NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Peace Protocol was actually signed last Friday, and in all places which could be reached by the telegraph hostili- ties at once ceased, and vigorous efforts were made to withdraw from Cuba the remains of the American expeditionary army, only one or two regiments of " immunes " being left to garrison Santiago. The sanitary situation there is terribly bad, and the death-rate among the Spanish troops very high. In order to get rid of the corpses, which decompose with fearful rapidity, it has been found necessary to burn the dead by saturating them with paraffin and then setting fire to them. In America there is a feeling of intense satisfaction that the war has ended so quickly and so honourably, and the nation is now beginning a stirring debate as to what shall be done with its conquests. As we point out elsewhere, many of the anti-expansion leaders are men of weight and character ; but for all that America will retain the major part of the great possessions which she has justly won in her crusade against Spanish misrule.
