23 DECEMBER 1871

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In spite of many rumours to the contrary, Parliament has

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been

The correspondent of the Times, a bitter Orleanist, telegraphs a

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noteworthy account of the entrance of the Princes into the House. They went from Paris by rail in the train generally used by the Representatives, but on arrival at the station...

The Speaker is to retire at the beginning, or, as

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the Times says very soon after the beginning of the coming Session, and if we may judge at all by the line of the Daily Telegraph, Mr. Glad- stone will propose the Right Hon. H....

The death of Lord Ellenborough was announced on Friday. He

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had become almost an historical personage to the public, but till 1858 he was a power in the Tory ranks. There was some de- fect in his judgment which caused him to be always...

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

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case.

The event of the week is the entry of the

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Duke d'Aurnale into the Assembly. The Duke, when originally elected by the Haute Marne, had pledged himself not to sit, but considered this engagement was temporary, and ended...

The Committee of Initiative of the French Assembly has re-

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jected the proposal for the election of the Assembly at the rate of one-third a year by a majority of one. It has, on the other hand, accepted the proposal that the Government...

There is apparently some quarrel between President Grant and the

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Senate. The President has declined to reprimand General Schenck, the American Minister in London, for taking part in the direction of the Emma silver mine, and the Senate has...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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mlIE public had quite ceased to be anxious about the Prince of Wales, who was believed to be slowly but steadily recovering, when the papers of Friday evening hinted at a...

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The National Education Union held their meeting on Wednes- day

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in the Town Hall, Manchester, Mr. Hugh Birley, M.1'., in the chair, who put the case rather well for the denominational schools when he said that, apart from the question of...

Mr. Baines, M.P. for Leeds, and the organ of the

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moderate Nonconformists who wish to try the Education Act fairly as it is made a speech on Tuesday, in reply to a deputation of Leaguers, in which he pointed out what ho thought...

Mr. Grant Duff has been delivering one of his brilliant

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surveys of English politics to his constituents at Elgin, and he has never delivered one more brilliant,—or worse. We have criticized it carefully elsewhere, and will,...

M. Pouyer-Quertier's Budget for 1872 is a very serious one.

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He says he shall want £96,600,000 for the year, besides £12,000,000 more, which he will ask for as a supplemental budget, and estimates his old revenue at £24,000,000 less....

Prince Bismarck has informed Count Arnim, the German Ambas- sador

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in Paris, that the French Government must surrender sub- jects accused of murdering German soldiers, even if they have fled out of the occupied departments. Within them, of...

On one point Mr. Grant Duff tried to paint the

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foreign policy of Mr. Cobden so as to give it, instead of a selfish, a kindly and even disinterested appearance. He called it the policy not of isolation, but of co-operation...

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George Hudson, the Railway King, is dead, and everybody is

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speaking well of him, and pointing out that, after all, the specula- tions he favoured have turned out well, and that he died poor. Quite true ; but what has that to do with the...

Mr. Boutwell, the American Finance Minister, has the most delicious

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ideas of political economy. All materials used in ship- building being " protected " in the United States, the yards cannot compete with British builders, and the carrying trade...

The Australian Moat Companies seem to us to be playing

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an un- wise game, which we notice not for their sake, but for that of the public. They have got the ball at their foot. They can sell their meat at a cost which, allowing for...

The Times appears greatly surprised at some statistics sent home

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from India showing that young soldiers do not die there so fast as old ones, but that has always been the experience of civil life. Every old Indian knows that men who go out...

After seventy days of evidence, the case of the claimant

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to the Tichborne estates has at length been completely placed before the Court, and men are, for the first time, beginning to count on living to see the close of the trial. Sir...

An effort is being made among scientific men in England

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to obtain, if possible, a commutation or remission of the sentence passed upon M. Elie& Reelus, the great French physical geo- grapher, —the English translation of whose...

'rho author of a letter on Volunteer expenses in our

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issue of last week advised from four to eight squad-drills a year, not forty-eight. The mistake was the printer's, who, knowing busi- ness, could not believe that he advised so...

The Pall Mall records that the German Ambassador in Mexico,

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Count Enzeuburg, a great collector of autographs, has got M. Gnizot's, M. Tillers', and Prince Bismarck's autographs, all in the same page of his autograph album, and all of...

Some intelligence received this week from Cuba strongly con- firms

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the views we expressed last week as to the conduct of the Volunteers. The regular troops are in the interior, and these men are masters of the capital, where, besides inducing...

Consols were on Friday 92i to 92i ox. div.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE DUKE D'AUMALE. T HE entrance of the Duke d'Aumale into the French Assembly is an important event, but the special corre- spondents seem to us to misunderstand its meaning....

THE NEXT SPEAKER.

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M R. 3. EVELYN DENISON, who has now filled the office of Speaker of the House of Commons since 1857, is to retire, as it is understood, to the dignified seclusion of the House...

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" GEIST " AT ELGIN.

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M R. GRANT DUFF has long been known to the political world chiefly as the chosen organ of "Geist." And we now look to the Elgin speeches year by year for the new instalments of...

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THE LESSON OF THE WATERFORD SALE.

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D URING the long discussion on Tenure which preceded the Irish Land Bill, the Spectator made constant use of an argument which, though familiar to Continental econo- mists, both...

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OUR MILITARY POSITION IN INDIA.

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IS nobody at the India O ffi ce responsible for the editing of its documents ? Of all the imprudent acts of which that Office has ever been guilty—and to do it justice,...

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CRIME WITHOUT SIGNS.

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I F Crime did not usually involve a very great disturbance of the character, a general effervescence which acts as a sort of buoy to mark its moral site and warn us all of our...

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TWO AMERICAN CARICATURISTS.

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W E mentioned last week that much of the sudden success of the attack on the New York Ring is attributed in New York to some caricatures furnished by Mr. T. H. Nast to Hamper's...

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ESTIMATES OF THE ENGLISH KINGS.

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XXIX.—WILLIAM AND MARY. T HE general intellectual ability of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, has never been questioned, nor the great influence which he exercised over the...

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THD " SPECTATOR:1 am, perhaps, naturally

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of a sceptical turn of mind, and I find my unbelief oftener increased than removed by the attempts now and then made by gentlemen of the clerical profession to defend their...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE CLERGY AND MR. HUXLEY. [To TER EDITOR OF Tan “srzararoiej Slit,—Your excellent correspondent Mr. Aroher Gurney has remonstrated earnestly and pathetically with Mr. Huxley...

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ON THE PERSIAN PUSS.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "Srxer.trott."] Sin,—I am inclined to think from many valuable notices on the subject that you have a duo appreciation of that domestic blessing, the Cat....

POETRY.

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FOR CHRISTMAS DAY. To Christ the Reconciler, Who died that man might say, " Great God, thy will be done l" I raise my psalm to-day. Only a God could know The Godhead's secret...

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In the discussion that is now going on as to whether children should or should not receive religious instruction, I think there may...

[TO THE EDITOR 01' THE " SPECTATOR."]

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Sia,—I am glad to see Professor IIuxley's startling article at length noticed, and noticed in the Spectator, and even those who " cannot quiet their own consciences " in the...

BOOKS.

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DR. ECKARDT'S LIVONIA.* [FIRST NOTICE.] DR. ECKARDT, the author of the volume before us, is the man who has done most to render a knowledge of cotemporary Russia accessible to...

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MR. LEAR'S NEW NONSENSE.*

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Mn. LEAR commences his new book of nonsense with an amusiug account of the obstinacy of a fellow-traveller some few years ago on the line between London and Guildford, who had...

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MR. CHARLES KINGSLEY'S "AT LAST."*

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THE reader who takes up Mr. Kingsley's book in the expectation, not unwarranted by the title, that he is about to enjoy another novel like Westward Ho! will find himself...

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ATLANTIC ESSAYS.* "THEODORE PARKER somevfhere says (borrowing the phrase from

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what Dr. Johnson said of Scotland) that in America every- one gets a mouthful of education, but scarcely any one a full meal." This is the first sentence of Mr. Higginson's...

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DEPUTY GODIN'S SOCIAL REFORMS.*

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Tux great defect of this book, as of so many French writings of the second order, is its verbiage and superfluity of matter. The author, who appears to have laboured sincerely...

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A CHAPTER OF AGRICULTURAL HISTORY.*

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"rue history of the Inclosure of the Commons of England is a history of errors. Let us quote two pertinent passages which briefly sum up the causes of these errors —" The...

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MR. BAYARD TAYLOR'S "FAUST."* (PART I.)

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THE task Mr. Bayard Taylor has now brought to a conclusion is a supremely arduous one. Poetical translation is a hard matter in any case, and the immense range of thought and of...

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MINE OWN FAMILIAR FRIEND.* Mits. MONTGOMERY has broken new ground.

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Her novel belongs to none of the schools. It begins tamely, in the bosom of a nobleman's family, described with an overweening sense of the importance and separateness of...

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SINCE THE REFORM BILL.*

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ALREADY known to the reading public by his history of the Re- form Bill of 1832, Mr. Molesworth has felt a call to write the History of England during the forty years over which...

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THE CALENDAR OF STATE PAPERS,*

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A FEELING of regret arises in the mind on opening this volume that the name of John Bruce appears on the title-page of the Domestic Series of State Papers for the last time. The...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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Memoir of Chief Justice Lefroy. By his Son, Thomas Lofroy, M.A.,' Q.C. (Dublin: Hodges, Foster, and 0o.)—Tho life of that Irish Chief Justice who remained on the Judicial Bench...

CHRISTMAS Booxs.—English Artists of the Present Day (Soeloys) is the

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continuation, with a somewhat wider scope and more comprehensive title, of a volume—English Painters of the Present Day—which wo noticed last year as one of the best books of...

Post - Office London Directory. 1872. (Dolly.)—This wonderful book 'has reappeared, and

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as usual, with the latest alterations. Sir Frederick Rogers appears in it as Lord Blachford, and Sir Roderick Murchison (whose death was only known on the 23rd of October) has...