NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE general drift of events in Eastern Europe during the week has been most unfavourable. The Ambassadors drew up a paper in answer to the Turkish demands, in which they informed the Sultan in most deferential language that Iris terms must be reduced. They could not consent to the retrocession of Thessaly, or to the abolition of the Capitula- tions, while the amount of the indemnity must be reduced to the actual expenditure on the war. The German Ambassador refused to sign even this without special instructions, which after some delay arrived, and the Note was presented on Tuesday. The Turks are furious with the Powers, they are pouring reinforcements into Europe, and there is grave reason to apprehend either that the answer will be a fresh demand for Thessaly, or that the Sultan, refusing to extend the armistice, will declare that as the war continues, his troops, as a matter of course, cannot retire. It is clear that he is greatly afraid of the " Islamic " party, which is more excited even than the Generals, and that be thinks Germany, at all events up to a certain point, will protect him in his resistance.
As we understand the matter, the armistice between Turkey and Greece expires on June 5th, but there are three separate accounts. The armistice can, of coarse, be extended, but in- definite extension will give too much advantage to Turkey in its struggle, not with Greece, which has ceased, but with the Powers, which has just begun.
A fresh symptom betrays the change of feeling in Constan- tinople. Abd-ul-Hamid has purposely restricted the powers of the Grand Vizier, who throughout Turkish history has wielded the whole secular authority of the Sultan, until that great officer is now a dignified nonentity. Rifaat Ali Pasha, how- ever, the Grand Vizier of to-day, has been moved by recent events to assert himself, and in a " Report," given in extenso elsewhere, has urged his master to defy Europe and keep Thessaly in his own hands. His reasons are that the Powers are enemies seeking the destruction of Turkey, that they forbade the policy pursued in Armenia, and that nevertheless that policy succeeded. Consequently defiance will again suc- ceed. If, however, his Majesty disagrees with him he begs to tender his resignation. This amazing document, which expresses the genuine Mussulman feeling, has been published to the whole of Europe, either by the Grand Vizier as a protest, or by the Sultan as evidence that he cannot resist the pressure of the Moslem world. In either case it means mischief, and if followed up by deeds, will radically modify the situation. The Concert must either break up, or coerce Turkey, or by yield- ing confess that it possesses no longer any substantial authority, and that the Sultan must treat all Christians as he pleases.
Of course there is the usual crop of rumours. It is stated that the Russian Court is seriously moved, that remon- strances have been addressed to Germany, and that if the Turkish attitude is persisted in the Russian fleet will act, Bulgaria at the same time threatening war. It is affirmed at Athens that Lord Salisbury has interfered in favour of the evacuation of Thessaly, and it is believed in Constantinople that the German Emperor means to precipitate a quarrel with St. Petersburg. It is also rumoured in Vienna that the war may continue, and that the immense accumulation of Turkish troop. in Europe can have no other meaning. It will be well to distrust all these sensational stories, and to re- member that the struggle of the parties round Yildiz Kiosk is not over, that each uses its own view of the attitude of each Power as a weapon in the contest, and that throughout the East lying on politics assumes the dignity of a fine art. The facts seem to show a deep rift between Germany and Russia, but the facts are made no stronger by sensational telegrams as to their possible meaning. It is well to remember, also, that in the East a struggle of the kind now raging often expresses itself through a Palace Revolu- tion.
It is reported with every kind of detail that Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg has been selected for the principality of Crete, and that his chief Minister will be an Austrian Baron in whom Baron de Kallay, the successful Dictator of Bosnia, has implicit confidence. Prince Francis, who is thirty- six, will be acceptable in England as a connection of the Royal family ; in Russia because he married a Montenegrin Princess; and in Austria because he is a friend of the Haps- burgs ; but he is not persona grata in Berlin, and his appoint- ment has not as yet been in any way officially confirmed. The Greeks might think of him ten years hence for King, and so get Crete, which would not snit the German Emperor at all. There are, too, two great obstacles in the way of any selection. The Sultan means his " suzerainty " to be as real as it is in Egypt,—that is, to include an ill-defined power of removal, and a well-defined payment in cash, and there is no money with which to organise a strong gendarmerie. No Power will expend sixpence on Crete, and Prince Joseph is not, like the Bulgarian Coburg, a rich man. A supply of £50,000 a year for five years will be imperatively required.
A sensational trial is going on in Berlin, that of Herr von Tausch, late chief of the secret police, for perjury. The pro- ceedings are a little bewildering, but the main charge against the accused appears to be that he paid Herr von Liitzow, a discredited publicist, to write articles which he intended to represent to the Emperor as inspired by Baron von Marachall, the Foreign Secretary, whom a camarilla regard with an extraordinary virulence of hate. Von Liitzow, for example, was instructed to suggest that the trouble in the ear from which the Emperor suffers so much pain is really produced by cancer inherited from his father, the idea being that the Emperor, reading an insult of that kind, and attributing it to Baron von Marschall, would take an oppor- tunity of dismissing him from his counsels. The defence is that Von Liitzow's testimony is worthless, and so far, though the evidence is most damaging to Von Tausch, who was a ruined man, and on one occasion used his secret police to frighten a creditor, the link connecting him with a political party is quite imperfect. There is a belief, however, that Von Tausch, finding himself deserted, will, either out of revenge or in self- defence, reveal a great many secrets, and the proceedings are therefore watched with microscopic attention. The whole drama is most discreditable to Berlin, which is shown to be full of intrigues, more like those of the old French Monarchy than anything we consider German, the object in all cases being to deceive the Emperor. Nothing as yet connects Prince Bismarck with the plots, but one idea of the plotters
is supposed to be to punish all who venture to succeed the great Minister.
Nothing ever ruins Austria, which is held together by bonds that its contending nationalities never break ; but the Emperor just now must have a troubled life. There are clearly intrigues going on to supersede the heir-presumptive, the Archduke Ferdinand, intrigues so far baffled by the Emperor's firmness, and the " miraculous " recovery of the heir, who was supposed to be dying of consumption. The compromise between Austria and Hungary also still awaits renewal, the Hungarians absolutely refusing to pay the pro- portion of the general expenditure of the Monarchy, which Austria as absolutely insists shall be paid. And, finally, the Germans in the Cisleithan Monarchy are wild with rage because they suspect the Premier, Count Badeni, of under- mining their favoured position and introducing Federalism, which would leave them in a minority. On Monday Count Badeni confessed that the Government hoped to increase the authority of the Provincial Diets, whereupon the Germans commenced a campaign of obstruction, forcing hundreds of divisions upon local petitions, tearing up " pro- ceedings," and even hurling inkstands and Blue-books at their opponents and the Ministry. Irishmen in the House of Commons were never quite so wild, and there is talk of proroguing Parliament. In the end the Emperor will have to intervene with some conciliatory proposal, supported by a gentle hint that if too much worried he can govern for a time very well without any Parliament at all. Then everybody will recollect himself and extol the Emperor.
Yesterday week Mr. Balfour made by far the most important statement with respect to home politics which the House of Commons has heard for many a year. He announced that he had put off saying what he had to say about the Irish Agricultural Industries Bill, and the Irish Agricultural Rating Bill, till he could shadow forth a new and, as he hoped, a successful Irish policy which would probably render these Bills, as they stand, unnecessary. He did not hold that Ireland is entitled to claim, as of right, the same relief from agricultural rates as England and Scotland; but though he rejected that view, he was willing enough to do what could be done for Ireland, even if the claim, as of right, could not be substantiated. Only any great reform in the local finance of Ireland could hardly be achieved with the present obsolete local machinery. To put new wine into the oldest of bottles would waste great resources. He desired profoundly to place Ireland on the same footing as regards local government with England and Scotland, and he thought he saw a real opportunity for such a policy if only the mutual rivalries and jealousies between Irish landowners and Irish tenants could be removed. At present the landowners fear that democratic local institutions would result in great extravagance, of which the cost would fall on them, and the tenants fear that if any- thing is done to lessen the pressure of the burden of rates on them, the whole of the saving would, at the expiration of the first period of fifteen years, be added to the landlord's rent.
What Mr. Balfour proposes, therefore, is to relieve the land- lords entirely from rural rates by paying what they now pay,— in effect, half the Poor-rate,—out of the Imperial Exchequer, and to aid the tenants by paying half the county cm out of the same source, the landlord being thus relieved of fear, and the tenant gaining an extra benefit if he manages the rates thriftily. After this statement a great chorus of praise rose from all aides of the House, from Mr. Carson and Colonel Saunderson on the one side, and from Mr. T. M. Healy on the other,—Mr. Dillon even indicating his great satisfaction, though rather more guardedly. Sir John Lubbock gave his warm approval of the scheme as a Liberal Unionist ; but, of course, legislation must be left till next Session.
Lord Stanmore on Monday asked a question in the House of Lords which drew from Lord Salisbury a reply of some importance. Lord Stanmore thought that the Royal Niger Company, which he praised for its administration, had recently increased its "administrative area" to an extent which might cause friction with European States possessing spheres of influence in Western Africa. He wished to know, therefore, whether the Government intended to assume a closer supervision over the Company, whose managers, though able and humane, naturally thought rather of their share- holders than of Imperial interests. Lord Salisbury replied that the difficulty had certainly arisen, and also another difficulty, the limit of the Company's right to establish trading monopolies as against their own subjects—a misuse of power alleged to have occurred at Brass—and the Government were anxiously considering them. They had, however, arrived at no decision, except that they could not appoint official directors to sit on the Board unless they guaranteed dividends, which they were unwilling to. do. Tbey did it in the case of the East India Company, but then they guaranteed the proprietors dividends. There is, of course, some force in this argument, but we do not see why share- holders should be guaranteed more than Consol interest on their old capital, or why, because their directors were compelled to obey Imperial orders, they should not continue to trade.
The plain truth, which we cannot but think Lord Salisbury sees, is a very disagreeable one. The Chartered Companies, bad and good, are allowed to use their sovereign powers so as to swell their dividends. For instance, they make severe labour regulations, as in Rhodesia, or they refuse to natives, as we fancy from Lord Salisbury's hint is the case in the Niger Company's dominion, the right of competing with them in profitable trades. If the responsibility of the Companies to the Crown were made more direct these abuses could not last, and the Companies would then plead for " compensation," which Parliament in its present temper might fix at a high figure. That is a very good reason for thinking over the matter carefully, but it is no reason for allowing the system to continue indefinitely, perhaps until the compensation became too heavy to pay. Lord Salisbury should remember that everything, even in Africa, becomes known in England at last, and that the moment any abuses there existing become known to Parliament, the Government must remedy them or be overthrown. The argument that the Companies save the State money—which, if they ultimately cause wars, they do not do—is a very bad one. We have no right whatever to acquire by the sword the control of vast territories, and then say that we will not bear the expense of governing them in a vivifying way. We must bear it, until they can pay without oppression for themselves.
The discussion of the Compensation Bill has been proceed- ing in the House of Commons during the past week. The policy of the Government, a very wise one, has been to resist amendments, even if sound in theory, that will increase the chance of litigation, and also attempts to enlarge the scope of the measure by admitting new classes. On Wednesday, however, they agreed to an amendment which would prevent men getting compensation if they had produced an accident by their own breach of some statutory rule or by drunkenness or some such serious misconduct ; but they refused on Monday to open the flood-gates of litigation by agreeing to Mr. Tennant's proposal that workmen should receive compensation for injuries to health arising out of and in course of their employment. On Wednesday Mr. Chamberlain agreed that the claim to compensation must not be delayed beyond six weeks after the accident. The Bill is evidently being well handled, and there is, we trust, now little fear that it will be killed with kindness, feigned or real. From open opposition it has nothing to fear.
In the South African Committee on Friday week there was a scene between Dr. Harris and Mr. Labonchere, occasioned by Mr. Labouchere asking the witness whether he had ever heard of any syndicate being formed to sell Chartered shares. Dr. Harris at once turned upon his questioner, and drew the attention of the Committee to the fact that Mr. Labouchere had accused him in Parlia- ment of having been engaged in a " bear " operation previous to the Raid, in view of the probable effect of the incursion, whether successful or not. Dr. Harris not only entirely denied any such action on his part, but challenged Mr. Labouchere either to prove his accusations or else apologise. If he did neither, Dr. Harris would not consent to be farther questioned by him. Dr. Harris also drew the attention of the Committee to a letter written by Mr. Labonchere to the Gaulois, in which he accused " the prime movers in the con- spiracy" of acting from the most sordid motives. Mr. Labouchere, on the spur of the moment, expressed his willingness to prove his accusations.
When, however, the Committee met on Tuesday, the Chairman read a letter from Mr. Labouchere backing out of his accusation and apologising for having made it. Mr. Labouchere stated that he had based his charge on evidence supplied him by "a gentleman of high position and great business experience." Now, how- ever, this gentleman refused to come forward and sub- stantiate his story. It must, therefore, be treated as non-
• existent. That is all very well, but clearly Mr. Labouchere committed a very grave error in not making sure that his evidence was producible when he made his specific charge. Mr. Labouchere blamed the conductors of the Times for basing their charges against Mr. Parnell on untested evidence ; but they had, at any rate, made sure that their informant was willing to come forward and swear to his statements. Mr. Labouchere has done a great deal to injure the prestige of the investigation in which he is engaged. His best course now would be to resign his seat on the Committee.
At the meeting of the Committee on Tuesday Mr. Hawksley, Mr. Rhodes's solicitor, refused to hand over the telegrams which passed between him and Mr. Rhodes, on the ground that they were covered by the rule which gives a sanctity almost like that of the confessional to communica- tions between solicitor and client. The lawyers seemed, however, to think that the right of the Committee to oblige Mr. Rhodes to give them the telegrams also gave them power to compel their disclosure by Mr. Hawksley. Ultimately the decision was postponed till the next meeting of the Com- mittee. Miss Flora Shaw, who was the next witness called, gave her evidence in a manner which produced a very favour- able impression. She drew a strong distinction between the Jameson plan and the Jameson Raid. The Jameson plan, of which she approved and to which she was virtually privy, was to have a force on the border ready to take action if and when the Revolution took place at Johannesburg. The force was to be at the disposal of the High Commissioner when, under the plan, he came up to mediate. But, said Miss Shaw, one programme was presented to people here and another programme was carried out there. " And everything we said or did to countenance the programme laid before us here has since, very naturally, been applied as having reference to the programme carried out there." Miss Shaw ended by a most positive statement that she had never received from Mr. Chamberlain any suggestion that it was desirable that the Revolution should take place at once. When she telegraphed to that effect she merely expressed her own opinion.
The proposal to confer the Cambridge degrees upon women was rejected in the Senate House at Cambridge yesterday week by nearly three to one, 662 placets against 1,713 non-placets. One would have thought that this great victory would have soothed and satisfied even the fierce wrath of the young men with the proposal, but it did not. The boys did their utmost to ridicule the defeated party, exhibiting the effigy of a supposititious lady with cap and gown, yellow pigtail and knickerbockers ; and squibs and crackers, and bags of flour and rotten eggs were thrown about at every point, while many windows in Cambridge were broken. No doubt many of these tricks were played before the results of the voting were known, but also many of them afterwards,—with the view, apparently, of convincing the public that however objectionable women undergraduates might be, men undergraduates are still more so. In fact, for the day, considerable portions of the University were turned into bear-gardens. To us this explosion of violent and unnecessary prejudice seems a mere burst of irrationality. In London University not only do the women get the same degree as the men, but are admitted to Convocation, where some few of the beat speeches have been delivered by women.
On Saturday last the Prince of Wales, on behalf of the Queen, opened the Blackwall Tunnel,—the great ftiture channel of intercourse between the two sides of the Thames below bridges. The tunnel, which is lined with white enamelled tiles and lit by electric lamps, was filled with people and lined with troops. The Prince and Princess, the County Councillors, and other distin- guished persons in carriages drove through the tunnel in Procession from the north to the southern, or Greenwich, end, where in a pavilion they received the usual addresses. On
the whole the event was a great success, the ceremony being keenly enjoyed by a population which seldom sees anything in the way of State pageantry. In the evening there was a. banquet at the Hotel Cecil, at which Lord Rosebery told the Council that if ever some political Cromwell " should step forward and, pointing to you, were to say,' Remove that bauble,' and sweep you out of existence, you will always live, if only by the memory of the Blackwall Tunnel."
Yesterday week a meeting was held in the Chapter Howie- of Westminster Abbey to unveil a bust of Sir Walter Scott, whose genius had never till then obtained him any place in the great church where effigies of those of whom England is proud (and of a good many of whom she is not proud) are collected together. The Dean of Westminster explained why we had waited more than sixty years since Scott's death without doing him this honour. It was not for want of love of him, for hardly any of our greatest writers have been so loved, but all the enthusiasm was spent in securing the Abbotsford he loved so much for Scott's descendants. Then Mr. Balfour made a. very thoughtful speech on the reason of Scott's great popularity, and held the delay in putting up this memorial was rather due to the universal feeling that Scott's true memorial was in his immortal works, and that he needed no other to prolong the memory of his singularly great achieve- ments and fascinating personality. But yet for our sake, and not for his own sake, we had felt the need of showing future generations that we had not forgotten, and could never forget, him. Then the American Ambassador, Mr. John Hay, recalled the enthusiasm which his works had excited in the United States, where men would saddle their horses and ride into other counties to learn when the next romance from Sir Walter's pen might be expected. Finally the Duke of Buccleuch, the head of Scott's family and the grandson of Scott's dear friend, unveiled in the Poets' Corner of the Abbey the bust,—a copy of Chantrey's, —beautifully executed by the great Scottish sculptor, Mr. Hutchinson. It is only fit that a monument of Scott should not be wanting in the Poets' Corner, but it is placed there, as Mr. Balfour truly said, not for his sake but for our own.
Lord Kelvin, speaking on Friday week at the Royal in- stitution on "Contact Electricity," made a very remarkable statement, which we extract textually from the Times' report. He spoke of " the radiation given of by uranium, as dis- covered by Becquerel, and some photographs of coins, 8:c., were thrown on the screen which had been taken by its agency. These uranium rays were very feeble, an exposure of some twelve hours being necessary for photographic effects, but they were a constant property of the substance and were manifested in conditions which precluded the possibility of tbei. being merely the slow radiation of previously absorbed light. He could suggest no explanation of the mystery." Does Lord Kelvin really mean, as we understand him to mean, that uranium, an opaque solid, while cool gives out the ray, without help from external light P Sorely that is a kind of force, as possibly residing in certain substances, of which man has had no experience and scientific man no idea.
The Queen had a grand reception at Sheffield on Friday week, nearly a million persons having collected to do her honour, and welcoming her with exuberant loyalty. Perhaps the most notable incident in the ceremonial is the quite singular dignity and pathos with which the Queen replied to the addreis presented to her by the Mayor of the year, the Detkeof Norfolk. "I share fully in your appreciation of the manifold blessings of peace and prosperity which have during the'la,st sixty years been vouchsafed to my throne and family and to all classes of my subjects ; and I am deeply touched by the numerous manifestations which reach me of the wish to associate these blessings with my reign. With profound reverence and thankfulness I join in your praise and grati- tude to the Almighty, who has sustained and blessed this Kingdom and Empire during the long period for which the responsibilities of sovereignty have lain upon me." It would be very difficult indeed to rise to an occasion more perfectly than that.
Bank Rate, 2 per cent.
New Consols (2!) were on Friday, 1131.
