THE STORM IN THE AIR.

From the Spectator. | over the mind of Germany, is striving for what professors call unity, that is, the expulsion of Austria from Germany, and the union of all Germans outside the Hereditary States into one Confederation, of which she would in all foreign affairs retain the sole control. The eldest Hohenzollern would then be Emperor of Germany, with thirtyfive millions of subjects, a compact territory, and a peace army of half a million of men -a most formidable power. According to a second series of accounts, however, including one published in the official journal of Berlin, Prussia might be content to form an united North German Empire, stretching from Jutland to the frontier which may be very roughly described as that of the Main, thus including Germany, minus the Hereditary States, and also minus Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Baden, and Bohemia, which though not German by population has for ages followed German fortunes and exercised a German vote. To which of these two schemes Napoleon has objected is not yet known. If to the former, he is right; Prussia has become tête exaltée with success, and a European coalition to prevent the rise of an overwhelming Continental power has become inevitable. The wickedness of Prussia in provoking such a contest in order to force on prematurely a union not desired by the South, not justified by history, and not rendered indispensable by geographical circumstances, is beyond all question, and will accelerate the ultimate failure. European statesmen, with Germans on every throne but one, will not endure the rise in their midst of a German power equal to a war against a coalition of all the remaining powers, guided by men fearless of aggression, and animated by an intense desire to reach at once the Atlantic, the Sound, and the North Sea. And even less practical speculators will perceive that, with united Germany all around her, Austria would in the end lose her Germanic states, and with them all power of civilizing her Danubian Empire.

THE atmosphere is clearing a little. In the beginning of the week the public was bewildered by a storm of contradictory telegrams, rumours, messages, and Viennese inventions, until it scarcely knew what to believe or whom to credit; but the Prussian Government, not having to dread its subjects, has adopted the policy of frankness, and the fog is slowly rising from the immediate horizon. It is possible at last to trace an outline of the position which shall at all events seem to be intelligible. The Emperor Napoleon has stepped down into the fray, and it rests with him now to give the signal either for a peace which may be followed by disarmaments, or for a war which will envelope Europe, and may include ourselves. It has been understood for some days that his intervention would not be long delayed, for, as we pointed out last week, a current of events has set in menacing both to the position of France in Europe and the prestige of her ruler. The unexpected completeness of the Prussian success, the sudden revelation of her power for battle, the increased audacity of her political designs, have alarmed as well as irritated a Sovereign who desires before all things to remain arbiter of peace and war. When therefore the Kaiser by ceding Venetia implored the Emperor's good offices, Napoleon seized his occasion with alacrity, and proposed an armistice, not only to Italy, but to Prussia, an armistice to be followed by a European congress. England, impatient of a war which interrupts her prosperity, followed on the same side, and the advice was strongly supported from St Petersburg, where the Czar sees the hereditary policy of his House, of protecting the minor Princes of Germany, in danger of overthrow. In presence of so formidable an array the statesmen of Prusssia paused, firstly, to see if Italy would be bribed; secondly, to hear what bases would seem acceptable to the Emperor of the French. It soon, however, appeared that Italy, so far from deserting Prussia, was intensely irritated by the cession of Venetia to a neutral power, ready, if need were, and her ally proved faithful, to carry on war in defiance of the Emperor's prohibition. It was also evident that France was not inclined to offer as much as the Prussian Government considered to be its due. How much that may be is still obscure. According to one series of statements Prussia, elated with victory, and aware of the powerful hold she has acquired

But if it is the second plan to which the Emperor has objected, then he in his turn is unreasonable, and contemptuous of the popular will. Prussia is in actual possession of North Germany, with the acquiescence of its people. She is sure if she appeals to them of an honest plebiscitum in her favour, is able, should the foreigner intervene, to raise a levy of the whole population from Jutland to the Main. No one is injured by her annexations except a contemptible caste who have for generations defeated the aspirations of millions, who have not had

the heart to fight on their own soil for their | Prussia extended to the Main, either as sovown pretensions, and for whom no human ereign or suzerain, is the just result of the being not bound by military honour has fifty-one years of preparation which ended ever raised a hand. The empire formed by in the triumph of Sadowa. their expulsion would not, moreover, be dangerous to the world. Its population would be about four millions less than that of France, four millions less than that of Austria without her Southern allies, and thirty-four millions less than that of Russia. It would no doubt be homogeneous, civilized, and rich, but nations are not to be punished for being national, not to be dismembered because they are cultivated, not to be invaded because their treasuries are full. The breech-loader once universal, the equilibrium would be perfect, while France would be less dictatorial, Russia less menacing, Austria compelled to direct her disposition to aggression towards the only point where it can be beneficial - the halfcivilized Turkish Peninsula. For Prussia to be content with less than this would be immoral as well as weak. She has taken the lead in a vast war, and she must justify that tremendous risk by a result adequate to the suffering it involves. That result is the formation of a great and progressive empire, with a free and noble national life, and it is not to be secured by any revival of the Confederation of the Rhine, any creation of minute States between herself and Austria. Hegemony is a mere delusion. Every Prince allowed to retain any portion whatever of sovereign authority will be a centre of disaffection, an agent either for Austria or France, a dangerous instrument in the hands of the reaction. The Hanoverian will be a vassal of the Bonapartes, the Saxon an outlying picket of the Hapsburgs, the Hessian a centre for that party which dreads above all things German freedom under a strong German race of Kings. Better after long battles to lose the Rhine than to allow these men, with their incurable habits of thought, and cosmopolitan consciences, and insufferable social pretensions, to divide Germany once more into mummocks, and dissipate in the useless cultivation of petty patriotisms the force which might evolve a magnificent national life. The Princes which stood with Prussia must of course be compensated, and the means of compensation are abundant, the vast Crown domains of a dozen wealthy, if feeble, dynasties. They may be filled with estates to satiety, but every vestige of independence, if it be but the power of ordering a court dress or of kicking a merchant for not being quick enough to uncover, is so much safety subtracted from the new and greater régime.

The evidence is not yet complete, but after collating carefully the declarations made by all the Powers engaged, this seems to us to be also the Prussian determination. Her rulers have determined to absorb Hanover, Saxony, the Hesses, and the Elbe Duchies, and to claim suzerainty, if not to the Main, at least to Frankfort, Bavaria, and Bohemia, whether France sanctions or forbids that great design. If Napoleon sanctions it she may obtain the coveted coal-mines of Sarrebrücke, with Landau, and possibly Sardinia; if he forbids it, Prussia can raise universal North Germany in a war to the death against the foreigner, and has half a million of soldiers armed with the needle gun to serve as a nucleus to the nation. She may also have the alliance, and on the Austrian side the aid, of Italy, Baron Ricasoli having, it is now evident, refused, with the assent of the entire nation, to accept Venetia as an alms. Cialdini with 100,000 men is already across the Po, the Austrians have destroyed the fortifications at Rovigo, and the main body of the Austrian army is in full movement to reinforce Vienna. At the same moment we hear that the Prussians have occupied Prague. It is clear that nothing but force will now arrest the allies, and it remains with the Emperor of the French to decide whether he will use force or not. The conflict in his mind must be great, for the resolution to be taken within the next few days involves the future alike of Europe and the dynasty. If he remains passive he gains indeed some small extensions of territory on the mainland and a valuable island possession, but he loses his prestige as arbiter, and sees a Northern Germany fairly made, while France, instead of being the supreme power in Europe, becomes one among many nearly or quite co-ordinate States. This change of position will be, a severe blow to his pride, the more so as it will have been produced by his own policy, be in fact the result of his own most cherished plans. If, on the other hand, he refuses to remain quiescent, he plunges into a war with a power at least as great as himself, in which defeat would cost him his throne, and victory be only obtained after long and terrible campaigns against an enemy who can for the moment take five lives for one, whom he must attack from the least favourable side, and who may by a democratic appeal call an entire nation

ameter, was bored nine feet from the face of most negligence, as if the most ordinary the rock, and was charged with oil to the merchandize: travelling across England depth of eighteen inches. The explosion completely separated one hundred tons of the rock. There is reason to believe that half a hundred-weight of gunpowder would be required to produce the same effect.

The wonderful capabilities of nitro-glycerine as an explosive agent have been hitherto, unfortunately, far more than counterbalanced by the fearful damage with which its use is accompanied. Already some appalling catastrophes have been produced by it; and the recklessness with which it is carried from place to place, and the temptation there is, from motives of economy, to pass it as ordinary merchandize, greatly enhances the peril; so that a stringent parliamentary enactment regarding it is loudly and somewhat generally demanded. That legislation, to some extent, has become necessary, can scarcely be denied, the destruction of life and property by means of this terrible agent, having been already so considerable. In November, 1865, an explosion of nitroglycerine occurred in Greenwich Street, New York. It was caused by a quantity contained in a small rudely-formed box, which was found in the baggage-room of the Wyoming Hotel. Red fumes of an offensive smell being observed to issue from the box, an alarm was excited which led to its being thrown out of the window into the street, where it immediately exploded with great violence. The fumes which were emitted on this occasion point very probably to a cause very similar to that which often gives rise to the explosion of gun-cotton. At Sydney, one hundred pounds weight of nitro-glycerine exploded. On the 3d of last April, seventy cases of it exploded at Aspinwall, the Atlantic terminus of the railway which crosses the Isthmus of Panama. The "European," a vessel about 1700 tons burden, which contained them, was nearly destroyed; a large ship beside her was greatly injured; the freight house, a fine building, was blown down, and 400 feet of the quay was obliterated. Upwards of seventy persons were killed and wounded on this occasion, and not a single whole pane of glass was left in the city.

The magnitude of the mischief caused by this explosion gives but little idea of the damage which these very cases might have caused. Will it be believed that London, only by the merest good fortune, escaped devastation through them; and not only London, but Liverpool, and several other important towns; for they were transmitted from the place of manufacture with the ut

from Hull to Liverpool, and across the Atlantic, touching at important places till they reached the locality where they caused such terrible destruction. The horror excited by the explosion of gunpowder at Erith is obliterated by the consideration of what might have happened had the seventy cases of nitro-glycerine which blew up at Aspinwall exploded a little sooner, at London or Liverpool; and that they did not explode, considering the dangerous character of the compound, must be looked upon as little short of a miracle.

Similar casualties have followed in quick succession. On the 16th, also, of last April, an explosion of nitro-glycerine happened at San Francisco, by which many persons were killed, and 200,000 dollars worth of property destroyed. The oil was contained in two boxes, which, to save a comparatively trifling expense, were transmitted through the most important and populous localities in Europe, as ordinary merchandize.

What conclusion is to be drawn from these terrible casualties? - that the manufacture of nitro-glycerine ought to be prevented? Certainly not. Science, which has supplied the bane, will undoubtedly supply the antidote also, if it has not already done so. In the meantime, too much caution cannot be used: but we must not allow ourselves to be carried away by our fears. Both gunpowder and gun-cotton were, at first, managed with difficulty; and each has contributed its own share to the chapter of accidents. As to gunpowder, with reasonable precautions, notwithstanding the catastrophes to which it has from time to time given rise, it is considered almost free from danger. The history of gun-cotton is a short one, yet it recounts numerous and terrible accidents. In 1847, a quantity of gun-cotton blew up a factory belonging to Messrs Hall, and killed every one in the establishment. In 1848, more than 3000 lbs. of it exploded in Paris, reducing the most massive walls to powder. Numberless other accidental explosions of it are on record; yet it is now made everywhere, if not for military or mining purposes, at least for those of the photographer.

Already experiments have been made by Nobel, the Swedish chemist, who first utilized nitro-glycerine by applying it to mining, which go far to prove that it may be made perfectly harmless for the purpose of transport or storage. He has recently ascertained the important fact, that, when methylic alcohol (common wood naphtha), a very cheap