish War, to let her have Bosnia and Herzegovina. That conciliates the Russians, who see that their own Czar suggested the arrangement ; but then the Hapsburgs are exceedingly annoyed. They think partition -treaties should be secret. Not only do they not want the world to know that they made such a bargain, but they specially dislike their Hungarian subjects knowing it. The Hungarian Premier, for example, M. Tisza, is so vexed that he declares he knew nothing of the transaction, though he was in office at the time, and that no record of it exists,—which is probably true. The whole matter was managed between the dynasties, the Emperor Francis Joseph being resolute, whatever Hungarians might wish, not to go down in history as a Hapsburg who diminished the family possessions. Prince Bismarck must have expected this irritation ; and if so, he is revealing secrete for some object.
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