NEWS OF THE WEEK.
/1111E sense of some half-obscure danger on the Continent,
though lulled by the Christmas holidays, does not pass away. If negotiations are going on between the three Imperial Powers, as is supposed in Berlin, they produce no result, for the Powers watch one another as eagerly as before. All Austrian officers belonging to regiments in Galicia have been ordered to rejoin them, and the journals are advising an immediate war loan, some forecast of which may have expedited a great social concession just made by the Emperor to the Rothschild family. Rumours, too, are afloat, but officially denied, that Count Andrassy, who in the event of a struggle with Russia would be called to the helm, is about to supersede Count Kalnoky. On the other side, it appears to be true that a Russian corps crannee has been stationed in Bessarabia, and that the concentration of troops in Poland has been almost completed. Of the number of these troops, however, no trust- worthy estimate can be formed. Some reporters talk of four hundred thousand men, which would mean war almost imme- diately, as no Government unless it expected war would attempt to supply such an army in a country not too rich ; but this must be a gross exaggeration. Alexander IL never collected two hundred thousand men for his war with Turkey. All that can be said is that Russia is preparing, whether for defence or attack, that Austria is preparing, and that Germany, as usual, is ready.
