The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-08-06
Thus Are Big Questions
Settled.
SIAM DROPS OUT OF SIGHT.
There Are Few Paltry Details to
Be Arranged and Then the
End of 1t.
Special to THE MORNING CALL.


Five days ago we had the double
loaded authority of the Daily News.
which is not only the historic mouthpiece
OF Gladstonian Ministries, but has for its
principal owner the present Postmaster
General, for the belief that the crisis be-
tween England and France had reached
point of great and solemn gravity. To-
day everybody has forgotten all about the
affair, and the newspapers put what
Siamese stuff is still current in small type
and under single headlines.
1t is understood that there are some few
and paltry details to be settled alter the
French elections and the long holiday, but
nobody any longer cares what they may
be. Thus swiftly in these days of electric
pressure and strain do internati0na!
stormclouds rise, blacken the heavens and
chase off again into space. Nations. like
individuals, live now in a scurrying rush
of stenographers, typewriters. telephones
and the rest They finish up now in a
fortnight for good or bad what Metternich
or Tallyrand would have had solid
twelve months of enjoyment out of.
Slam and its tribulations having been
wiped clean off the blackboard of public
interest newspaper readers have watched
day by day, like clients in o OucketshOp.
the progress of the Russo-German war; 1t
is. of course, merely tariff war, but its
development IS ccmmanding great deal
of nervous, not to say scared attention.
Although England's natural proposes
sions are all against Rrssiait is impossible
to discover any signs of her sympatnizing
with Germany in the present struggle
tbo olj ljeh ojn NJ ior hnf
batants are fools and the British. where
economic treaties and heresies are con.
cerned. never play favorites.
One gets curious example OF this here
in London. where the sharpest and most
condemnatory critics Of Balfour's bimetal-
list Grafton are Tory and Unionist editors,
who follow him with the bIindest enthusi-
asm in matters Of party politics. The
Times, for example. declared yesterday
that it is true Balfour cannot commit the
Conservative party to his bimetallic
views. but he can and does embarrass it
by a pronouncement which we must take
leave to characterize as entirely gratu-
it0us.
The Standard Is -equ1fiy pixin SPOKEN.
saying that universal bimetallism is not
com nonsense, it Is not practicable. it is
not the true panacea for evils Of the time.
In brief. it is not logical and 1t leads no
where. Statesmen ought, therefore, toilet
it alone.
This has been week of slender attend
ance and languid interest in Parliament,
but next week Westminster will be
throDged and excited again for the final
passage of the h0me-rule bill by the COM
mons. The detection and resignation of
Grennil, member for the burough of Here
ord. on the double ground that he desires
the exclusion Of the Irish members and
blmetallsm would probably earlier in
the session have nettled the Gladstonians
good deal.
Coming now. it has very little effect,
serving, indeed, rather to point the mir.
acle that there have been so few desertions
where so many we're feared. Grennil is a
noted athlete. mountaineer. cricketer and
so on, but nobody supposes he is the vic
tim of an over active intellect. 1t is taken
for granted that his action is merely typi-
cal OF the gradual scaling off toward Tory
ism of the well-to-do upper-class Wings.
This process goes on all the time here.
It will have a tremendous acceleration
when the Radicals get fairly into their
campaign against the House OF Lords, and
nobody will be more pleased with this
than the Radicals themselves. particularly
if the migration includes about
third of Gladsone's present Cabinet.
This smoldering fire of dislike and distrust
between the Radicals and officials OF the
Liberal wing of the party breaks out in
little bursts of viciousness now and again,
as when last night the Radicals and the
Irish Joined hands and defeated the Min
isterial forces, aided though the latter
were by the Tories. When Gladstone's
restraining influence is lifted by death
these divisions will come promptly to close
quarters and the result will be broad re-
arrangement Of political parties in Britain.
so ENDS THE EPISODE.
Dufferin Will Be Decorated and Leo
Congratulates France.
PARIS, Aug. 5.-It is stated that the
MARQUIS Of Dnfferin has been offered the
order of the Garter made vacant by the
death of the Earl of Derby. in recognition
of the skillful and successful manner In
which he conducted the delicate ncg0tia-
tions with France on the Siamese question.
France 10 now in the midst of the cleo
ton campaign and the Siamese question
has drifted into the BACKGROUND. The
Government has Cancelled all wariike