NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THERE is no improvement in the character of the telegrams from the seat of war. Most of them are false, and the remainder are contradictory. It would appear certain that another attempt of the Turks to cross the Timok has been defeated with considerable loss, and that Mukhtar Pasha has driven a considerable body of Montenegrins from before Nevesinje ; and that General Tchernaieff is falling back, willingly or otherwise, within the Servian frontier ; but that is all on which we can rely. Writers from Vienna assure us that the Servians are depressed, that the foreign Generals are distrusted, and that Russia has been asked to mediate ; but writers from Vienna are apt to be full of Magyar sympathies, and the Magyars dread the Slays. On the whole, it may be assumed that the week has not been favourable to Servian arms, and that the war has become strictly one of defence,—a defence, however, which has not, as yet, been broken through. On the other hand, the Servians meet their reverses with great firmness. They have called out their last reserves, and they declare them- selves eager to organise a guerrilla war.
