NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WHAT the deuce has come to the weather ? The season is quite cool in Calcutta, where people ought to be broiling, and cold in Saratoga, where they ought to be bathing, but in Eng- land it has been the hottest known for half a century. The harvest is a month too early, the light lands are burnt up, the fruiterers are afraid to charge more than five times the cost price of their goods, and the butchers declare that, but for the Cattle Plague Acts, which enable them to rob farmers and public alike, they should be half ruined. In London, during the past week, seasoned old Indians have been swearing that the heat was worse than in Bengal, and for once there has been some foundation for their stories. The thermometer in an Indian room rarely indeed rises above 800, and in most London houses it has been up to that point all the week. Members of Parliament complain bitterly that they must go abroad just when they wanted to save their money for agents, canvassers, publicans, and the rest of the electioneering vampires ; and Mr. Disraeli has gained endless votes. Whenever the thermometer gets above 75° the Anglo-Saxon becomes Conser- vative, and if the election were held now, it would be decided solely by beer.
