M R. LINCOLN delayed his expected proclamation twenty- four hours, but issued it at last almost unchan g ed. In it he decrees, "by virtue of his power as Commander-in-Chief of...

TOPICS OF THE DAY THE TORY DECLARATION OF WAR. T HE 0,uarterly has opened the ball. In an article which Mr. Croker might have produced in one of his less venomous hours it...

been pro- nounced somewhat tame, for to men expecting a thunder- bolt a hailstorm seems reassuring ; but never was speech pronounced more essentially Napoleonic, or more...

earnest faith—many would call it a fanaticism— to which we have never ceased to cling throughout the course of the great and apparently fruitless war which is now devastating...

T HERE are a great many subjects on which Englishmen have a natural right to be alarmed. The designs of the French Emperor and the ambition of Russia are familiar in- stances,...

O N the 2nd of January Mr. Abraham Lincoln, President of the - United States, proclaimed all slaves in the great territory south of lat. 38 free forever. On the 2nd of December...

J r has been said that sermons are stupid, because the has knows that he is exempt from answer or con- tradiction. Sharp criticism heard on the spot would soon compel him to...

M R. FECHTER, perhaps like most really great actors, loves not only to act, but to act the part of an actor. In other words, he loves his audience to see, not only that he can...

I N one of his hundred novels, Xavier de Montepin declares that he would gladly forego whatever reputation he had earned by his writings to have been the author of the very...

FIF EEN years ago it was a favourite occupation of Tory N T vriters to sneer at constitutional government. "It suited England," they said, for they had no notion of being...

London, January 14, 1863. " Ce n' eat pas an diseours d'ouverture, mais an discours de fermeture." The speech by which Napoleon opened, on Monday last, the Session of the Senate...

THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART. SOME weeks ago the English public was called upon to choose between two seta of advisers ; the one urging it to regulate an important part of...

To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." Sin,—As the subject of sports has been started in connection with the discussion about the recent fight, I should like to say a few words upon...

SIR,—With the sincerest gratitude I have read the protest which in behalf of Christianity itself you have made against the doctrine maintained by the Saturday Review on the...

THE Monday Popular Concerts were resumed on Monday last, after the usual Christmas vacation, and though the programme lacked some of the brilliant attractions of the previous...

Is there a God? Ah yes I that look perplexed Proclaims thy faith so firm, thy love so sure; No cloud has crossed or subtle question vexed A life so calm and pure. But I, long...

ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM.* THERE is something almost representative in the place which Arthur Henry Hallam takes in the higher literature of the present generation. He is and ever...

IT may seem strange at first sight that it should have taken sixty years for the greatest work of one of the greatest of German writers to get translated into English. The...

really what it professes to be, it is a most noteworthy production. It was written in 1845, and printed, though not published, by an American, born and educated its America, who...

THERE are few English children who have not read Madame Cottin's " Elizabeth ; or the Exile of Siberia." Indeed, we con- fess to a secret fear that it is from this source most...

MR. ToomrsoN was, we believe, greatly distinguished as a scholar at Cambridge, and the volume of translations and para- phrases of ancient poets, which he has somewhat...

IT is a long time since we have read a more interesting book of travels than that which we propose to make the subject of the present notice. Its author, Mr. C. R. Markham, is...

The Song of Songs : a revised translation, with introduction and com- mentary. By J. F. Thrupp, M.A. (Macmillan and Co.)—In 1857 Mr. C. D. Ginsburg published a translation and...

lay claim to be regarded as a very extraordinary book. It consists of an autobiography of an extremely curious kind. After the battle of Tezeen, which took place during the...

Wordsworth's Poems for the Young (Strahan and Co.)—Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Brain, by Samuel Bailey (Longman..)- —The Weakness of the Amencan Government (Houlston...

(Smith, Elder and Co.)—The author of this book went to the United States in 1848, and stayed there for ten years, during which time he claims to have Americanized himself so...