NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. GLADSTONE made his promised statement on Egypt on Tuesday. He confined it in form very strictly to finance, but in reality, as we argue elsewhere, it went further. The Government has reduced the Army in Egypt from 33,000 men to 12,000, but intends to retain the latter number, until the native Army is ready to guarantee order and security. The position of this garrison will be legalised by a Convention or written " arrangement " with the Khedive only, based on the precedent of the Convention made with France in 1815, which will settle the localities to be occupied, the relation of the General-in-Chief to the Khedive, and. the amount to be paid by the Egyptian Treasury, which is to discharge part, if not all, of the cost of occupation. Sir Stafford North- cote accepted this statement, though not satisfactory, as proof that nothing further would be revealed, and confined himself to protesting against Mr. Gladstone's claim to a latitude so much greater than he allowed his opponents. Ur. Gladstone quietly observed that "this was not the question," and the discussion ended. It is understood that it will not be reopened this Session, the Opposition confining themselves to an effort to worry the Government about the trial of Arabi, which never perceptibly gets forwarder, and is probably not intended to do so.
