NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE lull in the Eastern Question still continues, broken only by a proposal to Servia and Montenegro to arrange a peace, a proposal which, as we have tried to show elsewhere, it is decidedly the interest of Turkey to make. Bosnia and the Herzegovina would then be powerless, and at the mercy of any Chefket Pasha whom the Porte might select to punish them. It was at first reported that this proposal had been eagerly received in Servia, that Russia had acceded to it, and that " peace " was consequently secured,—the last an absurd deduction, as the submission of Servia in no way releases the true population of Turkey from the yoke of the Ottoman caste. It is now stated that Turkey demands guarantees that Servia shall not again rise against her masters, and declines to state what those guarantees are to be,—whether the abolition of the conscription in Servia, the occupation of Servian forts by Turks, or pledges from the Western Powers. Moreover, Austria is opposed to the cession of any territory to the Prince of Montenegro, who is already too popular in Dalmatia. The negotiations, therefore, languish.
