The week has been marked principally by rumours of coming
war. There are no new signs of it perceptible ; but there has been a perceptible increase in uneasiness, due, it is believed, first of all, to the Russian rejection of Prince Ferdinand, and secondly, to some statements made in the German Committee on the Septennate, the nature of which has not transpired. Some- thing, moreover, must be attributed to the journalists, who all over Europe have become pessimistic. We believe this despondency is well founded; but it should be noted that it is not shared by the great financiers, who hold up Stocks every- where, that it is inconsistent with the known resolution of the German Emperor to engage in no more wars, and that it can hardly be proved to be well founded before the spring. The nations have fought in winter, and, indeed, the last war between Russia and Turkey was waged in that season ; but they avoid it when they can. Winter rather reduces the difficulties of transport, but it kills soldiers who, like the Germans, camp out without
tents, and enormously increases the difficulties of providing forage, even now the standing trouble of the Commissariat.
