The new Lord Mayor entertained her Majesty's Ministers at Guildhall
on Saturday as usual, and Lord Salisbury made the speech of the evening. It was not very interesting, how- ever. On foreign affairs the Premier, after saying that all Europe was busy about Africa, and that we were "taking our share in the work of civilisation "—and he might have added, in the mineral districts:too—and giving a sort of warning to somebody, presumably Russia, not to increase her territory in Europe, stated definitely that "the barometer is distinctly rising in the scale of peace." That, he affirmed, was the opinion of his correspondents as well as his own, and was strengthened by "the events which had occurred in more than one country," meaning, we suppose, the collapse of General Boulanger and the visit of the Czar to Berlin. Lord Salis- bury was right in his anticipation last year, and the Viennese and German journalists express great satisfaction at his words. They would be perfectly satisfactory to all men if anybody would guarantee the Czar against the Nihilists, or if there were not always danger of some explosion in the Balkan or in Constantinople, where, a Mussulman correspondent of the Daily News says, the situation is getting over-strained, and men thinking of another change in the throne.
