NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TORD SALISBURY is resorting to arbitration. The ques- 41 fion of American and English rights in Behring Sea which las been raised by Mr. Blaine, in bold defiance of American precedents when the shore was Russian, is to be thus settled, and so are the Anglo-French disputes about the Newfound- land Fisheries. The decision is wise, because such disputes not only generate ill-will, but may lead locally to an inter- change of shots; but in neither case have the arbiters yet been nominated, and much of the satisfactoriness of the arrangement will depend upon their perfect trustworthiness. We must not have a Delagoa Bay business over again. It is greatly to be regretted that there is no personage in Europe or America who could be trusted like a first-class English Judge, and who could be used on all occasions its Inter- national Referee. We suppose the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the United States might usually be fit ; but that Court has been packed before now to sanction indis- pensable legislation, a proceeding which, even if justifiable as an alternative to revolution, would be fatal in international disputes. The President of the Federal Council of Switzer- land should be the European referee ; but he has not hitherto been chosen with an eye to his capacity for that office, and his character is usually unknown outside the Federation.
