NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE Americans are considering a project which, if carried out, will probably sweep away the remains of English agricultural rental. According to the Outlook, a sober as well as a well-informed journal, the farmers of the Union are waking up to the intense unfairness of their position as the only unprotected industry within the States. They demand a bounty on all wheat grown for export, and as they are in most States the most numerous party among the voters, the party managers everywhere are considering their claim. As it must be conceded by every logical Protectionist, and as the farmers hold the balance of power between the gold and silver men, it will probably be granted, and if it is granted the value of wheat in Europe may sink like the value of sugar in England, possibly to 15s. a quarter. It is difficult to conceive what, under such circumstances, would become of British agriculture,— certainly rent could no longer continue to be paid. We warn our landlord readers that this paragraph is serious, and that they should not be deceived by the absence of rumours in the regular telegrams. The advocates in America of the com- peting metals must win the farmers' vote, and they can do it only by conceding a demand which, if Protection is reasonable at all, must be absolutely just. Why should all other industries be protected, and the oldest and best left out in the cold ? The expense will delight the friends of Mr. McKinley, who wish to deplete, not to fill, the national Treasury.

The condition of India is one of notable unrest. The people are unhappy, as we pointed out last week, and, being impelled to anger by successive misfortunes, have fastened on the sani- tary laws as a subject to be angry about. They say that houses are destroyed by the sanitary officers, that ladies' apartments have been entered by English soldiers, and that mosques have been cleaned in a way which " profanes " them, all of which allegations are, we imagine, true, though the intention in all cases has been purely benevolent. In Chitpore, an industrial suburb of Calcutta, the Mussulmans have attacked the police and the millowners with such violence that the military have been called out, with lose of He on both sides. In Poona the people are in a con- spiracy to screen the recent murderous attempt on the sanitary officers, and it has been necessary to garrison the town with a punitive police force, costing £15,000 a year, the expense of which will be levied from the well-to-do. The Mahrattas are obviously excited, and there is too much reason to believe that the wave of Mahommedan reaction caused by the successful and unpunished atrocities in Armenia is spreading among the Mussulman community. There is no reason to fear for the Empire, the white garrison being strong—seventy-five thousand men—but there is reason to fear a series of municipal outbreaks demanding sanguinary repression. Observe that the Jubilee is considered in popular newspapers to indicate the indifference of the Empress-Queen to the sufferings of the people.

No advance whatever has been made by the Concert towards settling terms of peace. It is said that the Am- bassadors have agreed to certain terms,—namely, the cession of the mountain passes of Thessaly, the payment of £4,000,000 sterling under a European guarantee (?), and a reform of the Capitulations; but they are not agreed to shell Yildiz Kiosk in the event of recalcitrancy, and the Sultan, therefore, is not much impressed by their agreement. He holds out for the whole of Thessaly, or at least for the right to occupy the province until the indemnity is paid, and apparently considers that every day's delay is some- thing gained for himself. He forgets that accident is not always in one's favour; but it must be pleasing to his gloomy spirit thus to pour scorn upon the infidel impotences of Europe. It is said that M. Numa Droz, a Swiss administrator who has been President of the Council of the Republic, has been selected as Governor of Crete; but Russia does not like him, and the Sultan will veto the appointment just to show that he is master. Any Anglo- Indian with absolute powers and £200,000 would restore the island to prosperity in five years ; but the Powers would rather the island perished than that an Englishman should save it.

The German Emperor is changing his advisers once more. Prince Hohenlohe will remain Chancellor for the present, at least till the Emperor returns from Russia; but Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, who is out of favour for prosecuting the secret police, will relinquish the Prussian Foreign Office, and Herr von Botticher the Ministry of the Interior ; the former will be replaced by Baron von Billow, an able diplomatist and nothing more, and the latter by Count Posadowsky Wehner. The new names signify little to people in this country, but Germans see in them evidence that William II. is drifting fast in the reactionary direction, that he has fallen under the influence of the ultra-Con- servatives, who are secretly guided by Prince Bismarck, and that he will before long be in open conflict with his Parliament. The subject of contest will be the Navy, the dominant idea being that this arm may be increased as the Army was in 1860-64 if only the Emperor is obstinate enough. There is some ground of apprehension in the mind of German Liberals which does not come out in the papers. but whether it is fear of a coup d'etat, or fear of foreign com- plications, or fear for the Emperor's health, which at present seems good enough, it is difficult accurately to discern.

The Government should assuredly keep a tighter hand over its young men in the Foreign Office. We do not suppose for a moment that Lord Salisbury or any other member of the Cabinet wants to reverse our traditional policy in regard to slavery, yet by not frankly and firmly insisting that slavery shall cease absolutely in Zanzibar, and also on the mainland, they are placing the nation in the most ridiculous and humiliating position. On Monday last Mr. Curzon had to admit that the British authorities on the mainland had actually been forcing British subjects to give up fugitive slaves, and to return them to their masters. The Foreign Office and the Attorney-General, under the pressure of the questions addressed to them, have apparently discovered such action to be illegal, and they have, therefore, telegraphed to her Majesty's Commissioner at Mombassa "informing him that a British subject is breaking the law if he takes part in restoring to his master or otherwise depriving of his liberty any fugitive slave, and instructing him to conform his con- duct to the law thus laid down." We do not think that many of our readers will disagree with us when we say that the nation is profoundly humiliated by the necessity for the sending of such a telegram. That Mr. Curzon should have been forced to send such a telegram to a representative of the Queen throws a lurid light upon the protection and

encouragement that have up till now been given to slavery on the mainland. Surely this incident will convince Lord Salisbury that the slavery problem in Zanzibar is being grossly mismanaged by his subordir ate4, and that he must now insist on a total abolition of the status.

The only Parliamentary debate of importance during the past week was that in the Commons on the Finance Bill. Mr. Dillon proposed to reduce the Tobacco-duty in order to relieve the pressure of indirect taxation, which he holds to be specially unfair to Ireland. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer put it, Mr. Dillon proposed to reduce the Revenue by seven millions in order to save Ireland £800,000. As may be imagined, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach refused to have anything to do with a scheme which must mean an addition of 3d• to the Income-tax. He admitted, however, that tobacco was exceedingly heavily taxed considering its value, and he stated that if he were able to reduce indirect taxation. he should bear tobacco in mind. One difficulty was that if any reduction were made, it must be a large one. If not, the whole benefit would be absorbed by the retail traders. A remission of 4d. in the pound would never reach the consumer. Mr. Courtney stoutly refused to admit that Ireland was unfairly treated in regard to taxation. He evidently inclines, however, to think that the Financial Relations Commission showed that our system of indirect taxation imposes too great a burden on the poorer classes. The inequalities of taxation between rich and poor were, however, less in the United Kingdom than in any other civilised country. Still there were some, and he would rejoice to see them got rid of. Sir William Harcourt also spoke in favour of reducing our indirect taxation, and praised our system of taxing the rich directly rather than the poor indirectly. No doubt we do gain enormous social and political advantages by absolving the working man from all taxes except those from which he can, if he chooses, free himself by becoming a teetotaler and a non-smoker. Still, there must be a limit to this. It would be most unwise to burden the class with incomes of from £300 to £800 a year by a crushing Income-tax. But a. crushing Income-tax is the only alternative to a high tax on tobacco.

Before the House adjourned on Tuesday evening Mr. Balfour read a message from the Queen which has com- pletely put an end to the many unpleasant grumblings and expressions of indignation and resentment at the treatment accorded to the House of Commons when they went in state to present their address. " The Queen," ran the message, " is distressed to hear, now for the first time, through the newspapers that, owing to some unfortunate misunderstanding, all the Members of the House of Commons did not get into the Throne Room on Wednesday last, and thus were prevented from seeing her Majesty, and at the same time her Majesty was unable to see them." Mr. Balfour went on to say that he had received the Queen's gracious command to say that her Majesty wishes to receive all the Members of the House of Commons and their wives at Windsor on the afternoon of Saturday next. That is the proper ending to a very disagreeable incident. The ordinary Member of the House of Commons is possibly too touchy about his dignity, and would have shown more savoir faire had he simply ignored the muddling of the officials. At the same time, as we have pointed out else- where, the whole question of the ceremonial position of the House of Commons wants regulating. Parliament in its collective capacity should be second only to the Sovereign on all great State functions.

The chief ceremonial event of the week has been the Naval Review held at Spithead on Saturday last. One hundred and seventy-three war-vessels of various types were drawn up in four lines, each line being about five miles long. Looking down these spacious water avenues, the spectators saw an endless suc- cession of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, gunboats, and tor- pedo boats, all ranged with the precision of a military camp. Practically the historical anchorage of Spithead was filled to the point of safety with our armed ships. We say " filled " advisedly, for so little room was there left that only a most limited number of large merchaiit-ships were allowed to take up positions to see the Review. The smaller excursion steamers, filled with sightseers were, however, able both before and after the Review to move freely down the lines, and thus the streets of the great sea-city were always filled with traffic. On the outside of the British lines were stationed the war- vessels sent by foreign Powers. The most interesting of these was undoubtedly the Brooklyn,' the new American cruiser, whose four very long, thin funnels and curious build greatly interested the sightseers. The Prince of Wales on the Royal yacht, preceded by the Trinity yacht Irene,' in accord- ance with a privilege as old as the time of Elizabeth, and followed by a number of other steamers, reviewed the fleet by steaming down the lines, and then anchored opposite the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief—Sir Nowell Salmon— and received the flag officers from all the vessels. The Review was probably the most magnificent naval spectacle ever beheld, and the country, though not boastful or aggressive, has experienced a thrill of intense pride. Here was a fleet ready and able to face any naval force in the world, and yet all our distant foreign squadrons are in full strength, and we have in the Mediterranean an unusually powerful fleet. Remember, too, that practically all the vessels at Spithead were ships of modern construction, not obsolete tubs commissioned to make a braver show.

The illumination of the fleet in the evening did not, of course, increase in the least the effect of might, majesty, and dominion produced by the great assembly of battleships. As- a spectacle, however, it was beautiful beyond compare. The electric light required in all modern ships was used to pick out the hulls, fighting tops, masts and spars, and funnels of the vessels. Thus for some twenty miles—there were, as we have said, four lines of ships, each five miles long—the water bore rows of ships outlined in fire. As the ships swung gently at their moorings with the tide, the spectators saw first one and then another vista of ships,—the distant vessels looking like phantom craft, called up the spell of some magician. The yachts and the foreign warships were also illuminated, and used fireworks and coloured lights. The rocket display from the great Russian cruiser was very splendid. It was reserved, however, for the Brooklyn' to make a new and a very striking and beautiful departure in the art of illumination. She flew on her two masts two large flags,—the English and the American. Upon these were turned the vessel's powerful searchlights, and thus the illuminated Union Jack and Stars and Stripes were visible to the whole fleet. It was a most happy inspiration.

The detailed accounts of the terrible storm which swept over Essex last week show that the damage done has been enormous. Not only were crops of all kinds ruined, or partially ruined, in an area of nearly one hundred square miles, but horses and other animals were actually killed in the fields. The hail-stones, as big as " hens' eggs and walnuts," smashed the windows in the houses and crashed through the glass in the forcing-pits and greenhouses, destroying the valuable crops of fruit and vegetables within. In one place the hail descended with such tremendous force that corrugated-iron roofing was riddled, and looked as if grape-shot had been fired into it at close quarters. Epping seems to have been the nearest point to London affected by the storm, which hardly lasted more than ten minutes. The full amount of damage has not yet been estimated, but many farmers are said to have lost sums varying from £100 to £2,000. Essex is certainly a most unfortunate county. Not only is agriculture more depressed there than in any other part of the United Kingdom, or perhaps of the world, but she seems specially liable to damage by the forces of Nature. A few years ago an earthquake caused many thousand pounds worth of damage, and now she has been visited by a tornado of tropical fury. It must be very difficult to till the soil in Essex and not lose heart.

The formal visit of the President of the French Repnblie to St. Petersburg is now, it appears, arranged. The invitation has come from the Czar, and M. Faure will set out on his journey early in August. The Chamber, however, will be asked to vote a credit of £20,000 for expenses, and the Radicals and Socialists intend to protest, urging that so much honour should not be paid by a Republic to a despotic Court. The Liberals would be wiser if they quitted that academic ground, distrusted M. Faure, who is liable to be carried away by grand ceremonies and kindnesses shown to himself personally, and asked for assurances that France should get something solid in return for her rather humiliating complaisanees. At present she has nothing to show for her loans of forty or fifty millions and her armed intervention between China and Japan, not even the right to protect poor little Greece, as she cordially wishes to do. It is not even certain that Russia would move if France were invaded, while it is certain that France might be almost crushed before the effect of Russian mobilisation was fully felt by the members of the Triple Alliance.

One hundred and ninety-nine Bishops of the Anglican Church throughout the world are attending, or will attend, the Conference at Lambeth Palace, which began its pro- ceedings on Wednesday, June 30th. As yet there has been no business done to record, the Bishops having been prin- cipally occupied in religious services, of which one held in Westminster Abbey at 7 p.m. on Thursday was a most striking ceremonial; but the increased number of the Bishops and their representative character make the gathering a most impressive one. They have, of course, no Synodal authority, but any opinion which they might announce with a fair approach to unanimity would, we do not doubt, be received with respect in all Churches of their own communion, and might influence all Protestant Churches throughout the world. A very weighty word, for example, might be said, if the time is ripe, as to the relation they think desirable between Anglicanism and "the Holy Orthodox Church," another on its true relation to Nonconformity, and a third on the most difficult of all missionary questions,—the treat- ment of polygamy among Christian converts.

Full details of the loss of the P. and 0. Company's steamer 'Aden' were received in London on Monday, the Daily Mail publishing a telegram of two columns transmitted from Aden in advance of solar time, — a. remarkable evidence of the application of energy and capital to the transmission of news. The vessel was struck on June 3rd by a monsoon storm, and on June 9th, after six days of terrible weather, she struck on a reef off the island of Socotra. Boat after boat was launched and swamped, only one getting away, and this is believed to have been subsequently drowned. The captain, whose leg had been broken, was swept away, and for seventeen days the crew and the remainder of the passengers left on the wreck awaited death from the waves, which now and again swept one of them away, or from starvation, which they had every reason to expect. The remnant displayed admirable fortitude, helping one another as well as they could, and on June 22nd, when the storm had lasted thirteen days, they kept the Jubilee, huddling together to sing the National Anthem, a striking instance of the patriotism which with Englishmen outside England seems to live in their very blood. One or; two steamers approached, but did not notice them; and at last, after seventeen days of exposure and misery, the great waves constantly breaking over them, the sufferers were taken off with great difficulty by the boats of the ' Mayo,' belonging to the Royal Indian Marine. Seventy-eight lives in all were lost of passengers and crew, and only forty-five were saved, of whom thirty-three were native sailors. A lighthouse is needed on Socotra, and should be established there at once.

The literary wealth of Great Britain has been diminished this week by the death of Mrs. Oliphant, who expired on Friday week at Wimbledon, aged sixty-nine. By birth a Scotchwoman, she devoted herself at an early age to literature, and her first or second novel, "Mrs. Margaret Maitland "—which was, we believe, rather a loving sketch of her mother than a work of fiction—at once established her reputation. Thenceforward she worked incessantly, writing almost every month for Blackwood's Magazine, preparing biographies and histories, and pouring out novels, often at the rate of two a year. These novels were, as is natural, of unequal merit; but though three or four are pleasant stories of an ordinary kind, in seven or eight she rivalled Sir Walter Scott, in six or seven she might contest with Miss Austen the palm of a humorous appreciation of society, and in one, "The Beleaguered City," she revealed an original genius for dealing with supernatural machinery absolutely lonely in kind. There is nothing in the least like it is all literature. Except as regards this book Mrs. Oliphant has never quite received her due meed of admiration, but we believe as time goes on she will be placed by universal consent among the front rank of those writers of fiction who have adorned the Victorian Era.

The Revenue Returns for the past quarter are very satis- factory, for they show an improvement of £1,404,779 over the corresponding quarter of last year. Of this, however, only about a million belongs to the Imperial Exchequer. The rest goes to the Local Taxation account. Customs and Excise are better by about half a million, Death-duties by £620,541, stamps by £100,000, and Income-tax by £150,000. The posts and telegraph also show an increase of £100,000. The only decrease is under "Miscellaneous," and amounts to £162,000. Of course it is too early to feel confident, but it certainly looks as if we should have another large surplus. The Jubilee, however, has not been good for general business, and the effect may be noticeable in the next quarter.

Moneylending is in one way very like gambling, nobody can formulate a reason for regarding it as morally wrong, and yet it somehow affronts the moral sense. On Tuesday, for instance, Mr. Isaac Samuel, managing director of Fielding and Co., appeared before the Committee on Money- lending, and admitted that in one particular transaction " the interest worked out at 179 per cent.; " and then the fol- lowing conversation occurred :—" Are you prepared to take your oath you have never charged 1,000 per cent. interest ?- I could not swear.—Or 1,500 per cent. P—I do not think we have.---Will you swear you have not charged 2,000 per cent. P —I do not think we have.—Will you swear it P—No ; we never calculate the interest except on a bill of sale, and therefore I cannot swear what I am not sure about." We cannot even think of a reason why it is wrong to charge 1,000 per cent. or 10,000 per cent. for interest, if both borrower and lender fully understand the transaction, and yet all decent men would feel such a demand to be revolting. We suppose the explanation is the feeling that no one would pay such a rate except under &mese ; but then is not any unusual rate paid under duresse ? We are not sure, after reading Mr. Samuel's evidence, that the true remedy would not be to authorise unlimited interest, and de-legalise every other charge made by the lender. Would not competition come in then as it does in every other business ?

A private meeting of the South African Committee was held on Tuesday in order to consider the Report. Though no official announcement was made, it was decided to recall and re-examine Miss Flora Shaw. Miss Shaw's examination took place on Friday, but too late to allow any comment from us. We shall therefore refrain from making any reference to the matter till next week.

Mr. Bryce on Thursday, speaking at the North London Collegiate School, expressed a rather unusual view on the education of women. Englishmen, he said, were wholly occupied in business or in sports. They preferred the body to the mind, and he looked forward to a time when literature and culture had declined among them, and the highly-trained women would take the place of the men. That seems to us a very rash prophecy. To begin with, the pursuit of literature or knowledge is as much a business as any other, and the men who feel its attraction wily devote themselves to it as ardently as either to sport or money-making. Does Mr. Bryce really think that begause there is a great desire for prosperity and amusement there will be no poets, no historians, no theologians, none who delight in litera- ture as at once the only business worth pursuing, and the only amusement in which it is possible for them to feel genuine interest? Literature is not at its highest level just now, but when was the interest in it so keen or so widespread ? We fear Mr. Bryce, who was talking to a girls' school, was overpowered by his audience, and tempted to give them back in a flood what they gave him in vapour.

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

New Consols (2) were on Friday, 1121.