NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MHE Conference on Luxemburg met on Tuesday, under the pre-
sidency of Lord Stanley, who will now like the Foreign Office better than ever. The work interests him, and if he had not such a great fortune he would be inclined to play Palmerston, and be Foreign Secretary for both parties. Up to Friday everything has gene on smoothly, England has agreed to guarantee Luxemburg, —intending, according to the Times, to swindle her co-guarantors at the first opportunity,—and Prussia has accepted the neutrality of the Duchy as a basis of negotiation, the funds are going up, and people with fluctuating securities are singing hymns of thanksgiving to Count von Bismarck and Napoleon. The only point now remaining to be ascertained is whether either of the big disputants has given its representative secret orders to inter- pose a hitch just before signature, say, for instance, a demand from Berlin that France should disarm, or from France that Prussia mb.ould consent to a plebiscitum in Luxemburg to settle national If not, the great war will for this year be postponed, and a y 'tr is something gained, particularly to France, which is arming it'high-preasure speed.
