NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AWAVE of depression, almost of alarm, is sweeping over all the Bourses of Europe, even Consols on Thursday sinking a half per cent. In Vienna and Paris speculators are selling everything ; and even in London prices are drooping pretty steadily. This is due in part to a natural reaction in the furious market for South African enterprises, but it is also ascribed to the serious fears entertained by financiers as to the outcome of the two Eastern questions. An explosion of some sort is expected in Turkey,—that is, either the deposi- tion of the Sultan, a great rising in Macedonia, or an open disagreement between Great Britain and Russia as to Turkish affairs. No one, again, believes the Russian denials as to the demands made on China for a port in the Lian-tung Peninsula, and facilities for access to it by railway; and there is an impression—erroneous, as we hope—that both Great Britain and Japan may resist these concessions. There is no panic as yet, but prices are very high, the questions afoot are very large, and one out of several incidents might suddenly pro- duce a Stock Exchange crash, if not a calamity in mercantile affairs.
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