At present we are waiting anxiously to hear what Lord Salisbury has to tell us on the Fashoda question at this evening's banquet. The French newspapers have given us every reason to be confident that France will recognise the untenable character of her position and will withdraw Major Marchand's expedition. But up to the present no official notification on the subject has, so far as is known, reached this country from the French Government. There is, however, a ver< general, almost a unanimous conviction, that the dispute will be ended without a war. At the same time no one will regret that circumstances have arisen which have proved to the whole civilised world our readiness for war, if war should be rendered inevitable, and our resolution to risk all the horrors of war rather than submit to further encroachments on our rights.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.