NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE event of the week has been a speech by Lord Carnarvon on the Eastern Question. The Colonial Secretary took advantage on Wednesday of a deputation on Cape affairs, to say that he .did not think there was any great alteration in the general position since Lord Derby made his well-known speech ; that every well- informed person had expected Plevna to fall ; and that we had not, as was supposed, offered to " mediate," still less to " intervene," but had " only conveyed overtures of peace from one belligerent to another." We were resolved to have a voice in the final settlement, but we were not prepared to bolster np Turkish interests, as such. There was no affront or insult in the Russian reply, and he hoped that on the one side we should not " lash ourselves into a nervous apprehension for so-called British honour and British interests," which were in no danger ; and on the other, that Russia would remember that many of the questions arising were not questions for the settlement of the belligerents alone. A, I am confident that there is no one in this country insane enough to desire a repetition of the policy of the Crimean war." This courageous speech instantly sent up the Funds 3-16 per cent., and produced the deepest sense of relief throughout the country.
