P ARLIAMENT has been as idle as usual, and rather more full of gossip. The Ministry have given the Houses nothing to do, and to judge from a reply made to Lord Derby, do not...

of the week, a DOUBLE NUMBER. THE PRDH:E8 of WALES. —On Saturday, March 7, on the occasion of the Marriage of the Prince of Wales, a Double Number of the SPECTATOR, •...

THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE. T HERE are crimes, as there are acts of beneficence, which are possible only to kings ; and Frederick William of Prussia is about to commit one of the...

S IR GEORGE GREY will not add to his reputation by his conduct in this matter of convicts. Intercourse with Sir Joshua Jebb seems to have enfeebled his mind and intensified his...

into the heresy of the Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, has written a letter to the Times to defend himself against the misrepre- sentations of the English press. He...

T HE member for Malden is fairly entitled to the honour of having—in the language of the ring—drawn the first %Lod this session. Of all the Opposition he has been the first man...

a scheme for conducting free government is still, perhaps, a disputed point. Whether men should arrange themselves on the merits of every measure, or remain always arranged...

evi- dently exhausted itself by its late unwonted activity; and half ashamed, no doubt, of its zeal in the cause of educa- tion has, like the fat boy in " Pickwick " "gone to...

TM" student of English politics can seldom see a more striking or instructive sight than Exeter Hall crowded to excess by a sea of eager faces, fixed in one concentrated gaze...

A SQUIB has been plentifully distributed in London, headed "The ' Suppressed' Despatch," and purporting to be a circular issued by Cardinal Antonelli to the Papal nuncios at...

" D IED, on February 1, aged 67, George Freiherr Cotta von Cottendorf, late deputy to the States of Wiirtemberg chamberlain of the king of Bavaria, lord of the domains of...

[Fuca! OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] February 18, 1863. THE great Emperor Charles V. used to say, " The French look foolish and are wise; the Spaniards are foolish and look wise...

THE BRITISH INSTITUTION. Ir has been our lot to see many bad exhibitions at the gallery of the British Institution in Pall Mall, but we cannot remember one so bad in every...

HALF-A-DOZEN representations of The Armourer of Nantes have unquestionably decided its position, at least, as an opera likely to draw full houses for the remainder of the...

THE ARCHIVES OF THE VATICAN.* A GERMAN student of the name of Laemmer has had the good fortune to gain admittance to the secret archives of the Vatican, and has given to the...

• THE meanness of Bacon, spoken of in the bitterest line of one of the bitterest poets, contrasts so strangely with the elevation of Bacon's genius, that even they who cannot...

has but one fault—intolerable verbosity. Sir Rutherford. Alcock, British Minister in Japan for five years, probably knows both the country and its capital better than any living...

dis- tinguished from that which follows Dr. Cumming—deals chiefly in prophecy, and who now-a-days makes a large income from pro- phetic almanacs, is this year, perhaps, more...

Ma. FRISWELL seems by his novels to be a man of a vigorous and muscular kind of intellect, but a vigorous and muscular intellect., if it be not an absolute impediment to success...

of this book may, perhaps, induce some people to imagine that its object is to afford an explanation of those mysterious terms and pro- cesses which render the reports of the...

Timbs, F.S.A. (Lockwood and Co.)—Under this title the indefatigable Mr. Timbs has produced a succinct ticcount, divested of dry official detail, of the rise, progress, and...

Hudson. (Longman and Co.) _North and South. By the "White Republican" of Fraser's Magazine. (Chapman and Hall.)--These two volumes, both of which are the work of Americans, are...

A Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. By John Kitto, D.D. Third Edition. VoL L, A to E. (A. and C. Black).—This edition of Dr. Kitto's well-known cyclopedia has been so...

F.G.S , &c. (Longman and Co.)—The author of this work is a ibrother of Mr. N. A. S. Woods, the well-known newspaper historian. Possessing a considerable taste for and knowledge...

Gurney, M.A., &c. (Rivingtons.)—A posthumous volume of sermons by the late Rector of St. Mary's, Marylebone. It is accompanied by a preface, in which the Dean of Canterbury pays...

The Last Decade of a Glorious Reign, by Mies Freer . (Hurst and Blackett)—Ostr Native Cavalry, by Limit. C. M. Macgregor (India).—The Life of General Sir Howard Douglas...