NEWS OF THE WEEK.

GREECE has submitted to the Powers, but Turkey has not. That is, in few words, the broad fact of the situation. The Greek Court, after some demur about forms, which annoyed Lord Salisbury, but which seems to have been necessary to avoid a promise to accept any terms, promised to evacuate Crete. The pride of the German Emperor being thus soothed, his Minister at Athens received instructions, and the six Ambassadors at Constantinople requested an armistice for the purpose of negotiation. Up to Friday noon the Sultan had returned no answer, and it is understood that the military party at the Porte, who are elated by the military successes of Turkey, insist that Edhem Pasha should have a last chance of ending the war by a Sedan. If he can get behind Domoko, it is said, the Crown Prince must capitulate or perish fighting, and he (Edhem) is trying to secure this crowning triumph. He believes, probably on good information, that the Greeks, who have not enough to eat, no wine, and, we fear, insufficient cartridges, will surrender, and then the Sultan, who is raising troops by the fifty thousand, may, it is -hoped by Pashas, dictate his own terms. What those terms really are is not known ; but it is believed that they include an indemnity of £5,000,000, the surrender of the Fleet, an occupation of Larissa until the money is paid, the exclusion of Greece from the Capitulations, and the retention of a Turkish garrison in Crete to "protect the Mussulman in. habitants,"—that is, in fact, to shell the Cretans at discretion, as happened in Belgrade.

These terms will not be accepted, but the way in which the Powers will act is still obscure. Lord Salisbury may wish the terms to be easier, but his rule of action seems to be that Great Britain must not be left in an isolated position. She must do what " the others " do, at all events till the Jubilee is over. France will be highly irritated, but is paralysed by the desire to keep in the Russian wake. Germany poses as the bosom friend of the Sultan, and draws Austria with her, though Austria looks askance at the demand for the Greek Fleet as a dangerous precedent. There remains Russia, and, curiously enough, Russian action is very doubtful. The Government of St. Petersburg has been hard on Greece, but it is alarmed and annoyed by the independence of Turkey, it does not forget that Greeks belong to the Holy Orthodox Church, and it remembers that while the King of Greece is a brother of the Empress-Mother, he married a Russian brand Duchess. M. Nelidoff has therefore instructions to press for lenity, and as those instructions carry France, and may embolden England, the military Pashas in Constantinople may consider moderation most expedient.

The negotiations will hardly be rapid, for the Sultan abso-

I

utelY will have money, and the German Emperor wishes to protect his German financiers, who, with their dependents and customers, hold nearly half the Greek Debt. Deeply imbedded in the correspondence will therefore be a demand for European control of Greek finance. Turkey does not like that because of the precedent, and Greece abhors that because when worked by German agents it may be fatal to her inde- pendence. Unless, therefore, the Greek millionaires intervene, and conciliate Yildiz Kiosk, the discussion on this subject may take weeks, during which Thessaly will be stripped of all her cattle and movables, Crete will be in anarchy, and the unhappy villagers of Epirus will receive "a lesson" on the moral duty of loving Turks. The prospect in this direction is very black, the only gleam of light being that the Sultan is really anxious for quiet, daring which his Generals may be powerless. He is more suspicions of them than of the Powers,—quite rightly, from his point of view.

Is Greece really quite powerless ? According to all the best accounts she is. The preparations for war were hope- lessly inadequate, the artillery in particular being quite in- sufficient for a campaign, while the commissariat is worse organised than ours was in the Crimea. The Staff has proved itself inept, the ranks are fall of untrained men, and there is hardly any cavalry at all. The only officer with supreme authority is the Crown Prince, whose general orders are bombastic and disconnected with the facts, and the Fleet is unintelligibly inactive. The people may in their despair find a chief, and fight in a new way, with a new spirit ; but with the Turkish army advancing and Europe looking sneeringly on, there is no source of hope for Greece which reasonable men will trust. Greece, in fact, is learning the horrible lesson of our day, that the optimist philosophers are fools, and that the people which will not organise itself on the theory that the world is governed by military force will sooner or later go under. We hope England will profit by the experience, but we have not much confidence. The extra half-million a year granted in the Budget to the Navy ought to have gone to the Artillery.

Lord Salisbury on Monday, in answer to Lord Kimberley, gave a most important account of the position of the negotia- tions for peace. After mentioning certain causes of delay, which have since disappeared, he said, " I have only to answer for ourselves, and our instructions have been to join in any procedure for the purpose of entering on mediation which is acceptable to the others. In our view the main point is, if possible, to arrest the effusion of blood." That is not the main point. The future freedom of Eastern Europe is far more important than any present expenditure of lives, and that freedom may be imperilled if Great Britain suffers her- self to be contented because "the others" profess themselves satisfied. If the Premier's instructions referred only to points of form, they are unobjectionable ; but we fear they indicate the spirit in which we enter into the negotiations. Great Britain has no policy of her own, but only assents to what "the others" do, whose motive may be anything except the wish to secure either freedom or good government for the populations of Eastern Europe.

Baron Banffy, the Hungarian Premier, made an interesting statement in Parliament on Wednesday. He affirmed that there had been daring recent events no relaxation of the Triple Alliance, "which constitutes the immutable basis of Austro-Hungarian foreign policy." He admitted, neverthe- less, that there was " an identity of purpose " between Russia and Austro-Hungary as regarded policy in the East, that policy being in the main to preserve the status quo. The Concert had not prevented war, but in his judgment it had localised it. This means, of course, that the three Emperors have the same policy, for the old Triple Alliance ceases

to exist if Austria and Germany pursue a separate course in Eastern questions. This is what we have predicted all along, and the question now is whether France considers itself in the Eastern question bound to Russia. If she is, the whole Continent is of one mind, and England must either follow or stand alone ; but we find it difficult to believe that this is the permanent mind of France. How can it serve her to be dragged at the heels of the German Emperor, who under the Triple Alliance and the agreement as to the " identic purpose " of the three Emperors, becomes the arbiter of Europe ?

In the House of Commons on Tuesday Major Rasch moved that the duration of speaking in Parliament " has increased, is increasing, and should be abated." There were Members who spoke for a couple of hours, others who never thought of speaking under an hour, and others again whose pride and boast it was never to take less than forty minutes. In earlier times certain names recurred in the reports of the debates like recurring decimals ; the rest sat silent waiting for their apotheosis or translation, to the House of Lords. The descendants of those men sat now in the House of Lords, and they attended the sittings of that assembly as infrequently, and spoke as seldom, as their fathers did in the House of Commons. Now, however, Members of the House of Commons were forced to speak and bring in Bills by their constituents, whether they liked it or not. He himself once introduced a Bill for the compulsory marking of shrimps, in obedience to the order of his constituents. He did not wish to insist on any special conditions, but his own idea was an hour for right hon. gentlemen and fifteen minutes for private Members. The whole speech was in excellent taste as well as very funny, —so much so, indeed, that we should be very sorry to see Major Rasch tied down to a quarter of an hour. Otherwise we are entirely with Major Rasch and the Members who supported him and ultimately carried the motion by 61 (85 to 24), in deploring the loquacity of the House of Commons. tit the same time, we doubt the efficacy of a time limit. Four bores speaking for fifteen minutes each are not the slightest improvement on one bore speaking for an hour.

On Thursday the House of Commons passed the second reading of the Foreign Prison-Made Goods Bill by a majority of 131 (221 to 90). Under the Bill, if any one can prove that roods are prison-made, they will not be allowed to enter the 3onntry. It was admitted by Mr. Ritchie that the competi- tion with home goods was not very serious, but still a small glass were distinctly injured. The Opposition speakers attacked the Bill with great fierceness, and especially taunted Hr. Chamberlain with responsibility for the Bill. This drew forth a marvellously able debating speech from Mr. Chamber- lain, which delighted, if it did not convince, the whole House. Hr. Bryce replied by declaring that as a remedy the Government Bill was not worth trying. "It was a sham and an imposture From beginning to end." We must confess that we feel very ittle satisfaction in regard to the measure. The consumer who is menaced by the Bill seems apathetic, but even from the electoral point of view he may turn out worth considering.

The political notes in Friday's Times state that the Government have come ,to certain decisions—not very easy to fathom—in regard totheir treatment of the Irish Agricul- tural question. Apparently they are going to grant a Com- mission to inquire into the way in which rents are fixed, and also, considering the probable abandonment of the Agricul- tare and Industries Bill, to make an alternative proposal in regard to the way in which the relief granted under the Rating Act is to be expended. We most sincerely trust that this does not mean that Mi. Gerald Balfour's Bill embodying the proposals of the Recess Committee is going to be dropped. To do that would be to postpone some of the most useful pro- posals ever made in Ireland merely because they do not excite the interest of the party politician on either side. The fact that the Irish politicians do not care in the least for Mr. Gerald Balfour's Bill is an imperative argument for passing it into law. What Ireland wants is the steady industrial and social progress which that Bill encourages. We implore the Government not to throw away this chance of doing a piece, of really good work in Ireland.

Speaking at Merthyr Tydvil on Friday, May 7th, Mr. Morley, after giving Lord Salisbury great credit for his efforts towards the conclusion of an Arbitration Treaty with America, expressed astonishment at the Satisfactionithich the Prime Minister 'professed to find in the present situation. "They saw," said Mr. Morley, ‘. the Sultan Japghing, they saw Greece bleeding, and they saw the Prime Minister making a jest of it." That was good party fighting, but Mr. Morley went far more to the heart of the matter when he directly challenged Lord Salisbury's policy, and asked the electors " whether they would allow any Minister, Liberal or Conservative, to protect the integrity of the Turkish Empire." That is the touch- stone by which our foreign policy in the East ought to be tried. Of course, if all the rest of the world agrees to main- tain the domination of the Turkish Empire over its Christian subjects we cannot say them nay ; but we ought at any rate to dissociate ourselves from so monstrous a policy. The rest of Mr. Morley's speech was taken up with references to South Africa. The Government had shown admirable firmness at the time of the Raid. Had they shown the same good feeling since ? Mr. Morley next asked in regard to Mr. Rhodes, how it was that "the man who was at the bottom of this criminal plot was still walking abroad suffering none of the penalties imposed on his subordinates." That is a very pertinent question, and one which the Government will be obliged to face the moment the Committee has reported. After putting in a strong plea for some form of arbitration in regard to alleged breaches of the Convention, Mr. Morley declared that he was " all for standing up for all legal rights, and for resisting unjustified interferences from Europe and from outside."

Lord Rosebery in opening the Nelson Hall and West-End branch of the Edinburgh Free Library on Monday made one of those clever set orations which are his speciality. We have alluded elsewhere to his plea for just and independent judgment on public affairs, and his comments on newspaper reading, which constituted the chief part of his speech, and will, therefore, only note here the very interesting experiment in public benevolence to which Lord Rosebery drew atten- tion. The late Mr. Thomas Nelson left £50,000 to build four institutions, which are unique in their kind, being nothing less than club-rooms attached to ordinary free libraries,—" club- rooms," to use Lord Rosebery's words, " where, in the large- and liberal phraseology of the testator, persons of the work- ing class can go to sit, write, read, converse, and otherwise occupy themselves." In fact the institution becomes a club, "only without ballot, without entrance-fee, and without subscription." The experiment is a most interesting one, and if the rooms can be kept free to all people who wish to use them legitimately, and yet the undesirable loafer be excluded, they ought to prove an enormous boon to the educated working man. He wants something beyond a library where silence has to be maintained, and where, therefore, a good talk all round cannot be indulged in.

In the South African Committee on Friday week it was finally decided that the telegrams which passed between Mr. Rhodes and his agent, Dr. Harris, must be produced, in spite of the protests of the telegraph company. The tele- grams were accordingly handed over by a representative of the Company. At the next meeting of the Committee on Tuesday last the directors of the Chartered Company, the Dukes of Abercorn and Fife, and others, were examined. The Duke of Abercorn admitted that Mr. Rhodes had an abso- lutely free hand in Rhodesia. Mr. Labouchere desired to ask the Duke of Abercorn how he acquired the eight thousand shares which he held in the Company, but after a private discussion of forty minutes the question was disallowed. We cannot help thinking that the Duke of Abercorn would have been better advised had he insisted on answering the question. Ultimately the Chairman asked him whether he had bought or sold shares during the last six months of 1895. The reply was " No." The Duke of Fife, like the Duke of Abercorn, denied all knowledge of the preparations for the Raid, and deeply deplored " the action of those connected with the Company who have mixed themselves up in this miserable business." fte added :—" I have a great regard for Mr. Rhodes, but if I am pressed I am perfectly prepared to say that Mr. Rhodes deceived me. I am sorry to have to say so, but no doubt Mr. Rhodes would himself admit it." The Duke of Fife repudiated with indignation the idea that his selling of shares bad anything to do with the Raid. The other directors said the same, and we are quite prepared to

accept their word on the matter. It nevertheless remains a most astonishing fact that the Duke of Fife can retain his regard for a man who treated him like a clerk, and, as he says, deceived him. That shows a meeker spirit than one would -expect to find even in a newly fledged curate.

if On Tuesday Lord Rosebery made an amusing little speech

at the opening of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society's Clubhouse, situated near Dalmeny. After mentioning that he and Dr. Boyd of St. Andrews were probably the only two Scotchmen in existence who did not play golf, and indulging in similes. chaff, Lord Rosebery sent a tiny barbed, or rather double-edged, shaft into the regions of politics. The game of fives was said, like golf, to be a game that can be practised in extreme old age, "but I suspect that those who try to carry out that theory will find that the game of fives, like the highest statesmanship of Europe, requires an iron hand within a velvet glove, and I for one should be very sorry to expose my hand to the game of fives with the slightest hope of being able to write a letter for many weeks afterwards." While dealing with the spread of golf, Lord Rosebery declared— which is, indeed, hardly an exaggeration—that walking in parts of Surrey was as dangerous as facing a battery in time of war owing to the number of golfers. A yropos of the infatuation produced by golf, Lord Rosebery ended his speech by a story of a friend "of considerable possessions and large business transactions who declines to open his letters on the morning on which he is going to play golf for fear anything in them should distract his attention." Certainly no one makes a pleasanter speech out of nothing than Lord Rosebery.

M. Barthon, the French Minister of the Interior, delivered an Saturday an official oration on the tragedy of the Rue Jean Gonjon, which the Times' correspondent finds admirable. We find it, on the contrary, rather heathenish. It is a kind of indictment of Providence. " Death," said the orator, "was never more unjustly cruel,"—an assertion which could only be justifiable if he knew perfectly the objects either of life or death. " Death," he continues, " death needless and brutal, suddenly interrupted a festival of beneficence." How could he know that the death was needless, or why was it more brutal than any other death shared by great masses, as in the visitation of an earthquake P We all perhaps feel occasionally as if death had been malignant, but we all blame ourselves for so feeling, while M. Barthou appears oratorically to exult in the absence of submission. We feel more sympathy with him when he praises the instances of courage, which come out more clearly as evidence accumulates. There appear to be, for example, three witnesses to the conduct of the Duchesse d'Alencon, who, when entreated to fly, refused, declaring that it was her duty to go last. That duty is per- formed every month by some merchant skipper in a ship- wreck, but performed by a woman, without pressure from professional etiquette, in the face of a horrible and disfiguring death then palpably advancing on her, such courage had about it something even majestic. It is wrong, from abhor- rence of the flattery nowadays poured so pitilessly upon Princes, to deny one of them the honour which has been justly earned.

Lord Welby, the Chairman of the London County Council Finance Committee, produced the annual Budget of London on Tuesday, which contains some interesting figures. In all the Municipal Debt of London amounts to £37,941,000, which seems a large amount, but which is less than the propor- tionate Debt of nine out of ten of the next largest cities. The estimated expenditure for 1897.98 amounted to £2,452,000, a very slight increase on the previous year, and owing to the increased number of houses and some other causes the Council are able to reduce the rate from 15d. to Hid. in the pound. That is satisfactory, even if, as Lord Welby inti- mates, the expenditure on technical education will next year bring the rate back to its old level; but we wish he had explained at some length the principle on which assessments are fixed. Tenants in West London firmly believe that their assessments are arbitrarily forced up, sometimes in the face of sinking values, in order that more money may be exacted, while the poundage appears to remain the same. There can be no doubt, however, we believe, that in spite of this grievance, which, real or unreal, is bitterly felt, and of a certain extravagance in the Council's projects of improvement, that body governs London cheaper and better than any rival municipality in Paris, Vienna, New York, or Chicago. If it will only wait and work patiently, and turn its Chairmen of Committees into responsible Ministers, it will yet absorb the City, with much of the City revenues, and perhaps obtain a considerable extension of its legislative powers. Nobody really dislikes or despises it when its Progressive members are not letting off gas.

The disputations clauses of the German Emigration Bill were passed on May 6th, Conservatives and Clericals uniting in their favour. This Bill may prove to be one of great importance in the future. Under its provisions no steamer or sailing vessel can carry emigrants without an Imperial license, which will be refused at the discretion of the Imperial authorities. Those authorities will thus be enabled not only to restrict emigration when labour grows dear, which is the reason why Agrarians support the Bill, but to direct it into such channels as they please. They can, for example, turn the vitalising flood strongly on to Brazil or Argentina or South Africa. The object is manifest, bat this country can welcome German emigration to her Colonies all the same. Neither there nor in the United States will German emigrants insurrect or intrigue in order to replace themselves under the authority of the German police. There are no better Eng- lishmen than the German merchants of London, no better Americans than the German citizens of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The accounts from the Congo State are perfectly horrible. The Rev. E. V. Sjoblom, a Dane, who has been employed on the American Baptist Mission for the past five years, declares that the State troops treacherously assault villages—he specifies names and dates—kill the inhabitants, and carry away their hands to prove that they have obeyed orders:— "Altogether I have come across no less than forty-five villages which have been burnt down, and twenty-eight abandoned, through the rubber trouble ; and I have often seen dead bodies floating in the river, or lying by the wayside with the right hands cut off,—all victims to the rubber question." He himself saw an old man killed by the soldiers because he was fishing instead of collecting rubber, and he saw with his own eyes on December 14th, 1895, a basket of smoked right hands delivered to a sentinel to be carried to the Commissaire. Thirty years ago these statements, which can be confirmed from other sources, would have caused a shriek of horror in this country, but we have supped on horrors, literary and South African, till the moral sense has become as hard as leather.

It really looks as if the art of making wood non-inflammable had at last been learned. On Tuesday the Prince of Wales, the Lord Chancellor, and the American Ambassador witnessed on the piece of waste ground behind the new Tate Gallery— the site of Millbank Prison—a most curious and interesting experiment. Two model wooden houses had been there erected, and fire was applied to them, after, on the side of each, had been piled faggots drenched in paraffin. One blazed up at once, and in twenty minutes had become ashes. The other absolutely refused to catch fire, and suffered no more harm than the blistering of the paint and the partial charring of the woodwork which had been in immediate con- tact with the blazing faggots. The difference between the two houses was that one was built of ordinary wood, the other of wood prepared to resist fire by a patent process which consists in extracting the natural sap and gases, and replacing them by non-inflammable chemicals. The process has been used for some time in America with success, and is now used in all warships built by the United States. Our Admiralty will doubtless follow suit, for burning decks are a great source of danger in war. The invention should also help to solve the problem of housing the poor, and give us back wooden cottages. For small houses no material is better than wood, both on the ground of comfort and economy. If we can have wooden villages without the danger of fire, the terrible difficulty of providing cottages for labourers in the country at a rent which they can pay will be surmounted.

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

New Consols (2D were on Friday, 1131. •