16 JULY 1870

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The Emperor Napoleon has succeeded by a series of insults

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almost without precedent in diplomacy in forcing Germany to war. As our readers are aware, he last week took advantage of the election of a Hohenzollern to the throne of Spain...

The House was counted out on Friday night, obviously by

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arrangement, and the only official utterance we yet have upon the view of the war taken by the British Government is Mr. Glad- stone's speech in answer to Mr. Disraeli upon...

Four of the lesser Powers are directly interested in this

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war. Denmark will seek, by alliance with France, to obtain vengeance for Diippel, and the execution of the Treaty of Prague ; Holland, which is under a permanent dread of Count...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE bolt out of the blue has struck. The European War, which we predicted so confidently, and as many of our readers thought so rashly, last week, has arrived even more quickly...

Exchanges never foresee anything, and this time the European Bourses

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have been as thunderstruck as if they had never heard of war. The average fall in every kind of security, except Consols, which have not declined two per cent., and Indian...

It is useless to speculate on the first movements in

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such a war, but it may be well to note three points. The Prussians must be well prepared, or they would be in much more of a fluster than is at present perceptible. Secondly, it...

= Diplomatists do not act in this style without clear

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instructions, 'nor is M. Benedetti the man to violate an etiquette, except intentionally. His repulse served its object—to excite France still more —and on Friday Paris was...

*,,* The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

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The Marquis of Salisbury, being under our constitution as powerful

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as the House of Commons and the nation together, has determined that Nonconformists shall not have equal rights in the national Universities. On Thursday, when the University...

The Eighth Commandment does not apply to Crown property. The

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House of Commons, on Friday week, passed by resolution that noteworthy amendment on the Decalogue. The Crown owns such portion of the foreshore as has been included in the...

A section of the Established Church is greatly hurt because

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the Commissioners for the revision of the Liturgy have retained a very few lessons from the Apocrypha. Considering the extra- ordinary stuff sometimes read in our churches in...

The Education Bill advances steadily on its way. The grand

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point settled since our last issue has been that the country must wait a little longer for universal compulsion, Mr. Forster holding that while such compulsion is neither...

Mr. Richard and Mr. Winterbotham took occasion on Monday night

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to declare with some bitterness that the Premier had thrown over the Nonconformists. Mr. Richard said Mr. Gladstone was " riding his own friends down roughshod," and Mr....

No layman, except Earl de Grey, supported the principle of

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the Bill ; but it found unexpected defenders on the Episcopal Bench. The Archbishop of York declared it unjust to admit Nonconform- ists to the Universities, and then refuse...

They manage business strangely in the United States. Presi• dent

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Grant, for some reason entirely unexplained, has resolved to recall Mr. Motley, the United States' Minister in London. That - is, of course, within his perogative, and the...

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We were mistaken last week in accusing Sir Selwin Ibbetson

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of being the usual author of " counts-out." On the contrary, the Member for West Essex makes it his business, or pleasure, to try and keep a house.

The Lecturers of Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh, have thrown open the

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lectures at their school to students of both sexes without any restriction whatever. The experiment of mixed classes will, therefore, at last be fairly tried, and we shall learn...

Few persons have any idea of the multitude of Societies,

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Unions, Leagues, Associations, philanthropist, propagandist, and dissemina- tive, which exist and increase yearly throughout Great Britain. Some plan, it has occurred to many,...

Mr. Mundella on Tuesday called attention to a terrible abuse,

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the constant infringement of the Truck Acts. Great firms, more -especially in Scotland, still cheat their men out of their wages by paying them in bad stores instead of silver....

The great ecclesiastical event has come off ; but amid

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real -events, who thinks of ecclesiastical things ? With France marching 'upon the Rhine, and Germany upon Paris, the resolves of Rome have a very small apparent, though it may...

In both the Common Law and Chancery jurisdiction, it has

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been found necessary to provide a " Vacation Judge" for the adjudication of such pressing matters as may turn up in the long period occupied by the " Long Vacation." Even this...

Consols were on Friday evening 94 to 92&.

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There was a debate in the Lords on Monday on

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the Greek -massacre which under other circumstances would have been of importance, but which is now hopelessly out of date. The world is at war, England is isolated, and we must...

The Commons on Tuesday agreed to the Lords' amended amend-

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ments to the Irish Land Bill, with three exceptions. Mr. Glad- stone invited them to restore the old scale of compensation for eviction, and it was restored by a vote of 146 to...

We are glad to welcome Mr. Childers back to his

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place, the more so because of the rumours which banished him from public life. Of all men in the Cabinet, Mr. Childers has been the most virulently attacked, and of all men in...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE EUROPEAN CRISIS. T HE recent Plebiscite, which re-established the Throne of the Napoleons, revealed to the Emperor the weak point of his position. France was annoyed by his...

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THE NEW DOGMA.

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I T is finished. Hurried by the approach of a war which 1 would have filled Rome with Italian troops, alarmed by the bitterness of a controversy which carried away even Car-...

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THE PANIC ON THE BOURSES.

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W HOEVER is angry and indignant, sensational novelists at least should be thankful to the Emperor Napoleon for the coup de the'dtre he has just executed on the political stage...

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SIR FERDINAND DE LESSEPS.

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" R IEN ne r6ussit comme le succes " is a French saying not applicable to Frenchmen alone, for M. de Lesseps has certainly experienced the truth of it amongst ourselves. Those...

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THE NEW IRISH TROUBLE.

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WE regret deeply to hear that the Irish Liberals have resolved upon a step which will arouse throughout Great Britain an outburst of the old unreasoning dislike to any demand...

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COMPENSATION FOR RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.

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W HETHER it be on account of the frequency of casualties or from some other cause, the Railway Companies have for some time complained of the law under which they arc forced to...

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SACRED ROMANCES.

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while, on the other hand, Mesha, King of Moab, naturally takes a view of affairs that is not exactly the view of the Hebrew annalists, differs from them, in fact, much in the...

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NEWSPAPER PROPRIETIES.

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I T is rather late in the day to be discussing the boundary-line between Decency and Obscurantism, but some of our contempo- raries, and a good many members of Parliament, seem...

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THE END OF A CHINESE EXPERIMENT.

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F OUR years ago a political manoeuvre, best known in this country through Mr. Burlingame's Embassy and its specious professions, was originated at Peking with the avowed object...

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the accession of the House of Anjou to the throne

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of had had fair play, they might have made some progress in the language which they commenced late in life, and without the that, though there is a certain continuity both in...

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BOOKS.

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THE STOICS, EPICUREANS, AND SCEPTICS.* IN the closing chapters of his work on Socrates and the Socratic schools, Dr. Zeller has discussed the antecedents of the Stoic and...

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

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SPEEDY JUSTICE. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Had your article headed " Speedy Justice " appeared in a daily paper, I am sure it would have been the signal for a...

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CHIEF JUSTICE WHITESIDE'S EARLY SKETCHES.* Ix must be consoling to

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all those who dabble in literature while waiting for professional success, to know that a man may write such trivial papers as these and yet attain to judicial dignity. Dr....

A LOST RACE.*

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ARE there some, and those the most primitive races of the earth, who are utterly incapable of civilization, not so much intellectually, as morally and physically incapable ?—who...

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MR. PRYME'S RECOLLECTIONS.* Mn. GEORGE PRYME, whose autobiographic recollections are

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accompanied by slight connecting links of narrative added by his daughter, was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Political Economy in that University, and...

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THE THREE BROTHERS.*

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No reader, we suppose, will get through the first half of Mrs. Oliphant's first volume without recognizing the familiar device which served so frequently to introduce the fairy...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Church of England and the Church of Rome. By the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies. (Martin.)—This little volume is written with all the acuteness, and calmness and moderation of...

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The Universal Church. (Triibner.)—What is this "Universal Church?" We have

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read this book, or as much as an endurance somewhat above the average has permitted, and are not the wiser. Certainly it is not Christianity, of which indeed our author...

Victoria, the British Eldorado. By "A Colonist of twenty years'

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standing." (Stanford.)—The " Colonist's " picture of Melbourne and the province generally is tinged, of course, with a certain couleur de rose, but it seems trustworthy. The...

Ensemble. By Wat. Bradwood. 3 vols. (Chapman and Hall.)— "

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Ensemble " is the history of a friendship between a very vigorous Orestes, "Ralph," and a somewhat womanish Pylades, "Ruby." Ralph is indeed a hero. He rows in a victorious...

Three Weddings.' By the Author of "Dorothy." (Longmans.)— The title

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of this little tale is literally correct. There are "three" weddings of which it gives us the history ; but the real interest centres in the history of one, the marriage between...

Hedged In. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. (Sampson Low and Co.)

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—A. tale on a painful subject, but told with the best possible taste and feeling. A young girl, living in one of those dens of misery and crime, in which Now York rivals the...

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and key.—Messrs. Roes and Co. continue a very elegant series

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which we have before noticed with praise with the IVorks of Virgil Translated by Dryden. — Charles Griffin and Co. reprint,. in an elegant form and at a very low price, the...

The Old Love and the New : a Tale of

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Athens. By Sir Edward Creasy. Three vols. (Bentley.)—The Tale of Athens is a story of the loves of Leon, Athenian general, and Atalanta, companion of Aspasia, and actually ono...