NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE week has been full of rumours about an armistice. It appears to be certain that the Turkish Government has con- sented to an armistice until the middle of March ; but it may have accompanied this concession with conditions which Servia and Russia cannot accept. For example, it is said that Servia is to receive no more volunteers, while Turkey may receive as many as it likes,—a mere piece of impudence. The Council at Belgrade is reported by Reuter to have agreed to the armistice "unconditionally ;" but it is evident that there is some hitch, caused probably by the necessity of consulting Livadia, where the Czar, his eldest son, Prince Gortschakoff, General Ignatieff, and the War Minister are in earnest consultation. lip to Friday evening nothing certain was known, the telegrams from Constantinople being despondent, those from Vienna doubtful of the armistice, and those from Belgrade, on the whole, hopeful of its acceptance. The probabilities are in favour of acceptance, by which the Christians would lose nothing, while in the Conference, which would meet at once, they might possibly gain much. General 'fchernaieff has always said that he would accept an armistice of some length, and the Russian Government itself proposed one, but in both cases it is conceivable that they thought they were agreeing to an impossibility.
