14 DECEMBER 1878

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Lord Lawrence, besides an able speech on the Afghan policy

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of recent years, gave a very firm and clear judgment on the great danger of annexing the border territories now belonging to independent mountaineers, on the large expenditure...

On Tuesday night, Lord Grey insisted that the policy of

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the war was wrong constitutionally, politically, and morally. He declared that it wai a policy which would aid rather than hinder Russia in any ambitious designs, and that our...

'V The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

The debate in the House of Lords was commenced on

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Monday by Lord Cranbrook, who spoke with the rather wooden im- petuosity for which his speeches have always been remarkable, and very much on the old lines. The Russians, he...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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IVO intelligence of importance has arrived from India this week. General Biddulph is reconnoitring the Passes between Pisheen and Candahar, and finds them undefended, but hears...

The division showed 65 for Lord Halifax's amendment, and 201

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for the Government ; majority, 136. One Bishop—the Bishop of Oxford—had the courage to vote against this war, while six voted and two paired for it. The eight Bishops in favour...

The illness of the Princess Alice is causing great alarm

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to the Queen, who has sent her own physician, Sir William Jenner, to attend her. The attack is a grave form of the diphtheria from which the whole family has been suffering, and...

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Another unlimited Bank has fallen. Early on Monday morning it

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was announced that the West of England and South Wales District Bank, which has its head-quarters at Bristol, and forty- two branches in the West, had been compelled to suspend...

The Cairoli Ministry in Italy has been defeated. A Deputy,

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in the interest of the Government, moved last week a direct vote of confidence, which was accepted by the Premier. After eight days' debating, the resolution was rejected by the...

The speech of Tuesday evening was, of course, Mr. Gladstone's,

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of which we have spoken sufficiently elsewhere. He was followed by Sir Robert Peel, who made a furious attack upon him, Lord Lawrence, Mr. Childers, and the late Liberal...

A diplomatic struggle, rather more serious than appears on the

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surface, has occurred between Madrid and Versailles. The French Government resolved to recall their Ambassador in Spain, M. de Chaudordy, and replace him by the Comte de...

The debate in the Commons on Monday was serious, but

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a little tiresome. All the speakers adhered too closely to the papers, and threshed out again the story already threshed out in the journals. We can give only the freshest...

Maldon has returned a Liberal, by a majority considerably

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greater than that by which, in 1874, it returned a Conservative. At that election, Mr. Sandford, the late Member, was returned by a majority of 113 over the Liberal candidate,...

The debate on Thursday night became a little tepid, good

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speeches, however, being delivered by Mr. Goschen and Mr. Grant Duff. Mr. Goschen's position is somewhat separate, as while repudiating the Afghan war as an unjust and...

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In the Prussian Diet on Wednesday, Dr. Falk, the author

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of the Falk Laws, made a declaration that nothing would induce the Government to give up the restrictive ecclesiastical legislation aimed at the Catholic Church,—stating that...

The distress, touching the point of starvation, in some of

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our great manufacturing towns is becoming widespread, and in Man- chester we are happy to see that strenuous efforts are being made to organise relief. The distress is greatly...

We are in danger of a new barbarism. The phrase

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"to duplex" an electric cable, seems coming rapidly into use,—in the sense of to make it capable of doing double the work that it did before. But if that be the meaning, why not...

Consols were on Friday 94+ to 94 ex div.

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The Rev. Malcolm Ma.cColl published a letter in the Times,

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of November 2nd, in which he stated that the Italian Commissioner withdrew his signature from the Collective Report, signed by certain members of the Rhodope Commission, because...

We are willing to let the Pall Mall Gazette have

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the last word on the Rhodope Commission. Our articles on that subject have now been republished by Messrs. Chatto and Windus, and we leave the public to form their own judgment....

Nottingham has been holding a Liberal banquet, at which Mr.

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Bernal Osborne,—once the great Parliamentary jester, whose *place is now filled with far greater originality by Sir Wil- frid Lawson,—was one of the chief speakers ; and oddly...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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LORD BEACONSFIELD'S DEFENCE. T HE interest of the Debate in the Lords on the War in Afghanistan centres in the speech in which the last speaker, Lord Beaconsfield, instead of...

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MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH.

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TN that powerful speech on Tuesday night, which so deeply impressed not only the Opposition, but even members of the Government, that men said to each other, when it was...

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WHY THE AFGHANS DO NOT FIGHT.

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N OTHING—not even the readiness with which Asiatics pay unfair taxes, like the salt-tax, while they refuse to pay fair imposts, like the Income-tax—so perplexes European Sikhs,...

VERBAL DUELLING ON THE BENCH.

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W HAT has come over our Judges, that they, of all men, are losing their hold of that bridle which is even more essential for the mouth of judgment than for the mouth of the...

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an indolence in quarters a little more complete. The officers,

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that flutter in Episcopal hearts and among Episcopal on the other hand, are usually just a little worse. They have wives that it would have excited in the old days of the...

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THE FALL OF THE ITALIAN MINISTRY.

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E NGLISH Liberals need not, we think, be sorry, that the Cairoli Cabinet has received a severe check, perhaps a death-wound, from the Italian Chamber. The head of that Ministry...

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A WORLDLET WITHIN THE WORLD.

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W E wonder that Admiral de Horsey's report on the condition of Pitcairn Island has not attracted more public attention. The story of the island is curious enough, and its...

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A POINT IN BANKING ETHICS.

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T HE history of the proceedings which led to the fall of the West of England Bank suggests a very curious difficulty in commercial morals. How far can a Joint-Stock Bank ever be...

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THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF.

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MIIE Education of the Deaf is not a subject which has called forth so much public interest as that of the blind. The calamity of those who do not hear, appeals, at the first...

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THE LIBERAL LEADERS AND THE WAR.

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(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Stn,—At the opening of Parliament, two announcements were made on behalf of the Liberal party,—first, that they would not oppose the...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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CAMBRIDGE AND THE STUDY OF GREEK. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Stu,—It is a serious matter to argue in opposition to the opinion of the men distinguished in...

THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871.

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(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. Charles Clement Walker, says :— " Up to the present time, I think there is not one account [of the outbreak of...

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ART.

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THE ART OF EUROPE.—III I MUST premise that, except where otherwise stated, what I say of Italy applies equally to Spain, and vice versii ; the two countries at present forming...

"THE ANNUAL REGISTER " : A CONFESSION. To TUE EDITOR

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OF THE " EPECTATOR.1 am really sorry for having aggrieved your reviewer. I fear that, like Charles Surface, I must have given many worthy men grounds for a like uneasiness....

POETRY.

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THE CLOSING YEAR. FASTER than petals fall on windy days From ruined roses, Hope after hope falls fluttering, and decays, Ere the year closes. For little hopes, that open but...

[A correspondent writes correcting our statement that General Kauftnann has

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been twenty years in Asia, and saying that the General has been there only eleven years. Our correspondent is quite right. General Kaufmann was appointed November 17th,...

AN ESSAY IN QUANTITY.

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Lo! the day, dawning with a rosy brightness, Leaps to each mountain over all the valleys, While the grey twilight, vanishing before it, Clings to the lowlands ; Where the...

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BOOKS.

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DR. WILSON, THE BOMBAY PHILANTHROPIST.* Dn. JOHN WILSON, one of the most remarkable Mission- aries who ever devoted their lives to India, was born in Lauder, Berwickshire, on...

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THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT.*

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THERE are two classes of works for the young which may be fairly described as" Books for Children" and" Children's Books," . the difference between them being of little moment,...

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PRINCE BISMARCK BOSWELLIZED.*

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Di:. Montrz Buscim was employed by Prince Bismarck, in the Franco-German war, on work connected with the Press. Ile had to mark such articles in English, German, French, and...

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BEWICK'S .ESOP.* Wr trust that the present and rising generation

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are aware of the great excellence of the woodcuts of Bewick. No doubt we may be told that he is "old-fashioned," but then so are the hills. And if we can manage to get Vicat,...

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OUR WOODLAND TREES.*

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Ix his preface to this book, Mr. Heath starts with the proposition that the English people are intense, nay, enthusiastic, lovers of Nature. The feeling, he states, is sometimes...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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CHRISTMAS BOOKS, Ere. Job Singleton's Heir, and other Stories, by Emma Marshall (Seeleys), contains three well-written and interesting little stories, of which the second,...

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Bo,ton Monday Lectures, in Scepticism, Biology, Transcendentalism. By the Rev.

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Joseph Cook. Second Series. (Dickinson.)—As another volume of Mr. Cook's lectures has been lately reviewed in the Spectator, it is only necessary to indicate hero some salient...

The First Violin. (Bentley and Son.)—This is a story possessing

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a good deal of interest. We should say it is the work of a beginner, for the construction of the story is faulty ; but for all that, the book is above the average, and on the...

Echoes of the Prayer-Book in Wesley's Hymns. By George Waring-

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ton, B.A. (W. W. Gardner.)—It is generally known that many of our best hymns were written by the Wesleys, and especially by Charles Wesley. Few, however, are aware how numerous...

Annals of the Early Friends, By Frances Anne Budge. (S.

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Harris and Co.)—The "Society of Friends," one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history.of the English people, has met with a very scant recognition in English literature....

The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing. Translated from the

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German. Edited by E. Bell, M.A. (George Bell and Sons.)—This book is the first volume of a series, which, as stated in the preface, will include the most popular of Lessing's...

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Through a Needle's Eye. By Hesba Stratton. 3 vols. (Kogan

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Paul and Co.)—The situation in which the interest of this story centres is finely conceived. The temptation to acquire wealth in a wrongful way comes upon a man who is...

Scripture Difficulties. By Thomas Spalding. (Daldy, Isbister, and Co.)—Mr. Spalding

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tells us that he has been himself for many years a diligent student of the Bible. His object in writing is to clear away for ordinary readers £43/1110 of the difficulties in...

Origin and Development of Religious Belief Part II., Christianity. By

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S. Baring-Gould, M.A. (Rivingtons.)—Iu this volume the author pursues, with regard to Christianity, the method of inquiry followed in his "Polytheism and Monotheism." Tho...

Recollections of Writers. By Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke. (Sampson

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Low and Co.)—It is almost needless to say that these recol- lections are remarkably interesting. They include almost every name that has become famous in literature during the...

Strange Waters. By It. E. Francillon. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—This is

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a novel of the musical world, but not without interest to readers to whom that world is partly or wholly unknown. Andrew Gordon is a musical enthusiast, who has made in his...

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A Life's Hazard; or, the Outlaw of Wentworth Waste. By

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Henry Esmond. 3 vols. (S. Low and Co.)—Our first feeling in regard of these volumes is one of irritation with their author, for appropriating as his pseudonym one of the most...

The Oxford University Press send us a Bible, with references

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to parallel passages, notes and maps, and a compendium of Scripture his- tory; and above all, a Biblical index, and concordance appended to it, the whole of convenient size, and...

Kelly's Post- Office Directory. (Kelly and Co.)—This valuable requisite for

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the counting-house and for business has this year been subjected to an entire revision. Additional cross-references and aids to search have been added, in such a manner as...

Anthropology, by Dr. Paul Topinard, translated by Dr. Bartley (Chap-

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man and Hall), is a volume of the Library of Contemporary Science, a course of publications appearing simultaneously in France and England, which have for their object the...