Lord Lansdowne's speech at the Guildhall banquet and Mr. Hay's note to the anew meeting of the Hague conference have filled the air with talk of peace. The American circular, is likely t - prove embarrassing to is to see the end ce alnly of a nature todo harm to her terests, she cxn hardly: dopt the role of offering (or seeming to offer) arbitration
Power has shown herself adverse to any such proposition, Meanwhile the country is showing a remarkable tranquillity on the subject of its Russian investments. No less a sum than £160,000,000 is involved. The Minister of Finance has taken precautions, however, to prevent speculation and violent fluctuations by closing the market to the " Bears," and the genuine holders, who get rid of their stock, find it bought up by the great janks for the account of the Russian Government itself, they say.
The Season may properly be said to have commenced now that the Renaissance mounted a new play by M. Maurice Donnay, a most prominent member of the brilliant school of playwrights that is responsible for the groater pact of the dramatic successes on the French stage during the pst few years. M. Donnay's comedy is entitled " Escalade," which suggeste " ladder and a midnight scene, and this is precisely one of the incidents of the play. The hero, played by M. Guitry, the most refined and polished actor of the Paris theatres, 18 a young savant given to physiological research. He ha: proved in a learned treatise that the tender passion is " sort of neurotic affection which can be treated therapeutically. But of course the lady arrives who captivates him and puts an theories. The intensely by the way, is the fashion on the Parisian stage at this moment, There is a somewhat joyous piece at the Athénée (famous for having given birth to the "Prince Consort," appearing in English as " His Highness, My Husband), where the husband of the heroine, known to her friends by the pretty nam of " Chiffon," is a learned and hard-working young diplomat, almost too busy to attend to the feminine side of his life. This is a change from the previous conception of the stage hero, beloved of the fair sox. He was a frivolous person who thought only of amusing himeelf and of killing with his, fascination. On the fi whole, the dramatic evolution has brought an improvement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.