NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE prospect is becoming a little brighter. The German Emperor, it would seem, really thought that if he distinctly menaced Great Britain her Government would recede, and would admit that the Transvaal was, in the ordinary sense of the words, an "independent State." He had even calculated on this result so surely, that he had asked of Portugal with some insistence and acrimony per- mission to land German troops at Delagoa Bay and march them to Pretoria. He was amazed at the sudden and unanimous uprising of the English, at their mobilisation of the Navy, and at their distinct assurance that before Germany interfered in South Africa there would be war. A letter from Queen Victoria to her grandson especially opened his eyes, and is said—though the rumour may be false—to have drawn from him an explanatory reply. The Government journals were therefore instructed to explain that the Emperor's telegram had been written in a moment of irritation, that the questions pressed on Portugal were academic, and that Germany had never dreamed of a Pro- tectorate of the Transvaal. Indeed, the whole incident had been " ridiculously exaggerated" by the English Press. These excuses will do as well as any others, though they are not dignified; but it will be well for this country, as the German Emperor is now unfriendly, and has definite designs in South Africa, to go on with the mobilisation of the Navy and the increase of the Fleet. and to watch closely that no force lands at Delagoa Bay. We have, it will be remembered, by treaty a right of pre-emption in that port.
