If any doubt were possible as to the inability of Russia to carry on the war it would have been dissipated by the news neg ga new loan in France. Two of the extreme difficulty she has had in
days ago it was announced that the issue of the loan had been " postponed " owing to the French delegates at St. Petersburg not being able to reach "n agreement i Russian authori ow it is Joan is to be issued, but the most onerous conditions, the namms!
rate of interest being five per cent, but the actual fter allowing for discount and commission, very much higher. In respect to this question an exti mary amount of interest has been created. both in this country and on the continent, by a couple of articles which have appeared in the "Times" from the pen of Mr. Lucien Wolf, who attempts with much success to prove by Russian official figures and the highest Russian financial authorities that the Empire of the Czar is on the verge of bankruptcy. For years past, it would seem, Russia has only been enabled to meet her liabilities by means of fresh borrowings; and the boasted enormous gold reserve of which we have heard so much—those " gold bricks" on which Mr. Henry Norman waxed eloquent—so far as it exists at all consists only of a portion of the money obtained from her creditors. Tne question has, however, no great practical interest for us in this country, for the Russian funds have never been recognised on the London Stock Exchange and the amount of British money invested in Bose seouri#ian must be extremely small, Another Cabinet R-construction.
Is is pointed out as a curious fact that Mr. Balfour's Cabinet reconstructions are usually completed on " Sunday. The shiftings and the new appointments neces-
ham and the election' of Lord Onslow a2
Chairman of Committees in the Lords were announced in the newspapers on Monday morning. The most interesting point about them, in the view of most people, is the ingenuity: with which the Prime Minister has avoided the necessity of a by-election, though it is only fair to Mr. Balfour to say that he has declared in the House of Commons that his selections were not influenced by any such motive. The appointment of Mr. Lon; as Chief Secretary was anticipated, an has not provoked much hostile criticism in this country except from the dog-fanciers, who have never forgiven him for the stringency of his precautions inst rabies. Nor has much been said about Mr. Gorald Balfour's transfer to the Local Government Board, a position for which he is perhaps less unfitted there for the post of President of the Board of Trade which he vacates. As for the new Cabinet Minister, Mr. Ailwyn Fellowes, it cannot be said that he has ever distinguished himself in a way which marked him out for preferment but from the point of view of the Unionist majority that his previous office of Junior Lord of the Treasury, unlike an Under-Secretaryship, was' one which had already necessitated a ro-election, and that he has therefore not to offer himself for election, was fort It is true that his suecessor—if one pointed—must seek re-election there are any number of men qualified for a Junior Lordship, which docs. not make great demands on the intellect, and '0 it will be easy to select someone with 8 safe seat.
Lords and the Board of Trade.
It was therefore the appointment of Lord Salisbury to be President of the Board of Trade that was seized upon by the Opposition as a ground for attacking the Government. It was urged that this is an office which, like that of Chancellor of the Exchegner, ought to be given to a popular representative, and of to wrd; but the Government could ci avy number of precedents on their side. During the lust century there were almost as many peer Presidents veral of them were 0 Mr. Balfour had a pretty good case, and when the matter was pi to a division he had a majority of 72. Obviously it was a question upon which the Free Food Unionists had excuse for voting against the Gov ment. Lord Salisbury, understood, will continue to hoki the sinecure office of Lord Privy Seal; and it is to be presumed that he will tuke the salary of only one office, that being a course now firmly established by precedent.
A New "Guillotine" Resolution.
The hottest Parliamentary debate of the week has, however, been over anew form of closure by which Mr. Balfour pro poses to get the supplementary estimates through, as required by law, before the end of the financial your, which closes on the St inst. Of course nothing very serious would happeti if the law wore broken All the Government would have todo would be to find the money and then get the Houseto indemnify them. But apart from other inconveniences. this would mean giving the Opposition fresh occasion for obstruction. The Liberals contend, of course, that the congestion of business is all: he fault of the Goverumeut—that the Session was begun unnecessarily Late, and that time has been wasted by Tory members being put up
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.