23 DECEMBER 1899

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In spite of the somewhat alarmist way in which the

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news was conveyed to the nation, there was not the slightest sign of panic. The one idea was to go on at all costs and carry the thing through, and if anxiety was shown, it was...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE week throughout the United Kingdom has been one of gloom and suffering, but not of anything that the nation has cause to be ashamed of, or which was in any sense unworthy....

The Government met the situation created by the news of

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General Bailer's failure to force the passage of the Tugela in the best possible spirit. They at once determined to organise another army, and to despatch it to South Africa...

The following is a summary of the main facts connected

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with our reverse in Natal. On Friday, December 15th, in the early morning, General Buller moved out of his camp at Chieveley to attempt the crossing of the Tugela River at...

Conditions similar to those just described prevail at the Modder.

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There Lord Methuen is face to face with a large force of the enemy who are strongly entrenched, and the two armies are glaring at each other across the earthworks. To assault...

As we write on Friday there is very little to

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chronicle about the military situation. As far as is yet known, there is no change in the state of things at the Tugela. General Buller is facing the Boers, and doubtless...

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

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case.

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That is all excellent, and will give us another fifty

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thousand men in South Africa, but we wish the Government had done three things more—i.e., given the order (1) to mobilise the Navy; (2) to form a special Territorial Army at...

The response made by the Volunteers and Yeomanry has been

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magnificent,—there is no other word for it. At present it is impossible to give any exact figures, but applications are pouring in from all sides, and the Volunteers may well...

Mr. Asquith ended by expressing the hope that when the

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tide turned we should remember that our object was not racial ascendency, but an equitable ntodus vivendi between the two peoples. We do not ourselves think that there is the...

This letting of the cat out of the bag is

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not very judicious, but we are convinced that the desire to speak on equal terms with America in regard to un• appropriated places is the main cause of the demand for a great...

The reappearance of M. Paul Deroulede—he had been dis- abled

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by lumbago—before the High Court on Wednesday led to another scene. M. Deroulede's application that M. Marcel- Hubert should be included in the trial having been opposed by the...

In the Times of Saturday last the Berlin correspondent gives

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an account of a speech in favour of the Navy Bill made by the German Minister of the Interior which is not a little significant. He urged that the commercial policy of America...

On Saturday last Mr. Asquith made an excellent speech to

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the Tyneside Liberal Association at Wilmington Qnay,—a speech which showed as much good sense as patriotism. He insisted, and, as we believe, quite truly, that while there were...

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The French Royalists are showing symptoms of being as fissiparous

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as the Irish Nationalists. This week there has been a very pretty quarrel between the Duke of Orleans and his cousin Prince Henry, who now apparently aspires to fill the...

Louise Maseet, a daily governess in the North-East o' London,

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was sentenced to death on Monday for the murder of her illegitimate child, a boy three and e half years old. The prisoner, who had made and kept an appointment to meet a young...

The degree of honorary LL.D. was conferred on Mr. Chamberlain

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in the Examination Hall of Trinity College, Dublin, on Monday. Dr. Tyrrell, the Public Orator, in introducing Mr. Chamberlain in the customary Latin speeoh, dwelt with much...

The Times of Thursday gives interesting partionlars as to the

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despatch of further troops from Australia and Canada In the Legislative Assembly at Brisbane the Motion autho- rising the Government of Queensland to co-operate with the other...

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman addressed a meeting con- vened by the

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Aberdeen Liberal Association at great length on Tuesday evening. After censuring " certain news- papers which had misled the people of this country," the speaker deprecated...

Mr. Chamberlain's visit to Dublin was bitterly resented by the

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extreme Nationalists, but the " intensely hot reception " prepared for him ended in fiasco. A meeting of protest organised by the Irish Transvaal Committee was very properly...

Bank Rate, 6 per cent. New Console (2i) were on

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Friday 98k.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE NATION AND THE WAR. I T must be allowed that on the whole the nation re- ceived the news of General Buller's failure to cross the Tugela at his first attempt in an...

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THE MILITARY PREPARATIONS. T HE Government preparations are, as far as

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they go, entirely satisfactory. They adequately meet, that is, the immediate demands of the situation, and provide in the best way for our military needs in South Africa. It was...

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FRENCH JOURNALISM.

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the heart of the party at the moment when one would have supposed unanimity and concord were most needed. It is no affair of ours, and we need hardly say that we have no love to...

THE TWO IRELANDS.

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R. CHAMBERLAIN'S visit to Dublin has once isVI more brought into very clear light the profound, though not, in our belief, irremediable, cleavage by which Irish life is divided....

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A DAY OF HUMILIATION.

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p E demand that a day shall be publicly set apart for national humiliation is being loudly pressed just now, but is not one which we believe will be endorsed by those who are at...

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LETTERS AND POLITICS.

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W E all know how Mr. Birrell has unwittingly given us a neologism; nomen appellativum. has passed into nomen. reale. To those who would describe a kind of humorous talk or...

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"THE DANE'S MAN."

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IATITHOTTT committing ourselves to the proposition that ignorance enhances the charm of conversation, we are even less inclined to hold that much book-learning or a vast stock...

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WILD DUCKS, " MANY IN SORT."

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I N spite of the rise in the price of all provisions before Christmas, wild ducks and wild geese of all kinds have been cheaper than at any time during the last three years....

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ALARMIST VIEWS.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—Your protest against the " hysteria " which appears to have seized upon some of the Press and the public comes at a good time. At a...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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LORD WEMYSS AND THE VOLUNTEER RESERVE. To TITS EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:'] SIR,—I am glad you approve of a Volunteer Reserve. It is an administrative scandal that such a source...

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MR. CONYBEARE'S LECTURES ON THE DUTCH.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1 SIR, — The news from the seat of war has, as is natural, occu- pied general attention so completely that very little notice seems to have...

RIFLE RANGES.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE "SPECTATOR.1 SIP.,—Yon invite opinion as to the reorganisation of our Army, and in your issue of December 2nd, a " Retired Adju- tant" speaks of the...

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SIR HENRY JENKYNS.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—I have read with great interest your account of the late Sir Henry Jenkyns in the Spectator of December 16th, and I was particularly...

SQUIRRELS IN A CITY.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—I can name one other place where squirrels run at large in the heart of a city. In the Plaza, opposite the cathedral of Oaxaca, Mexico,...

THE CAPE DUTCH.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sin,—All will agree with your article on " The Cape Dutch" in the Spectator of December 9th that the Cape Ministry had a most difficult...

MRS. DEARMER'S STORIES FOR CHILDREN. [To THE EDITOR OF THE

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"SPECTATOR. "] SIR —I have looked through Mrs. Dearmer's "Book of Penny Toys," and the simple answer to her defence of the use of " tragedy " so-called in such books seems to me...

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL AND THE DECIMALS.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:'] SIR,—With regard to the story quoted by you in the Spectator of December 9th from Sir Algernon West's " Recollections " —that Lord Randolph...

ASSAYE.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sin,—As to the loss at Assaye, I submit the following extract from Colonel Biddulph's excellent book, "The Nineteenth and their Times,"...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—With reference to the

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cutting on above subject from the Chicago Post, sent to the Spectator of December 2nd by Mr. W. J. Stillman, the following extract from my diary may be of interest to some of...

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THE FRONT!

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CANADIANS TO Snow the way, Canada ! More than a hundred Fears have rolled over, Since in the old days You became part of us. Wolfe was our hero, then, He it was won you : Now...

THE VOICE 0' THE NATION.

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LEAVE our furrin frens tu chatter, let 'em flatter roan', an' fuss, 'Tain't their cheerin' or their sneerin' thet can help or hinder us ; Let 'em hope we're doomed tu failure,...

POETRY.

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BRITONS.—DECEMBER 16ma, 1899. "REVERSE," " defeat," the words went round, And steeled each heart and nerved each hand. Not so success's trumpet sound Could fire the land....

[Owing to the great pressure on our correspondence columns we

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have been obliged to hold over several letters, —among them one from the eminent American historian, Mr. J. F. Rhodes, challenging our statement in a notice of his last book...

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BOOKS.

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ARCHBISHOP BENSON'S LIFE.* Mn. ARTHUR BENSON has had a difficult work to do, and he has done it thoroughly well. To write the Life of an Arch- bishop of Canterbury in these...

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WELLINGTON.*

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" I CANNOT write my father's Life," said the second Duke of Wellington, "but I can at least see that the material is there for a biographer some day." And the second Duke could...

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PRINCIPAL LAIRD ON FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIANITY .*

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M. SABATIER has said with great truth that no one thing is more needed than a restatement in modern terms of the fundamental creed of Christianity. The pure stream of the...

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SCRAPS OF THACKERAY.*

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Mn. SPIELMANN while investigating the history of Punch came upon an editor's day-book of the years 1843 to 1848 in which all items were entered against the author's name, and...

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NOVELS OF THE WEEK.•

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INTERNAL evidence, as well as that afforded by the name on the title-page, warrant our identifying the author of A Roman Mystery with the writer of the striking article on the...

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[*** In the notice of Dr. Stalker's work, The Chrisiology

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of Jesus, in last week's issue, p. 915, six lines from end of second para- graph, the quotation " A greater than Jesus is here," should have read " A greater than Jonas is here...

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From King Orry to Queen Victoria. By Edward Callow. (Elliot

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Stock. 7s. 6&)—King Orry (alias Gorree) was a Norse chieftain who landed in A.D. 938, and settled the affairs of Mona on a permanent footing. To him the island owes the House of...

The Christian Use of the Psalms. By the Rev. T.

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K. Cheyne. (Isbister and Co. 6s.)—With Professor Cheyne's contention that there is much in the Psalter that is not suited to the worship of the Christian Church many of us will...

The Transvaal Under the Queen. By Lieutenant-Colonel N. Newnham-Davis. (Sands

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and Co. 6s.)—The author of this volume was in the Transvaal more than twenty years ago, and saw many persons and things there which it is now interesting to read about. What...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK. [Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hare not been reserved for review in other forms.] College Histories: Clare College. By J. R....

The Great Law. By W, Williamson, (Longmans and Co. 14s.)

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—" Science," says Mr. Williamson, "has hitherto refused to investigate the phenomenon of religion." What does he mean by " science " P The "Science of Religion," in one way or...

While Sewing Sandals. By Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough, Ph.D. (Hodder and Stoughton.

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6s )—The sub-title interprets the title. This volume contains " Tales of a Telegu Pariah Tribe." The tribe is that of the Madigar in Southern India, a non-Aryan race, which has...

Prisoners of the Tower of London. By Violet Brooke-Hunt. (J.

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M. Dent and Co. 6s. net.)—The subject is so good and so large that all reflections, moralisings, and the like might very well have been suppressed. " What a procession of dim...

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Wan-Books.—How Soldiers Fight. By F. Norreys Connell. (J. Bowden. 38.

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6d.)—This is a seasonable volume. Mr. Connell gives his first chapter to the past, and in his second compares the soldiers of the various Powers of the world. Than he deals with...

Miscsmarmous. — The Children's Morning Text Book, arranged by C. M. K.

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and C. S. L. (A. R. Mowbray, 2s. net), is a collection of devotional extracts (in verse) which are so arranged as to illustrate the successive stages of Christ's ministry on...

Post Office London Directory, 1900. (Kelly's Directories.) — We have nothing new

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to say about this really wonderful volume. It goes on growing, as it has grown year by year, its most recent shoot being forty-one pages long. And it is kept more closely up to...

THROLOGT. — The Parable of the Great Supper. By the Rev. F.

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C. Blyth. (Rivingtons. 5s.)—This is an effort to exemplify a suggestion cf the author that expositions of Scripture might advantageously be substituted for discourses based on...

Rambles in Dickens Land. By Robert Allbut. (S. T. Free-

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mantle. 3s. 6d )—T his is a very thorough book indeed. The index contains between seven and eight hundred names, not all of places, indeed, but covering a wide extent and large...