NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THERE is a general opinion prevalent that the diplomatists at Constantinople see their way to an arrangement which will avoid war. The evidence for this opinion is of the thinnest kind, consisting mainly of statements that Lord Salisbury and General Ignatieff do not quarrel ; that the Russian Government is per- plexed about finance, and that some undefined concession has been made about the occupation of Bulgaria ; but of the exist- ence of sanguine feeling there is no doubt. This is the more noteworthy, because the Turk appears disposed to assume the attitude, as Mr. Disraeli would say, of the grandfather of mules, and is sending out despatches intimating that the Porte will regard say proposal whatever of foreign occupation as a casus belli. This may mean merely that he is out of temper, and in- clined to say he will not obey the law before he has been sum- moned; but it may also mean that he believes in Lord Beacons- field rather than Lord Salisbury, and is convinced that in the last resort he will be supported by an Anglo-Austrian alliance. The situation is therefore this,—that all the world, without any par- ticular reason, thinks thatbecause diplomatists are chatting good- humouredly everything is going to be smooth. That has occurred before.
