NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE fury of the Portuguese at Lord Salisbury's decisive action appears to be calming down. Their Ministry discourages demonstrations, and the commercial classes are awakening to the fact that not to deal with Englishmen is to put a stop to their own profits. The quarrel is, therefore, left to the newspapers, which by-and-by will begin to see that, as Mr. Goschen showed on Tuesday in his firm but conciliatory account of the dispute, it was the Colonial authorities of Portugal, not Lord Salisbury, who resorted to violence. They, in fact, seized the disputed territories while their Government was anxiously professing its readiness to negotiate. The Official Gazette of Mozambique, as appears from the despatches published on Friday week, actually announced that the annexation of the Shire territory had definitively taken place, a fact which, it is stated, has been carefully kept from the Lisbon public. It remains only to prevent any further raid into British possessions, and with this view the Company to which Zambesia has been assigned is organising a Sepoy force with white officers and Zulu soldiers.
