NEWS OF THE WEEK.
1HE week has been overshadowed by the American dispute, and the general position of the westion remained most unsatisfactory at its close. According to all accounts received from America, the Government at Washington had received from London a tern- .perate, possibly over-temperate, communication stating that England had not agreed, and could not agree, to submit the indirect claims to arbitration, and requesting that they might be withdrawn ; had considered the despatch, and had decided not to withdraw their case, or indeed to do anything except await the action of Great Britain. If this account is correct, nothing remains but to renounce the Treaty, and retire to await the next opportunity of a general settlement. The President .can, if he pleases, seize this opportunity to declare war, for which we are at least as well prepared as he can be, but the general drift of opinion on both sides of the Atlantic points rather to a bitter correspondence ending in the renunciation of the Treaty, and leaving both nations dissatisfied and irritable, but not at war. There is no evidence that the mass of the American people understand the emergency, and a good deal to suggest that the Government of the United States is partly yielding to fear of losing the Irish and Chauvinist vote at the next election. The Herald shrieks for war.
