NEWS OF THE WEEK.
FOR some reason or other—perhaps because of the depressing weather—there has been during the week a good deal of pessimism in London, but it is a pessimism for which there is no real foundation, and therefore no real excuse. By this we do not of course mean that there is no cause for anxiety—there must always be that while the war continues—but that there is no reason to hold that the situation generally has in any way changed for the worse. On the Western front there has been some sharp fighting in Champagne, the Germans capturing a section of a trench, while violent German attacks are reported from other parts of the French line. Our allies as we write are engaged in counter-attacks which, we hope and believe, will be successful ; but in any ease these incidents are not going to alter the course of the war.
