NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE considerable force sent against the Wuzeerees guilty of the treachery at Maizar has as yet accomplished nothing beyond the destruction of a village or two, the clans- men retreating to the hills, whence isolated marksmen emerge to take " snipe-shots " at any soldiers they see. This is exasperating, but experience shows that the mountaineers grow weary of this game, and either attack in force, or come in, make their submission, and pay their fine. On the 26th inst., however, the Viceroy received intelligence that the men of the Swat Valley, long notorious for their fanaticism, excited by the preaching of "a mad Moollah," had attacked on the 25th inst. the Malakand Kotah, and were only repulsed after severe fighting. The attacks were continued until yesterday, and are fiercest at night, a new feature in such warfare. The whole valley is up,and two complete brigades are being urged forward to support our men, apparently about 1,500 in number, who are clearly in serious danger. The British are on the alert, and there is ample force in the Punjab, but there is some reason to believe that a wave of Mug- sulman fanaticism, urged on by the massacres in Armenia and the conflict between Turkey and Greece, is affecting the Mussnlmans of Northern India. There may, therefore, be other risings and some severe fighting. So long as we win in that fighting no danger is to be expected from Abdurrahman Khan. It will not be forgotten that, though the Pathans in our service are Mnssulmans, Sikhs, Goorkas, and Rajpoot soldiery are all alike strict Hindoos.

It is evident that the Government regard the rising of the Swatis as unusually important, both from the number of the insurgents and the unusual persistency of their attack. It is possible, too, that they expect a disaster, for there is a report that ammunition has fallen short, and though fresh supplies have been forwarded to Naoshera by rail, it is just possible that they may not arrive in time. The Government, therefore, have formed the relieving body into two brigades, the first con- taining four regiments and the second three, supported by three mountain batteries, the whole under the command of Colonel Sir Bindon Blood. They are being moved forward as rapidly as possible, and it does not appear as yet that there is anything on the route to bar their march. Still, the necessity for employing five thousand men, including the Royal West Kent Regiment and the Buffs, the unexpected- ness of the whole affair, and the want of preparedness shown in the momentary failure of ammunition—if that detail is true —make the whole incident a most unpleasant one.

The Government of Bombay is acting with energy and dis- cretion. Instead of applying for an Act to fetter the Press, it has arrested two members of the Natu family of Poona, who are wealthy and turbulent, and are believed to be at the

bottom of the recent agitation. They have been forwarded to Ahmedabad, there to be detained under the State Prisoners' Act, and their properties have been sequestrated,—not, we hope. "confiscated," as the telegram says. The Hon. Gungadhur Tilak, Member of the Legislative Council of Bombay, and another editor have also been arrested, and will be prosecuted for sedition, an offence which under the Penal Code is punishable even by transportation for life. The existing law, in fact, is exceedingly strong if only it is put in force, and makes the prohibition of printing or the establish- ment of a censorship quite unnecessary. It is possible, of course, that a jury may be false to its oath or may be in- timidated, but in that case the legislation required is not a Press Law, but an Act transferring the trial of certain popular offences to Judges alone. They are impartial enough, and in Bombay by no means devoted to the Administration. Poona is greatly impressed, and it is thought that evidence as to the murder of Mr. Rand will now be obtainable.

A Moulavie, named Hedayat Rasoul, has been arrested at Lucknow for using seditious language, not from the pulpit, but at a public meeting of Mahommedans held to congratulate the Sultan. The Moulavie is reported to have told his hearers that "but for the forbearance of the Sultan, the ribs of the old woman would have been broken years ago." He is doubtless in communication with Con- stantinople, and we fully expect to hear his speech quoted in this country as evidence of the great risk run by the Govern- ment in putting pressure upon Abd-ul-Hamid. Those who argue thus should, however, remember the facts of 1855-60. We spent fifty thousand lives and more than fifty millions in protecting the Sultan, and within two years the Mussul- mans of Northern India made their great spring at our throats. They certainly did not feel then any deep gratitude for our protection of the Khalif, who is not, we imagine, acknowledged by the most militant sect of Indian Mahom- medans, the Ferazees, who derive their inspiration directly from Arab sources.

The new Bill for subjecting public meetings and associa- tions to the police came before the Prussian Chamber on July 24th. It was strongly supported by the Minister of the Interior, on the ground that Social-Democratic opinions, hitherto confined to the towns, were now penetrating into country districts, and might penetrate into the ranks of the Reserves and the Landwehr. They had not entered the Army, thanks to its iron discipline, but the Government wanted larger powers to enable them to contend with a party which they held to be strictly revolutionary. The Vice- President of Council, Dr. Miguel, said much the same things. and the excitement among the Right was very great. The Liberals, however, the National Liberals, with three exceptions, and the Clericals, were all united against the measure, and in a House of four hundred and fifteen Members, or sixteen less than the entire body, the first clause, which contains the pith of the Bill, was thrown out by 209 votes to 205. The Conservatives then contemptuously voted against the remain- ing clauses, and the whole Bill is therefore rejected. It is reported that it will be brought in again next Session, but it is more probable that it will be superseded by a measure levelled expressly and specially against Anarchists and Socialists, with whom the majority of peasants have no sympathy.

The new McKinley Tariff Bill became law on July 24th, and immediately after the President requested the Houses to appoint a Committee on currency. He is not, however, in earnest on this subject, and it is anticipated that if the Tariff Law fills the Treasury, as is expected, the currency will remain exactly as at present. This is the more probable

because the silver men expect that the Tariff will cause great popular discontent and thus lead to a Bryanite victory, which will be a silver victory, in 1900. Our own impression i3 that there will be discontent, especially among agriculturists, who are not protected ; that the fullness of the Treasury will increase the cry against the Tariff; and that the owners of the Trusts, alarmed at the indignation of the people, will cast about for some excuse for war. That will empty the Treasury, cause vast expenditure, and at once terminate any idea of changing the Executive.

All the news received from British Columbia this week confirms the story of the existence of gold in the valleys watered by the affluents of the Yukon, a region as large as France. The gold is alloyed with silver, and worth some shillings less per ounce than Californian gold, but the quantity is most unusual. All the news, too, confirms the story that access to the mines is as yet most difficult, that the climate is frightfully cold, that there is no food not imported, and that a considerable proportion of the immigrants have perished of cold and exposure. The Government of Canada and that of Great Britain almost beseech miners not to go till next spring, by which time some arrangements will have been made to im- prove the route and to import supplies of oatmeal. In order to meet the expenses the Government claims each alternate allotment. 500 ft. wide, in the auriferous alluvium, and will collect a royalty of 10 per cent. from every miner who has taken out gold worth less than $500 and 20 per cent. if his takings have exceeded that figure. A great effort will be tuede to enlist ( xtra police, but it is doubtful if any pay will induce men to do the work, and the mining population may have to mail.' ai i order for themselves. The rush is, of course, begineing, and will continue, the warnings being, as usual, disregarded. There is one infallible method of reach- ing the Pole. Convince London and New York that there are goldfields all around it.

On Friday week the House of Commons practically devoted its whole time to the Army Estimates. Sir A. Acland-Hood made one more appeal to the Government not to send the Guards to Gibraltar. Mr. Brodrick was obdurate. He believed it would add enormously to the efficiency of the Army to have nine Guards battalions, of which six would be in a con- dition to take the field. So do we, but we think it would also add enormously to the efficiency of the Army to have the nine battalione always at home ready for any emergency. Mr. Balfour, speaking later, urged that the Government were pledged to the experiment, and asked that it should have a fair trial,—a reasonable enough demand under the circum- stances. On a vote the Government carried the day by 63 (160 to 97). Later in the evening General Russell called attention to the grave national danger which arose from the mad. quacy of our military forces. Mr. Brodrick made a spirited, and we believe a sound, defence of the short-service system, which at any rate gives us two hundred and thirteen thousand men with the colours and eighty thousand in the Reserve. Under long service we found it impossible to keep up an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men. He ad- mitted with regard to the artillery that there was a deficiency, but he undertook to have the question thoroughly considered by the Secretary of State. That consideration ought to have only one result. There are plenty of excuses for deficiency in the number of men, but none in the case of artillery. Artillery is virtually a question of money, and it is an absolute disgrace that our Army should be proportionately less well provided with this arm than the French and Prussian Armies. In guns, transport, and horses, which are only matters of money, we should lead the world. Early next year, said Mr. Brodrick, they hoped to introduce a system under which they could have a special Reserve for little wars. Five thousand men would be given an extra 2d. a day to undertake this extra liability for a year. On the whole, Mr. Brodrick's speech was not unsatisfactory.

On Monday the House of Commons debated Mr. Stan- hope's Motion condemning the action of the South African Committee. Sir William Harcourt's defence of the Com- mittee was very able, and, though we regret deeply the total result of the recent proceedings, we must add, very much to his credit. He may have been wrong in thus making himsclf and his party jointly responsible with the Govern-

ment for the South African Casco, hut considering the temptae tion he was under to make party capital out of the whole incident, he deserves warm praise. Sir William Harcourt's defence of the Committee for not insisting upon the prodttc- tion of the telegrams was as follows. The worst thing which malignant ingenuity could suggest about the telegrams would be that they stated something of this kind, 'Saw Mr. Chamberlain, told him everything, and he approved entirely.' But even if they said this in so many words these telegrams were not worth troubling about, for both Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Selborne had declared that Mr. Chamberlain had never given any such approval. We entirely agree. The word of either would be worth a wilderness of Harris-Rhodes telegrams. But, argued Sir William Harcourt, why delay the Report and get into endless difficulties in order to arrive at telegrams which admittedly would be absolutely worthless if they contra- dicted Mr. Chamberlain? That is true as far as it goes. The telegrams could not have damaged Mr. Chamberlain what- ever their tenour, but they might have proved very valuable material for judging Mr. Rhodes's conduct. Mr. Courtney followed Sir William Harcourt, and in a speech of real eloquence denounced Mr. Rhodes. "He has violated every canon of political ethics. I add to the list of his deceits the fact that he corrupted Sir Graham Bower and the unfortunate Newton."

Mr. Chamberlain wound up the debate. In a passage dis- playing sincere feeling he deseribed the position he had been in for eighteen months. Throughout that time of great anxiety and labour "1 have been embarrassed, hampered, and burdened by all that is connected with this inquiry,—by the rumours which have been in the air, by the charges which have been repeated again and again. As soon as one has been destroyed another has sprung up from the earth to confront me." As to the charges, said Mr. Chamberlain, "my action is my answer," and he then proceeded to point out what we have insisted on so frequently,—namely, that if he had been "in the Raid" it is simply impossible that he would have acted as he did act in the first three or four days of 1896. In regard to Mr. Rhodes, though he had committed a gigantic mistake, there was nothing proved against him which affected his "personal position as a man of honour." A man who goes in for revolution-making most deceive people. "He cannot proclaim his intention from the housetops." That is true, but the people he deceives should be the enemy, not his official superiors and colleagues. A General in the field may rightly deceive the opposing force by false telegrams, but not his own War Office.

Mr. Chamberlain ended his speech by declaring that Mr. Rhodes would not be deprived of his Privy Councillorship, among other reasons because of the bad effect at the Cape. Sir Gordon Sprigg, the Cape Premier, had called on him the other day, and had stated in writing his belief that the opinion of the Colony would be against such an extreme measure. Mr. Rhodes's services were so extraordinary that they must be set off against the one wrong he has committed. "The desire is that the errors of the past should be forgotten, and that Mr. Rhodes should be cheered and encouraged" in his great work, "so that he may be able to offer the fruits of his labour as a rich atonement for his past offences,"—i.e., Mr. Rhodes is to be allowed to work out his punishment by supplying railways and improvements gratis in Rhodesia. Mr. Chamberlain stated definitely that the Charter would not be abolished, but that a new and satisfactory scheme of govern- ment would be devised for Rhodesia till such time as the country is fit for some form of self-government. On the House dividing, only 77 Members voted for Mr. Stanhope's amendment and 304 against. It was, therefore, negatived by 227 votes. Practically all the Gladstonian Front Bench men supported Sir William Harcourt in resisting the Motion. It is no good to blink the fact that this vote means that Mr. Rhodes is not to be punished but is to be given another chance.

The House of Lords on Monday passed the Compensation Bill through Committee. The most important amendment accepted by the Government was one moved by Lord Ports- mouth. It leaves out the words under which the employer would be obliged to make good any deficiency in a scheme for mutual insurance which had been accepted by the Registrar of Friendly Societies as conferring a benefit equivalent to that given by the Act. Lord Salisbury in accepting the amendment characteristically flouted his own Bill. The proposal to force the employer to make good, deficiencies in a .fund over which he would not have control was absurd,—a -" most unreasonable proposal, and I cannot conceive how it got into the Bill." No employer of any sanity would join a scheme thus conditioned. Mr. Asquith had said that in agreeing to this clause he was applying the torch to the funeral pyre of contracting out. "Well, he was, it was perfectly true," and thanking Mr. Asquith for his kind warning, Lord Salisbury threw over the sub-section which had called forth "such a very judicious observation." No doubt Lord Salisbury's action was as right as his manner was amusing. but we fear that owing to the natural dullness of mankind his levity may be misconstrued. The net result of the debate was the passage of the measure uninjured and the discomfiture of Lord Londonderry and the malcontents. 'There is a rock-bed of good sense in the House of Lords.

On Tuesday Mr. Goschen stated the final form of the ship- 'building programme of this year, and also what use was to be made of the extra 2500,000 granted by the Treasury. We are to build three battleships of a modified 'Majestic' type and one of the 'Canopus' type; 260,000 is to be spent on more torpedo-destroyers ; and a new Royal yacht, which is to be a real yacht and not a yacht-cruiser, is to be built at a cost of £250,000. All this is to be done under the original scheme. The extra £500,000 is to go chiefly in laying down four new armoured cruisers. No one, of course, wants to spend more money than is necessary, but Mr. Goschen will be loyally supported by the nation in his determination to answer every foreign bid for the command of the sea by a higher British bid. Cost what it may, we must keep our naval supremacy secure.

The third reading of the Compensation Bill in the Lords -on Thursday was not allowed to pass without a protest from Lord Wemyss in the interest of property and liberty. This protest was answered by a very remarkable speech from Lord Salisbury. After pointing out how infinitely more Socialistic was the provision made against accident by the present Poor-law than the Bill before the House, he deprecated the perpetual crying of " Wolf " by the enemies of Socialism. The line to be drawn in regard to State interference "is largely affected, if not entirely governed, by the question whether you are saving property or saving life." In no well-governed State are the claims of mere liberty allowed to endanger the lives of the citizens. That is a really helpful distinction. If anybody doubted the good effects of the social and factory legislation of which the present Bill was a continuation, let them read Mr. Disraeli's "Sibyl," and see the results of interference applied "with due circum- spection, without fanaticism, hurry, or passion." No doubt, but not all the improvement is due to the regulation of industry. A great deal, perhaps most, is due to the accept- ance of that principle of Free-trade which Lord Salisbury appears to deem so dubious a benefit.

In the House of Commons on Thursday Sir William Harcourt made the Supplementary Education vote the excuse for a most astonishing, if most amusing, attack on the Bishops. It was Robin Hood's direction to his followers :— " Those Bishops and those Archbishops, Ye shall them beat and bind."

In order to hit the Bishops, and what he called "the panoply of ecclesiasticism," the harder, Sir William Harcourt fell upon the neck of the country parson, and hailed him as his long-lost brother. One of the most admirable institutions in the country was the independence of the parish priest. He was the pillar of education in his own locality. Now these noble men were to be struck down by "thin dominant priesthood,"—apparently the rest of the clergy including even the Rural Deans. After pouring forth his sympathy upon "the poor old-fashioned country clergyman who still believes in the Protestantism of the Church of England," Sir William Harcourt tried to knock together the heads of the Duke of Devonshire and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and made a pointed allusion to the stone "we have most of us seen" at Venice "which recalls the occasion when the Pope put his foot upon the neck of the Emperor." "You should

hear him on Tonti. He is incredible on Tonti," says one of Mr. Stevenson's characters. Sir William Harcourt is still more incredible on the good old-fashioned parish priest. Mr. Balfour had no sort of difficulty in showing that the supposed outrageous conduct of the Bishops in raiding the Associations was a pare delusion. The Bishops are not even members of the Associations unless they are elected like anybody else.

On Monday the Standard published an interesting account of the Conference held with the Colonial Premiers. The Premiers were, naturally enough, greatly divided in opinion on the various points raised, but on one matter they agreed. They one and all felt that the time was not ripe for change in the direction of closer political union, and the Australian Pre- miers indeed expressed definite fears as to the danger of action. In regard to the question of closer trade relations, a good deal was of course said as to the inability of the Colonies to grant the Mother-country any advantages owing to the clauses in the Belgian and German treaties. Mr. Chamberlain gave no definite reply to the demand that they should be denounced, but we are told that "the impression left on the minds of most of the Premiers was that the treaties would not be denounced." If this is so we regret the decision. Though we are as absolutely convinced of the advantages of Free-trade as of the advantage of not paying a shilling for an article when it can be got for sixpence, we hold that freedom is greater than Free-trade. We have given, and as we think rightly given, the Colonies complete fiscal autonomy on every other point, and to withhold the right of granting us preferential duties now demanded seems to us utterly preposterous. We do not, as a matter of fact, believe that our trade with Germany and Belgium will suffer, but even if it does, we must make each daughter State complete mistress in her own house.

Most of the London newspapers appear inclined to " boom " the King of Siam, who arrived in this country on Friday, who will have a good many " conces- sions " to distribute, and who is credited with all abilities and all virtues. We see very little courtesy and no wisdom in this kind of laudation. The King is entitled by his rank and by his friendliness to the British to be received with every respect, but he belongs essentially to a class, now -eecoming numerous, which has been overpowered by the advances of Western Europe in physical science, and which confounds them with advances in wisdom and morality. He thinks, we fear, that if he can import railways, electric telegraphs, and European engineers, he will make Siam a new kingdom, whereas what the Siamese want is a new tone of morality and honour. He has learned how to play off the English against the French, and so to save the relics of his dominion, but he has not made an army, he has not secured a pure civil service, and he has not converted his leading agents to his own ideas. His very intelligence differentiates him too much from his subjects, and it is quite possible that he will end like the late Emperor of Brazil, who understood every science and every art except that of successful reigning.

For once it would appear that the immense energy of the English and American newspapers in collecting intelligence has been baffled. There is a struggle going on in Brazil of the highest interest, and nearly all intelligence about it is concealed from Europe. A " fanatic " has converted the country population of some districts behind Bahia to a doc- trine not specified, and to monarchical opinions, and the whole strength of the Republic is exerted in vain to put him down. The centre of his power is a village called Canudos, and General Oscar has been besieging him there for weeks with a whole division in vain. In fact, it would appear from a telegram in the Times of Monday that General Oscar has been defeated, and is telegraphing for reinforcements and supplies. The incident is a most curious one, epecially as no one either at Bahia or at Rio tells us what the insurgents want, what their new faith is, or why the Republic, having surmounted the difficulties of transport, is so powerless to defeat untrained insurgents.

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

New Consols (4) were on Friday, 113.