23 AUGUST 1884

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Active preparations are being made for the Nile Expedition which

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is to relieve General Gordon, but there is much con- sternation at the condition of the Nile, which has fallen a couple of feet during the last week instead of rising further ;...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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F RANCE is at last apparently at war with China, though war had not been formally declared on either side when we went to press. The Chinese Envoys, however, had returned from...

Probably the most important piece of news in the week,—at

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least, admitting that it is in every respect authentic,—is the account of the successful steering at Meudon, near Paris, of a balloon against the wind, and according to the...

Then came the speech of the day, Mr. Cowen's, who,

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in pro- posing "The Industries of Tyneside," achieved the feat of speaking, almost with a Ruskinese eloquence and discrimination, of a class of achievements which Ruskin utterly...

The sensation of the week has been a statement, circulated

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on Wednesday, that the commander of a German gunboat had cut down the British flag at a place called Bageida, not very far from the Congo region, on the West Coast of Africa,...

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

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case.

The Prince of Wales arrived at Newcastle about noon on

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Wednesday, on his visit to Tyneside. His first duty was to open the new people's park at Jesmond Dene, which Sir William Armstrong, not content with what he had in 1878 added to...

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The Monmouthshire Liberals,—Monmouthshire is at present Conservative,—held a great meeting

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of over three thousand persons in Woodfield Park on Monday, Mr. M. W. Moggridge in the chair. Mr. Moggridge pointed out that this was no picnic, as no refreshments and no...

Governor Cleveland's letter accepting the Democratic nomi- nation appears to

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ignore the attack made on his private life. That attack refers to a period of twelve years ago, and has in its worse features been proved to be false, though it is to be feared...

Lord Carnarvon entertained and addressed between 150 and 160 honorary

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secretaries and executive members of the Councils of Conservative Associations in his grounds at Highclere Castle on Saturday afternoon, and began his speech by complaining of...

Lord Carnarvon spoke again in the Town Hall at Newbury

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on Monday night, urging against the pamphlet called "The Peers and the People" some very curious pleas. He said that the House of Lords was Whig till the French Revolution, and...

Mr. Alfred Austin, who also addressed the same meeting, went

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even further. The House of Lords, he said, is at this moment "essentially a representative body. They were at this moment more truly represented by the House of Lords than by...

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Mr. Gibson, who spoke in the Drill Hall, at Halifax,

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on Monday, to about five thousand people, asked his audience,— " Have not the Tories held their own in this war of platforms ?" We should reply, undoubtedly they have ; but...

Scotland, at least, is not showing any sign of a

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disposition towards reaction. The Ross and Cromarty election, indeed, may not cause much surprise. There has not been a contest there since 1852, and we suppose that the attempt...

On Thursday Sir Michael Hicks-Beach addressed a large Conservative meeting

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in Leigh Park, near Portsmouth, and dilated, as usual, on the monstrous injustice of attributing to the Peers!any wish to resist household franchise in the counties. All they...

Lord Cowper, who, in a letter to Monday's Times, calls

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him- self a good Liberal, declares it to be the duty of the Government to bring forward the Redistribution Bill in the Autumn Session, as well as the Franchise Bill. His...

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

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Consols were on Friday 100i to 100i.

The case of George Ralph, who died of cholera on

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Monday evening at Birmingham, having been first seized with the attack on Friday week, has spread some dismay in that town. It is a great question whether the cholera was of the...

On Tuesday we find that five great meetings were held

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on the Rejection of the Franchise, one large one at Bolton, addressed by Mr. Chaplin, and one small one at Helms- ley, in Yorkshire, on the Conservative side; the other three in...

On Monday a Conservative meeting was held in the grounds

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of the Lewisham Conservative Club, numbering several thousand persons ; and at Earlestown, in Lancashire, a very much larger Liberal demonstration was held, addresses being...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE INSUPERABLE OBJECTIONS TO TWO ELECTIVE CHAMBERS. A MONGST the many views which are current for the reform of the Lords, there are, of course, not a few which propose to...

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THE FRENCH BREAK WITH CHINA.

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A T the time we write, there has been no formal declara- tion of war between France and China ; but so many wars have occurred without any formal declaration of war, and the...

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THE GERMAN CRUSADE AGAINST ENGLAND.

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THE crusade of the German Press against England in • general, and Mr. Gladstone's Government in particular, shows no sign of abating. What does it mean ? Is it in- spired by...

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THE ROSS-SHIRE ELECTION.

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T HE result of the election for the combined counties of Ross and Cromarty has an unusual significance. The handsome majority which assigned to the Liberal candidate a place on...

THE " GUARDIAN " TO THE RESCUE.

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T HE allOrdian of last week and this, has come out in a new character. It is the guardian now, not only of the Church, but of the House of Lords. It flings its wgis over Lord...

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THE NEW MILITARY FRONTIER IN FRANCE.

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N OTHING could afford better proof of the deep impression made on the French mind by the German war than the efforts the French have made and the sacrifices they have en- dured...

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A PROBLEM ARISING OUT OF THE DECALOGUE.

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TN the extremely thoughtful and able address which Canon MacColl delivered at the International Conference on Edu- cation, concerning the theological teaching of the...

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THE FINEST CITY IN THE WORLD.

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N OTWITHSTANDING the cholera scare, the capitals of Europe, from Christiania to Constantinople, the ancient cities of France and Germany, of Italy and Spain, will be filled, or...

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SOME FALSE PRETENDERS.

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T HE " unfortunate nobleman," now waiting deliverance from one of her Majesty's gaols, is by no means a soli- tary specimen of his kind. Hardly a decade passes that some fool or...

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CLASSICAL ART AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.

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T HE collection of "Caste from the Antique," which was opened on August 7th to the public at South Kensington, is the result of labours which deserve to be gratefully acknow-...

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pro TUE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—A Moderate Radical, to

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whom the Spectator is a weekly- comfort, I agree with Sir Robert Anstruther that your pro- posal,—" to restore what the early Norman Kings undoubtedly possessed, the Sovereign's...

[To TEE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")

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SIR,—As to "mending or ending," like Wordsworth's "scholar pale," " I also have my own conceit ;" and, like Mr. Brooke, in " Middlemarcb," I offer the forces of my mind honestly...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE REFORM OF THE LORDS. [To ME EDITOR OF TUE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—Of the two alternatives proposed by Mr. John Morley, viz., that the House of Lords should be "mended or...

THE LATE TORY DEMONSTRATION IN MANCHESTER.

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To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Having some experience of the powers of multiplication possessed by the Tory local and district press, when the "good cause" is to be...

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THE JOINT CANDIDATE SCHEME.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOEt."] SIR,—You have discussed and criticised in all its bearings the Hare plan of the Alternative Vote. Allow me to describe another scheme,...

THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERS.

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[TO TIFE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] 'Srn,—My attention has just been called to a letter in your journal from Mr. Homersham Cox, in which he charges the -Charity Commissioners...

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[To THE EDITOR OF TRH "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — The following punning epitaph

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on the name of " Clay " is written, or rather painted, on a board affixed to the north wall of the chancel in Crich Church, Derbyshire ; the date, which is not given, is...

BOOKS.

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A NEW TRANSLATION OF LUCRETIUS.* MR. BARING has chosen for the metre of his new translatiort fourteen-syllabled verse of the iambic measure. It is a metre which has the merit of...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — This epitaph was in

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good preservation upon a stone in - the middle aisle of Harberne Church, Staffordshire, when I knew it more than forty years ago. I do not remember the date, but I believe it to...

RARE EPITAPHS.

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[To TER EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — The following is from the interior of the Church of St. Peter's, liancroft, in this city, which has recently been restored, with great...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

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Sia,—The following epitaph, copied from a stone in Shotteswell Churchyard, may possibly be of interest to some of your readers.. The date is 1771 :— " This world's a city,...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — When I was at

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Bromsgrove School, many years ago, I noted in the pigeon-holes of my brain the two following rather quaint epitaphs, and there they have been ever since. I should be glad, as an...

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THE BABY'S GRANDMOTHER.* The Baby's Grandmother is in its way

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a work of genius. It is too long,—the part at the cathelral town of Clinkton is much. too long,—and we are not made quite to understand, after all, the mingled helplessness and...

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A HISTORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY.* THE difficulties that lie

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in the way of a clear, comprehensive, and impartial history of the Indian Mutiny are very great. The subject is obscure and confused in origin and mani- festation, and the very...

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VON HARTMANN'S PHILOSOPHY OF THE UNCONSCIOITS.*

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WE are indebted to the enterprise of Messrs. Triibner and Co. for this translation, forming a portion of their " English and Foreign Philosophical Library," of which series the...

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SHAKESPEARE DILUTED.*

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Mn. CANNING must, we fear, be pronounced an incurable book- maker of the most terrible type. So far, his product has in point of quantity been modest ; but from the first the...

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IMPERIAL ENGLAND FROM AN AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW.* IN his

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American Four-in-Hand in Britain, Mr. Carnegie showed us to ourselves at home from the point of view of the friendly American, in a book which was a welcome set-off to the...

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ANTI-NAPOLEONIC CARICATURE.*

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Engiish Carkature and Satire on Napoleon I. By John A.diton. With 115 Illustrations by the Anthem'. 2 vols. London: Chatto and Windus. 1834. Mn. ASHTON is a bookmaker, rather...

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The Master of Aberfeldie. By James Grant. (Hurst and Blackett.)

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—In this story the well-known author has availed himself of all the ingredients of the military novel. Descriptions of the scenery of Scotland, traditious of the Black Watch,...

A History of Canon Law. By the Rev. J. Dodd,

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M.A. (Parker and Co.)—Mr. Dodd epeaks of his subject as "complicated and hope- less." He has not, we think, improved matters by a certain habit of digression in which he...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Annual Register/or 1883 (Rivington) contains its usual items, "English History" extending to 209 pages, and "Foreign History" occupying a space not much less. A "Chronicle...

An Open Foe : a Romance. By Adeline Sergeant. 3

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vols. (Bentley and Son.)—There is an old Greek adage comprised in the two words Mnlav &yap, which we would commend to Miss Sergeant's notice, or if she prefers the...

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An Epitome of History, Ancient, Medimval, and Modern. By Carl

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Ploetz. Translated by W. H. Tillinghast, Harvard College. (Blackie and Son.)—This has already run through several editions in Germaq, and is now translated, and some part of the...

On Leithay's Banks. By Rosa Mackenzie Kettle. (James Weir.) —This

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is a pretty, sentimental story ; a little old-fashioned, but of an acceptable old fashion. There is something of a "keepsake "and " forget-me-not " flavour about it ; it is very...

the author, "I have seen with my own eyes, or

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heard with my own ears." There is a preliminary description of the House and its way of doing business, by which we mean its etiquette, rather than its formal method a...

Point Blank : a Korel. By the Author of "Jack

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ITrquhart's Daughter." (Bentley.)—The meaning of the title of this novel is obscure ; but if, as we suppose, it indicates the unadorned downrightness with which very ugly facts...

Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic. By J. T. N.

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Keynes, MA. (Macmillan.)—This book will be found a most valuable aid towards the comprehension of a difficult and most important branch of the Science of Thought. The exercises...

Letters from Bombay. By D. Aubrey. (Remington and Co.)— Twenty-six

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letters—all written from Bombay during one month, and describing not only the buildings, scenery, climate, and surroundings of the town, but also the social life of the various...

In the Tennessee Mountains. By C. E. Craddock. (Longmans, Green,

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and Co.)—Some, if not all, of the stories which compose this volume have already appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. They will interest American more than British readers,...

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SCHOOL Boos.—The Fourth Book of Thucydides. Edited by C. E.

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Graves, M.A. (Macmillan.)—This book contains three of the most important incidents in the first part of the Peloponnesian War,—the capture of the Spartans at Pyles (this...

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lElp Hill and Down Dale. By Edith L. Chamberlain. (Remington

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and Co.)—We fancy this is a young lady's first book. We wish it were possible to say that it promises for the future novels that might reward the labour of wr:ting them. Bur we...