NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE event of the week has been the assembling of the Genoa Conference. As we write, the various Commissions are hard at work discussing the conditions embodied in the invita- tion issued from Cannes and endorsed and ratified by the delegates. The whole world wishes the Conference good luck and a short session, for Conferences are like cats and grow cursed with age—to use James I.'s famous description of Parlia- ments. At any rate, the physical omens are favourable. The Conference could not have had a more attractive place for its meetings. The climate is good and Genoa, though she contains no signal architectural triumph, and was never a city of the arts, is still one of the most magnificent of the works of man in stone. The town is seated with the blue and sparkling _Mediterranean in front, and an amphitheatre of hills behind. It shows nobly from the sea. Indeed, it must have been from its approach by sea that Genoa derived her name as " the superb." Proud city of the waters, she should be first seen from a ship's deck. If a city lies on flat ground the view from the water is often tame and disappointing. The buildings in front hide the buildings behind and the town makes a poor show. But Genoa long ago climbed its hills, and so the city lies like a ran open and held upright.
