15 DECEMBER 1866

Page 1

Two tremendous colliery explosions have occurred this week. At 1.30

The Spectator

p.m. on Wednesday, the Oaks Colliery, near Barnsley, blew up, with nearly 400 men and boys in the pit, of whom scarcely fifty have been saved—the greatest loss of life ever...

Mr. Grote and Mr. Grant Duff are both candidates for

The Spectator

the Lord Rectorship of Aberdeen University. Of course in literary eminence Mr. Grote is far superior even to his accomplished rival, being the author of one of the very few...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

The Spectator

T liE event of the week, and it may be the event of the year, is the evacuation of Rome. The Due de Mon- tebello, Commander-in-Chief of the expeditionary force, re- ceived his...

The Russian Government has broken off all communication with Rome,

The Spectator

and placed the affairs of the Roman Church both in Russia and Poland under the control of the civil departments. The Poles being strict Catholics, this blow has been keenly felt...

Time does not work in favour of Governor Eyre. The

The Spectator

more we hear of what happened in Jamaica during the repression of the disturbances, the more we see how completely a "reign of terror" it was. We believe we gave nearly a year...

The Moniteur of Wednesday contained the official programme for the

The Spectator

reorganization of the French Army. We have explained the proposal which makes the French Army conterminous with the French nation elsewhere, and need only add here that every...

This day week, the requisition signed by fourteen Fellows of

The Spectator

University College, London, and six other proprietors, was pre- sented to the Council of the College, asking for the summons of a special Court of Proprietors, to consider the...

Page 2

At the annual meeting of the Royal .Agrienitural Society of

The Spectator

England held on Wednesday, a discussion was commenced as to the best method of -keeping labourers on the land, a _discussion which will go on for the next twenty years,...

There was a very comic scene in the City Council

The Spectator

on Thursday. It seems that Mr. Melville, portrait painter, thought the presen- tation of the freedom of the City tp the Prince of Wales a grand opportunity for the display of...

Mr. R. Hartwell, Secretary of the Demonstration Committee, has addressed

The Spectator

a letter to the papers stating that the numbers in the procession reached 34,000; that 70,000 tickets were sold, that the non-admission of the procession into Beaufort House...

The Manchester people are moving again for compulsory secular education

The Spectator

defrayed out of local rates. The Mayor of Manchester summoned a meeting for Monday, at which Alderman Bennett, President of the Education Aid Society, moved a resolution that...

M. Deak's address from the Hungarian. Diet to its King

The Spectator

will be adopted to-day (15th December) without a -debate, the division on M. Tisza's address having shown how complete is the majority of the Moderates. This is considered...

Mr. Bass made a speech on Reform at Burton-upon=crentlast week

The Spectator

(Friday) which was good .sound liquor,. and not, like his own otherwise excellent ale, in any degree bilious. He was opposed to manhood suffrage, for which the meeting had...

Mr. Doultou met his constituents at Lambeth on Thursday, and

The Spectator

tried to make a speechexplaining hia vote on the Reform Bill. Hisaudienee, however, were determined to prove that they ought to have votes, .and accordingly roared at him for...

No further news of the Fenian movement have been received

The Spectator

this week. The Government continues its arrests, and it was sup- posed had seizeda Fenian war -vessel, the 13o1ivar, dant ahellsrned out to belong to some South American...

Page 3

The returnsissued this week of the results of recruiting in

The Spectator

1864 reveal some interesting facts. Of every 1,000 recruits 563 came from England and Wales, 112 from Scotland, and 320 from Ireland ; while of every 1,000 applicants 886, or...

A grand yacht race across the Atlantic commenced on the

The Spectator

11th inst. Three yachts, the Henrietta, of 203 tons, owner, J. G. Bennett, jun. ; the Fleetwing, 204 tons, owner, George A. Osgood ; and the Vesta, owner, Pierre Lorillard,...

A very old paper is apparently about to disappear, the

The Spectator

Evening Mail, a tri-weekly edition of the Times, established in 1790. The proprietors of this paper, Mr. G. Platt and Mr. W. Platt, are not identical with those of the Times,...

Dr. Pusey has written to the Times to say that

The Spectator

the change made Keble's verses on Communion in the Christian Year was made by Mr. Keble's express desire, but that it does not necessarily imply any belief in...

The relations between the Prussian Ministry and the Chamber are

The Spectator

by no means as yet cordial. Forty-five million., thalers -(6,750,0001.) were demanded by the Government for the military 'expenses of the year, and the Chamber hesitated to vote...

The French .juries hate capital punishment so much that they

The Spectator

- regard it as an "extenuating circumstance" that a prisoner is liable, if found guilty, to-be-put todeath. -There was a very curious illustration of this in the trial of Resu,...

London seems to be gradually awakening to the fact that

The Spectator

it is badly governed. A Metropolitan Municipal Association has been - formed, with weak Lord Ebury as President and fifteen members of Parliament as Vice-Presidents, and on...

Our New York correspondent, after detailing with much tri- umph

The Spectator

very adequate proofs of the aversion felt to the negro at the North, tells us that "now, the negro passes out of this story." We doubt it, so long as the story continues. "A...

The leading British Railways left off at the annexed quotations

The Spectator

yesterday and on Friday week :— Friday, Dec. 7, Friday, - Doc. It. Great Northern Great Western.. .. .. .. 11 42 251 .113 68 Great Eastern .. .. .. .. London and Brighton...

The value of Consols during the week has fluctuated to

The Spectator

the extent of 4 per cent., the lowest price for money being 884, 4, and the highest, 884, 4; for time, the minimum quotation has been 884, 4, and the maximum 884, The highest...

The official minimum rate of discount remains st 4 - per cent.

The Spectator

The supply of bullion held by the Bank of England is nearly 18,552,0001., and by the Bank of France, 27,7 1 04004/. On the Continent the value of money has given way, the...

The closing prices of the leading Foreign Securities yesterday and

The Spectator

on Friday week were as under :— Friday, 'Dec. 7. Friday, Deo.14. .. 194 .. 184 20 .. 184 .. 1 2 1 .. 58 .. ss .. so .. 58 .. 701 .. 7/4 Mexican .• Spanish Passive • • Do....

Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Spectator

THE EVACUATION OF ROME. S LOWLY and grandly, as if some invisible author had devised every act and fitted every scene, with Kings and High Priests for actors, the Imperial City...

Page 5

LORD DUITERIN ON IRELAND.

The Spectator

L ORD DUFFERIN writes with the clear, calm, impartial manner of a true statesman. Nothing can be clearer and abler than his statement of the argument in favour of Irish...

Page 6

THEREORGANIZATION OF THE FRENCH ARM - Y. T HE Emperor Napoleon has taken

The Spectator

a very great, very menacing, and very dangerous step. While our imbe- cile War Office, is chattering over an addition of two-, pence daily to the soldier's pay, he has published...

Page 7

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

The Spectator

TT has long been a matter of astonishment to us, that while parents have assented meekly and without any sort of remonstrance to the obligation laid upon them by the State, of...

Page 8

• THE PRINCE CONSORT'S GERMAN PROGRAMME.

The Spectator

• RE17TER has been enabled this week, of course by permission of the Prussian Court, to inform Europe of a very curious episode in German history. In March, 1848, when thrones...

Page 9

• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON.

The Spectator

rilHE Council of University College contains some strong men, and these strong men have committed the College to a strong course, which will need a strong remedy. They have...

Page 10

MR. TAYLOR'S INDIAN PLAY.

The Spectator

R. TAYLOR'S new play for the Adelphi, A Sister's Penance, 1-T-1- though it will never " draw " like some of his plays, like The Ticket of Leave, for example, or The Sealing Day,...

Page 11

THl PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

The Spectator

ZELL—THE WEST DOWNS AND THE VALLEY OF TILE SEVERN: THE CITY HISTORY. I TAVING spoken in a general manner of the probable origin of the Anglo-Saxon towns of England, we now...

Page 13

sible for any American who believes in the Declaration of

The Spectator

Independence as Abraham Lincoln believed in it, to read with- out amusement and indignation" my assertion that the Connec- ticut jury, in advising a negro who had married a...

Page 14

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.

The Spectator

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Though I do not think you would have been justified in suppressing my last letter, yet you deserve the acknowledgment that your practice...

Page 15

BOOKS.

The Spectator

INTERNATIONAL FAIRY STORIF-S.* MR. HENDERSON and Mr. Baring-Gould have written a very amusing book, which preserves for us many of the old traditions of England,--chiefly of...

Page 16

PLAYED OUT.*

The Spectator

THE mental anatomy of a flirt will always be an interesting study p at least to men, and it is for men, we take it, that Miss Annie Thomas writes. She does not hate women like"...

Page 17

MR. MAURICE ON 'MORAL THEOLOGY:*

The Spectator

MR. MAURICE cannot touch the subject of the relation between divine and human goodness without awakening a new and living interest in human morals. He feels so freshly and...

Page 18

MRS. OLIPHANT'S LATEST NOVELS.*

The Spectator

THE last two novels which Mrs. Oliphant has published with her own name, though not without points of resemblance to some of her previous tales, have a peculiar character of...

Page 20

THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.* Ma. WILLIAM SwDrrox has written

The Spectator

the best book on the subject of American warfare which it has been our lot yet to encounter. Not that it is by any means up to the highest standard of military history, being...

Page 21

CURRENT LITERATURE.

The Spectator

The Month. December. 1866. (Simpkin and Marshall.)—Our Roman Catholic contemporary is more than usually interesting this month. It opens with an extraordinary paper, that could...

Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present. By

The Spectator

John Timbs. With Illustrations. (Griffith and Farram)—Mr. Timbs is a great bene- factor to desultory readers. He gets out of big books just the scraps of information they like,...

Lucy's Campaign : a Story of Adventure. By Mary and

The Spectator

Catherine Lee. With Illustrations by George Hay. (Griffith and Farran.)—We think that most young ladies would be very much pleased at the first sight of this bright little book,...

Page 22

scribe a child's impressions of a foreign tour. The idea

The Spectator

has also been happily carried out, and. the result is a pleasant variety of local legend and history, mingled with the incidents of travel and the adventures of a party. The...

Julius Ccesar ; Did he Cross the Channel? By Rev.

The Spectator

Scott F. Surtees. (J. L. Smith.)—Mr. Suttees must be in the pay of the Great Eastern Railway Company. He wants to persuade people that the shortest way to France is by the...

The World before the Deluge. By Louis Figuier. A New

The Spectator

Edition. The geological portion carefully revised, and much original matter added. By H. W. Bristow, F.R.S. (Chapman and Hall.)—This new edition of a work upon which so much...

The Prophet Jonah : his Character and Mission to Nineveh.

The Spectator

By Rev. Hugh Martin, M.A., Senior Minister of the Greyfriars, Edinburgh. (Strahan.)—We have hera 460 pages of old-world divinity, without a single new idea or fresh...

work to which every novel-reader will wish success. Discarding the

The Spectator

old monthly serial as too slow for the pace of the age, he is issuing this story in weekly parts at half the old established price. He gives twenty-four pages and an...

Post-Office London Directory. 1867. Sixty-eighth annual publication. (Kelly and Co.)—We

The Spectator

have not yet Iv ad this valuable work of 2,866 pages, a feat which, as far as we can make out, from timing a page, it would take any one desirous of going through so useless a...

Page 28

NEW WORKS.

The Spectator

—0— FLORENCE, the New Capital of Italy. By CHARLES RICHARD WELD. With Illustrations from Drawings by the Author. Post Boo. [On Friday next. The FOLK-LORE of the NORTHERN...