know the innermost secrets of this Ministry—the Government intends to minimise its operations on the frontier to the utmost, and hold only the Khyber Pass, the Koorum Valley,...

out a programme of the work which the French Ministry has, since the elections to the Senate, agreed to attempt. The Services, including the Diplomatic, will be gradually purged...

ents on Monday, in St. George's Hall, chiefly on the foreign and constitutional policy of the Government, but partly also on the attempt of the Liberal Three Hundred to make him...

T HE elections to the French Senate were held on Sunday, and ended in a decisive victory for the Republicans. There were in all 82 vacancies, 75 due to the triennial retirement...

little is unsatisfactory. Yakoob Khan makes no sign of submission, and is officially supposed to be meditating a flight like his father, who has entered Russian territory. This...

case.

immoral scheme of paying the debts of shareholders in the City of Glasgow Bank through a gigantic lottery has taken hold of men's minds till it is actually to be tried, and on...

has con- tinued all the week, and on Friday the dispute appeared to be more bitter than ever. The Directors of the Railway are intent on savings to meet some new expenses,...

was seriously ill. They were officially denied, with a vehemence which made people think they might be true, and were repeated on Thursday morning, in the Standard, in a form...

Com- missioners to rectify the Greek frontier in the manner suggested by the Congress of Berlin, France has appealed to the 24th article of the Berlin Treaty, and asked European...

view which Mr. Forster has repeatedly expressed in Parliament, but he illustrated so happily the kind of happy-go-lucky expectations under which Lord Beaconsfield has engaged to...

spirit and meaning of the Constitution, and attempted to substitute for Parliamentary Government tha methods of the French Napoleonic system, has been attacked by a...

at Salford, full of the bitter acrimony which hitherto has been the only distinguishing feature of his political career. He denounced all who called Tories " Jingoes," or spoke...

very learned lecturer on fairy-tales, but it is a little too bad of him to try and persuade us, as he did yesterday week, that Cinderella, besides wearing a slipper of fur,...

will be raised to the Bench, in the place of Baron Cleasby, who has resigned. We trust the rumour is true. The Government would find it hard to obtain so good a jurist, or so...

the Chairman of the Union Bank to the shareholders on Wednesday, that the great unlimited Banks will not resist a proposal for generally limiting the liability of Bank...

which he declared to be the longest speech of his life, though the report of it occupies only a few lines,—gave Lord Beaconsfield a testimonial, as being in his opinion "one of...

solved to ask Mr. Gladstone to become a candidate for the county in the Liberal interest at the next election, in spite of Sir John Don Wanehope's foolish attack on him. The...

a brief from a friend, M. Challemel Lacour, who claimed 10,000 francs damages from a newspaper which described him falsely as a gambler who does not pay his debts. No justifica-...

suspension of the Cornish Bank (Messrs. Williams, Tweedy, and Co.) was announced on Saturday, and the district of which Truro is the centre has ever since been a scene of...

successful students of the Hanley School of Art, remarked on the complete extinction of the sort of scepticism which used to exist as to the utility of scientific labours. He...

THE ELECTIONS TO THE FRENCH SENATE. T WO considerations make the result of the Elections to the French Senate interesting to English politicians, the first being, of course,...

I T is far from politically uninstructive, and it is certainly very amusing, to look over the three series of caricatures which have been republished from Punch of the political...

T HE " logic of facts,"—to use the phrase invented by the fallen enemy whom Prince Bismarck so much despised,— is bringing Prince Bismarck very rapidly indeed on that down- ward...

W E have always maintained, and maintain still, that when great bodies of workmen are employed on work essen- tial to the service of the community, they may fairly be placed...

C HARLES READE, in " Hard Cash," describes with great power the failure of a Bank, and the effect of the calamity upon a string of representative depositors. Among them is a...

and successful of them have been from the first founded and maintained outside the Civil Service, and without any connection with it. Even in those in which that connec- tion is...

MALLOCK, in his contributions to the Nineteenth Century, is making for himself a new and curious function,—that of a sceptical patron of the Pope. In paper after paper he...

A MONG the marked peculiarities of Anglo-Indians is one which we have never heard fully explained. As a rule, they know nothing about India. They know their work, often...

W E desire to call the attention of our readers to a pamphlet that has been attracting some attention in France, from the light it throws on the present phase both of rural life...

T HELETES.—Good evening, Philonomus. It is a new thing not to feel unmixed satisfaction at your entrance. PHIL.—It would be something much newer, I am afraid, if any of your...

THE LATE MR. G. P. BIDDER. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—The remarkable account of the late Mr. G. P. Bidder in a recent Spectator has brought to my recollection...

able article on Mr. Oxenham's book, "Eternal Punishments," scarcely, I think, gives sufficient weight to that passage of Scripture which he describes as the best "foundation for...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Will you kindly allow me to point out two inaccuracies of statement into which the reviewer of my " Catholic Eschatology," in last...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In a sensible article, headed, " The Position in Afghani- stan," in your issue of the 4th, you suggest that the Hillmen who were...

LOUIS XV.'s SECRET DIPLOMACY. , [FIRST NOTICE.] M. DE BROGLIE informs us that this work, " which has not even the remotest reference to the preoccupations of a very different...

FREE-WILL. STRENGTH of the beautiful day, green and blue and white ! Voice of leaf and of bird ! Low voice of mellow surf far down the curving shore t Strong white clouds...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] Sin,—I have been for several evenings delighted by children's voices singing children's songs. One favourite song, in which even the baby of...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—A. few recollections of the late Mrs. Grote, by one who was admitted to some intimacy with her during the last five years of her life,...

Tim is a curious and very thoughtful book, which takes a great deal of reading, and is, after all, hardly fairly represented by its title. That it does explain at great length...

Tim- Mr. Black is a master of his art is a fact that has been re- cognised long ago by the novel-reading public. Even if there be a certain amount of sameness about them, his...

THE taste for the climbing of mountains is one which it is especially vain to dispute, for it is absolutely incommuni- cable, and more incomprehensible to those who do not...

THE best paper by far in the Magazines of January, and we think the best paper that has yet appeared on the subject, is Sir Henry Norman's, in the Fortnightly, on "The...

letters are made ac- cessible to them. They could not expect that the correspondence of Balzac, though sure to be interesting, would contain much that was new. He was not one of...

SCHOOL BOOKS, ETC.—Livy, Books X XI. and XXII., Hannibal's First Campaign in Italy. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Maps, by the Rev. W. W. Capes. (Macmillan.)...

Crew. By Har: j Coiling wood. (Griffith and Ferran.) A young sailor rateues from a shipwreck a Spanish captain, who, feeling himself mortally hurt, communicates to the young man...

Text of the New Testament. By Thomas Rawson Birks, M.A. (Macmillan.)—Professor Birks applies a destructive criticism with more or less force to the efforts of Biblical scholars...

Holy Scriptures. By the Rev. John Henry Blunt, M.A. Vol. I. Genesis to Esther, with the General Introduction. (Rivingtons.)—This laborious work, the greater part of which has...

1853-1856. By the late James Finn. Edited and compiled by his Widow. With a Preface by the Viscountess Strangford. 2 vols. (C. Kegan Pan' and Co.)—A very strong pro-Turkish...

Boston, 17.S.; Sampson Low and Co., London.)—Mr. Forbes, who is of Scotch descent, as he explains to us, at some length, was taken as a child, in 1811, to France, which it was...

Bell and Sons.)—This book is certainly true to its title. In addition to long extracts from the Scriptures, not always very apposite to the subject discussed, long lists of...

Paul and Co.)—" To yield the religions sentiment reasonable satisfaction " is the object, very earnestly followed, of this book. In our own home life and family relationships,...

3 vols. (Cbatto and Windus.)—The authors call their work "an invention," and the word suggests that a desire of novelty has had something to do with the shaping of their plot....

of Asia. By E. H. Plumptre, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—This little volume will quite support the high character which Professor Plumptre already bears as a commentator on...

is only necessary to quote from the title-page the description of this work, "A Reprint of Eight Hundred Speeches and Two Hundred Letters of Members of both Houses of...