NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Fashoda affair has taken itself away. We were un- able last week to quote the official announcements, but they were made on Friday night in Paris through an official sommunique, in London through the speech of Lord Salisbury at a City dinner to Lord Kitchener. The triumph for the Premier is a great one, but both he himself and the Press have, with much good feeling, abstained from exultation. The French Press was at first furious, and called on heaven and hell—Russia and the Sultan—to punish the "over- weening arrogance" of Great Britain; but the subsequent speech of Lord Salisbury at the annual Mansion House banquet on November 9th has greatly soothed irritation. There must, however, be a scapegoat, and it is M. Hano- taux, whose impish " tricks " have, it is declared, led to the humiliation of France,—a statement which, if for
humiliation" we substitute "recoil," may be accepted as correct. The staid resolve of Great Britain to fight rather than submit to aggression has made a deep im- pression on the Continent, where the odd illusion about British malleability has been having one of its periodical triumphs. The German Press is particularly frank, telling as that if we really are so strong and brave as all that, we are -worthy of German alliance. We shall even be forgiven for paying our soldiers. We see few signs of elation in England as we saw no signs of depression, and have as yet read no statement that Mr. Dillon and Mr. Redmond have put on hat- bands.
