26 SEPTEMBER 1885, Page 2

The latest accounts from Madrid all contain the statement that

both Germany and Spain agree to submit the question of the ownership of the Carolinas to the Pope for arbitration. The word to be employed is, however, " mediation." The Spaniards think that his Holiness is the one Sovereign in Europe who has no interest in deciding against them, and Prince Bismarck is indifferent to the arbitrator because he is indifferent also to the result of arbitration. He does not want the Caro- lines ; but he does want an honourable road out of the scrape into which he allowed himself, in his indifference to popular feelings, to be drawn.