The week has been marked by a small war-panic. The
Daily News of Monday affirmed that intelligence bad been received in London indicating immediate war between France and Germany, Prince Bismarck having decided to ask the French Government to explain its armaments. It further affirmed that the Cabinet was well aware of the truth of its statements. The article produced a fall on 'Change, heaviest, as usual, in the stocks least affected by war, and an outburst of cificial and semi-official denials. Berlin was indignant, and Paris furious, the journals in the latter capital affirming that the Eng- lish were provoking a war in order to steal Egypt. So angry were the friends of peace, that the Daily News was openly accused of conspiring with one of its proprietors to operate for the fall, an imputation discreditable to those who made it. The Daily News was perhaps a little credulous ; but that the statement it made was in full circulation in London on Saturday we can our- selves testify, and we cannot see that a journal is bound to con- ceal its information because it may possibly create a panic. The story, though probably inaccurate, was in entire harmony with all the facts of the situation, and the official denials are worth just nothing at all. Whoever heard of a Continental Minister who was not desirous of peace, or of a General who dreamed that war was possible until it was declared P
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