BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE
| No. DCCCXC. | DECEMBER 1889. |
Vol. CXLVI. |
CURRENT INFLUENCES ON FOREIGN POLITICS.
I.
Diplomatists, particularly those of the old school, have been too apt to think that political intrigues, official despatches, and parchment treaties control the affairs of nations. When the interests of a people were continually sacrificed to the whims and caprices of their ruler, and when the failure or success of negotiations for a marriage between members of reigning families were events of the gravest political importance, the intriguing diplomatist played a great part on the world's stage.
But those days are past. In Russia and in Turkey the inconstant humours of semi-despotic rulers may still exercise a not unimportant influence over political affairs; but in spite of the efforts of reactionary Ministers, the personal power of the Russian autocrat is steadily declining, and all who know Turkey are agreed that her continued existence as a Power is dependent on an early and radical change in her system of government. In Germany an impetuous young monarch, inheriting much of the prestige of the but lately deceased founder of German unity, exercises a certain appreciable influence; but the Emperor William could never carry out a policy of aggression distasteful to the wishes of his people. With the imperial throne he did not inherit all his grandfather's or even his father's personal influence, and it may confidently be expected that the external policy of Germany will be more and more regulated by the same impulses as those which guide the conduct of the other States of Central and Western Europe. And these impulses are produced by the selfish instincts of the various peoples, each seeking to further what they consider to be their own direct material
