NEWS OF THE WEEK.
pARLIAMENT was prorogued on Friday, and thus came to an end a Session which has been distracted through- out its whole course by the menace of foreign complications. Though it would be idle to deny that the position of the Government has been to a certain extent weakened by the criticism which has been applied to it, we believe that the damage sustained is of a purely temporary character, and that next Session will see the Ministry as strong as ever. Various members of the Cabinet—the list would include Mr. Chamberlain, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Mr. Goschen, and Lord Salisbury—have spoken unwisely and in- -opportunely, but the Cabinet's acts have not been un- wise. If the things actually done and the policy actually pursued by the Government in regard to China and Russia had been properly put before the country and properly defended, the nation could have been made to recog- nise—what is the truth—that its main interests have been protected both with vigour and discretion. Meantime, the latest indications point to the possibility of an understanding being arrived at with Russia even at the eleventh hour, under which Russia (if and when China falls to pieces) will get as her sphere of influence Northern China, we. shall get the whole valley .of the Yangtse, and France will get the pro- vinces in the South immediately abutting on Tonquin,—but not, of course, impinging on the Yangtse watershed. The Debats declares that France would welcome an Anglo-Russian arrangement on terms such as these. If that is so, Lord Salisbury will, we hope, find it possible "to do business" with St. Petersburg.
