NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE British Fleet has again been sent to Besika Bay. Ac- cording to accounts which are credited on the Continent, but remain without confirmation at home, the Premier proposed to send also 20,000 men, but this project was not acceptable to the Cabinet, and as a compromise the fleet was sent alone. The story is denied in the Daily Telegraph, but it is hardly possible that the despatch of the fleet can have been unanimously ap- proved. It will be a direct encouragement to the Turks, who have always believed that sooner or later, whatever they did, Britain would come to their assistance, and who cannot under- stand that there may be forces in a free country with which a Prime Minister with a majority is unable to cope. Fortunately, they have been so successful in Asia, that they scarcely wish for the assistance of England, and think they are able to hold their own without the unpleasing necessity of being decently civil to Mr. Layard.
