NEWS OF THE WEEK

AGRAVE misfortune has fallen on civilisation. Khartoum has been taken, having, it is believed, been surrendered by treachery—a Pasha having admitted the Arab besiegers into a gate—and its heroic defender, General Gordon, who had provided against every contingency but this, is either dead or a prisoner. The Mandi reigns in Khartoum ; and her Majesty's Government, besides providing for the safety of the Expedition, now left, as it were, in the air, has to decide whether it will drive him out, or retreating to Wady Haifa and the coast, seal him up in the Soudan. Up to our going to press, the decision of the Cabinet summoned for Friday was not known ; but the balance of opinion inclined to war with the Mandi, as the general foe of all interested in the repose of the Mahommedan world, to be waged both from England and India. We are not prepared to contest that conclusion, as Egypt cannot be left with such a cloud hanging over its prosperity ; but the war will be a serious one, and waged under circumstances most trying to men of sense. There is nothing to get, we have no quarrel with the people, and the locality is nearly inaccessible ; but still Khartoum, if the decision is taken, will be reached, like Magdala, though with more serious losses.

The course of events is far from clear, but it will be remembered that on the 24th inst. Sir C. Wilson started for Khartoum from Gubat, with a portion of the Royal Sussex in two steamers. He approached Khartoum on the 28th inst.; but discovered, from the fire kept-up from the banks, that the city must be in the Mandi's hands. He steamed on right up to the city ; but the fire grew hotter, it was impossible to land, and he was informed —how, is still an unsolved mystery—that " a gate " had been opened by the treachery of a Pasha, and that General Gordon was either a prisoner or dead. He therefore steamed back ; and on his return both steamers were wrecked on an island, probably through the treachery of the pilots. Colonel Stuart Wortley, however, rowed in a small boat to Gubat, a steamer was sent to bring off the wrecked party, and information was at once dispatched to Lord Wolseley, who telegraphed the disastrous news to London. It is believed that Khartoum fell on January 26th; but the obscurity as to all details, and especially as to the fate of GeneralGordon, for whose misfortune all Europe is mourning,—is amazing. The event will, of course, greatly increase the prestige of the Mandi, who will now be obeyed by all Arabs and half-castes from Berber to the Lakes, and may recruit among them at will. The impact of the news also will be severely felt in Mecca, and perhaps on the Deccan plateau in Southern India.

In the immediate future, and during the uncertainty as to the fate of General Gordon, the most pressing cause of anxiety is the position of the force at Gubat. It will, when Sir Redvers Buller reaches it with his 1,000 men, be 1,800 strong, defended

by earthworks, and with a steamer on the river ; but it may be attacked by large forces. The Mandi can now detach any number of men he likes ; and all the scattered tribes between Metemmeh and Khartoum will throng down to the former place. It is not in Arabs, brave as they are, to defeat Englishmen fighting behind earthworks ; but they may swarm into the Desert, and so cut-off Sir R. Buller's force from all communications, except by water, and every source of supply. Aid can only come from Korti ; for General Earle with his boats has only jzst passed Birti, has Abou Hamad and Berber to take, and cannot reach Gubat under five weeks. It is believed that General Wolseley will at once despatch reinforcements sufficient to make Gubat safe ; but he may be perplexed by want of camels, his own being principally with Sir R. Buller, while the new supply promised by certain tribes may not be forthcoming. trader such circumstances, croaking is not unnatural ; but the General is said to be full of confidence, and hitherto he has committed no error. He is, of course, as irresponsible for the treachery of Firouz Pasha—if that is the name of the man who opened the gate—as General Gordon himself.

The MiCS has started an amazing theory that Khartoum may have fallen six weeks ago ; that General Gordon's letters may have been forged ; and that the Mandi's advisers may have intended to lure General Wolseley to his destruction. That must be rubbish. It is curious that no one knows what became of the remaining steamers with General Gordon ; but the theory put forward implies that some one with the Mandi not only could forge General Gordon's signature, but that he could forge his style, and had the self-command to represent him as exultant —which would give Lord Wolseley time—instead of distressed —which would urge Lord Wolseley on. Sir Charles Dilke, speaking in London on Thursday, declared specifically that he had seen several of General Gordon's letters, with his signature and seal, and one in particular, of mid-December, of a more detailed kind. In this the General declared his ability to hold-out for years. Sir Charles quite believed the story of treachery, and reminded his audience that treachery had been displayed before, and that General Gordon had been compelled to shoot two of his own Pashas. All that is true, but we want to know where Sir Charles Wilson got this story of treachery without getting any other information. We can imagine one piece of intelligence (favourable) which the Government would very carefully conceal.

An agreement between the British and Italian Goveram,.uts is believed to have been arranged, under which Italy will occupy a considerable portion of the coast of the Red Sea, including Beilul, Massowali, and perhaps Suakim, the plan being that Italy shall assist in the pacification of the Soudan, and claim certain districts as her reward. Beilul, indeed, has been occu pied, and two men-of-war, with Bersaglieri on board, are on their way to Massowah. The Egyptian Government is said to have refused its assent to this arrangement, though its garrisons retire peacefully before the Italians ; and the Porte is so indignant, that it has presented a vigorous protest. The French, also, are annoyed, seeing in these events their true meaning,— that the British Government, tired of French perverseness and hostility, has sought a counterbalancing alliance in the Mediterranean. The arrangement reflects credit on Lord Granville's diplomacy, as the Italians would be excellent custodians for the Red Sea littoral ; and if they seek adventures there, must perforce remain faithful to the interests of the only Power which can protect them. The alliance excites enthusiasm in Italy ; and the Premier, Signor Depretis, may, it is stated, rely upon a heavy majority.

An ill-advised though natural attempt to meet the dy na mitards with their own weapons has been made in New York. On the afternoon of February 2nd a woman walked up to O'Donovan

Rossa in the street near his office, and, after speaking to him, shot him with a revolver, the bullet entering below the left shoulder-blade. O'Donovan fell, crying " I am shot !" and the woman then either fired four more shots at his body, or, as she says, emptied her revolver aimlessly, not wishing to hit a man who was crying for mercy. The woman is English, fairlyeducated, and lives by nursing the sick. She says she shot her victim because he told her that he had ordered the explosions in London, and she could no longer bear his existence. She calls herself Mrs. Dudley ; but it is believed that she is an Essex woman named Dunning, who has had an eccentric career, has passed a year in a lunatic asylum, and has twice attempted to kill herself. The dynamitards, of course, protest that she is an agent of the British Government, and demand subscriptions for their martyr. The occurrence has called forth a burst of hatred and contempt for O'Donovan Rossa on the part of the American Press, which openly expresses its regret that he is likely to recover. We regret that an English woman, sane or insane, should have followed so evil an example ; but it is impossible to expend pity upon her victim, who himself, under the protection of the American Republic, prepares death for women and children in London. He is entitled to the trial granted to any criminal, but to no more.

The French are meeting with quite unexpected difficulties in Formosa. Admiral Courbet has not yet advanced a mile towards a successful occupation. All details are carefully kept back; but it is known that on January 25th the Admiral having received his reinforcements, made an advance with 1,500 men towards the "fortified plateau " commanding Kelung. After advancing about a mile and a half his troops were beaten back by a heavy fire, and retired, or stopped, having lost nine killed and fifty-three wounded. The Admiral says his men displayed great dash ; but their small number is much commented on, and it is rumoured that sickness is making such havoc in his ranks that he has demanded still farther reinforcements. The truth is, the conscripts care nothing about the war, are out of heart, and fall victims to fever and dysentery in such numbers that reinforcements scarcely keep up their original strength. According to the latest accounts, it is proposed to abandon Formosa ; but this is not probable, at least until the elections are over. Progress in Tonquin is hardly more rapid, the Chinese confronting General Negrier on every side on his march towards Laugson.

Mr. Goschen has made two considerable speeches in Edinburgh since his arrival there,—one last Saturday and one on Tuesday. The former speech he devoted to home policy, and especially to a defence of the old Liberalism against the political programme of Mr. Chamberlain ; and of this we have given a careful account and criticism elsewhere. He reminded his audience that the finance which Mr. Chamberlain had criticised as pressing hardly on the poor and hardly at all upon the rich, was the great work of Mr. Gladstone ; and he warned them that a progressive income-tax would have many other results besides its immediate effect on men of large incomes ; that it would cripple savings, harass trade, and eventually injure seriously the working-classes themselves. On the Land Question, he said that the "three F's,"—fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale,—would probably be mischievous ; indeed, that these epigrammaticallygrouped political cries always filled him with distrust, since it was generally found that one of the three emblematic pass-words made a nullity of the others. Thus, when the French cried out for liberty, fraternity, equality, the equality soon swallowed the fraternity; and in the same way, as regards the "three F's," the "free sale " would certainly swallow the " fair rent." Allow free sale of the interest in the tenancy, and the tenant would have to pay, by way of interest on his purchase-money of the tenant's right, enough to raise the " fair rent " to a point that would make it very unfair. Mr. Goschen was for abolishing all restrictions, by way of settlement or otherwise, on the sale of land, and trying whether that would not yield satisfactory results. It was always well to try freedom first, and only have recourse to interference afterwards.

Mr. Goschen's. Tuesday's speech on Colonial and Foreign affairs was by no means so good as that on home policy. He insisted strongly on the growing complexity of our Colonial relations, and the duty of holding hard by our Colonies, and steering them through their difficulties with foreign nations ; but-he did not insist at all on the necessity that if this is to be so our Colonies must themselves be reasonable, and not ask us to defend every claim to territory they choose to make, or to bear them through, even though they do not carry-out in an over-equitable spirit their arrangements with neighbouring tribes and States. Mr. Goschen is very indignant with the party who back-out of engagements once undertaken, with an excuse commencing with "After all,"—a phrase which he described as " used by timid people when they wish to back-out from a position they have taken-up." Surely sometimes it is a phrase properly used by people whose eyes have been opened to new facts which they know "after all," but did not know " before " all. " After all," we may say, did Mr. Goschen take account of all the Colonial caprices when he entreated us so eloquently to stand-by our Colonies, and let them feel that they still have a powerful friend beyond the seas?

Lord Reay has also been speaking in Edinburgh, and speaking with a good deal of brilliancy, concerning the necessity of instructed politicians, and against that view of a statesman which assumes that ho is to be a mere "wandering minstrel," able to perform effectively on many different platforms. Lord Reay's ideal of a statesman seems to be the late Sir George Cornewall Lewis ; not a bad ideal, so far as mere instructedness went. But so far as regards tenacity of purpose, founded on that instructedness, we should doubt if Lord Reay could have produced a less masterful ideal. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, with all his wide culture, gave way at once before a cry supposed to be popular. Lord Reay pronounced a strong panegyric on Prince Bismarck's instrnctedness ; but he had to admit that no subjects give Prince Bismarck so much trouble as economic difficulties. The explanation is easy. Prince Bismarck understands well the personnel of European politics, and is about as ignorant of economic science as Lord Reay justly supposes the British public to be of European diplomacy.

On the subject of the Reform of the House of Lords, Lord Reay was very animated. He is anxious that the House of Lords shall relieve the House of Commons of its surplus of business,—which is all very well if he would only suggest a House of Lords whose deliberations and conclusions would be accepted by the House of Commons as in any degree worthy of their confidence. He thinks the House of Lords might become the organ of the middle-classes and of the Colonies, which is quite true if mere speech-making could make any Assembly the organ of any class. The real problem,—how to get a House of Lords which should neither come into collision with the House of Commons, nor be a mere chorus to say ditto to its decisions, —was not discussed by Lord Reay.

Sir Stafford Northcote has enlivened his rather dull series of speeches in Devonshire by a flower-speech, which he delivered on Monday, when he claimed the primrose as the Conservative emblem, and suggested that the orchid, dear, as he asserts, to Mr. Chamberlain, who is fond of carrying a flower in his buttonhole, and sometimes carries a rare orchid there, should become the emblem of the Radical party. Sir Stafford, however, assumed that the orchid is an exotic, which " has to be sheltered in hothouses, maintained at a certain temperature, and kept from too much light," and inferred therefore that it is not the sort of flower to win English hearts. Well, of course you may have exotic orchids, but you may find English ones too in numbers, though we hardly think that it has won English hearts like the primrose, for it is a plant valued more for the caprice of its imitativeness,—as in the bee-orchis and the man-orchis,—than for simplicity and beauty. Now, whatever the Radical party is, it is clearly not specially imitative, and therefore we do not think Sir Stafford Northcote's suggestion a happy one. Perhaps if it were, the Conservatives would not be quite as much afraid of it as they actually are.

Sir Stafford Northcote further discoursed on the appropriateness of the primrose to represent Conservatism on the strength of Wordsworth's lines—apparently he had no conception that they were Wordsworth's—on " The Primrose of the Rock." The lines were

"The flowers, still faithful to the stems, their fellowship renew ; The stems are faithful to the root, that worketh out of view, And to the rock the root adheres, in every fibre true."

"That," said Sir Stafford, "I believe to be the true spirit of

the Conservatives in this country. I believe they are faithful to the stems which connect them with the root ; I believe they

adhere to that British Constitution from which the life of the flower is derived ; and I believe that that British Constitution cleaves to the rock of truth." What a pity Sir Stafford did not continue his quotation :

" Close clings to earth the living rock, though threatening still to fall; The earth is constant to her sphere, and God upholds them all; So blooms this lonely plant, nor dreads her annual funeral."

Only, perhaps, that would have made the quotation too emblematic of the Conservative Party. For their "rock of truth" too often threatens still to fall ; and perhaps, too, their "lonely plant" does dread pretty keenly its " annual funeral."

The distress in Paris, arising from the general depression of trade, begins to alarm the Chamber. M. T. Revillon asked on Thursday that a grant of £1,000,000 should be made to the great cities, which could thus give a franc a day each to 240,000 workmen, who had now been starving for two months. Other speakers asked for the opening of public workshops, the abolition of restrictions on the manufacture of arms, and a large reduction in the rates charged on railways. Disagreeable hints, too, were given that artisans suffered at least as much under the Republic as under the Empire. The Minister for the Interior, M. WaldeckRousseau, and M. Baihant, Under-Secretary for Public Works, replied that it was impossible for the State to make such grants, and that distress must be dealt with from local resources, as the rural poor were as much entitled to help as the urban population. They admitted, however, that the manufacture of arms should be relieved of some restrictions, and that railway rates, especially at Lyons, should be lowered ; and accepted without a division a resolution that the Public Works already voted should be commenced without farther delay. They will have to accept some form of Poor-Law yet, if they are to escape the incessant demands that the Treasury should keep people alive.

The footman Lee, accused of the murder of his mistress, Miss Keyse, at Babbacombe, near Torquay, has been found guilty and sentenced to death, the Judge warning him that he had no mercy to expect. The evidence, though strictly circumstantial, was conclusive, it being proved that he had threatened his mistress, who, when he had served a sentence for stealing plate, had taken him in out of charity ; that his socks were saturated with the petroleum oil with which he had attempted to fire the house; and that he had blood on his hands when the household was first roused, and before the glass to which be attributed it had been broken. The only defence attempted was a suggestion that, as his step-sister, the cook, entertained a lover, which was admitted, this man might have been in the house and have murdered Miss Keyse ; but no atom of evidence was offered in support of the theory. The guilty man appears to be of a thoroughly malignant nature ; but he professes piety, and in Court attributed his calmness, on which the Judge had commented, to his trust in the Lord.

Canon King, the Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford, is to succeed Bishop Wordsworth in the See of Lincoln ; and Dr. Bickersteth, the Dean of Gloucester, who has only just been installed in his Deanery, is to become Bishop of Exeter, in the place of Bishop Temple. We are glad that the Evangelicals are to have a. fresh Bishop on the Bench, as they have latterly thought themselves somewhat neglected ; and, as we said at the time of Dr. Bickerateth's appointment to the Deanery of Gloucester, we hold a position on the Bench of Bishops to be a better sphere for that section of the clergy than the custody of a great Cathedral. Of Canon King every one who knows him speaks with that kind of enthusiasm which Bishop Wordsworth too has inspired. So that Lincoln will have reason to rejoice even in its regret for the pions, genial, and learned, though oldfashioned, Anglican prelate who had so much scruple in conceding the title of "Reverend" to Dissenting brethren, that he embarked himself in a kind of controversy quite alien to his natural disposition. We believe that Dr. Liddon was known to have expressed a great unwillingness that any offer of a bishopric should be made to him, which may account for his being passed over. But we do not think known reluctance of this kind ought to prevent such an offer being seriously urged on the man who in all England would, perhaps, adorn a bishopric most. It is one thing to be unwilling to receive an offer. It is another thing to take the responsibility of refusing it. Prince Edward is making useful in very homely fashion. He opened the Whittiugton Boys' Club in Leman Street, Whitechapel, this day week, an 1 gave the shoeblacks who frequent it some very good advice. " Whatever you do," he said, " whether it be blacking a pair of shoes, practising gymnastics, reading a book, helping a friend, whatever it is, do it well." And secondly, " never do what you know to be wrong." When the desire comes, then, said the Prince, was the time not to give way, but " to be brave, stand firm, and refuse, under any circumstances, to do what you are not sure is right." There is a perfect simplicity about that advice that does the young Prince credit ; there is absolutely no rhetorical circumlocution at all. If the shoeblacks will only polish off their shoes to the best of their abilities, and not attempt to polish off their moral scruples, they will fit themselves for that "larger world " iu the Colonies, to which the Prince intimated that many of them would he driven by overcrowding here.

Lord O'Hagan died in London on Sunday afternoon, iu consequence of paralytic strokes more than once repeated. He was buried in Dublin yesterday. He was born in 1812, and, though a Roman Catholic, was educated in the Belfast Academical Institution, where he took away the highest prizes from Protestant competitors. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1836, and joined the North-East Circuit, where, again, though a Catholic practisiug chiefly amongst Protestants, he won the hearty respect and confidence of Protestant colleagues and Protestant clients. Between 1836 and 1840 be edited a Newry paper, the Newry Examiner. In 1840 he went to Dublin, and in 1842 defended Mr. Daffy against a charge of libel for having in his paper (The Vindicator) accused the Attorney-General of that time of procuring a judicial murder. He defended Mr. Duffy again in the State trials of 1844, and on both occasions gained great fame by his speech. Later Mr. O'Hagan became a Repealer. In 1860 he became Solicitor-General, and in 1861 Attorney-General for Ireland under Lord Palmerston's Government, was raised to the Bench in 186d, and in 1860 became Mr. Gladstone's first Lord Chancellor, and in 1870 was raised to the House of Lords. He leaves behind him the reputation of an impartial lawyer, a charming speaker, a wise patriot, and a most cultivated and genial man.

At a meeting of the Association for Promoting a Teaching University in London last Thursday, a Committee of thirteen was appointed to communicate with the larger Committee of forty, named in the London University Convocation on January 6th, on the best way of carrying•out the views of the Association. A good deal of discussion arose on the difficulty of having a Teaching University side-by-side with an Examining University ; and it is evident that the views of many influential members of the Association are unfavourable to that very clumsy scheme. For our own parts, we do not believe that a Teaching University in London is desirable at all. We do believe that a considerable extension of Teaching Colleges, of the calibre of University and King's Colleges, is desirable, and that there should be a considerably closer connection between the teachers and the Examining University than there is at present. But to engraft extensive teaching functions on the Examining University is not a course likely to succeed.

Mr. Byrne, head of the Detective Police in New York, declares in a conversation with an agent of the New York Herald that the London detectives are deceived in thinking that dynamite and dynamitards come exclusively from America. The explosive, he says, is made in France, and the assassins come from thence also. He intimates, too, a belief that Irishmen are not the only agents in causing the explosions, other revolutionists being engaged ; and bids the police look nearer home and higher in the social scale than they have done yet. Mr. Byrne is a man of great experience ; but he is naturally anxious to protect American reputation, and he does not explain this question,—What possible kind of revolution can blowing-up public buildings promote ? The people are not likely to become either Republican or Absolutists because Westminster Abbey has flown skyward.