unusual breach of custom—and all sorts of reasons have been invented to account for his absence. He was ill, he had quarrelled with his colleagues, he was afraid of saying too...

Left, whose career it clears, while the career of every other party is blocked up by the word "Revolution," and it is felt to be so throughout the Chamber. The Monarchical...

House of Commons, so he dropped his character of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and said not a word of the sudden rise of the rate of discount to 7 per cent., by which the mind of...

M. Thiers in his Message to the French Assembly on Wednesday, both seem to assume that when once the Anglo-French Com- mercial Treaty is ratified, its provisions must take...

the French Treaty, Lord Granville did not say much except on the principle of arbitration. He does not believe in arbitration when national feelings are roused to a desperate...

T HE French Assembly met on Monday, and on Wednesday M. Thiers read his speech, which was mainly confined to the Constitutional question, the state of the finances, and the...

Sun- day. No one knows how it broke out, but it appeared at seven on Saturday, spread through the wooden Mansard roofs with frightful rapidity, burnt till one on Sunday, and...

case.

have suggested above, from the Mansion House dinner, made a little speech to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on Thursday, in which he descanted on the formidable...

House of the Prussian Parliament, talking about the necessity of constituting an Upper Chamber, which shall be a real part of the Monarchy, and not "like the English House of...

grate- ful " to his employer, who is nothing but his customer for labour, is expounded at two columns' length in the Times- by Mr. Jefferies, who dates from Coate Farm, Swindon,...

who talked of mandami,' and the cad who said " busses " ought to be called omnibi,' by christening the female hippopotamus " Madame Elippopotama." We hope the Grampa is also...

Bristol, on Wednesday, we have spoken at some length else- where. Here we may state the nature of his special reply to the Admiralty panic-mongers. During the four years of the...

a new word to the language. There is no Saxon word in it at present meaning liberal or generous—a curious fact, for there is a capital word, "churlish," to express the opposite...

rate of discount is 7 per cent., and many cool observers, including, we see, the Economist, believe that it may rise, and remain for some- time at a higher figure. The theory...

error which we had not made, fell into error itself, in the following slipshod statement :—" In last week's Spectator it is assumed that 'Dc Morgan's Probabilities' was by De...

papers about a practice which prevails at Winchester of allowing the Prasfects, or senior boys, to punish the juniors, by beating them with ash sticks at discretion. A boy has...

Law Amendment Society on the Codification of English law, a lecture which will be utterly useless because the newspapers insist on summarising it, but we wish to say here that...

by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, of the Birmingham Education League, which met to urge on the extension of household suffrage to the counties, and the redistribution of seats in...

its Calcutta correspondent, to make Madhava Rao, the late Dewan of Travancore, Financial Member of the Indian Council. He certainly succeeded in restoring the finances of...

his connection with the rescue of Kelly at Manchester, at the time the constable of the prisoners' van lost his life, has just been re- leased, and given to the Amnesty...

MR. GOSCHEN AT BRISTOL. T HE ring of Mr. Goschen's speech at Bristol is of that sterling kind, now unfortunately a little old-fashioned, which has a special attraction for...

T HE most interesting feature in the Constitutional crisis at Berlin is the visible weakness of the aristocratic prin- ciple as a source of political power. As a social force...

W E would not judge the new Commercial Treaty with France by purely economical considerations. But judged by economical considerations alone, we are not sure that it is...

W HAT a wonderful old man it is! It is impossible for any man who knows the world, be his politics what they may, to read M. Thiers' speech of Tuesday to the French ; Assembly...

HE English Newspaper system, and for that matter the newspaper system of every country not possessed of a journal at once official and popular, breaks down at a very odd point...

T HE recent publication of a new scheme for this institution by the Endowed Schools' Commission recalls general attention to the history of one of the most remarkable founda-...

W E publish below a very curious and suggestive list, com- piled for us from the files of the Illustrated London News. That journal publishes every week a paragraph about Wills...

A GREAT sculptor, commenting to the present writer on the physical features of the bust of Dickens, drew attention especially to "the whip-cord,"—" the race-horse tension,"—in...

THE reader need not fear that we are about to revive the miserable controversy which the title of our article will suggest. The question whether the Crown, acting by Mr....

MR. HARRISON ON BUDDHISM. [TO TRH EDITOR OF TRH " SPROTAT011.1 SIR,—In your article on "The Positivist Dream" (in the Spectator - of November 9) you criticise Mr. Harrison's...

— that of autobiographical notices and letters—the record of a life rendered eventful by the one fact of conversion to Protes- tantism under circumstances unique since the days...

(TO THE EDITOR 011 TAB "SPECTATOR.') . SIR,—May I beg the favour of a corner in which to point out a mistake in your notice of my last paper in the Contemporary Review, and to...

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE ' SPECTATOR:) SIR,—It is generally presumed that writers of articles in our leading newspapers have made themselves acquainted with at least the main...

MRS. OLIPHANT certainly does not owe the high rank which she holds among the novelists of the day to any excellence in her plots. Salem Chapel, one of the best things of the...

style which has not its exact counterpart among English authors, and which is in certain respects off the line of general English sym- pathies. This failure of contact does not...

PASSING from the political to the social aspect, we find much which, if not altogether new or original, has the rare merit of being perfectly true ; and to the majority of...

Mrs. Henry Wood for laying her finger at once, in her own dexterous way, on so weak a point as Portland Prison, hitherto deemed so strong ! It appears now that no less than four...

3 vols. (Samuel Tinsley.)—The country scenes and persons are excellently described, but we cannot say much for the story, which is inconsequent and disjointed to a strange...

Autobiography of John Milton. By the Rev. J. G. Graham. (Long- mans.)—Mr. Graham describes himself on his title-page as the editor of this book. If he had said it was compiled...

and Daldy.)—Mr. Shillito speaks modestly of his book as a "scanty instal- ment" of a long-promised work. The volume is indeed over slender to contain a full annotation even on...

Calvert. (Boston, U.S.: Lee and Shepard. London : Triihnor and Co.)—This is certainly a clever essay; much of its criticism is acute and just ; the appreciation of the genius of...

and the reality of the Dimes Judiciaires. We, too, have tragedies enough, and more than enough, but we do not arrange them so effectively. These all alike, victim, criminal,...

I! eatery. By Robert Gregory. (Nisbet.)—After all, it is sometimes possible to judge shrewdly enough of a house by a brick. Here is a " brick " from the vast edifice which Mr....

describes his book as "A Popular Introduction to Zoology." Four hundred and fifty pages, with more than as many illustrations, are, of course, insufficient, as indeed twice the...

: an Every-day Novel. By Harriet Beecher Stowe, Adeline T. D. Whitney, Lucretia P. Hale, Frederic W. Loring, Frederic B. Perkins, Edward E. Hale. (Boston : Roberts...

contain a lecture delivered before the "Sunday Lecture Society," together with illustrative notes. Its chief feature is "a parallel between Bacon and Comte as inductive...

by E. Akroyd, M.P. (Longman.)—Mr. Akroyd gives some .very inter- esting facts about this institution. It was founded in 1859. In 1870 it numbered 248 branches, in which there...

William P. Nimmo.)—This is a collection of pleasing Scotch stories, all nomin- ally of persons who lived in the neighbourhood of the authoress, and illus- trative, we are told...