NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THERE is an armistice between Turkey and Greece, which in the beginning of the week seemed to be improbable. The Sultan, frightened, it is said, by the temper of the Army, suddenly yielded to the military party, and announced that he would grant no armistice unless his terms of peace were previously accepted. These terms were the cession of Thessaly, the payment of £10,000,000, the abolition of the Capitulations so far as they protect Greeks, and the execution of a Treaty of Extradition. All Europe, except the German Emperor, cried out that these terms were impossible ; but yet the Sultan might have adhered to them, had not the Russian Emperor suddenly intervened. In an unaccount- ably flattering letter, given textually elsewhere, his Majesty prayed his friend the Sultan to grant the armistice, and on Wednesday it was granted. The ,terms of peace are in no way settled, but it is supposed that they will be arranged between the Greek and Turkish Governments, and then submitted to a European Conference. It is said officially that the Sultan insists on the abolition of the Capitula- tions, even at the risk of a great war ; but he may be making this impossible demand only to obtain credit for withdrawing it.

The advocates of Turkey report, probably with truth, that there is serious disquiet in Constantinople. The Sultan does not wish to exact high terms, being so afraid of his Generals that he has forbidden their photographs to be sold ; but the Generals are very angry, as are also the heads of the Mussul- man faith. Both these authorities condemn the Sultan as weak, and the Mahommedan populace of Constantinople sides with them. There are even threats of "demonstrations," and the Sultan has made a great addition to the police, while his spies are more actively at work than ever. The fear seems to be that if the war produces no glory the victorious troops may demand a new Sultan, as in Turkey they have often done before ; but it is possible that some of this fear is factitious, and only intended to frighten the Ambassadors, who do not know where a revolution might end. It may, however, be taken as certain that the Sultan will protract negotiations as long as he can, and that his agents will contend hardily for onerous terms. If they are supported by the German Emperor, even the compromise may be most onerous for Greece, though she will have the support of Russia and Great Britain.

The moment the armistice was refused Edhem Pasha was let loose and repeated his previous tactics. Advancing on his right, left, and centre, he endeavoured to envelop the much smaller Greek Army, of which the pivot was Domoko, and so repeat the scene of Sedan. The Greeks, it is ad- mitted on all hands, fought well, Colonel Smolenski even repelling the attack on the right wing. The left wing, how- ever, was driven in, and seeing that he might be surrounded,

the unhappy Duke of Sparta ordered a retreat to Lamia, where the relics of the Greek army are now encamped. Immediately after the news of the armistice arrived the Turks stopped their advance, the Greeks fled out of Epirus, and the Sultan remained completely master not only of his own provinces but of Thessaly. It is perfectly useless as yet to discuss the causes of the Greek breakdown, but among them two cannot be explained away. They were not ready for war, even food for the soldiers being too scarce, and they had no leader except Colonel Smolenski of even average com- petence. It is probable, also, that such leaders as they had were more anxious, like Marshal Bazaine, to preserve an army for eventualities than to defeat the enemy, but that is not certain, and may be an invention of Athenian politicians.

The Government of Prussia, while permitting societies within the kingdom to connect themselves with societies outside the kingdom but within the Empire, has brought in a Bill which practically enables the police at their discretion to disperse any meeting or dissolve any society. They have only to say it is dangerous to morale, society, or the Constitution, and there is no appeal, the animus of the Bill being shown in the fact that it becomes a penal offence to allow any one not of full age to be present or to become a member. The Prussian Chamber naturally resists, and it is believed that the Liberals, the Clericals, part of the National party, and some even of the Conservatives, who are alarmed for their very fierce Agrarian societies, will vote against the measure, and thus ensure its defeat. A Committee of twenty-eight is indeed already " eviscerating " the measure. It is alleged that the Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, thinks the Bill much too reactionary, and that he only brought it in as a Prussian Minister in obedience to the command of the Emperor-King, who, as he gets older, dreads more and more any expression of discontent. The position of the Chancellor may be doubtful, but of the angry bewilderment of all men in Germany except ultra-Tories there is no doubt whatever, or that they circulate extraordinary stories of the influences which are guiding the Emperor's mind.

One incident which, though not directly connected with the Bill, was directly caused by it, is of a most noteworthy kind. Herr Engen Richter, leader of the Liberals in the German Parliament, speaking on another Bill, asked what could be the motive guiding the Prussian Ministry as to associations. Were they hoping at election time to secure a majority which would vote a boundless increase to the Fleet, and so realise "the fanciful conception of a world-wide policy cal- culated to dissipate the resources of Germany and imperil the peace of Europe by trans-oceanic complications " P Wherever one looked for new Ministers there were only " promoted bureaucrats or smart Hussar politicians " to be seen, while the German Empire has no native dynasty, and the Imperial dignity itself is no older than the Reichstag. He was, Herr Richter continued, no Republican, but a Monarchist, but the " capital stock of the sentiment of Monarchism has been consumed away in a manner which I should not have deemed possible ten years ago. This is not a consequence of the growth of the Social democracy. It is a result of occurrences which cannot be mentioned in Parlia- mentary debate, occurrences which provoke criticism not only among plain citizens, but far into the ranks of the bureaucracy and of the officers of the Army." The speech was rapturously applauded, and the sentences about the Fleet were cheered by every one in the House, except some fifty old Conservatives. The personal authority of the Emperor—we do not, of course, mean his legal power— is evidently shaking.

Lord Salisbury made on Tuesday a speech to the Junior Constitutional Club which contained one or two important

statements on foreign policy. The Premier professed his sorrow that he should be unable to be frank, but he admitted that it was not possible for the six Powers of Europe to allow Christian communities to fall under the government of the Sultan. "That government has been shown by the experi- ence of many years to be of a kind which the public opinion of Europe will not tolerate." Subject to that predominant opinion, however, the defeated must not expect to escape, and Lord Salisbury held that the hundred Members of the House of Commons who had signed the address to the King of Greece had been guilty of a thoughtlessness which ought to be a disgrace in the history of that body. They are deeply guilty of the blood which has been shed. For himself, though owing to his misuse of his school- days he did not fully share in the charm many felt in the classic associations of Greece, he did deeply sympathise in the feeling for Christians as against Moslems, but that sympathy could not be suffered to guide the policy of nations. The high duty had fallen upon us of maintaining the peace of the world and knitting together the policy of the European Powers. That is an end for which nations may put aside their individual sympathies. That sounds all right in the abstract, but it does not content us. Quiet in London is a great thing, but if it is to be purchased by knitting together the sympathies of citizens and burglars we should prefer a little disorder. The whole difference between us and Lord Salisbury is that he regards Turkey as a Power within the social comity, and we as one wholly outside it.

It is said that a very bitter contest is going on in the United States between the Senate and the President. The Senate, which has a partial control over all foreign affairs, shown in its rejection of the Arbitration Bill, wishes greatly to capture the initiative also, and is trying just now to force Mr. McKinley to declare war on Cuba, or at least to acknowledge the belligerent right of the insurgents. The Jingoes are greatly assisted by the facts that many Americans in Cuba have been ruined by the war, and need relief, that the injury to the American tobacco trade is very considerable, and that some American Consuls are believed to be in danger of assassination. Mr. McKinley has recom- mended that $50,000 should be sent to Cuba to relieve distress, but as yet has taken no step which could in any way give umbrage to Spain. It is said, however, that he hesitates, that he is impressed by Jingo opinion, and that he may propose to the Spanish Government to sell Cuba to the Cubans, the United States guaranteeing the purchase money. It is also said that he proposes to annex Hawaii, fearing Japanese interference in the island, which has really been threatened for the protection of Japanese coolies. We have very little confidence in these stories, but of the existence of a powerful Jingo party at Washington there can be no doubt, any more than that an attack on Spain would instantly develop European alliances. The odd fact is that no Jingo leader has appeared who really understands European politics, or can get rid of the impression that within American waters the United States must necessarily win in any contest. That her opponent must lose is certain, con- quest in North America being impossible; but that the Union must win is only an assumption.

A. special meeting of the Corporation of Dublin was held on Monday to express the loyal feeling of the Corporation towards the Queen and to join in an address of congratulation to her on having completed the sixtieth year of her reign. Unfortunately, however, the Corporation rejected the proposal to offer this very colourless address of congratulation by two to one (22 against, to 11 for, it); but even so, the occasion is really not without its hopeful side, for the opposition, though perfectly successful, was ex- pressed with so much temperateness that it is rather difficult to remember, whilst reading it, that the speeches are the speeches of Irish Nationalists. The proposal to present a loyal address to the Queen was moved by Alderman Sir Henry Cochrane and seconded by Mr. E. W. Smyth in very moderate bee,.elies, the intention of which evidently was to avoid all laudation which would have stirred up the Irish patriots. Mr. Jones led the resistance to the address, but spoke of the Queen personally in very cordial terms, though he declared that Ireland was the only corner of the Empire

where the people remained "poor, poverty-stricken, and deprived of their liberties." During at least half of her Majesty's reign we should have said that Ireland had been made the special pet of the United Kingdom, and had been made even the spoiled pet of successive Administrations. And that though it has lost population, it has gained greatly in wealth and prosperity, cannot be denied by any one who really knows the figures which show this, and their true significance. However, even the debate, though it went against the loyal party, is a true sign of progress, for the exaggerated tone of complaint and indignation to which we are now so well accustomed was most conspicuously softened, and even the victorious party said a good deal which showed them to be half ashamed of their resistance. Sobriety in denuncia- tion was the main feature of the opposition. And Irishmen have not hitherto shown themselves sober is their hostile rhetoric.

The debate in the House of Lords on Lord Dunraven's Motion calling attention to the prevalence of contagious disease in the Army, especially the Indian Army, began on Friday week (May 14th), and was cone luded last Monday (May 17th) after remarkable speeches from Lord Roberts of Candahar, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Lister, who spoke on the Monday. The feature of the debate was the virtual agreement of the military, the religious, and the scientific or sanitary authorities on the duty of putting an end to this fatal spread of syphilitic poison in the Army, and the cruelty (both physical and moral) of inflicting almost endless misery on innocent women and children for the sins of those who set the poison in motion. To our mind, though Lord Roberts demonstrated finally what the Army had lost by dropping the inspection and the control which the Acts passed to stop the contagion had established, it was Archbishop Temple's speech which was at once the most impressive and the most elevated in tone. Without giving in to the inhuman cry for letting crowds of innocent persons bear the lifelong sufferings which the guilt of others had brought upon them, the Archbishop of Canterbury insisted that a mere preventive physical policy, intended to arrest the contagion as you would prevent the contagion of scarlet fever or typhoid, would never go to the root of the evil, without implanting a real dread of the moral guilt which sows the seed of this most deadly of all contagions diseases.

On Monday Lord Lister spoke with a tone of authority which was by no means limited to the medical aide of the question. He declared that nothing did so much to raise the moral spirit of the poor women who lend themselves to the bad passions of the men, as a residence in the hospitals, where they are treated with all respect and tenderness, and where their minds are often awakened for the first time to the guilt of their conduct. All the authorities concurred that a material part of the mischief is due to the dullness and blank- ness of the soldier's life, especially in India, and that it is of the first importance to supply him with real interests that fill his mind and lift him to a higher level. In a word, while on all sides it was held to be necessary to re-establish the thoroughgoing inspection and treatment which have so un- fortunately been dropped, it was held to be still more neces- sary to raise the level of the soldier's occupations, and provide him with keener and nobler principles of action.

The Necessitous Board-schools Bill was read a third time on Thursday without a division, and is therefore free of the Commons unless the Lords should alter it. Of course the Bill does not give universal satisfaction, for Mr. Acland protests, though he does not venture to divide, against it; and some of the rural Members complain bitterly of not getting help for their poor Board-schools, which could not be managed, as Sir J. Gorst tells us, "without making the Bill so wide as to include very large cities like London itself, and imposing on the public funds sums to which no Chancellor of the Exchequer could agree." Sir J. Gorst holds that the small rural School Boards should be put an end to, and that the Authority for Education must be " an Authority exercising jurisdiction over a wider area, and able to organise and co- ordinate education in a proper manner." In other words, something like last year's Bill is needed, and must be passed before the irregularities of the present system can be removed, or even very effectually reduced.

On Thursday night there was an interesting debate on the Finance Bill. Mr. James Lowther moved a Resolution declaring that the existing fiscal system of the country was unequal to the continually increasing demands of the public servioe, and that the time had come for a more varied system of taxation. This, of course, means revenue by tariff rather than by excise and direct taxation,—a small duty on foreign manufactured goods, and a 2s. duty on corn. Mr. Knox made the Resolution an excuse for airing the grievances of Ireland, and Captain Pretyman and Sir Herbert Maxwell drew attention to the hard cases under the Death-duties. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply to Mr. Lowther, admitted that our narrow basis of taxation might become a danger. He could not, how- ever, agree to revert to ad valorem duties. He had never objected to the principle of the new Death - duties, but only to certain of the details, and he now held that they could not be repealed unless they were proved to have failed in their object. He admitted, however, that certain points involving hardship still required to be dealt with, and these he would consider. Sir William Harcourt, who followed, did not object in principle to remedying the bard cases, but he warned the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be careful not to pick the mortar out of the wall. He also hinted that had he been in power he would have halved the Tea-duty and taken a penny off the Income-tax. We do not believe it. Sir William Harcourt would not have been so unpatriotic as to empty the strong-box when Europe might at any moment burst into flame.

On Tuesday the proceedings in the South African Committee again became of great interest, for the code telegrams—or at any rate some of them—which passed between Mr. Rhodes and his private agent, Dr. Harris, were produced, and Dr. Harris was examined on them. We have treated the tele- grams at length elsewhere, and will only mention here their general purport. Mr. Rhodes's main object was to secure, under the guise of a strip of land for his railway, a jumping- off place for the Raid. The telegrams also appear to support the inference that Mr. Rhodes was anxious to rush through a revolution in Johannesburg for fear Mr. Chamberlain, by means of legitimate action at Pretoria, should oblige the Boers to give more favourable treatment to the Outlanders. Finally, the telegrams show that Dr. Harris imagined that he had to some extent drawn the Colonial Office into complicity with Dr. Jameson's plan by certain hints to Mr. Fairfield as to possible action by the force on the border. Mr. Fairfield, however, before his death denied that he had any knowledge of the possibility of a Raid. The explanation of this conflict of evidence is not difficult. While Dr. Harris was giving his compromising hints the Colonial Office was threatening the Transvaal with war. Mr. Fairfield, therefore, may have taken the hints to refer to what Dr. Jameson's force on the border would do in case of a war over the Drifts. When the Drifts business was settled he (Mr. Fairfield) naturally imagined that the hinted eventualities had disappeared. Dr. Harris's eventu- alities were, however, not Drift difficulties, but the revolution his chief was engineering in Johannesburg.

The telegrams show Mr. Rhodes in a very curious and rather foolish light. One cable tells Dr. Harris to travel in the same steamer with Khama and the native chiefs " so as to get their confidence." Another states " it is humiliating to be utterly beaten by these niggers ; they think more of one native at home than the whole of South Africa,"—a piece of conventional cant hardly worth a guinea a word. A third telegram objects to being beaten " by three canting natives especially on score of temperance when two of them are known to be utter drunkards,—the whole thing makes me ashamed of my own people." In a fourth telegram Mr. Rhodes wires that some one is to be got to review a certain book by a missionary, which reminds one of Napoleon's instructions to Fondle to have an article abusing the Emperor of Austria, or whoever it may be, inserted in one of the papers.

The Compensation for Accidents Bill, which was debated during the week at great length, was read a second time in the House of Commons on Tuesday night without a division. On the whole the Bill increased in favour, and the active opposition to it is confined to a narrow section. Some of the more fanatical members of the Home-rule party oppose

it because they do not wish to see the Government successful in a great measure of social reform—they allege that the Bill does not go far enough, and therefore ought not to be passed —while, again, certain Liberal capitalists oppose it actually, if not nominally, because they think it will injure trade. The general opinion on both sides, however, is favourable to the Bill, and the great Unionist employers bare shown themselves quite willing to sink their selfish interests and to pass the Bill. The speech in which Mr. Chamberlain wound up the debate was very well received. He announced in firm words the intention of the Government to pass the measure. " We intend at all hazards to take the decision of the House of Commons."

Mr. Selous, the great African banter and pioneer, who has just returned to England from a visit to Asia Minor, makes some interesting statements in an interview published in Monday's papers. He does not, he says, believe in the estab- lishment of British supremacy in South Africa by force, but holds that the conquest of the Boers by a British force would ultimately lead to the overthrow of British supremacy. It would take an army of forty or fifty thousand men to conquer the thirty thousand well-armed and stubborn Dutch- men who would take up arms in case of war. No matter what the rights or wrongs of the question might be, Mr. Selous thinks that the sympathies of all the men of Dutch race throughout South Africa would be with their blood rela- tions. Hence if we won, which of course we must if we put out our strength, we should have another war of independence ten years hence. In Mr. Selous's opinion, the only way to secure our supremacy is to send out families of English emigrants to Rhodesia. These, like the families actually sent out in 1820, would become the parents of loyal communities. There is, no doubt, a great deal of truth in what Mr. Selous says, and we dread as much as he does the effects of even a successful war in which the Dutch were on one side and the English on the other. We do not believe, however, that the men of Dutch race would be all against us if we were forced into a just war to uphold the Convention, and we entirely refuse to believe that the Government contemplate an unjust or aggressive war. They know that such a war, as Mr. Balfour said, would be a party disaster. Mr. Selous must not also forget that there is a large stream of English emigration into the Transvaal already, and that it is our business to see that these men have secured to them the rights which are theirs under the Convention.

Last Saturday (May 15th) at noon a rescue party de- scended the shaft of the Snaefell lead-mine in which the accident occurred on the previous Monday, headed by Dr. C. Le Neve Foster, H.Al.'s Inspector of Metalliferous Mines, to test the character of the air. At 115 ft. there appeared to be no poisonous effect on the candles sent down, while at 130 ft. they were extinguished by the poisonous gas. Captain Kewley, who volunteered to try to catch hold of the clothing of the body of the man who had been killed by the gas 12 ft. below him, set the poisonous air in motion by his efforts and lost power over himself, but the others contrived to get him into the box and rang to have him drawn up. But the box got jammed in the shaft, and for an hour at least it was im- possible to release it. And it was not till 3.30 that all the rescue party reached the surface, Dr. Foster being the last brought up. But even then, before he would give himself up to the care of the doctor, he insisted on finishing his semi- delirious notes on what he had experienced during his stay in the poisonous gas, his chief idea being to record that there had been "no pain," only loss of power and the sensation of falling asleep. "I fear we are all dying. No help coming.

The box does not come No real pain. Good-bye. I feel as if I were sleeping. Again, good-bye all." This was written at 2.15, and it was not till after another hour and a quarter that Dr. Foster reached the surface. His last entry made there was "Dr. Miller says I must be quiet, but I won't." He had written thirty pages of notes under the poisonous influence of the gas. His conscientious desire to record all that be felt penetrated and survived the collapse of his powers. It was a wonderful struggle of the scientific mind against physical prostration.

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

New Consols (21) were on Friday, 114. •