NEWS OF THE WEEK.
• THE Queen was right not to go on the Continent this year. An attempt to assassinate her, or to inflict any personal insult, would have driven the whole Empire mad with fury, and though such an attempt was not probable, it is clear that in passing through Belgium she might have been in danger Dr. Leyds has mastered the Belgian Press, the common folk, especially the Flemings, who are under clerical influence, are saturated with hatred of England, and we this week see the result of vitriolic speech and bitter journalism. On Tuesday a lad of sixteen named Sipido attended a meeting in Brussels where violent denunciations of the Prince of Wales —then an expected guest, on his way to Copenhagen— were received with enthusiastic applause. Accordingly, on Wednesday evening, as the Prince was leaving the Nord Station, the lad—who had purchased a penny ticket, which ad- mitted him to the platform—jumped on the step of the Prince's saloon, and fired at him four times with a revolver. The weapon twice missed fire, and the two bullets which were fired both missed the Prince, who proceeded quietly on his journey. Sipido declares that he wished to kill the Prince because he was "an accomplice of Chamberlain in killing Boers," but quantities of Anarchist rubbish were found in his pockets, and it is probable that he was an ordinary shallow-brained Anarchist with a deadly hatred of all who are above himself. He should be asked where the Transvaal is. The Belgian Court expresses deep regret at the occurrence, but as it makes no effective effort to prohibit the atrocities on the Congo, where sixty women were recently massacred because their husbands did not bring in enough rubber, the King's emotions are probably not deep. The Belgians have some great qealities, but they have also a vein of coarse savagery in them which, when they are carried out of themselves by rage or religion, sometimes produces terrible results. Read the Belgian debate on the outrage.
