NEWS OF THE WEEK.
YESTERDAY was Lord Mayor's Day, and all her Majesty's Ministers were to attend the banquet at the Guildhall. Lord Beaconsfield was expected to make a great speech, and all through Friday the most extraordinary rumours as to its tenor were flying about town. It was reported, on " high authority," that the speech would be equivalent to a declaration of war, the Premier declaring that the opening of the Dardanelles would be con- sidered a casus bell ; that he would announce and accen- tuate the decision of her Majesty's Government in favour of neutrality ; and that he would hint at an imminent or immediate dissolution. There is no doubt of the circulation of these three rumours, and we publish them, though the contradiction or con- firmation will appear simultaneously with these hues, as a test of the value of political gossip. Our own prophecy on Friday would have been that the " icy glitter of the Premier's sneer" will be found conspicuous in the speech, but that as to the future, he would be pronounced indefinite, not to say obscure. He may like to give a good shake to Russian finance, but he understands the English people too well to go to war with only part of the country at his back.
