NEWS OF THE WEEK.

MR. GLADSTONE'S funeral last Saturday was in the widest and best possible sense national. By one half the nation the dead statesman was mourned and honoured as the best and noblest representative of their political ideals, while the other half realised at last how proud they were of the great Englishman who had died, and how much they admired and loved the man in spite of their dislike of his political aspirations. The ceremony itself was impressive beyond anything that can be conveyed in words. From Westminster Hall, where the body lay in state—the vast space of floor and roof and the simplicity of the catafalque making the scene memorable and dignified in a high degree—the coffin was carried in pro- cession to the west door of the Abbey, a simple funeral-car being used to traverse the short distance out of doors. The pall-bearers could not have been better chosen. They repre- sented every phase of the national life, and also illustrated, as it were, Mr. Gladstone's own history.

First of the pall-bearers—one on each side—came Lord Rendel and Mr. Armitstead, the two friends to whose personal care and attention Mr. Gladstone owed so much. Next came Lord Rosebery and the Duke of Rutland,— the first, Mr. Gladstone's successor in the Premiership, and the other a very old friend and Mr. Gladstone's colleague in the representation of Newark. Following these came Sir William Harcourt and Mr. Balfour as the two leaders of the Commons, and then Lord Salisbury and Lord Kimberley as the leaders of the Lords. Last of all came the representatives of the Sovereign whom Mr. Glad- stone had served so long and so zealously, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. As the procession passed up the nave of Westminster Abbey to the grave it was impos- sible not to feel that there was a sense of true mourning among those near the coffin which is too apt to be absent from great State funerals. It would have been difficult to find ten men more different from each other than the pall-bearers, yet all were united in a sincere and real regard for the dead man. At the grave, and when the service had been completed, occurred an incident wkich was as touching and picturesque as it was unpre- meditated. Mrs. Gladstone, it was intimated, desired to shake hands with and say good-bye to the pall-bearers. With a fine instinct for what was fitting, the Prince of Wales went to where Mrs. Gladstone was sitting, and kissed her hand. He was followed by the other pall-bearers ; and thus the repre- sentatives of the nation were able, as it were, to offer with a pathetic symbolism the respect and homage of the nation.

It is impossible to give any notice of the funeral and not say something in praise of the way in which the Earl.

Marshal—the Duke of Norfolk—conducted his most diffioult duties. Nothing could have been better than the tact and judgment displayed throughout. Though on such occasions it is almost impossible not to offend somebody, no offence seems to have been given. At any rate no pains were spared by the Duke of Norfolk, not merely to make the ceremony worthy of the occasion, but to carry it out in the spirit of simplicity desired by Mr. Gladstone's family. The spectacle of the Duke of Norfolk working sixteen hours a day in order to allow no possibility of mismanagement in the funeral of one differing from him so strongly in creed and party was a notable one. The Duke might easily have deputed his work, and have been content merely to appear in the procession bearing the white wand of the Earl-Marshal. His higher standard of public duty and public service deserves recog- nition. If the nation is wise, it will continue to make use of its magnates for such ceremonial work, and that work is of real importance. Men with the position of the Duke of Norfolk are seldom given to being Jacks-in-office, they take a pride in being impartial, and they are not hide-bound bureaucrats like the "Protocol" in France.

On Tuesday the newspapers published a telegram of sympathy sent to Mrs. Gladstone by the Queen on Saturday. It shows that note of deep and true sympathy towards grief and suffering invariably displayed by the Sovereign. "My thoughts are much with you to-day when your dear husband is laid to rest. To-day's ceremony will be most trying and painful for you, but it will be, at the same time, gratifying to you to see the respect and regret evinced by the nation for the memory of one whose character and intellectual abilities marked him as one of the most distinguished statesmen of my reign. I shall ever gratefully remember his devotion and zeal in all that concerned my personal welfare and that of my family." It has been said—but in our opinion most thoughtlessly—that the Queen ought to have expressed a more personal feeling of friendship towards Mr. Gladstone, but we know of nothing in the Constitution which compels the Sovereign to be insincere. The Queen may have been right or wrong in not regarding Mr. Gladstone as a personal friend, but if it was a fact that she did not entertain that particular feeling, she is to be honoured for her entire sincerity even in a moment like the present. Mr. Bright said of the Queen that she was the most absolutely truthful human being he had ever known. Surely she is to be respected, not blamed, for deserving that high praise.

What with the new Washington policy of maintaining silence and the competition of journals and bulletin-sellers for profitable custom, it is becoming most difficult to trace the progress of this war; but we imagine that the following few facts may be relied on. Admiral Cervera with his squadron is in Santiago, and Admiral Sampson with his stronger fleet is preventing his departure. The Government of Washington, believing Santiago to be too strong for a sea attack, is despatching fifteen thousand troops to a point near the harbour, with orders to carry the Santiago forts, and so turn the defences, on which the Spanish Admiral relies, inside out. He must then surrender or be destroyed. Admiral Sampson, either fretting a little at the chance that the work may be done by soldiers instead of sailors, or in order to facilitate the operations of the latter, has attacked the forts, has greatly injured them, and has then retired to await the landing of the troops. This re- connaissance in force has been exaggerated by the American papers into a victory, and by the politicians of Madrid into a, repulse for the Americans, whereas it is only a first step towards the final combined attempt on Santiago. Until that attempt has succeeded—for it must be renewed until it does succeed—the American attack on Havana will be postponed,

and the discontented in Madrid will wait hoping for victory, and hardly perceiving that delay cannot rain the United States but may ruin Spain, which is already on the verge of repudiation and inconvertible paper.

The cost of this war, as we have pointed out elsewhere, may be prodigious. The Americans have already spent sixty millions sterling, and the Financial Department estimates that before the year ends sixty millions more will have been paid away. In Madrid they already find it difficult to pay anybody, the coupon is only provided for by draining the Bank of Spain, and proposals to issue inconvertible paper are already being discussed. A loan of £40,000,000 has been issued, which, even if it is taken up—a most improbable event—will yield only £20,000,000 sterling; and advances are being asked for from all manner of concessionnaires. Such ruinous waste never stops war, but it renders people im- patient of delay ; and if Santiago does not fall before our next issue, we shall expect to see both in America and Spain a great clamour for "more energy." The Spanish Govern- ment has nothing to be energetic with, and the American Government is hampered by want of experience and an extra- ordinary want of military "plant." It has, in fact, never made the smallest preparation for offensive war, and is at its wit's end for experienced officers, land artillery, and trained men accustomed to manage a big commissariat. All will be rectified by and by, but everything takes money.

The elections have clearly ruined the present Govern ment of France. The Chambers met on Wednesday, and the Deputies immediately proceeded to elect a President. The Government proposed M. Deschanel, a clever but airified debater; while the Opposition in all sections adhered to M. Brisson. The result was a tie, M. Deschanel winning by one vote, which was accidentally made invalid. A second ballot was, therefore, taken on Thursday, when it appeared that the Government, by desperate efforts, had induced four more Deputies to vote, and M. Deschanel won by 282 to 278,- a majority of 4. One does not build up stable Governments in France on majorities of 4, and the Government must either win over some group by a large concession, or expect expulsion every day. Already there is talk of a Dissolution and an appeal by M. Faure to the people, but that would be very like a coup d'etat, which cannot be effectively made except by the Army. Altogether the situation in France is getting strained, and we should not be surprised to see the general distrust of Parliamentary factions increase rapidly, and end in some dramatic surprise for Europe. Even in England we could not get along with a "solid majority" which was liable to disappear if four Members of it happened to be sick.

The Italian Cabinet having resigned, the late Prime Minister, the Marquis di Rudini, was commissioned to form another, and this he has done,—the oath being taken by the new Ministers in Rome on Wednesday. None of the new names seem to impress persons familiar with the details of Italian politics, and it is feared that the existence of the Cabinet will be short and precarious. We have dealt elsewhere with the rumour that the Government in- tend to adopt an anti-clerical policy, and to punish the Church for the countenance some of its members are alleged to have given to the promoters of the recent dis- orders. That would be a suicidal policy, for the Church, though it has put itself in the wrong with moderate Italian opinion in regard to the riots, would under what could be called, and what perhaps would be, persecution, instantly regain popular sympathy. The Pope meantime denies strongly, and of course sincerely, that the Church gave any encouragement to the rioters, but, unless we are greatly mistaken, the more extreme Clericals—no doubt without any sanction from the Vatican—in certain cases refused to use their influence in restoring civil peace, and did look with satisfaction upon the terrible predicament in which the Government found itself for several days. That was not loyal conduct, but it would be madness to meet it by attempting to punish the Church as a whole.

The Times of Friday publishes a summary of a curious decree recently issued by the Emperor of China. It is a pathetic wail over the impotence of China in face of her foes, and the corruption and inefficiency of the officials, who pour in memorials as to what should be done to strengthen and pre- serve the Empire; "but when any question of vital importance with foreign countries arises, these men who are so eager to advise are always found wanting. This is their condition now (pursues the Emperor) just when the country is surrounded on all hands by powerful and crafty neighbours who seek advantages, and combine to overpower China because they see that the defences of the country are neglected and decayed, and that the fleet is small and insignificant." The Emperor continues to give vent to what can only be called "a howl" over "the practice of putting dummy names on the regimental rolls, the corruption in the likin and salt departments, and the sinecures for favoured officials." The decree ends by the:hope that brave and capable officers will be forthcoming who will "be a human bulwark to the country against aggressive foes." Reforms are not made in Asia after appeals such as this, but by the strong hand and tiger will of a Ryder Ali or a Runjeet Singh. What China wants is a brave and merciless rebel, not a " solitary man" howling sadly in the consecrated desert of his palaces.

The quarrel between the races in Austria is growing very serious indeed. Recently, at Gratz, in Styria, a Bosnian regiment was ordered to fire upon a German crowd, and killed several persons. The German officers of the Reserve attended their funeral, an act which on the Continent would be regarded almost as one of mutiny. They were accordingly court-martialled, and sentenced to a period of confinement. The Austrian Reiehsrath has taken the matter up, and the German Members are obstructing busi- ness in order that the matter may be fully discussed. "They will not," they say, "be shot by Bosnians, who are not even Austrians." The affair has, it is said, much alarmed the- Government, and has increased the probability that the Constitution will be suspended. At the same time, the- difficulty of renewing the Ausgleich with Hungary increases, neither half of the Monarchy being contented with the division of revenues. No Monarch in Europe has ever had to face such a succession of difficulties as the Emperor Francis Joseph, and though he has always hitherto triumphed over them, he is growing an old and very weary man. He has had, in fact, to deal throughout his reign with aspirations for Home-rule, which are sufficient to break any Sovereign's heart. He may bear being beaten in the field, but trying to reconcile Germans and Slays is like boil at the crank, the pain of which is doubled by its endless inutility.

On Wednesday Sir Louis Davies announced in the Canadian House of Commons that the Governments of the United States and of the Dominion had agreed to appoint a joint Commission for settling all their outstanding differences. Mr. Foster, as Leader of the Opposition, congratulated the country on the result of the recent negotiations, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier declared that the present indications were that "the cordial relations which now exist between the United States and Great Britain will extend wherever there are nations which acknowledge the sovereignty of England." A prospect of the settlement of the tiresome and anxious disputes over boundaries and fisheries which have so long worried our Embassy at Washington is indeed a subject for congratulation. Meantime the American newspapers are writing a great deal on the subject of Anglo-Saxon Alliance. In our opinion there is no need for any hard-and-fast alliance. Both nations now understand that in the last resort they will stand by each other, and this is all that is required. A more definite alliance is unnecessary, and might prove the cause of friction. Members of the same family do not require to make fixed compacts after the manner of strangers in blood.

The Times of Tuesday contains an alarmist article on Russian and French railway schemes in China, and the fears there set forth are emphasised by a leader in Wednesday's issue. It is suggested that Russia from Northern and France from Southern China are going to build railways which will cut across our reserve in the Yangtse Valley, and so make it of no avail. We cannot share this pessimistic view, though we do not wish to meet the Times with the conventional argument that

it is not worth while to look so far ahead. We hold, however, that if we know our own minds, and really mean to stick to our -declared policy of" hands off" the Yangtse, we should welcome, not dread, its being approached by railways. If they are laid on territory that we control, we shall control the railways -too. To match the dog-in-the-manger policy in regard to territory by a dog-in-the-manger policy about railways would be as futile as it would be immoral. We did our best to play dog-in-the-manger over the Suez Canal, but, fortunately, we failed,—to the immense benefit of our trade. Let us not repeat the same mistake in China. Depend upon it, the sea-carriers -of the world will not be injured if foreigners spend their money in making lines to bring produce to and from the coast.

Two very well known figures in English society and politics have disappeared this week. Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, who was once described by Mr. Gladstone as the first commoner in the country, died on Sunday at the age of eighty-nine. Though he took a Double First at Oxford, he was not an original thinker or an orator ; but his great estate, his high .character, and his devotion to agriculture and to all that -could elevate country life, made him a great power in the West Country. He was repeatedly offered a peerage, but he preferred what Lord Lytton once called his "comfortable rank" as eleventh Baronet, which did not shut him out from the House of Commons. Lord Playfair died younger, being only seventy-nine. He was a man of much scientific know- ledge, and haring attracted the favourable notice of the Prince Consort, was constantly employed in the service of -the State. He was, in fact, the man always employed on 'Commissions of Inquiry into scientific or quasi-scientific sub- jects, and did a great quantity of excellent work. He was a man of decision as well as energy, and once when Chair- man of the Committee of Ways and Means suspended the whole Irish party. He was not exactly a first-class figure, but one of those men who always do well what they are asked to do, without whom no State gets along well, and when in 1S92 be was made a Peer no one carped at his eleva- tion, though no one doubted that it was partly due to the .deserved friendship felt for him by the Royal Family.

Sir John Lubbock, who is an authority, says in a letter to the Times that the Government of India, even if it is in the right in artificially raising the value of the rupee, takes the wrong method. It would do better to coin silver freely, but impose a tax, say of 100 per cent., upon silver at the port of entry. That is true enough, but is it practicable ? We fancy that with such a tax on it silver would be smuggled into India in every vessel, and at Pondicherry and Goa we .could not examine the cargoes. Japanese vessels, too, would land sycee silver all along the coast, and it would be carried into the interior by paths on which there are no officials. Indian Custom-house agents are very good, but we should be sorry to put so great and so permanent a temptation in their way. The Government seems to get no aid from "sugges- tions," and not much from Reports of Commissions. Suppose, in its despair, it picked out the best financier available, and sent him to India with plenary powers, might he not devise a working system Great currency reforms have usually come in all countries from individual brains. Time is running short, for traders are paying 12 per cent., sometimes more, for accommodation on absolute security, and nobody will send capital to India while uncertainty as to the currency prevails.

The proceedings of the Co-operative Congress at Peter- borough ended on Wednesday with the reading of a paper by Mr. J. C. Gray, the general secretary, on the extension of co- operation into the field of agriculture. He wants co-operation in owning land, in producing crops, and in their distribution. His plan, if reduced to practice, seems to be that a number of labourers, being first instructed in scientific agriculture, should combine to acquire a farm, should then distribute its work among themselves, cultivating always in the " intensive " way, and should then make co-operative sales of all produce. The necessary capital they would obtain from the surplus funds of urban co-operative societies, which would find this an excellent investment. In this way Mr. Gray thought the eight hundred thousand agricultural labourers might be made at once more prosperous and more happy. The suggestion is most attractive, and we believe that if Mr. Gray could modify human nature in agricultural labourers he might by his plan remove an immense amount of discontent and misery. Unfortunately, experience shows that agriculturists, even when freeholders, are the last people in the world to combine, that they are furiously individual, that they will not work hard unless driven, and that the last person in the world to drive them is the elected farm bailiff. The experiment has been tried all over the world, sometimes, as in California, under most favourable conditions, but it has always broken down. If Mr. Gray wishes to try it once more, let him induce a co-operative society to buy a farm, let it at a moderate rent to a society of labourers, and at the end of five years report the result. He will, we think, then admit that an agriculturist may be a diamond among toilers, but that building a wall of diamonds is not possible.

It was announced on Saturday last that Sir Francis Plunkett, our Minister at Brussels, Sir Henry Bergne, the head of the Commercial Department in the Foreign Office, Lord Ampthill, one of Mr. Chamberlain's private secretaries, and Mr. E. C. Ozanne had been named as delegates to the Sugar Bounty Conference at Brussels. Mr. Nevile Lubbock and Mr. George Martineau are to act as expert advisers to the delegates. As the delegates' object will be to get rid of bounties, we suppose we cannot object to their having been given advisers who are so strongly committed on the subject as Mr. Lubbock and Mr. Martineau.- We think, however, that the delegates should also have been provided with a Free-trade adviser—say, Sir Robert Giffen—capable of seeing the other side, and of showing them the kind of machinery which would have to be used if the delegates were to commit ne to countervailing duties. It is all very well to talk lightly of it being quite easy to put countervailing duties only on sugar known to be bounty fed, but the delegates ought to understand the true nature of the arrangements that will be required to accomplish this object,—certificates of origin, and all the rest of the antiquated paraphernalia of the most extreme forms of Differential Protection. But perhaps it is not worth while to labour the point, for the whole controversy is beginning to assume a very unreal and academic look, and the Conference will, we expect, be quite fruitless. The Daily Mail of Friday, in one of the most interesting articles on the question that has yet appeared in the Press, points out (1) that the Powers will not, and indeed cannot, give up their bounties ; and (2) that the West Indies do not now need the abolition of the bounties, since the United States has put a duty equal to the bounty on all bounty-fed sugar. This gives the command of the vast American market to the West Indies. So the whirligig of Free-trade brings in his revenges.

Mr. Bryce on Monday pronounced at Aberdeen a singularly eloquent eulogium on Mr. Glad.itone. Like ourselves, ho attributed his Home-rule Bill mainly to his intense percep- tion of the unfairness and cruelty with which in long past years we had treated Ireland ; but he had also, Mr. Bryce said, an undying faith in freedom, as something which made people better and more competent to the affairs of life. He believed implicitly in the good instincts of the masses. This feeling grew with his years, and so mastered him at last that he was indignant when any one suggested that Irishmen might misuse powers entrusted to them. The odd thing is that he did not perceive that Irishmen are free, being more than fully represented and entirely exempted from any restriction as to their speeches, their writings, or their careers. That things do not go as they wish is often true, but then it is also true of every minority. In what are Irishmen not as free, in any true sense of freedom, as Tories under a Radical majority ? As to the good instincts of the masses, one might as well talk of the good instincts of in- dividuals. There are masses and masses, and we should trust a mob of Englishmen to put down the scenes of the old arena, while we should expect a mob of Spaniards to regard them with the keenest interest, if not delight.

Bank Rate, 3 per cent.

New Consols (4) were on Friday, 1111.