* * * *

Prince Mavrocordato, the Greek minister who has been sent to Turkey to
arrange the peace, has arrived in Constantinople, but, if all reports
are true, he has not been received with the respect that he considered
his due.

Some little annoyance at the custom-house put him so terribly out of
temper that he was on the point of turning back and refusing to enter
into any negotiations with Turkey at all. He was, however, pacified, and
is now in the Turkish capital, ready to begin work.

The Sultan has announced positively that he does not intend to remove
his troops from Thessaly until he has something surer to rely upon than
a promise to pay the indemnity.

He has sent supplies of winter clothing to the army, and will keep his
soldiers where they are until Greece has so arranged her affairs that he
can feel sure of being paid.

Considering that the Powers are to take charge of the Greek treasury
until he has been paid, this conduct seems rather extraordinary, but the
Sultan is such an untrustworthy person himself that it is not to be
wondered at that he has no faith in promises or honor.

Last week we prepared you for a surprise in regard to the settlement of
the affairs in Crete.

His Majesty the Sultan has not kept us long waiting for it.

Forgetting that the Cretans accepted Home Rule from the Powers, and that
the matter was supposed to have been settled, Abdul Hamid now comes
forward with a little proposal of his own.

He suggests that all the occupants of Crete, Christians and Mussulmans
alike, shall be forced to deliver up their weapons to the Turkish
soldiers. That he, the Sultan, shall have the power to appoint whom he
pleases as governor of Crete, and shall further be empowered to form a
body of guards, half soldiers and half police, who shall have the duty
of preserving the peace of Crete.

All this means, in so many words, that instead of a Christian governor,
Home Rule, and the payment of a yearly tribute to the Turks, the Cretans
shall go back to the old state they were in before Greece interposed.

We shall probably hear a good deal more about Crete before the winter is
over.

* * * * *

England's conduct in regard to the seal question looks as if she had
been playing the old child's game of asking her pinkie finger before she
could give us a decided answer.

From Lord Salisbury's conduct in the affair, one would suppose that he