NEWS ' OF THE WEEK.
MR. BALFOUR was, of course, the chief speaker at the Guildhall banquet on Monday, and made a striking speech, which will have a reassuring effect all over the world. After a smiling notice of the long debates on the Education Bill, in which everything but education has been discussed, he con- gratulated the country on the re-establishment of peace, and the recurrence to our usual political topics. He hoped and believed that we should be as successful in the peaceful struggle in South Africa as we had been in the war. The task to be accomplished there was, indeed great, nothing less than the reconstruction of industrial society from its foundation; but we had made a good beginning, and within a few months he believed the new Colonies would in all material respects be better off than before their absorption in the British Empire. He paid a high compliment to Mr. Chamberlain, whose Colonial administration had been the greatest in British history, and heartily approved his visit to, South Africa, which he hoped would prove a precedent. He concluded this section of his speech by stating his own position in regard to a closer union between the Colonies and Great Britain. A Constitutional Union was, he thought, too great a project for the present time, though the bonds of fiscal union might be drawn closer ; but be warmly welcomed the desire of the Colonies to cease to be " sleeping partners " in the Empire, and to share its sacrifices as well as its profits.
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