17 MAY 1879

Page 1

Tuesday's debate on the Prerogative of the Crowli was curious,

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confused, and not a little significant of the vast social authority which the Crown retains, and the un- easiness felt even by the most advanced Liberals in handling it. Mr....

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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Y AKOOB KHAN, who arrived at Gundamuk on Thursday, the 8th inst., was on Friday, the 16th, still remaining there. It was at first reported that he had agreed to all our terms,...

The latest news from Zululand extends to the 27th April,

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and is not satisfactory. Mr. A. Forbes telegraphs that there are 30,000 men in the field, including, of course, Volunteers and natives, and that this "miserable business " is...

Dr. Newman, in receiving on Monday, at the Roman residence

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of Cardinal Howard, the messenger from the Vatican with the information that at a secret Consistory held that morning he had been raised to the rank of a Cardinal Deacon,...

Lord Salisbury made an important little speech on Tuesday about

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the garrisoning of the Balkans. General Obrutscheff, the Czar's aide-de-camp, recently sent to Constantinople, has, it is believed, made an agreement with the Sultan, under...

*** Th,e Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

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The strike of the Durham colliers has ended, the men

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and masters submitting to an arbitration which has awarded a re- duction of 84 per cent. The coal trade is, however, threatened with another and still more serious movement. The...

The German Government apparently deems itself fairly secure of the

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fidelity of Alsace-Lorraine, and an incomplete autonomy will at once be conceded to the province. A Stadt- holder will be appointed by the Emperor, who, with a "Pro- vincial...

The speeches on the other side were not a little

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odd. Lord Robert Montagu spoke for two hours in a House often small enough to be counted out, dividing his speech pretty equally between an attack on Cabinets and a panegyric on...

The latest telegram from Bombay (May 14th) does not read

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pleasantly to Anglo-Indians, but it may be less ominous than it appears. It is stated through Reuter that gang robbery is. very rife in the neighbourhood of Poonah, and that on...

The Viennese, it is stated, are making a fuss over

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the con- vention between Austria and Turkey as to the occupation of Novi Bazar. In that instrument, although it is admitted that the Austrian Government is in occupation of...

French papers have been fall of a dispute which has

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occurred in the Cabinet, and which will, it is said, lead to the retirement of M. Waddington from the Premiership, in favour of M. Le Royer, and the resignation of M. Lepere,...

Page 3

Consols were on Friday 981 to 98i.

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The O'Conor Don was enabled on Thursday, by the help

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of the Government, to introduce a Bill for dealing with the Irish University question on principles analogous to the middle- class education measure of last year, and the...

The prospect of a new University for the North, to

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be called "the Victoria University," and to include especially Lancashire and Yorkshire, of which Owens College, Manchester, would be the kernel at the first start, seems to be...

By the retirement of the Registrar, Dr. W. B. Carpenter,

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which Lord Granville and Mr. Lowe both mentioned with pro- found regret on Wednesday, the University of London certainly loses—in that capacity, at least--services of the...

On Tuesday night, at the anniversary meeting of the Printers'

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Pension Corporation, Professor Huxley, in proposing the toast of "The Press," took occasion, according to his own character- istic and manly fashion, to speak with some candour...

A Committee has been formed, under the presidency of Lord

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Rosebery, to support the claims of Greece to the extension of territory suggested by the Plenipotentiaries at Berlin. In a widely circulated address they point out that the...

At the public presentation of the London degrees on Wednes-

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day, Mr. Lowe, referring to the various proposals for filling up the vacant seats, alluded, with cordial approbation, to that for giving one of these seats to the Queen's...

Already a new Commission is to be appointed to inquire

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into the working of our Military system, and especially its effect in securing a sufficient number of effective soldiers. We spend in England and India thirty-three millions a...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE DEBATE ON PREROGATIVE. T HE Debate of Tuesday night on the Ministerial use of the Prerogative was at once one of the least satisfactory, and of the most instructive to the...

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THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS IN FRANCE.

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W E wonder how many Englishmen believe in their hearts in the stability of the French Republic. They all profess to like it, and a great many—especially among...

Page 6

THE TERMS OF PEACE WITH AFGHANISTAN.

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W HAT can they be doing at Gundamuk ? That the Ameer of Afghanistan, in his own eyes head of the Mahommedans of Central Asia, and personally one of the proudest and most...

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THE RECENT BREACH OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION.

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W E trust that the public will attend for once to an Indian discussion which Sir William Harcourt pro- poses to raise. The subject seems a small one, only the remission of a...

CARDINAL NEWMAN ON LIBERALISM IN RELIGION.

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C ARDINAL NEWMAN'S remarkable speech in Rome on Monday, in acknowledgment of the Pope's act in con- ferring upon him the Cardinal's hat, is curiously misunderstood into an...

Page 9

THE FARMERS' .ALLIANCE.

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I T will be a great mistake if the Opposition in any way make light of the motion of which Mr. Chaplin gave notice on Tuesday. The existence of Agricultural distress is no...

Page 10

MR. GL ADSTONE ON PROBABILITY AS THE GUIDE OF CONDUCT.

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." N the current number of the Nineteenth Century, Mr. Glad- stone takes up Bishop Butler's doctrine in the Introduction to his "Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and...

Page 11

THE SOCIAL VALUE OF THE POWER OF EXPRESSION.

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T HERE is much truth in the argument of "R. L. S.," the essayist who has recently contributed some remarkably subtle papers to the Corn/till, that much of the happiness and more...

Page 12

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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BRUMMAGEM MORALITY. (TO THE EDITOR OF TUB "SPECTATOR'] Sin,—It was natural that the Spectator should enjoy a quiet laugh over the recent action of the Birmingham School Board...

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POETRY.

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THE MOURNFUL MINSTREL. ["How gloomy is the poetry of the present day how fall of sighs, and groans, and passionate bewailings it is !"—Mr. Payn'a "Midway Inn," in the...

A CIRCULATING LIBRARY FOR WOMEN.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—Being desirous of forming a large Free Circulating Library, for the benefit of the young women employed in houses of business,...

PENSIONS FOR THE AGED POOR.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 '&14—There is a small, unpretentious work going on in the East of London, connected with a much larger movement of social reform, to which I...

THE GOVERNMENT BANKING BILL.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] SIR,—The Banking Bill introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer seems to require so many alterations to make it ac- ceptable, even to...

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ART.

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ROYAL ACADEMY. [SECOND NOTICE.] Is our first article upon this season's Academy, we spoke of the comparative poorness of the majority of the piotures, especially those which...

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BOOKS.

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PRLYCIPAL SHAIRP'S "LIFE OF BURNS."* 'THE only defect we have observed in this very thoughtful and truthful life of Burns, by Principal Shairp, is that it hardly gives...

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THE INVASIONS OF INDIA FROM CENTRAL ASIA.* THE title of

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this book is most deceptive. Let us start by say- ing that it is written neither by a Russophobist nor by a Russo- phil ; that, although published at the present juncture, it is...

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QUAKER COUSINS.*

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Mas. MACDONELL'S story has much grace, skill, and vivacity. Pleasanter reading for a quiet time, when one does not desire to be disturbed by any accumulation of excitements, it...

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EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS.* Tins is, according to the author,

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merely the first part of a work which, beginning with the history of the first native king, Mena, is destined to end with the present reigning Prince of Egypt, the" enlightened...

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MRS. BURTON'S TRAVELS IN ARABIA, EGYPT, AND INDIA.* MRS. BURTON

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has given us another pleasant book. It would,. by the way, be pleasanter still, if in two volumes,—a hint we • Arabia, Egypt, India. By Isabel Barton. London and Belfast:...

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A NEW-ENGLAND GIRONDIN.* THE subject of this biography is one

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of those numerous Hurs of political life who, at a stirring period, aid in holding up the lands of Moses, but who are forgotten when the burden and heat of the day are over, and...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Two Voyages of the Pandora,' in 1875 and 1876. By Sir Allan Young, R.N.R. (Stanford.)—Sir Allan Young made his first voyage in the 'Pandora' with the hope of getting through...

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Modern Science Unlocking the Bible. (Longmans.)—We hope the author of

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this strange book understands himself,—we, at lea.st, do not understand him. He does not unlock anything for us, and his title quite baffles us. We gather that he is an admirer...

The Ifi4ory of Afghanistan. By Colonel G. B. Masson, C.S.I.

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(W. H. Allen.)—It is not Colonel Malleson's fault that his subject has so little attraction for the reader. Not even the interest that is now roused by the Afghan war can invest...

Evolution, the Stone Book, and the Mosaic Record of Creation.

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By Thomas Cooper. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—Mr. Cooper, who for many years has laboured to win over men, especially the working- class, to the side of Christian belief, always...

Foreign Classics for English Readers.—Moliere. By Mrs. Oliphant and F.

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Tarver, MA. (Blackwoods.)—What a pity, we think, first, - that any should be only "English" readers !—so true is the remark made in the introduction to this volume, that "the...

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Samuel Wilberforce. Faith: Service: Recompense. Three Sermons. By Thomas Pinches,

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M.A. (C. Kegan Paul and Co.)—The first of these sermons (which surely are of excessive length, averaging seventy - six pages each) deals with the character of Bishop...

Imperial India : an. Artist's Journals. By Val. C. Prinsep.

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(Chapman and Hall.)—The chief characteristic of this book must be known by this time to most readers, through the good-humoured burlesque with which Punch weekly entertains us....

The Hand - book of Bible Words. By H. F. Woolrych, M.A.

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(Eliot Stock.)—This is really a handy book, and yet appears to be by no means a superficial one. It is intended, as explained in the com- mendatory introduction by Canon...

Our New Protectorate. By J. C. McCoan. 2 vols. (Chapman

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and Hall.)—Our new Protectorate is, of course, Turkey in Asia, which Mr. McCoan describes with a great deal of personal know- ledge. The writer has, however, fallen under the...

Up the River, from Westminster to Oxford. With 140 Illustrations,

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and a Map. (Waterlow and Sons.)—This is a good guide-book, though it might well have been put into a more convenient form. The account of scenery and localities is good, and...

Songs and Lyrics for Little Lips. (W. Wells Gardner ;

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and Metzler and Co.)—It is hard to find fault with such a beautiful-looking book, and one, too, which contains so many old favourites, and a few good new ones ; but there is...