NEWS OF THE WEEK.

SIR PETER LUMSDEN'S criticism on General Komaroff's account of the battle of Pul-i-Khisti was received in London on Tuesday, and published on the following day. Sir Peter declares the Russian account "incorrect." The left bank of the Khusk has always been Afghan, and the approach of Russians and Afghans towards each other was due to the Russians only, though "the continued and irritating daily attempts to excite hostility convinced Afghans of Russian determination to provoke conflict," and "induced them to extend their defensive position." On the 27th, Colonel Alikhanoff with his cavalry pushed past Pul-i-Khisti, and actually appeared four miles in the rear of the Afghan position, where he was intercepted, and warned to retire. "The Afghans did all they could to avoid collision, and it was solely owing to their patience and forbearance during two months of incessant irritation that peace has been preserved so long." As to the statement that General Komaroff's ultimatum was rejected upon English advice, the Afghan answer is given textually, and is as follows :— "I have duly received your letter regarding the withdrawal of certain. pickets. As I had received orders from the Governor of Herat to consult Captain Yat,e, who has been deputed to Penjdeh by Sir Peter Lumsden, in such matters, I showed him your letter. Captain Yate afterwards had an interview with Colonel Zakrchewski, and informed me of the conversation which had taken place between them. Be it known to ye that I must loyally obey the orders I have received from his Highness the Ameer. I can in no way do anything contrary to the orders of my Sovereign. Of course, in ntatters of detail, such as alterations in positions of advanced pickets and vedettes posted in front of the troops, I am prepared to come to an arrangement with ye with a view to the avoidance of any risk of conflict." The return to that polite reply was a second note, followed in a few hours by the Russian attack.

It is believed that a despatch, requiring the Russian Government to disavow General Komaroff, has been addressed to St. Petersburg ; but it is answered in advance by the St. Petersburg Gazette, an official journal. The Russian Government considers that Sir P. Lnmsden derived his information from Afghans, and therefore adheres firmly to the accounts of its own officers, and will decline all apology or explanation. This means, of course, war ; and although there may still be some delay, the coolest observers have nearly surrendered their last hopes of peace. The Russian journals have evidently received a hint to prepare the public mind, and dwell on the necessity of seizing Herat with such accord that the idea is probably inspired. In that case the seizure of Herat has been ordered, and we ought in the course of next week to hear the result of the attempt. The news would be sent to Quetta and Cabal at once, and ought to reach the nearest Indian telegraph station in four days at furthest. It is, of course, impossible for English troops to pre vent the attack, and the only hope of foiling it rests it the courage with which the Afghans may defend the city. It is wretchedly prepared ; but with walls to defend, and no heavy artillery against them, the Afghans should fight well.

In view of all these circumstances, and probably of many more not yet known to the public, Mr. Gladstone on Tuesday demanded a War Credit of eleven millions. He read himself in the Lower House, and Lord Granville read in the Upper House, an identical paper, stating that the Government required 24,500,000 for past operations in the Soudan, and for railway works at Suakim and Berber. They intended, however, while holding the port on the Red Sea, and the interior as far as Sinkat, and the Nile up to Wady Haifa, to give up the idea of an early advance on Khartoum ; and with the Army of the Soudan, strengthened by a force from England, to form a reserve for India, in addition to the reinforcements called for by the Viceroy. A whole Corps d'Armee will, in fact, be thus ready as a reserve. A sum of 2500,000 will be wanted for the transport of this Corps d'Arm6e, and 26,000,000 for other preparations for war, of which E4,000,000 will be for military and 22,000,000 for naval charges. Mr. Gladstone never mentioned Russia, and ended with a hope that peace might be preserved; but the House fully understood his meaning, and when he sat down all men felt that the hope of peace was slight.

This impression was deepened on Thursday, when, in reply to various questions, the Premier refused all information, because "the Government is engaged in a correspondence of extreme gravity." The House, of course, very properly supported this decision, more especially as it was clearly informed that no reticence would be preserved as to the Soudan ; and its self-control will be appreciated by the country. At the same time, we trust that the necessity for this reticence will not last much longer. There are disadvantages in secrecy as well as advantages, and an absolute refusal of information diminishes the heartiness of popular support. In particular, it may be questioned whether the cloud which covers the relations between India and the Ameer might not expediently be lifted. At present, there is a notion abroad that the Ameer hesitates to permit a British advance through Afghanistan, and even declines to accept English aid in repairing the fortifications of Herat. That impression must be in its essence unfounded ; but its existence causes much anxiety, and a depressing doubt whether, under such circumstances, it is possible to touch Russia. The fog will be lifted the moment the final decision is made ; but a fog does not raise the spirits of men who are listening for the cannon. Mr. Gladstone on Thursday appeared sensible of this himself, and we trust that next week he will be able, if Russia still refuses to recede, to place the whole truth more clearly before the country.

The anger of the Russian Press at the British occupation of Port Hamilton is not unnatural. They attach great importance to their position at the month of the Amoor, the only port they possess in the open water, and keep a fleet there which, as they think, dominates the North Pacific, and might threaten Australia. It was not of much use in the last Russian war ; but it escaped safely from Admiral Elliott, through, it is believed, its officers' knowledge of the then uneurveyed waterway between Saghalien and the mainland. The quick road outwards for this fleet lies, however, through the Straits which separate Corea and Japan; and, by taking possession of the islet of Port Hamilton, under some grant, we presume, from Japan, the British dominate this Strait, and will be able to watch all Russian Naval movements. The Russians, therefore, demand the evacuation of Port Hamilton, which, however, the Admiralty, under the circumstances, is not likely to concede. There may be points, hie the defence of Singapore, on which the First Lord is too confiding, but the situation is studied more closely than irresponsible critics are aware.

The air is full of rumours about the intention of the Sultan to enforce the neutrality of the Dardanelles by sinking any menof-war which may pass without his permission. It is said that Germany and Austria have urged him to take this course, that Russia has threatened him with war, and that he is himself disposed to avenge on England the slights he has suffered in Egypt. It is just possible that Austria may want an excuse for annexing Bosnia, or descending to Salonica ; but it is more probable that the German Powers will witness the duel between Russia and England with silent gratification, and with no wish that Russia should win. The Hungarians will prevent any assistance being given to Russia. As to the Porte, it dreads Russian friendship, and would find it difficult to rouse Mussulman feeling, without which it is powerless, on the Russian side. If the worst comes to the worst, nobody except England can offer Turkey a small loan ; and with a small loan—of which the Palace will appropriate a fifth—the soldiers' arrears can be paid, the Roumelian frontier can be protected, and the Sultan will be released from his dread of military revolt. There is not much in this talk of the Dardanelles, not to mention that we can imprison the Turks in their own waters, stop the Egyptian tribute, and declare Candia, Egypt, and Tripoli independent. The Italians would like the wardship of that Pashalic.

On Thursday morning, at 10.45 a.m., a room in the Admiralty, occupied by the Assistant Secretary, Mr. E. W. Swainson, was blown-up from the inside. Mr. Swainson sustained a severe concussion of the brain, the room was wrecked, and the windows were blown-out. It was, of course, assumed that the outrage was Fenian, and the material dynamite ; but by the latest accounts much doubt has been thrown upon this view. The walls were not injured as they would have been by dynamite, and fragments of the clockwork of an infernal machine have been discovered. Until Mr. Swainson is sufficiently recovered to give evidence, much must remain uncertain; but at present it is believed that a man, whether a private enemy or a Fenian is uncertain, penetrated into his room before the officers of the house arrived, and placed a machine upon his bookcase, timed to explode a parcel of gun-cotton, or a very •small quantity of dynamite, after his arrival. Private vengeance of that kind is unusual in this country ; but it seems improbable that Fenians would have selected a subordinate officer for attack, or have employed a machine calculated to do such a moderate amount of mischief. It is even possible that Mr. Swainson was examining some model of a torpedo submitted to the Admiralty by an inventor.

Lord Salisbury has been making speeches in Wales, at Wrexham and at Welshpool, in which he has said nothing new, but has expressed his feelings towards the Government with something less, perhaps, than his usual bitterness. "When Lord Beaconsfield left office," he told his audience at Wrexham on Tuesday, "we were friends with all the world," the fact being that he had sowed the seeds of our existing difficulties in all parts of the world, had made the Afghans our bitter enemies, the Russians eager for an opportunity of quarrel, the French jealous, the Boers rebels, had left a chaos in South Africa, and Egypt far advanced towards bankruptcy and mutiny. Lord Salisbury was full of wrath that the Government had retired from Candahar, though, if we were now occupying Candahar, the Afghans would certainly be in strict alliance with Russia to turn us out, and our position would be vastly more critical than it notv is. He recalled the time when Lord Aberdeen's Government was dismissed from office for its incompetence, and forgot to say that Lord Palmerston, who succeeded it, was really at the bottom of the policy for which Lord Aberdeen's Government was dismissed, and that Lord Palmerston's management of the Crimean War was all but as bungling as Lord Aberdeen's, and incompetent to the last degree compared with the war administration of the present Government. But in those days Oppositions were not so acrid as the Opposition led by Lord Salisbury.

On Wednesday, at Welshpool, Lord Salisbury told his audience that the storm through which we were passing was a heavy one, but that Englishmen were not inclined on that account "to place unlimited confidence in an incompetent steersman and a fighting crew ;" and that the "collective incompetence " of the Government has enabled them to purchase "dishonour" at a heavier price than was ever paid for-it before. He then went on to complain of the Government for not having appointed a Commission to inquire into the depression of trade. He was anxious, however, to explain that he did not contemplate among the possibilities of the future the imposition of any duty upon corn (after that, will not Mr. Lowther set up for himself ?), but that possibly it might be right to tax imported luxuries, and that certainly it would be right to found the general taxation of the country more upon all kinds of property, personal as well as real, so that instead of paying the school-rate, for instance, on the rent of houses alone, it should be paid in future, as the Income-tax is paid, by a per-centage on all available means. Lord Salisbury appeared to favour the idea of admitting all Colonial goods duty-free, however high the taxation the Colonies put on British goods ; and he enunciated a very remarkable conviction of his, that all infidels are Liberals, which is about as true and about as false as that all idiots are Liberals. So far as infidels are without faith of any kind in the government of the world, they are incapable of true Liberalism, and, in point of fact, are rather oftener Tories than Liberals. With a shot at the Peace Party, and a sneer at the array of inspectors, whom he called "inquisitors," Lord Salisbury wound-up his speech.

Lord Carnarvon and Sir R. Cross have .both been delivering party addresses, the former to a Conservative meeting yesterday week at Oldham, and the latter on Wednesday last to a large Conservative gathering at Bury St. Edmunds. All these addresses enumerate charges against the Government so. like each other, that they remind us of that reader of the morning's lesson in College Chapel, who, when he had to recite the names of the instruments in Nebuchadnezzar's orchestra, at the sound of which every man was to fall down before the golden image, impatiently shortened the list of cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, &c., into "the band as before," to which formula he steadily adhered throughout the chapter. Lord Carnarvon and Sir R. Cross might very usefully have adopted a like abbreviation. South Africa, Australia, India, Egypt, Afghanistan, Russia, France,—in relation to all parts of the world alike, the chorus of accusations is raised, and in relation to all parts of the world alike, Conservatives are exhorted to bow down to the wonderful image of that Conserve-tive policy which Lord Beaconsfield set-up. Only Sir Stafford Northcote, who has also been speaking at the Criterion Restaurant to a Working-men's Constitutional Association, is evidently a little weary of the discordant instrumental band of Conservative accusation, and talks rather more rationally. And just for that reason Sir Stafford Northcote is crowed down by Conservative shrieks.

On Tuesday the Redistribution Bill passed through Committee, and Sir Charles Dilke, who has managed the Bill admirably, and has obtained credit from all sides for his tact as well as for his complete mastery of the details of the Bill, thanked the Committee for the support they had given him, and indulged the hope that the Bill, when it became law, would be worthy of the labour they had bestowed upon it. Of course, a Bill on which the two sides of the House are agreed, does not test the statesman in charge of it by a test as severe as a Bill fiercely opposed by the Opposition. But still, the mass of detail, and the number of local prepossessions appealed to by this Redistribution Bill, have been a very serious test both of knowledge and address, and Sir Charles Dilke has stood the test to the satisfaction of all parties. Even the Irish Irreconcilables have found nothing which they could even pretend to call insulting or offensive in his demeanour ; and this they certainly would have found, if there had been only a grain of reality to a hundredweight of suspicions fancy in the accusation.

The visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Ireland has been, on the whole, a great success ; but there were small hostile demonstrations of no account in Tralee, Listowell, and Limerick, and of these feeble demonstrations Mr. O'Brien,M.P., made as much as possible at the meeting of the National League on Tuesday.. "There was no loyalty," he said, "in Ireland for an English Prince ; and wherever the Prince would go throughout the country, there would not be wanting evidence to remind him that the sincere and earnest prayer of the Irish peaple was that the British Empire would be sank for twenty-four hours to the bottom of the sea." How you sink an empire to the bottom of the sea, and how you are to keep it there for twenty-four hours, it would take an Irishman of Mr. O'Brien's tremendously lawless fancy to explain. Perhaps.this feat suggests itself as easy to Mr. O'Brien, because it is certainly easy for Irishmen to set-up an Irish empire in the clouds ; and they forget that it is much more difficult to put a real thing where they would like it to be, but where it is not, than to put an unreal thing where if is, and always will be,—in the limbo of obscure impossibilities.

Lord Derby moved, on Thursday, the second reading of the Bill to give a Federal Council to Australasia, and defended his eccentric thirty-first clause, which permits any one Colony to abandon the Confederation when it will,—that is, any one stick to slip out of the bundle,—on the ground that as the Colonies themselves have struck out of the Bill all power to tax the various Colonies for carrying into effect the decisions of the Council, the federation proposed is so imperfect that there may as well be reserved to each Colony the right to abandon the federation at pleasure. That we cannot see ; for though, under its present form, the Bill would throw the expense of everything that was done on the Colonies who wished it done, still the Federation would have the right to order its being done ; and the Colonies which did not contribute to it could, at least, not prevent it. But if any Colony may detach itself when it pleases, the decisions arrived at by the Federation would have no binding power at all. Suppose, for instance, that some of the Colonies are willing to pay for a Federal Fleet, but that New South Wales declines to contribute, the Federal Fleet could still be established, and might save New South Wales from invasion, in spite of the indifference of New South Wales ; but if New South Wales may detach herself altogether from the Confederation, the Federal Fleet would not be able to refit in Port Philip, however essential such an operation were to the safety of the Colony, and therefore of all the Colonies. We should have thought it far wiser to insist on the compulsory character of the tie, if the tie be once consented to ; and that New South Wales should hold aloof altogether, rather than join a Confederation only for the purpose of embarrassing it.

Lord Carnarvon supported Lord Derby's thirty-first clause with a vehemence much greater than Lord Derby's, a vehemence which we hardly understand. A bundle of sticks, any one of which may untie the string which binds them all, does not seem to us to be in any useful sense a bundle. We suppose the whole mystery depends on the feeling between New South Wales, the oldest and somewhat the richest Colony, though not the one which has the beat Budget to boast of, feels for Victoria, which is the most populous and the most rapidly increasing. Now, of course, we would not force any member of the Confederation into the Confederation against its will. At the same time, to let it come in and go out at pleasure seems to as a kind of Confederation much too inchoate to be called Confederation at alL The Bill was read a second time in the House of Lords without a division.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, in answer to Mr. Lewis, who appeared to share in the preternatural suspiciousness of Lord Randolph Churchill as to the free breakfasts to the unemployed, the Attorney-General read a letter from Mr. G. W. E. Russell, M.P. (the Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board), describing the origin of the free breakfasts given to the unemployed, the wholly non-political character of them, the presence at them of politicians of both parties, and the position of the men who get the benefit of them, none of whom are voters; and the Attorney-General declared that he had assured Mr. Russell that under the circumstances the breakfast could not be regarded as any evasion at all of the Corrupt Practices Act. So the breakfast was given, and Mr. Russell will not get a single additional vote at Fulham in consequence, unless, indeed, from those who feel that a kind heart is in some sense an additional recommendation for a politician. We hardly know how far suspiciousness may yet undermine the character of Englishmen, when we read the cateclaisings of • Lord Randolph Churchill and Mr. Lewis.

Dr. Crichton Browne is very angry that Mr. Mundella, Lord Aberdare, and others do not attach very much value lo the answers which children in Elementary Schools give to questions put to them on the subject of their headaches, and suggests, in Thursday's Times, that it is just as unreasonable to doubt Mr. Brudenell Carter's statistics as to the number of children in schools who are short-sighted. Dr. Crichton Browne does not show much knowledge of human nature in comparing the two classes of statistics. Children asked how often they have head

aches feel that headaches give them importance, and are quite sure to exaggerate immensely the number and severity of their headaches. But children asked to say what they see at a particular distance, are just as anxious to show that they do see clearly, as they are, when questioned about headaches, to make themselves out invalids entitled to compassion. In the case of sight, the competitive instinct tells on behalf of making the best of their sight. In the case of headaches, the competitive instinct tells on behalf of making the worst of their headaches. Consequently, the former statistics are trustworthy and the latter are not.

We noticed last week the suppression of the Bosphore Egyptien as a very stupid affair. The journal, besides being intensely anti-English, is said to have been somewhat obscene ; but it was not suppressed for offences either against England or morality, but for republishing a proclamation from the Mahdi, inviting Egyptians to rebel. The French Government has taken up the cause of the Bosphore, with a bitterness which seems to mark a determination to pick a quarrel. M. de Freycinet, being ashamed of his client, says nothing about the suppression, but declares the visit of the Police and the disregard shown to the French Consul an outrage, and demands the dismissal of the official who signed the order; that is, in effect, demands the resignation of Nubar Pasha. Nubar has fallen back upon the Porte, which declares him in the right, and upon England, which is negotiating in his behalf. The affair looks trivial ; but it is asserted on good authority that the French Government, seeing Great Britain in dispute with Russia, perceives an opportunity, and is disposed to make of the affair an international question. Of course, if the law was broken, redress must be accorded ; but the demand for a change in the Egyptian Ministry is preposterous, and must be resisted, all the more because the French Press is indulging in talk about the necessity for sending a fleet to exact reparation at Alexandria. That would mean war, and is improbable ; but there is some design at the back of this violence.

Lord Tennyson published in Thursday's Times a bit of doggerel which his many and warm admirers will greatly regret. It is addressed apparently to the Government, and is a hypothetical denunciation of them, if they have neglected the Navy, for having done so. The denunciation, though couched in the conditional—to Conservatives we might almost say the optative— mood (so earnestly do they seem to hope that the charges brought against the Ministry in relation to the Navy are true), had better have been levelled straight at them. These hypothetical denunciations are not poetical ; and unless Lord Tennyson was sufficiently sure of the neglect to assume it as true, he should not have attempted a poetical invective at all. As it is, his verses make a very lame invective, reminding us rather of Mr. Silas Wegg than of Lord Tennyson. As we read its inarticulate wrath, and its limping prediction of the " kicks " of the mob, we cannot but say of Lord Tennyson, as Dickens said of his unpoetical hero, "he declines and he falls."

A very bad case of bullying has occurred at King's College. A little boy of twelve, named C. F. Bourdas, was on the 10th inst. taken ill. As he grew worse, Dr. Lynch, who attended him, suspected a blow, and the child, after exacting a promise that Dr. St,okoe should not be told, stated that twelve of the big boys in Mr. Ellis's form had stationed themselves in the corridor, and struck each small boy as he passed with their fists. He had been twice so treated before, and this time he suffered so severely that he died of concussion of the spine. He was perfectly healthy lad. The jury found a verdict of death by misadventure, adding a rider to condemn "the evident want of supervision over the boys during the interval of school-hours." We cannot imagine why the verdict was not manslaughter, which would have compelled the police to make a rigid investigation of the case, and examine the twelve boys implicated. They intended, no doubt, only to enjoy a little cruelty; but a police investigation would have brought home both to them and to the masters that the torture of small boys, if an exhilarating, is not a safe amusement. If they bad beaten a cat in the same way they would all have been sent to prison. A child in a school where such things can occur without the master's knowledge has absolutely no redress, for he can neither defend himself nor appeal for protection without the certainty of worse befalling him.