NEWS OF THE WEEK • T HE change which is passing

over the combinations of Europe is curiously indicated by an article in the Times of Friday. That journal is seldom misinformed as to the tone, at all events, of the Foreign Office, and on Friday its conductors accepted the alliance between France and Russia as distinctly beneficial to Europe. The writer is speaking of the visit which M. Faure is to pay to St. Peters- burg in July, and he says :—" A broad and intelligent con- ception of our national interests may well dispose us to look favourably upon a combination which has hitherto operated to steady the course of European politics and to promote that general tranquillity which is one of this country's first preoccupations." Unless we are greatly mistaken, those words imply a possible rapprochement between this country and the Franco-Russian alliance which will materially affect the Eastern question, and will be received in Berlin with angry consternation. They have been trying there to divide England and Russia, and the papers actually publish state- ments that England is trying to bribe the Turkish Ministers with cash to oppose Russia.

Sir Philip Carrie seems to be well hated in Berlin. The storythere, and in those papers of Vienna which obey a German inspiration, is that the British Ambassador at Constantinople is a brute, that he always affronts the Sultan, and that he stated at the Conference of Tuesday that England would not surren- der Christians to be governed by Mahommedans. What he did say, we doubt not, was that the Turks had so governed Christians of late that itwas impossible to place more Christians under their control. It was time that should be said, and we greatly doubt whether a brusque truthfulness is a bad quality in dealing with Orientals, who suspect all who are suave of sinister designs. Sir William White, who was of herculean build, who could not moderate his voice, and who had a habit of ." speaking out," had immense influence with the Sultan, who hears lies with the incredulity of the Scotchman who re- marked after listening with apathy to some "tall" story, "I'm a leear masel." Asiatics reverence truth as Europeans do diamonds, on account, first of all, of the scarcity of the precious commodity.

Rumours about the struggle in Constantinople are circu- lating by the dozen, the bulletin-makers reporting every day

contradictory gossip from the bazaars. It is certain, however, that the Sultan has not given way about the retrocession of Thessaly, and we believe the central truth of the situation is best defined by the Standard's correspondent. He is very well informed, and he forwards the following textual trans- lation of the decision arrived at by the Council of Ministers sitting in the presence of the Sultan, after the interview between Tewfik Pasha and the Ambassadors :—" His Majesty's Ministers consider the evacuation of Thessaly to be impossible, but see no necessity for precipitate action. Being in possession, the Porte is able to wait patiently and indefinitely, while academically discussing the point with the Powers. It is to be regretted that during this period a heavy expense must fall upon the Treasury, but it must be remembered, in com- pensation, that the administration of Thessaly will be proportionately more assured to Turkey."

It appears to be certain that the Ambassadors of Great Britain, France, and Italy have refused to consider the cession of Thessaly to Turkey, and we give elsewhere reasons for believing that Russia will sway or is swaying to the same side. The Government of Austria does not care one way or the other, wishing only to avert an outbreak of the Eastern question, but it must adhere for the present to Germany, which desires, from whatever motive, to humiliate Greece and conciliate Turkey. That Government, therefore, presses for the "financial control" of Greece by Europe, to which Greece is bitterly opposed, and Germany is believed to be the author of the suggestion that Turkey should not claim Thessaly, but only "rectification of frontier up to the Peneus." That is to say, the Sultan should waive his claim to the egg, but demand the yolk. The Ambassadors are clearly at their wits' end, and to gain time are sending Commissions of experts into Thessaly to ascertain what indemnity Greece can pay. That step exactly suits the Turks, who only ask for time, and are pouring Mussulman colonies into Thessaly. It is now said that true peace depends so much upon details that no final arrangement can be made before 1898, and that the Turkish troops must meanwhile "occupy their positions."

Lord Salisbury has succeeded in making a Treaty with China which the French, at all events, think exceedingly important, and which when the railway from Dacca to Bhatno across Burmah is completed will undoubtedly enrich the new Lieutenant-Governorship. We will not worry our readers with names which even old Anglo-Indians do not know, and cannot find on their maps, but the drift of the Treaty is this. The Chinese do not " cede " but lease the perpetual sovereignty of the wild tract between Burmah and Yunnan, and cede a small Shan State, which commands one entrance to it. They permit two Consuls to be stationed in Yunnan, they oven two frontier towns to trade as freely as the Treaty Ports are opened, and they promise if they build railways in Yunnan to connect them with those of Bnrmah. Yunnan railways are dreams, but trade by caravan will henceforward be free, and have two good depote, and the moment the Dacca-Bhamo Railway is built, will be most important. We do not understand the delay in sanctioning this railway. There seems to be some hesitation at home about the probable traffic, but surely a road which connects the sixty millions of Bengal with the sixty millions of South-Western China, and en route mops up the trade of a province like Northern Barmah, must pay expenses.

The trial of Herr von Tausch, head of the secret political police of Berlin, ended in a verdict of acquittal. He was not tried, of course, the country being Prussia, for abuse of his powers, but for perjury in certain evidence which he had given against a creature of his own, one Von Liitzow, who has already been punished, and of this offence there was no sufficient proof. The facts which came out in the trial were very curious, the main one being that the secret police, which surrounded the Emperor himself with a network of spies, made great efforts, in the interest, it is believed, of a reactionary party, to prejudice the Emperor, as absolute master of the Executive, against his Ministers. One of those Ministers, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, the Foreign Secretary, was the real prosecutor, and as the Emperor con- siders the prosecution ill-advised, and as it has failed, it is doubted if he will be permitted to retain office. He has already received three months' leave of absence, and it is said the High Conservative party is in great exultation at his approaching fall. There seems to be no intention of abolishing the secret police, and very little hope that it will confine itself to its proper function of ferreting out crime. It is, in truth, an institution almost essential to autocracy, and reappears in every country where that system prevails, always performing the same double function of protecting and alarming the Sovereign who trusts it.

The Police Regulations for the Jubilee Day, June 22nd, appear to have been studied with much care. Their central idea is evidently to diminish the pressure of the vast multi- "tilde expected, and to avoid the risk of the usual rush from South to North, by cutting London sharply in two. The passage of vehicles across the bridges is prohibited between 7.30 a.m. and 3.0 p.m., and of pedestrians between 9.30 a.m. and the same hour, and neither class is allowed on any pre- tence to stop on a bridge. We fancy that is wise, and it is quite fair, as the procession is to move through both North and South London. Vehicles, moreover, and horsemen are forbidden to approach within one hundred yards of the route of the procession after 7.30 a.m., an exception being made for carriages carrying sightseers with tickets for seats, who are allowed to traverse the reserved streets until 10.30 a.m. Progress, however, will be so slow that the seat-holders and window-owners will do well to be in their places before 9 a.m., and will be fortunate if they get away by 4 p.m. Scrambling for coppers is forbidden, lest it should cause rashes; but the police seem to have shrunk from the equally necessary order forbidding smoking, and the consequent casting away of half- extinguished matches. It must be remembered, too, by all classes, and especially all who wish to pass through the Green Park, that it is forbidden to break lines of troops, an etiquette which often causes unexpected delays. The most real danger, that of stampedes from fright or from horses getting unruly, cannot be prevented by any regulations, and although there is no reason to expect any catastrophe or any accident, we fancy Sir E. Bradford will be heartily glad when the day is over. His responsibilities would crush many men.

The contingents of Colonial troops continue to pour into London. Men from the New South Wales Mounted Rifles, military police from Cyprus, Haussas from the Niger, and Dyaks from Borneo have been here some time, and on Thurs- day arrived volunteers from Natal, and troopers from Queens- land and New Zealand,—some of them English and some Maoris. The horses for the Canadian Mounted Police have already arrived, and the men will follow shortly. The troops we have named by no means complete the roll, for almost every Colony and possession, besides India, will be repre- sented. All the world knew of the great force possessed by us in India, but the exhibition of the military resources of the rest of the Empire will come to most Englishmen as a surprise. Though the native troops are of course exceedingly picturesque as well as good fighting material, foreign critics will not be able to tell us that, like Carthage, we are depend- ing on black and yellow mercenaries. The most serious and important part of the little "sample" army of the Empire now assembling in London consists of white men from the great Colonies,—men of our own flesh and blood, and as ready to stand by the Empire as any British-born Englishman. Mr. Seddon, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, struck a fine note when he said that Macaulay's prophecy would never be fulfilled, because England could not go under till New Zealand had also succumbed. If England became a desert there would be no New Zealander left to sit on a broken arch of London Bridge while he sketched the ruins of St. Paul's.

The election for the Petersfield division of Hampshire resulted on Tuesday in the return of the Conservative candi- date by a majority of 420 (Mr. Nicholson polling 3,748 votes against 3,328 given for the Radical, Mr. Bonham-Carter). The Conservative majority was, however, reduced by more than one-half from the majority of 1892, when it was 904 instead of 420. The explanation is, no doubt, in a great measure this, that in 1892 the Irish Home-rule question was still of the greatest importance, while last Tuesday nobody believed that Irish Home-rule remains a practical question at all, so that any one who had any personal sympathy for Mr. Bonham-Carter felt himself at liberty to vote for Mr. Bonham-Carter without any anxiety as to the result of his vote on the Irish Home-rule question. There is no privilege which the English elector seems to value more than the right at a by-election to vote for the candidate opposed to his own party.

The Ministerial crisis in Spain has ended in an unexpected way. The Queen-Regent, after consulting Marshal Martinez Campos and others, decided that the Cuban question could not be settled as the Liberals desired, and consequently recalled the Conservative Ministry, which had resigned. Selior Canovas accordingly resumed the Premiership. making no change in his Cabinet, and the Cortes were prorogued. The secret is said to be that negotiations are going on which only the Duke of Tetuan (Marshal O'Donnell) can manage, and that the Queen-Regent fears the consequences of removing him from office. It looks to us very much as if the Spanish Government ex- pected the United States to interfere in Cuba, and was secretly endeavoating to meet that contingency by means of alliances, possibly, among others, with Japan, which is exces- sively angry with Hawaii for prohibiting Japanese immigra- tion, and with the Government of Washington for sheltering Hawaii. We see, however, as yet, no sign that Mr. McKinley is departing from his predecessor's policy as to Cuba. The Jingoes have carried the Senate, and may, the Nation, we perceive, thinks, carry the Representatives, but the President gives no sign of any wish for war. His idea, apparently, is to. advise Spain and scold Spain, but not to attack Spain, which on her side will disregard mere words.

• The French Chamber was indulged with a grand "scene" on Saturday. The Chamber was drearily debating the action of Government during a recent strike when M. Gerault Richard, a Socialist Member, began to interrupt, and on the Centre pointing him out as the author of the disturbance, styled them "a gang of spies." The President, M. Brisson, called for a formal " censure " by the House, and on M. Richard defying him, moved his temporary exclusion. This was carried, but M. Richard refused to go, and it was necessary to send for soldiers, whose Colonel touched him on the shoulder. M. Jaures then proposed to discuss the Standing Orders, and when permission was refused the whole Socialist party flung insults at M. Brisson, as an "old rascal" who deserved death or dis- missaL M. Brisson, though greatly moved, retained his dignity, but at last was compelled, as in old Revolutionary times, to declare the sitting terminated. The marvel of the scene is that M. Brisson is almost a Jacobin, and that the Socialists in beginning it broke away from their Initial allies, the extreme Radicals. Such scenes in France do not mean quite what they would here, but they deepen the cleavages which make it impossible for the groups to act together. The Right, for instance, quote such conduct as proof that the Socialists are either mad or men entirely carried away by malignant hatred for order of any kind, even order within the Representative Chamber.

On Tuesday at the Royal United Service Institution'Admira/ Colomb read a very interesting paper on the future of the torpedo. He declared that England had practically given in to the great power of the torpedo—(1) by declaring provision of shelter harbours an absolute necessity ; (2) by declaring that battleships at sea required the protection of torpedo- vessels; and (3) by producing a type of torpedo-vessel which must be more completely master of the battleship than any- thing ever heard of before. Fifteen destroyers acting together could drive one battleship off the sea. How could we speak of battleships commanding the sea when they must at night seek the shelter of close harbours? One could not command the sea only by daylight. Suppose twenty French battleships at Toulon

We could not overawe them by sending twenty-five of our battle- ships, because those twenty-five would not dare to challenge the French torpedo-boats. If, however, we sent twenty-five destroyers it would be the French battleships, not ours, which would be in a condition of dread. Evidently Admiral Colomb believes that the battleship of the future is an armoured torpedo-vessel able to keep the sea and comfortable to live in, with seven or eight knots more speed than any armoured gun- ship of the present type. Possibly there is an answer to Ad miral Colomb's revolutionary paper, but primci facie there seems a good deal for his theory. We presume that the advocates of the present battleships armed with great guns would say,

We shall sink your destroyer before she gets near enough to us to discharge her torpedo." But suppose the battleship to be worried by six destroyers at once? Can she be sure of oinking them all in time?

The Times of Monday, quoting from an article by Prince Kropotkin in the Geographical Journal, gives some extremely interesting figures as to the first general census of the Russian Empire, made on February 9th, 1897. The total population of the Empire is in round figures 130,000,000, and of these almost exactly half are women. The density of the population to the square mile is 2.5. In 1851 the total popula- tion was estimated at only 67,000,000. If the early figures 'were accurate, which, however, is improbable, Russia has nearly doubled her population in forty-six years. Poland appears to be the most densely populated portion of the Empire. Russia can show some nineteen great towns. St. Petersburg has 1,267,023, Moscow has close on 1,000,000, and Warsaw has over 500,000 people. The census does not of course express, except mutely, what is the great fact about Russia. She possesses, waiting for development, a country as large and as rich in natural resources as the West of America. Fifty years ago what are now the Western States were as wild and as undeveloped as Siberia. It is curious to wonder whether at the end of the next fifty years the Russians will be able to boast of cities like Chicago and San Francisco, and thousands or miles of railway, all between Southern Asia and the Arctic Ocean. It would be interesting to know exactly how many of Russia's 130,000,000 are white men, and how many not. We should ourselves guess the non-white population at some 20,000,000.

Yesterday week Mr. Preece, Engineer-in-Chief to the Postal Telegraph Department, delivered a most interesting lecture at the Royal Institution on the transmission of electric signals' through space without the help of wires. These signals have been sent across the Bristol Channel to a distance of nine miles ; and it is now intended to connect Sark with Guernsey by their help. No atmospheric change affects the electric signal,—rain, fog, snow, and wind in no way interfering with it. We are even told that some of the American electricians think that the signal can be ultimately sent to any distance, however great, though at present it has only been transmitted for about nine miles ; but this American opinion is as yet only conjectural. As the " receiver " of the message needs no kind of physical connection with its electric origin except the ether, we conclude that it must be radiated in every direction to the greatest distance at which the receiver will be sensitive enough to record it, so that the same message might be read off at every point in the sphere to which the ether would carry it, supposing that there was a receiver at every such point and one so tuned as to be in harmony with the instrument which had been used for the despatch of the message from the other side. Secrecy, however, could be insured by so tuning the receiver that no one who had not the key to the instrument on the other side could decipher it. Probably no greater discovery has been made since that of the electric telegraph itself, than this discovery that the ether itself can be made to conduct messages without any special conducting wire.

Mr. Bryce spoke at Aberdeen on Tuesday to the members of the Cairngorm Club on the preservation of natural scenery. He said that there are three deadly enemies of fine natural scenery,—advertisements, especially quack medicines, com- mercial companies, and railways. The Aluminium Company, for instance, had destroyed the beauty of the Falls of Foyers, and he held that such scenes as the Falls of Foyers are of greater value to the nation at large than even a company for

the manufacture of aluminium. It was desirable to give the nation power to protect a scene of great natural beauty from destruction even by a commercial enterprise of con- siderable value. There are some scenes of more value for their grandeur and beauty than that for which any railway could be regarded as an equivalent, for though railways bring new visitors to grand scenes, if they destroy the effect produced in the mind by the magnificence of those scenes, they deprive the nation, to which those scenes in some sense belong, of much more than that for which the easier access to them after they have been thus spoiled, can possibly compensate it. Mr. Bryce therefore advocated extending to such scenes the legislation passed to protect ancient monu- ments. And we think Mr. Bryce perfectly right. We have long admitted that private property is hardly to be treated as so exclusively private that the nation may not question the right of the owner to destroy its grandest features. Otherwise it would be as much the right of the Wiltshire proprietor of Stonehenge to break up the old dolmens for the mending of the roads, as to plough up a fertile acre for grass or wheat.

The Pope is evidently very anxious to maintain the spiritual right and obligation of the Church to overrule its political sympathies wherever these sympathies interfere with its spiritual principles. He has just been reasserting the duty of French Catholics to obey the State, even though that State be a Republic. He condemns all Catholics who are disposed to ignore what they owe to assar, when their duty to Cmsar is part of what they owe to God. And not only has he done this, but he has put forth a Whitsun- tide letter to his "venerable brethren" on the doctrine of the Trinity and the Holy Ghost, as if to remind them that they owe him as much obedience in relation to theological doctrine as they do in relation to ecclesiastical discipline. So many of his recent pastorals have had more or less relation to ecclesiastical discipline, that he seems to have been anxious to issue at Whitsuntide a purely theological address to his clergy lest there should be any tendency to forget his theological in his ecclesiastical authority. The letter on the third person in the Trinity is, indeed, very interesting and significant, as showing how earnestly Leo XIII. ponders the theology of his Church as well as the drift of its ecclesiastical orders. Though he does not seem inclined to make peace with the Italian kingdom, he certainly takes pains to let all the world know that his quarrel with Italy is, in his own opinion, rather spiritual than political.

The blow inflicted on South Africa by the rinderpest must have been very terrible. It -has swept Rhodesia, has annihi- lated the herds in Khama's country, has temporarily ruined Bechuanaland, has prostrated the farmers of the Transvaal, and has now struck Cape Colony itself with such virulence that all plans for dealing with it have been officially abandoned. It is useless to shoot down infected herds, every kind of game distributing the poison, and there is no confidence felt in any system of inoculation. The only thing to be done is to help the farmers to replenish their yards with imported stock, and with the few beasts which have escaped and which may be presumed from some unknown cause to be free from liability. The worst of it is that as the pest descends from Central Africa, where the conditions of animal life always remain the same, there is, and can be, no guarantee against its periodical recur- rence. Africa is not a nice continent. Do the herds, by the way, in,South Africa get salt enough ? We ask in ignorance, but it is -certain that the large graminivora crave for salt, and probably in doing so obey a self-preservative instinct.

A telegram was received in London on Friday afternoon announcing a disaster in India. Some three hundred men of the let Sikhs and 1st Punjab Infantry were resting at a place called Tochi, on the Afghan frontier, when they were sur- prised by a large body of hillmen. Three officers and twenty- five men were killed, and a number wounded, and the force, as it retreated, was pursued for miles. The misforberne is a sad one for the relatives of the three officers, Colonel Bunny, Captain Browne, and Lieutenant Cruikehank, but it is of no political importance. The tribe will be crushed either by our- selves or by the Ameer, and subjected to a heavy fine.

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

New Consols (21-) were on Friday, M. •