NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE country has had a great surprise this week,—a sur- prise which has also been a shock. On Monday the American President forwarded to Congress a Message, in which he declared that British action in Venezuela, in ref using arbitration about the whole boundary question—we had accepted arbitration as to the area we admitted to be doubtful—was a breach of the Monroe doctrine. That doc- trine must be maintained, and Mr. Cleveland therefore asked for money to pay an American Commission which should in- vestigate the facts and report with the least possible delay. " When such report is made and accepted it will, in my opinion, be the duty of the United States to resist by every means in its power, as a wilful aggression upon its rights and in- terests, the appropriation by Great Britain of any lands, or the -exercise of Governmental jurisdiction over any territory, which, after investigation, we have determined of right to belong -to Venezuela." In other words, the Presi- dent is to decide on the boundaries of British Guiana over our heads ; and we are to accept that decision under penalty of war. This astounding pretension, which, in fact, invalidates the title of Great Britain, France, and Holland, to their possessions in America, which are, many of them, older than the United States, has been received here with amazed con- cern, and will of course be decisively resisted. Opinion upon that point is quite unanimous ; but there is much confidence that the common-sense and good feeling of both countries will avert anything more serious than a newspaper war.
