'The air has been thick with dissolution ramours, and' they have not been alto-other dispelled by the ridicule of Cabinet fnisters who have spoken during the past day or two, and who have suggested that the ramours have emanated from Liber"! sources, where th father to the thought.. Literally no doubt their contradictions of the rumour fare accurate enough. No positive deci tion has been, arrived at to dissolve Parliament on a particular date, and it muy be, aa Lord Stanley, the Postmaster-General, declared his belief on Wednesday, that the Government "will last till itis beaten." But although Mr. Brodrick welcomes: the ramours because he Believes they. will pull the supporters of the. Government together, and prevent a possible defeat, everybody bs heard of the form of i called "riding for a fall," is still 4 strong belief that Mr. about to give us an example of it.
"In Method Only."
The grave question for the Unionist Party. is, hi what is to be the offi dis cial. policy as the fiscal question at the coming General Election? Mr. Balfour.has succeeded with masterly jhgennity in xenieting rory effort to in-nee Kim to say whether with or against Mr. Chamberlain; but it is doubtfal whether it will be good policy even if it be possible, to carry on these tactics ever the el tion. In the mosntime, Mr. Chamberlaih has answered the question for hit, At Ealing there is a split in the Unionist camp over the matter. Lord George Hamilton, the sitting member, finding the anti-Free Trade majority df the party bitterly opposed to him, tig-ced "not to stand again, but made it condition that his successor in the canjidature should "be s " little-pigger"
\d. nota " whole-hogger." 'This condition has been duly observed in the selection of, the official Unionist candidate, Tut now a certain' Mr. Joseph Dooley, reling this, as a betrayal of the cause his great Christian-namesake, proposes to stand as.a Tariff Reform esndidate." He hes written to Mr. Chamberlain for his blessing, and has received in reply a Letter in.which the ex-Colonial Seoretary shys; ho. doss:-not himself recognise any Silarence of - principia between Mr]
wand Iriméelf. "If we differ at all," he says, "it is only on a question of but it does not carry us quite far etiough. Tt is usefal to know what Mr. Chamberlain thinks Mr. Balfour mess, brit it would be far more valuable to know from Mr. Balfour himself what he really does mean.
The Chancellor and the Sugar Confectioners.
Everyone has been grieved to learn thst Mr. Chamberlain has suffered another bereavement—the loss of his youngest daughter, Mrs. Whitmore Richards. Politically he has had a measure of compensation for some of his recent puilpacks in ths encounter of his son Austen with the confectioners and others who use sugar as 8 raw material. A very strong deputation waited upon the Chan-collar of the Exchequer to urge the ébolition of the sugar duty, Of course they incidentally attacked the Sugar Bountios Convention, but as that cannot be touched at present, they confined their petition to the question of the duty. And Mr. Austen stood up to them mantally, scolded them roundly, and bluntly refused their request. When. they urged that theirs are the only trades which pay taxes on their raw material, he pointed to raw tobacco and raw cocoa. He cited figures—which have of course since been impugned—to show that they were not nearly so badly off as they pretended and bade them bear their temporary depression as other industries had to bear theirs. in the first place there will be no supplies available for ti ies, and in the second place pire wants the tax left is in @ position to take it off as compensation to the consumer for his food tax.
On Saturday Lord Roberts unveiled in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral a handsome bronze tablet to the memory of the war correspondents who fell during the South African War. It was designed by Mr. Goscombe John, A.R.A., and contains thicteon names, which, as Lord Roberts remarked, is a heavy death-roll, considering the comparatively small number of the journalists who followed the them, of course, died from the hands of an assassin—but that the "specials," suffered also at the hands of the enemy was evidenced by the presence of Mr. E. Koight, of the " Morning Post," whose empty right sleeve was buttoned across his coat. Among the most eminent names on the tablet are those of George War. ington Steevens, of the " Daily Mail," who died of enteric fever ini Ladysmith during the ud William Theobald Maud, on very few journalists who was highly gifted in the uso of both pencil and pen, He, too, was in Ladysmith through the siege, but the war was only indirectly responsible for his death. He wont through part of the Somali campaign of 1902, and was able to render valuable military service to the little force to which he was attached, before he died at Aden.
Don Quixote's Tercentenary.
There was a goodly muster of English men of letters as well as of members of the Spsnish colony in London at the Hotel Metropole last night, when a dinner was held to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote. Major Martin Hume, who was the chairman, naturally -claimed for this country that we understand and appreciate' "Don Quixote" better than any other foreigners,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.