T HE most recent war news is not of special importance, though there have been the usual captures of prisoners, stock, and ammunition, and in two instances Boer laagers have...

sup- porter what is really an important political manifesto. He declares that not only is he not a candidate for a third term, but that if nominated he will not accept the...

sented medals to three thousand officers and men who have returned from South Africa,—Lord Roberts being the first to receive the medal, and Lord Milner being one of the...

week, both of which bear directly upon the question of the future capital of China discussed in another column. The burning of the Imperial Library of Pekin with its collection...

as to some diplomatic quarrel about Shanghai, of which we confess we believe very little. It is, of course, true that the nations are jealous of each other about that position,...

India. The Government of the Punjab is offended by Lord Curzon's creation of a new frontier province, which it regards with some justice as a slur on its capacity. It is still...

his object, though that doeS not appear on the surface ;' but Mr. Fanshawe is obviously in the wrong. Officials in his position are not colleagues of the Viceroy. but Executive...

his statement as to Government business. In the programme which must be carried out before Parliament rose he included the Budget Bill, the Loan Bill, the Agricultural Rating...

partially appeasing the quarrel between the Czechs and Germans in Bohemia. He has introduced some considerable industrial projects, and to pass them the representatives have...

in a duel between M. Max Regis, the fiery Anti-Semite Mayor of Algiers, and M. Laberdesque. They fought with swords on Friday week for two hours and a half without a wound being...

the adjournment of the House because the Government would not undertake to suspend the prosecution of certain works on the west side of Gibraltar. Mr. Bowles was very vehement...

his tour round the world, and was, of course, received with cordial enthusiasm. The special feature of his welcome was that the Maoris joined in it, and that the New Zealanders...

begin with, that the concession enjoyed by the Netherlands Railway should be cancelled. In regard to the question whether any, and if so what, compensation should be paid to the...

the Transvaal Concessions Committee. The Report assumes that the Government will protect all duly acquired rights, but notes certain necessary limitations in regard to the...

South Africa and the expulsion of British influence is still re- garded in many quarters as a myth, it is worth while to draw attention to a passage in one of the letters of Mr....

Kipling, entitled "A Village Rifle Club," which will not only interest those of our readers who are believers in rifle clubs, but will, we trust, further the cause that they and...

account furnished by Reuter's agency of a successful engage- ment fought by Colonel Wilson near Warmbaths. We also quoted the statement, made on the authority of the same...

Finances of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies. He recommends, to begin with, a tax of 10 per cent. on the profits of the mines instead of the .5 per cent. imposed by the...

where, but must record here the death of Mr. Robert Buchanan (born in Glasgow in 1841) on the next day. Mr. Robert Buchanan, though he never gave his undoubted genius its...

accused of prejudice in favour of the British, pub- lishes in its issue of June 1st some instructive impres- sions of M. Pache, a Swiss volunteer who served with the Boers. M....

Wednesday, Mr. Balfour, who presided, declared that Sir John Tenniel's chief and almost unique title to ad- miration was that, though a satirist, he had never once lapsed into...

Friday 94.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION. T WO points of importance in regard to the South African situation call for attention this week. The first is the agitation in favour of the...

question between Europe and China, but the question which governs the future is the choice of a, capital. The Powers naturally enough are exceedingly anxious that as soon as the...

of Mr. Dawkins's Committee are sound in themselves, and that the Report shows that the need for reconstruction at the War Office is imperative. To speak plainly, the Report and...

W E trust that Mr. Rider Haggard will publish in the form of a book the letters, or rather " Reports on the condition of English agriculture " which he is now sending to the...

A FEW years ago a humble little experiment was set on foot by the Bishop of Chester and Major Craufurd with the object of testing how far public-houses could be improved by...

T T is not difficult to state the cause of Sir Walter Besant's success as a litterateur, but it is most difficult to assign him his place in literature. His best books were not...

T HERE is an article in this month's National Review entitled " The Ideals of the American Schoolgirl." It seems that a number of girls in New England and the Western States...

A LMOST the last, and perhaps the most pleasing, book written by the late Rev. J. G. Wood was a work called " The Brook and its Banks," the result of many years spent on the...

THE ARMY AND THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. ITO THE EDITOR 05 THE "SPECTATOR:'] SIR, - It would be absurd to describe the members of the British Army now operating in South Africa as...

TO 71IE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, - I have to thank you for your courtesy in' publishing my letter in reply to your correspondent " X." upon Canon Gore's recent volume, "...

jTo ill!: EDITOR. Or THE " SPECTATOU." j S1R,—The painter of the picture in the Paris Salon to which your correspondent calls attention (Spectator, June 8th) gives no context to...

I met a lady of perfectly reliable veracity, who reported the following to me as the experience of an intimate personal friend. Miss X. dreamed that she was occupying a room in...

[TO TUE EDITOU OP TILE "SPECTATOR."] Sirt,-The account of the " dream house " in the Spectator of Jtme 1st, and its corroboration in your last issue, recall a somewhat similar...

worth while to notice the falsehood of the picture referred to in the letter under the above beading in the Spectator of June 8th. I have often heard a relative of mine, who had...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, —It is with some surprise that I find myself called upon by " Inquirer," in the Spectator of June 8th, to give my authority for the...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sia,—Mercy in hell is one thing, and the possibility of repentance in hell another, and a very different thing. May not part of the...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Srn,—About a year and a half ago, during the critical period of the South African War and when the Spectator was urging upon us the...

THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—The correspondence in your columns on this subject forcibly recalls some lines of Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). Perhaps you may think it worth while...

[To TUB EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—Possibly I have hesitated too long for this communica- tion to be of interest, but not having seen anything of the kind recorded in your,...

(TO THE EDITOR OR THE "SPECTATOR.") Sin,—While we have all been talking of " a green girdle for London" it seems to have slipped our notice that the most priceless part of the...

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—When I was Governor of the County Prison in Mon- mouthshire at Usk some five-and-twenty years ago I had very favourable opportunity of...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1 the Spectator of June 8th a correspondent uses the phrase " we who are tolerant mainly because we half-believe." This condemns us to an...

(To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—I am very sorry you think "ungenerous " the sentence, or rather the fragment of a sentence, which you quote from my preface to " Old...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:. SIR,—I agree with the whole of Mr. Cator's interesting letter in the Spectator of June 8th, with the exception, if it be an exception, that...

Fro THE EDITOR OF TIIE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—Your excellent article on the reception .accorded to Maitre Labori recalls the words of Lord Brougham, which I will quote :— " An...

TILE WASTED LIFE. THE autumn hours are come—the hours that yield Rich harvest in each toiler's well-tilled field. Alas ! alas ! no seed I sowed in spring Now meet and ripe...

SHAKESPEARIAN OPERA. THERE are few more interesting points in the literary history of art than the inspiring influence of Shakespeare on musical, and especially operatic,...

!—CAT. LIB. LIII. The following stanzas are taken from a poem by the late Mr. Robert Buchanan which appeared in the Spectator of September 15th, 1866. We reprint them as a...

V O THE EDITOR OE TILE SPECTATOR.") Szn,- , -In an article entitled as above in the Spectator of June 8th attention is drawn to the expectant coyotes on the Canadian-Pacific...

TROOPER 8,008, I.Y.* WE congratulate Mr. Sidney Peel most heartily on his frank and manly book.. That it will obtain a very large number of readers we do not doubt, for it is a...

THOUGH the two books before us are of very unequal value, they may be mentioned together as affording a convenient measure of the advance made by astronomy in the last hundred...

of this history," says Mr. Schwab in his preface, " is to rescue Catholicism from its Papal carica- ture, and to maintain its importance as a corrective to Protestant...

THESE essays are all of them interesting,—most of them ass even brilliant. For our own part, we think " Gibbon's Life and Letters " and the paper on Swift called " The Prince of...

THE series of translations of the novels of the famous Italian novelist, Matilde Servo, announced by Mr. Heine- mann, opens with The Land of Cockayne, a work whose ironic title...

methodical daily record of a year's sowings and growings and blowings will be disappointed. The book is not a diary in the practical sense. It is rather a journal intime of...

The Canadian Contingents. By Sanford Evans. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.)—This book, though it will, like all compilations, prove rather dry reading to the general reader, should be of...

EGYPT AND THE HINTERLAND. Egypt and the Hinterland, by Frederic Walter Fuller (Long- mans and Co., 10s. Gd. net), is one of a class of books inspired by Sir Alfred Milner's...

[Under this heading us notice such Books of the Week as hoes not been reserred for retino in other forms.] Henry Drummond. By Cuthbert Lennox. (A. 3lclrose. 2s. Gd. net.)—This...

Coutts. M.A. (MacLehose and Sons, Glasgow. 1s. net.)—This pamphlet has been prepared fa view of the approaching celebration of the ninth jubilee of the University. This was...

Gd.)—This is an eloquent and acute estimate of the great pessimistic philosopher. The strength and the weakness of his theory are plainly set forth. That there was something in...

net.)—Mr. Harrison reprints hare an address which he gave at Harvard some three months since. It is devoted to the literary work of the Meat King, of which it giros an admirable...

Gd.)—Versatile persons sometimes turn their attention to subjects with which, to put it mildly, they are but imperfectly qualified to deal. We have an example in Mr. Harold...

Yrontan Service. By Lady Maud Folkston. (Smith, Elder, and Co. 7s. Gd.)—Lady Maud Rolleston has written a very fascinating book. It is simply the " diary of the wife of an...

Marshall and Son. Gs.)—Mr. Boulger has been most successful, it seems to us, in keeping himself clear from partisan- ship and prejudice. It must be understood that he does not...

Robert Edgcumbe. (Chiswick Press.)—The author sets him- self to account for the fact that Sir Joshua sought his associates, not among his fellow-artists, but among literary men....

D. Sketchley. (W. Scott. 2s.)—We are glad to see this collection of the poetry of Alexander Smith. This generation knows little about his work, yet it is worth attention. The "...

(Pawson and Brailsford, Sheffield.)—Mr. Leader, who is an acknowledged expert in Sheffield matters, has made in this volume a highly interesting collection relating to the...

6d. net.) —We shall be content to make a general recommendation of this book to our readers. It contains the "History, Literature, and Music, with some Account of the...

Unwin. 3s. 6d.) —" China," says Mr. Cornaby, is " a continent rather than a country." Some part is tropical; much has great extremes of heat and cold; the staple foods are...

2s.)—This "notable Fife-shire ruin" is on an island in the Firth of Forth, lying, to speak roughly, between Aberdour in Fifeshire and Cramond rn Midlothian. St. Colomba is said...

(A. and C. Black. ls. 6d.)—A collection of historical and patriotic poems, some fifty in number, and reaching from the earliest down to the most recent times.—In the " Library...