Lord Salisbury's speech has been welcomed everywhere abroad with a
sort of fervour, the general idea obviously being that now that Great Britain joins the European Concert peace is certainly secured. We cannot discover, however, in all the comments the slightest evidence of anxiety as to its effect on the position of the Arme- nians. That is obviously regarded as a detail of com- paratively trifling importance. In America the speech is accepted as closing the Venezuelan question—at least, as between Great Britain and the United States ; and the Com- mission which was appointed to report upon the boundaries between Venezuela and British Guiana officially announces that it will sit for the future only to collect information, and will not draw up any final report, a most satisfactory decision if, as seems probable, the report was to have been hostile, it must be remembered, nevertheless, that according to the system of the United States, the consent of the Senate is necessary to give final validity to President Cleveland's action, and that the Government of Venezuela itself haa as yet not been heard from. The perception is dawning, too, upon Americans that in negotiating with such vigour over the head of the little State immediately concerned, their Govern- ment has accepted a protectorate which will involve responsi- bilities. So little, however, is any breakdown in the arrangements feared that the King of Sweden is already named as the President of the Commission of Arbitration, which is to consist of two American and two English Judges.
