NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE European diplomatists are not hurrying
themselves. Lord Salisbury is not expected to arrive in Constantinople till the Sth December, the first informal meeting will be on the 8th, and the formal Conference will not sit before the 15th. Meanwhile, Russia is preparing for war as if her statesmen did not believe in peace. The internal loan of £15,000,000 has all been taken up, and a considerable further issue of rouble notes authorised by sdecree ; the railways are completely occupied with the carriage of materiel, and it is stated thatan entire corps d'armie has been massed along the Pruth, and 80,000 men on the frontiers of Armenia. On the other hand, the Turks are ordering up their reserves, issuing more inconvertible notes, and informing their agents by circular that `they cannot disarm their Mussnlman population, and will not suffer an armed occupation of Bulgaria. They announce every- where that they are quite prepared to cope with Russia alone, and will perish, if need be, rather than surrender their own right to rule. The Constitution which was to supersede the necessity of diplomatic interference has, moreover, been hung up to ripen, the Grand Vizier having peremptorily refused to sanction its -publication.
