NEWS OF THE WEEK.

ALITTLE gleam of success lights up the week. The recent emeute in Beloochistan, though led by men who were -practically brigand chiefs, was formidable, for there were chiefs on the Persian side who might have aided it, and the Beloochees everywhere belong to the half-tamed among our subjects. Colonel Mayne, however, has crushed the revolt in the old way. He did not wait for a corps d'armee with heaps of Brigadiers and a huge mob of camp-followers, but attacked the enemy, who were fifteen hundred strong, with three hundred men, chiefly Beloochee Rifles. He found the emeutiers on January 31st in a gorge at a place called Turbat, ascended the hill on the left flank with dis- mounted cavalry, and in a fight of two hours broke up the enemy, who fled, leaving all their leaders and one hundred men dead upon the hillsides. It seems to have been a most gallant deed, done in the way to which India -was accustomed before she had a "Simla group" who think small forces mean great risks, and that one of the first uses of war is to furnish many opportunities to many leading officers. India was won at Plassey, saved at Assaye, and regained at Lucknow by high resolve and daring energy, not by huge masses of troops who can hardly move.

The success is the pleasanter because we have had another failure on the Frontier. As the Zakka-khels are still defiant, an effort was made on January 29th to carry off their herds, -which, it was believed, would be in the Kajurai Plain. No less than four brigades were ordered to converge on the spot. The plan was either betrayed from our side or sus- pected, three of the brigades were unopposed, and the whole force of the clansmen was directed against the fourth. What precisely happened is not explained, but it would seem that the troops had to carry a hill which had been occupied and then abandoned, that they did carry it and then retreated, and -were caught in a, gorge. The Afridis swarmed above the gorge, descending within 30 ft. of our men, and we only escaped with the low of five officers killed, of whom the heroic Colonel Haughton is the best known, and thirty men killed, wounded, and missing. The reverse bas, of course, in- spirited the Afridis, and General Lockhart, who had arrived in Calcutta on his way home, has thought it necessary to return to Peshawur; but there is no evidence as yet that the flame has spread.

We recently mentioned that the Afridis had one, and but one, real grievance against us. We impede their supply of salt, which does not exist in the hills. In the last letter of Sir Henry Havelock-Allan to the Daily Mail he mentions that his Afridi friends in our service told him that their kinsmen's first complaint was the ruinous price of salt. There is not a European country where it would be safe greatly to raise the price of that article.

No credible news has been received from China this week. There are rumours that Russia and Great Britain have come to an agreement on some basis, of which nothing is known except that Talienwan is not to be an open port ; that the Japanese are preparing for immediate war ; and that Russia is urging both cruisers and troops towards Port Arthur, dreading, as we read the news, that the 'waspish Japanese," as Mr. Greenwood calls them, may make some sudden spring. All the rumours are probably based upon facts, but the facts are so distorted and so bewildering that we advise our readers to await the early discussions in Parliament. The time is not long now, if the correspondents at Pekin, with their appeals to the pride of two great nations, have not made any final settlement impossible. Meanwhile it is well to remember three things,—that the Dowager Empress of China, who really governs in Pekin, possesses every ability except the ability to be straight- forward ; that we have not the power to rescue Manchuria for China, even if we had the will ; and that we shall not give up onr claim to keep China open to universal trade, even if that resolve involves great sacrifices. They may remember also, in justice to our Embassy at Pekin, that it is terribly hard to protect a Power that will not strike a stroke for itself, that hates protection as much as attack, and that is incapable of giving an answer at once rapid and truthful. To have Ah Sin for a client would puzzle the sharpest lawyer in Europe.

The Emperor of Russia adheres to his decision that Prince George of Greece shall be Governor-General of Crete, and he has now been formally joined by Great Britain and France. Germany professes indifference, and Austria really feels it, but it is probable that the Sultan still hopes for German adhesion. He is, therefore, still recalcitrant, and talks of keeping Thessaly. The Prince of Bulgaria has, accordingly, sent in a strong complaint about atrocities at Uskub, just as a hint that he can, if so minded, strike Edhem Pasha from the rear with troops very different from the Greek. It is rumoured that to bring a complicated muddle to an end Prince George will be escorted to Crete by ships of the three Powers,—the precise course we ventured, last week, to hope for. All that is wanted in addition is 2300,000 for a strong gendarmerie, Cretan and Mussul- man, and a man like General Kitchener to shoot them into perfect discipline. The island might be made in six months as safe as Kent, and would then be rich.

The trial of M. Zola has not begun, but the Dreyfus affair has advanced some steps nearer to explanation. Baron von Billow last week denied, in a way which nothing but malignity can doubt, that Germany had any dealings with Dreyfus, and this week the Marquis di Rudini and his Government have made the same declaration on behalf of Italy. There remain Britain and Russia, and we hardly need say that Lord Dufferin did not bribe a French officer to betray secrets that we care nothing about. In fact it is admitted that Russia bought the documents, and we believe —though we know no secrete—it will be found that she bought them to make mire that France was not ready to make a rush on Germany, and that she showed them to German authorities to remove German susceptibilities provoked by the Dual Alliance. That was the cause of the original blunder of the French Government, which, knowing that Germany was in possession of copies of the papers, fancied she had purchased them. According to the Continental code of ethics no Power was greatly to blame, and the French Government, as we guess, is using the international secrets to guard a home secret, which we incline to believe any I Government in the world under the same circumstances I would rigidly keep, and which will not be revealed until all actors on the scene have passed away.

We are a people of peaceful traders—shopkeepers, our rivals of the Continent affirm—and are consequently at war on only eight points of the globe, with forces which in the aggregate only just exceed sixty thousand men. There are thirty-five thousand on the Indian Frontier fighting the clansmen of the Northern Himalayas, who, according to the Afridi sub-officers interrogated by Sir Henry Havelock-Alla.n, are all eager to enter our service; twenty-five thousand about to defeat the Khalifa at Omdnrman ; a thousand doing sentry duty in Crete; four hundred putting down an outbreak in Mekran ; three hundred crushing a mutiny in Uganda; and some hundreds more restoring order in Lagos, Borneo, and Basutoland. All these troops, though of different nationalities —Englishmen, Sikhs, Ghoorkas, Rajpoots, Malays, Egyptians, Soudanese, Haussas, and Wagandas—are under British officers, are paid from funds under British control, and are engaged in the self-same work, that of solidifying the Paz Brilannica, so that a commercial civilisation may have a fair chance to grow. It is good work on the whole, it is fairly well done, and the officers who do it are the most merciful of their kind; but we need not say the strain on the Army is severe, and we might, we really think, give up talking so much about the peacefulness of our special mission. Like Christianity, England intends peace but carries a sword. We say nothing of the Fleet, which throughout the world restrains warlike ambitions, clears the seas of piracy, and would, were the Government quite honest in the matter, clear the planet of that sum of all iniquities, the ocean-borne slave-trade.

The Times' correspondent in Paris tells in Thursday's issue a curious story illustrating the ways of diplomacy. In August, 1896, the Russian Emperor visited the Austrian Emperor at Vienna, and gave him the pleasantest assur- ances. The French Ambassador did not quite like that, but Prince Lobanoff, who was a genius in his way and frightened all his diplomatic rivals, visited M. Loz6, and with most sweet words sought to soothe away every suspicion. M. Loze, however, had been the supreme detective of France, and did not much believe in anybody. He accordingly strolled up to Prince Lobanoff and Count Badeni while talking at the review, and warmly thanked the Prince for the comforting assurances he had empowered him to transmit to Paris. Count Badeni bit his lips with irritation, and even the Prince was moved, but the Austrian Emperor hearing of the incident, said, smiling, to his Minister of War, "It is needless then to countermand to-morrow's Council of War." The effect of the Imperial interview had been undone. M. Loze is clever, but there is a better story still told of Sir Edmund Monson's finesse when dealing with M. Hanotaux,—but perhaps it had better be reserved till M. Hanotanx, as President or as spirit, is beyond caring about diplomatic defeats.

Mr. Chamberlain is evidently, to employ a rather slangy phrase, "in his best form." He made:on Saturday a speech at the dinner of the Jewellers' Association, Birmingham, which was positively crammed with epigrams. He compared many of his opponents with the French dramatist who com- plained of an intrusion because he was happy, "having just hung one villain of a Minister and banished another who was an idiot." "The leadership of the Opposition," he continued, "is now a noun of number." He doubted if all the Opposition was sincere ; but no doubt if the other party had been in power they would have behaved differently,—" in fact, instead of aiding agriculture they would have abolished the House of Lords ; instead of giving relief to voluntary schools they would have disestablished the Church ; and instead of giving compensation to workmen they would have deprived the workman of his beer ; and when they had intervals of leisure they would have given Home-rule to Ireland, and they would have destroyed the integrity of the United Kingdom." That last is a point too often forgotten. We are not only to kill Charles H., but to do it in order to make James II. King. Providence did that at last, and the people had to rise in insurrection against the second Monarch.

The more serious part of Mr. Chamberlain's speech was a very earnest defence of his Colonial policy and that of the Foreign Office in China. He felt certain that if the com-

merce of the United Kingdom failed we should be a fifth.' rate State, consisting of two small islands in the North Atlantic, unable to provide for its people in anything like comfort. That commerce is threatened from within by the mistakes of both manufacturers and men, the latter of whom must understand that the day is to the strong, and must put out their full strength, and not bring down the average to the level of a minimum performance. It is also threatened from without by the closing of our markets, especially in West Africa and China. In regard to the former, we must fight for the Hinterland of Lagos and the Gold Coast; and in regard to the latter, we must insist that all opportunities of trade shall be kept open for all men, ourselves included. That was a policy which we proclaimed as long ago as in 1548, and we must maintain it now. We agree in the main, though we partly doubt the profitableness of West Africa until it is more civilised; but we demur, as historians, to Mr. Chamberlain's picture of an uncommercial England. Forty millions of Anglo-Saxons with too little to eat would, we venture to say, be the most formidable foe that Europe has ever encountered. The Continent is always asking us to set up a conscription, but it will shrink back in horror if we ever do it. France was conquered by the Plantagenets because there was not room enough in this island for us all, and so it would be again. The world does not know what it gains by the full feeding and consequent good humour of the British people.

On Wednesday Lord Salisbury and the Duke of Devonshire received at the Foreign Office a deputation from twenty-one of the great parochial divisions and Vestries of the Metropolis, their object being to ask for the introduction of a Bill in the next Session of Parliament to provide for "the creation of Metropolitan municipalities of dignity and importance, and to confer upon them the right to perform municipal duties." Mr. Wheeler, Q.C., who introduced the deputation, said it represented over two and a half millions of people, and over £20,000,000 of rateable value. They did not attack the County Council, but recognised the necessity for the existence of such a body, and did not wish to detract from its useful- ness and importance" The best answer to the suggestion that they wished to get rid of the Equalisation of Rates Act was the fact "that out of the twenty-one authorities represented, no fewer than thirteen were recipients of the rate." All the other speakers who followed agreed in repudiating any desire to put burdens on the poorer parishes or to attack the County Council. Unquestionably the deputation proves that there is a strong desire for a more dignified scheme of governmeat among the local authorities which make up the Metropolis.

The Duke of Devonshire, who followed, gave a sketch of the various ways in which the Government might meet the wishes of the deputation. It might merely create the new municipalities with the old Vestry duties, and leave all idea of addition or adjustment for another time. Next, it might arrange for the immediate transfer of certain powers. Lastly, they might give some powers at once, and reserve others to be transferred. The Duke did not say which plan the Government intended to adopt, but asked for more light as. to what new powers were asked for. Lord Salisbury followed with a very able disclaimer of any notion of breaking up the County Council, or altering the present fiscal system of London. We leave dealt with his speech elsewhere, and will only note here his appeal to the ratepayers to shake off their apathy and attend to their own local affairs. That, we fear, is a counsel of perfection which will never be heartily followed. London life is so interesting from the point of view of Imperial politics, of art, of science, of literature, and of commerce, that men have little energy left for ratepayers' questions.

The Home-rulers have had a great disappointment this week. They not unnaturally hoped that there would be a split between the Liberal Unionists and the Conservatives over the Edgbaston seat, vacated by the death of Mr. Dixon. The more strenuous of the Birmingham Liberal Unionists declared that under the Compact Liberal Unionists ought always to be replaced by Liberal Unionists. It was argued, however, by the Conservatives—and, as we think, rightly argued—that the case of Birmingham was an exception. There the whole representation is in the hands of Unionists, and yet the Conservatives only hold one seat. But the

Birmingham Conservatives naturally enough feel that, con- sidering their strength in the town, they have a right to at least two Beats; and this claim was practically admitted by the leaders when Lord Charles Beresford came forward and then retired. Mr. Chamberlain, who has always shown him- self loyal not merely to the letter but to the spirit of the Compact, however, threw himself into the controversy, and at last induced the local Liberal Unionists to resign their claim -to the seat.

On Wednesday Mr. Chamberlain went down to Birmingham and addressed the Edgbaston Liberal Unionist Divisional • Connoil, urging upon them the necessity for giving way. His speech was a model of what such a speech should be. There was neither hectoring nor wheedling, but a frank and loyal appeal. When he asked them, "What is a leader ? " his voice had in it a ring which all democratic gatherings like, but which they hear too seldom. "By your graee, by your election, by your continued kindness and confidence, I am," said Mr. Chamberlain, "the leader of the Liberal Unionist party in Bir- mingham. As your leader, it is my duty to advise you. It is, of course, within your power to reject my advice; but if you reject my advice, of course you reject the leader. I am not one of those, of whom we see many, who, for the sake of a nominal leadership, are content to follow." In the end, Mr. Chamber- lain carried his followers with him, and it was decided by a majority of 84 votes to 29 that the Conservatives should have the .seat, though the Liberal Unionist Council is to be given some influence in the choice. There is, we see, still some local grumbling over the incident, but unless we are greatly mis- taken it need not be taken very seriously. All Unionists will be glad that the incident should have ended, and as it did. The Birmingham Conservatives were clearly entitled to another seat. Now the Compact may fairly be construed strictly throughout the Kingdom.

The Times of Tuesday publishes an able letter addressed to one of his constituents by Mr. T. W. Russell on the estab- lishment of a Roman Catholic University in Dublin. In spite of the fact that his attitude is causing considerable annoy- .ance in South Tyrone, Mr. Russell, with a courage which does him the greatest possible credit, is sticking to his guns. He takes up the unassailable ground that it is the Roman 'Catholics of Ireland, not the Protestants, who must be the judges of what is and what is not contrary to Catholic con- scienees. The Roman Catholics have decided that they cannot conscientiously use the existing University system. They must, then, be given the opportunity to create a Univer- sity with an atmosphere as Catholic as that of Trinity College is Protestant. [When they have this University with a Catholic atmosphere we wonder how many Protestants will use it, though they are not excluded.] Mr. Russell ended his plain-spoken and manly letter by saying that it is not Ulster which will decide the question, but the people of the United Kingdom as a whole. We have, as our readers know, always stood by Ulster, but even if all Protestant Ulster— which is, however, by no means the case—were against the Roman Catholic University, we should advocate in the strongest possible way the ignoring of that opinion. Policy, as well as justice, demand that the Roman Catholic claim shall be heard and generously satisfied.

It is with great regret that we record the death of Lord Carlingford, which took place on Sunday night at Marseilles, —from influenza. Lord Carlingford, who for the last twelve years had been in very indifferent health, was on his way to the Riviera. Lord Carlingford sat in all the Cabinets in which Mr. Gladstone was Premier up to the time of the Home-rule split, when he threw in his lot with the Unionists. Though his mental powers were not of the kind which specially attract the public, he impressed all who came near him with his strong good sense and love of justice. He was, in fact, exactly the kind of man who strengthens a Cabinet by bringing to it a cool and just judgment, unbiassed by prejn- &ea or personal ambition. Though after the death of his Wife—Lady Waldegrave—Lord Carlingford lived in great seclusion, he was essentially a man of many friends. He was a good talker, and in spite of the ill-health of his last years, keenly interested in literary, historical, and antiquarian as well as political subjects, A correspondent who knew him well notes in another column how, as Mr. Chichester

Fortescue, he deserved, though be did not get, the credit of Mr. Gladstone's first Irish Land Bill.

At the Junior Constitutional Club on Thursday Mr. Arnold-Forster made a most practical and useful speech. It will, we hope, prevent the impression from spreading that the Government are already pledged to do all that is necessary to put the Army on a satisfactory basis. As Mr. Arnold-Forster showed, this is not the case. There has been no promise to reform the War Office ; no promise to abolish the system under which a battalion when at home really ceases to be a battalion and becomes an ambulatory depot ; no promise that the regimental traditions of the cavalry shall be retained unimpaired ; and, lastly, no promise that in the future proper attention shall be paid to regimental esprit de corps. Mr. Arnold-Forster might have added that though there has been a promise that something shall be done about the artillery, it has not been wide enough, or specific enough, or apparently inspired with a sense of the absolutely vital importance of this matter. On the general question, our opinion is that we want not a special Indian army, but one army, as now, and, as now, composed of two sorts of regiments, —i.e., regiments with a short service, like the Guards, and regi- ments with a long service. The only alteration necessary is to considerably increase the number of regiments recruited on Guards' conditions,—i.e., regiments permanently at home in. peace-time recruited on a three-year system. There is no need to talk about a special Indian army, as Sir Charles Dilke does. That only confuses the public mind.

The very interesting contest in South Wolverhampton—a. constituency never contested since its creation—took place on Thursday, and ended in the defeat of the Home-rule candidate by 111 votes. Mr. Gibbons, the Liberal Unionist, polled 4,115 votes, and Mr. Thorne, the Home-ruler, 4,004. The victory is a remarkable one, and shows that in a very democratic constituency the Unionist cause is as popular as ever. Mr. Gibbons, though a man of local influence and credit, is sixty years of age, and not, therefore, what is usually considered a good candidate for a hard fight. It is very possib'e that the majority would have been larger but for the injudicious conduct of Sir Alfred Hickman, who allowed his works to be canvassed in a way which enabled the Home-rulers to say that he was intimidating his workmen. Of course, he was doing nothing of the kind, but the opportunity given to the other side to raise the cry of undue influence no doubt did the Unionist candidate harm. The British working man cannot be intimidated, but the allegation that some one is trying to do so is always most damaging. The other election of the week, that in South-East Durham, also took place on Thursday, and resulted in the return of Mr. Richardson, the Home-rule candidate, by a majority of 275 votes. In 1895 the Unionist majority was 114.

The country is just now full of influenza. Not only is there a great deal in London, but also in the Home Counties, especially Kent and Surrey. Devonshire is also much attacked, and in Cornwall the epidemic has been so bad as seriously to interfere with business. According to the British Medical .Tournal, there are three types of influenza,—that which specially attacks the respiratory organs, that which singles out the nervous system, and that which operates on the digestive organisation. "In the earlier epidemics in recent years the majority of cases belonged to the first type, and many deaths were attributed to bronchitis and pneumonia. Later, the prevalent type was the nervous, and men were left in a condition of mental and physical depres- sion which for many months greatly limited their activities, and in too many cases helped to fill the asylums." The present epidemic is remarkable, we are told, for the very large proportion of cases which show symptoms of profound disturbance of the digestive system. "The symptoms are in many cases so severe and pronounced that the most ex- perienced physicians have in individual cases felt some hesita- tion for several days in rejecting the diagnosis of typhoid fever." A curious proof of this, according to the writer in the British Medical Journal, is to be found in the fact that whereas the deaths from influenza in London are rising, those from diseases of the respiratory organs are going down.

Bank Rate, 3 per cent.

New Console (2) were on Friday, 1121. •