3 MAY 1890, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

MAY-DAY has come and gone, and proved a success for the workmen and a failure for the revolutionists. It was a success for the workme n,eatu!e they showed that they could, if the.y- pleased, " demonstrate " all over Europe at once, atarbecause they were able to compel abstinence from r)rovocation. It was a failure for the revolutionists, because it froved that whenever the Governments are determined, the fight goes out of the " men of action." In Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vienna, and a score of other cities, the same scene was witnessed, the workmen, or a large section of them, keeping holiday, the Governments holding troops ready with orders to fire on rioters, and anarchists of all kinds looking on angry but paralysed. In Berlin, the defeat of the party of disorder was accentuated by the fact that less than 10 per cent. of the workmen quitted their work for the day. Not one life was taken anywhere, and, so far as appears, the cele- bration of the day left no bitterness behind it. The petitions sent in to the different Parliaments were usually for shorter hours, and the Parliaments showed their view of the demon- strations by insitlpg that deputations should not be large. Another side to the matter may appear when letters arrive, but according to the telegrams, quiet people were not inter- fered with anywhere. Events, in fact, did not justify the antecedent panic.