It appears to be certain that there is, at all
events, no secret Treaty. Indeed, the Russians say such an arrangement is impossible, as a secret document would be at once betrayed to England. The whole of the binding arrangements have therefore been published, and will be laid before Congress ; and the only serious dispute now is whether Congress shall be competent to discuss them all. The British Government has demanded that Congress itself shall settle this question for itself, but the Rus- sian Government, though it has, it is reported, decided to give way, has not yet formally assented to this demand. The result has been an impression throughout the past week that " things looked black," and that there would yet be war, an impression deepened by the British preparations, which extend even to the purchase of a small railway. There is, however, no proof that the impression is well founded, and a great deal of evidence to show that the War Office thinks it has got a great " find " in the six millions, and is filling up gaps in its armaments in a hurry, partly to be ready for anything, but chiefly to spend the money before the close of the financial year. The rumours, of course, are endless, but the most persistent of them all—that England will occupy Mitylene, and make of it another Gibraltar, controlling access from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean—would not probably involve war.
