14 JANUARY 1888, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE Continental situation is slightly worse. The Russian Government is posting further troops in large bodies on the frontiers both of Galicia and Roumania, and its agents have received a cue to precipitate matters. On the 4th inst., 150 Montenegrins, commanded by a Russian officer named Nabokoff, landed from the sea, near Bourgas, and endeavoured to seize that important port, the only one in Bulgaria at which a de- barkation from Odessa can be easily effected. The Government at Sofia ordered the nearest battalion to attack at once, and after two hours' sharp fighting, the invaders departed in a Russian ship, leaving their commander and eighteen of their comrades -dead on the field. The letters found on Colonel Nabokoff show conclusively that he was in communication with Russian agents. His passport also had been signed by the Russian Consul at Constantinople. The attempt will, it is believed, be renewed, the object being to give the Russian Government a pretext for saying that it is summoned by a terrorised majority in Bul- garia. That Government evidently considers that its hand is free, the Imperial Gazette of Berlin having declared that Prince Ferdinand has no legal position in Bulgaria, and is not a "Royal "Highness. It is not, however, Germany which will at first resist Russia, but Austria, where military councils have recommenced.