from 1895 to 1898, these three powers at Kuang-chou-wan, at Kiao-Chao, and at Port Arthur, cut and carved unmercifully at the body politic of the Son of Heaven.
Remark, again, how lightly intestine quarrels sit upon our neighbours when big game is reported abroad.
Generally speaking, however, the event that commanded the attention of Europe during the generation after 1870 was the consolidation of all that was powerful and progressive into the two opposing alliances. The constant tendency of these same powers to effect a merger, passed as a subsidiary affair.
This grand evolution of the European world placed England at once in a highly embarrassing situation. With the Dual Alliance of France and Russia we could not side by any means. For the world-wide aggressions of Russia in the Far East and in south-eastern Europe disturbed us profoundly; not less were we vexed by the ubiquitous efforts of France in search of a colonial empire. This animus reached its pitch in 1898, with Russia over China, and with France over the valley of the Nile.
If, then, we were not disposed to side with the Dual Alliance, it seemed less impracticable to march in unison with the central powers. And for this Lord Salisbury appeared by no means indisposed. If he could not go so far as to say, as Sir Robert Peel said in 1841 to Bunsen, "I am
