NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TURKEY has accepted the Conference since our last issue,
and Lord Salisbury has started for Constantinople, but the event of the week has been the publication in the London Gazette of Tuesday of a despatch from Lord A. Loftus de- scribing an interview with the Czar at Livadia. The Russian Emperor on November 2 lamented the• inveterate suspicion of Russian policy existing in England, declared his belief that the acquisition of Constantinople would be a misfortune for his Empire, and pledged his sacred word of honour in the most solemn manner that he had no intention of acquiring Constan- tinople, and that if he occupied Bulgaria, he should only do so tem- porarily. "His Majesty here reverted to the proposal addressed to her Majesty's Government for the occupation of Bosnia by Austria, of Bulgaria by Russia, and of a naval demonstration at Constantinople, where, he said, her Majesty's fleet would have been the dominant power." This, his Majesty thought, ought to be a sufficient proof that Russia entertained no intention of occupying that capital. He could not understand, when he had given such proofs that he had no desire for aggrandisement, why there should not be a perfect understanding between England and Russia. His Majesty also affirmed that the conquest of India by Russia was an impossibility.
