NEWS OF THE WEEK
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THE discussion as to what Count Caprivi meant by his enigmatical utterances at Dantzic has continued all the week. One party will have it that be pointed to some plan of reducing military expenditure by national agreement, which the German Emperor is known to have considered, and which the Times' correspondent in Paris declares to be favoured by -some French statesmen. Another party believes that the prediction is directed against Anarchists, who, it is reported and denied, are immediately to be attacked by an agree- ment making of explosives State monopolies. We may, we think, assume with certainty, that there will be no such agreement, if only because all the chemists in the world would -hold it up to ridicule. Bombs can be made in secret and with -common materials. A correspondent of our own, on the other hand, has convinced himself on evidence which looks sound, that the prophecy is entirely economical, the German Emperor really believing that in a few years Europe, to shield herself from an unbearable American and Asiatic competition, will be compelled to federate herself in an economic league. .Naturally, as Free-traders, we do not see what the league is to do, but the Emperor probably believes in the continental maxim that agriculturists must have a market or' society will go to pieces.
