23 JANUARY 1909

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Since the reassembling of the German Reichstag on Tuesday week,

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the Special Committee on Imperial Finance and the Budget Committee have resumed their sittings. From the summary of their proceedings in last Saturday's Times, it appears that...

The difficulties of Herr Sydow's position are further illus- trated

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by the Prussian Budget Estimates presented by Baron von Rheinbaben in the Lower House of the Prussian Diet. The financial year 1907-8 closed with a deficit of £3,500,000 ;...

On Monday in the Chamber of Deputies M. Pichon made

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a long speech on the policy of France in Morocco. A good deal of it was in answer to M. Jaures, who had declared that French troops intended to march to Fez, and that all Europe...

The President did not deny the need of reforms, but

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he had to doubt that a successful effort was being made to accom- plish them. The great salient fact, however, was that the Presence of the English in India had been for the...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

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M R. ROOSEVELT attended the "diamond jubilee" cele- bration of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington on Monday and delivered a remarkable address. Taking for his...

*** The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, tin any

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case.

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As long as the Young Turks in exile in Egypt

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did not plot against the Sultan's life, or take any other unfair advantage of the protection accorded them, Lord Cromer secured to them immunity from arrest and destruction. A...

Lord Cromer was the chief guest at the annual dinner

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of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce on Monday night. We have dealt with his speech elsewhere, but must mention here one or two specially striking passages in a memorable address....

Herr Dernburg, the German Colonial Secretary, delivered a striking address

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last Sunday at Dresden before the King of Saxony. His object, as the Times correspondent says, was to excite interest in colonial development, and he seems to have succeeded...

A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Unionist Free-Trade

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Club was held on Thursday, when the position of Unionist Free-trade Members of Parliament was considered in view of the action of the Confederates. It was resolved that every...

The passage we have just quoted is as sound politically

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as morally, and we do not doubt that the effect on Turkish opinion was as Lord Cromer describes, and that to it wo owe a good deal of the sympathy now shown to Britain by the...

The Report of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion and

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Afforestation was published on Friday week. We have dealt at length elsewhere with the Report on the economic side, but may note here a political argument of no small moment. If...

An article in the Times of Monday reminds us how

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much of the world remains unexplored, although it may be true that the great days of exploration are over. There is no longer a whole continent like Africa, before us. The...

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During the past week three very generous and notable gifts

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have been made to the public. To begin with, Mr. Pierpont Morgan has purchased the magnificent collection of prehistoric weapons formed by Canon Greenwell of Durham, and has...

Another of the gifts made this week is the presentation

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of the sum of £20,000 by an anonymous donor to the London Hospital, to be used in the interests of medical research and the promotion of higher education in medicine. The money...

That Mr. Birroll's conclusion is sound we cannot doubt. Not

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only do we believe that newspapers would have much more influence were they more independent, but we also believe that they would actually do better from a business Point of...

Bank Rate, 3per oent., changed from 21 per mat. Jan.

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14th. Consols (2 k) were on Friday 83i — Friday week 83i.

Lord Balfour of Burleigh has a sensible letter on the

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8 oemlist movement in Thursday's Times, in which he sets forth the aims of the British Constitution Association, of which he l a the president. Holding that all legislation...

Last Saturday was the centenary of Coruna, where Su John

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Moore died at the moment of victory. Charle's Wolfe's' famous and nobly simple poem on Moore's burial has made the name of that great soldier familiar to every schoolboy....

The death of the Rev. A. G. Butler, which was

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announeed on Monday, will be mourned by a wide circle of friends and pupils. Son of one Head-Master of Harrow, brother of another, and himself brilliantly distinguished as a...

In the Regent Hall of Trinity College, Dublin, on Tuesday

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afternoon Mr. Birrell moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Massing- ham for a lecture which he had delivered on journalism and th e duty of the Press to the people. They could not...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE NEW SPLIT IN THE UNIONIST PARTY. T HE Unionist Party was shaken to its foundations in the year 1903, when, owing to Mr. Chamberlain's determination to force his policy of...

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STATE AFFORESTATION.

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T HE Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into and report on certain questions affecting coast erosion and afforestation in the United Kingdom was issued ou...

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LORD CROMER AT LEEDS. L ORD CROMER covered so much ground

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in his valuable speech at Leeds that it is impossible here to do mare than refer to one or two of the points he raised, In particular, we wish at once to express our entire...

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PRINCE BULOW'S POSITIQN.

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P RINCE BULOW must have found in the atmosphere of the Prussian Diet a grateful contrast to that with which he has of late been familiar in the larger theatre of the Reichstag....

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THE CAREER OF A POLICE SPY.

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E VERY one remembers the story of Father Gapon, the Russian priest who led the fatal demonstrations of the populace in St. Petersburg. The shooting down of the unarmed crowd,...

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DULLNESS AND MONOTONY.

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THE larger number of people insist upon a certain • amount of monotony, however great their energy or keen their intelligence. Nature brings us up to it. Her variety is but the...

EDGAR ALLAN POE.

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p OE, who was born on January 19th, 1809, was a great master of artifices, and of a cunning style ; and we would add that he was also a master of morbidity, were it not that the...

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GARDENING IN A CATALOGUE.

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S TEVENSON writes somewhere of the pleasure of voyaging in an atlas. If he had been the possessor of an English garden, be would have taken an equal pleasure in planting and...

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CORRESPONDENCE.

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THE NAVIES OF THE WORLD. VI.—THE ITALIAN NAVY. [To THE EDiTOR OP " SPECTATOR." J Stn,—Italy is always included amongst the great naval Powers in Parliamentary Returns and...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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YUAN SHIN-KAL LTO TIM EDITOR. OW TRW "13PRICTATOR,"] SIR, — There have been two earthquakes during the opening days of the year, one physical, which has aroused widespread...

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UNIONIST FREE-TRADERS AND THE PRESEN • T GOVERNMENT.

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rio Tee EDITOR OF THR " Serativroa.") SIR,—Although I find myself in agreement with nearly all the political articles in the Spectator, I confess I cannot follow you when you...

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THE LESSONS OF HISTORY.

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[To TEX EDITOu ' Or TIM " SrNOTATOR.1 SIR, e s-In your article in the issue of January 16th on "The Lessons of History" occurs the following statement : " There are thousands of...

THE IRISH LAND QUESTION.

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/TO Tils EDITOR Or Talc " SPROTATOR.1 18 Ilt•".--I do not desire to raise the question of Free-trade and Protection, but simply to consider how far the interest of Ireland is...

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AN ECHO OF CORUT.A.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." . ] SIR,—I think you may like to print the enclosed letter in the Spectator in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of Sir John Moore's...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]

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SIR,—You have opened your columns to the subject of the abuse of old-age pensions. What can we do to arrest the rapid demoralisation which is sure to follow P I am here on the...

OLD-AGE PENSIONS.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sin,—For the past twenty years my wife and I have lived iu close touch with the two or three hundred inhabitants of our village, knowing...

THE ECONOMICS OF DESTRUCTION,

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[To THE EDITOR ON TRIO . 13p xarkrolt.1 SIR,—In your article on "The Economics of Destruction" in last week's Spectator you are surely too hard on the "philosopher of the...

"COL. GRAHAM OF EALOOWAN TO ROBERT GRAHAM, ESQ.

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On Beard the 'Audacious' in the Channel, Sunday, Janry. 22d, 'D. I had not time nor power to write you from Corunna my dr. Graham, for I was almost blind with an attack of...

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A PARALLEL TO THE "SUFFRAGETTES." LTO Tits EDITOR OF T1113

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..spearAros..-) Sin,—History has the knack of repeating itself, as we all know. But I question very much if it has ever furnished a closer parallel between modern and mediaeval...

PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION.

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LTO THE EDITOR OF TRH "SPZOTAT011."J Sin,—Your readers may be interested in the following record of convictions under the Prevention of Corruption Act to date :— Six months'...

PRAGMATISM AND RELIGION.

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[To THE EDITOR OP THE ° SPROTATOR.".1 SIR,—I recently had occasion to discuss pragmatism in a dissertation presented to, and favourably accepted by, the University of Oxford. I...

RIGHTS AND DUTIES.

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[TO THE EDITOR or TRIO °SPIOTATOR." Sin,—In the Spectator for last week (p. 91) a correapondent says that he hears "every one shouting for rights, but none advocating duties."...

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A CORRECTION.

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pro TITS EDITOU OF THE " SIICTATOR."] SIR,—A slight error crept into my letter to you on the subject of " Moors and Horsomastership" in the Spectator of January 9th. A sentence...

A REMEDY FOR A " BROKEN WIND. "

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(To Tile EDITOR or TO " soTkros."] SIR,—I know of one case in which a valuable horse that had broken his wind was saved for many years of usefulness by the simple expedient of...

POETRY.

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A BEETHOVEN NIGHT. Music 'awaits you. Let it melt Round aching heart and weary sense, Like night-dew on parched summer grass, Cool-fingered with beneficence. Is.the soul...

BOOKS.

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JOAN OF ARC.* ON December 13th, 1908, the decree of beatification of Joan of Arc was published in the Consistory Hall of the Vatican; and on April 18th in the present year a...

NOTICE.—When Articles or "Correspondence" are signed with the writer's name

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or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked "Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the mode of...

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LUKE THE PHYSICIAN.* Sin WILLIAM RAMSAY has just republished, with

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great modifications and enlargements, a set of critical and religious essays under the title of Luke the Physician. Whatever Sir William Ramsay writes has a deep interest and a...

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RUSSIAN STUDIES.*

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MR. MAURICE BARING has a curious mind, nicely observant of the small things which float like straws on the stream of these tearing years of change in Russia. No one writing in...

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THE POLAR ESKIMOS.*

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* The People of the Polar. North a Etward. By Xtuil Reamussen. Compiled from the Danish Originals and Edited by 0. Herring. Illustrations by Count Darold Moltke, London Kogan...

THREE BOOKS ON LOUIS XVII.*

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IT would seem as if there could be nothing left to add to the literature of this mysterious subject, and yet the truth is no more certainly known now than it was a hundred years...

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THE EMBRYOLOGY OF AESTHETICS.*

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MR. FELIX CLAY'S book on The Origin of the Sense of Beauty is an interesting departure from the rather dreary literature of aesthetics, in that it sets out a definite and...

THE MAKING OF CARLYLE.* Mn. CitAra's "experiment in biographical explication,"

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if it does not throw much new light on the life and character of 'Carlyle, affords abundant evidence of sympathetic research and painstaking analysis. The author, indeed, has...

NOVELS.

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SEPTIMUS.t • The Origin of the Sense of Beauty: Some Suggestions on the Source 44 Development of the Aesthetic Feelings. By Felix Clay. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. [Oa. net.]...

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The Lost Cabin Mine. By F. Niven. (John Lane. 6s.)—This

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is a story of the Far West, and is full of exciting adventures and of bloodstained combats. The hero is not the man who tells the story, but his companion, known as "the Apache...

The Bias. By Marguerite Curtis. (W. Blackwood and Sons. 6s.)—It

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is somewhat hard to credit the arrangement come to in the first chapters of this novel as to the education of Cynthia , Jerome, the joint ward of George Street and Ernest...

READABLE NOVELS.—The Miracle. By Antrim Oriel. (A. Constable and Co.

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6s.)—A novel of politics in the immediate future, written by one who seems to know a good deal, and can certainly draw recognisable portraits. The reader will think him hard on...

THE QUARTERLIES.

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Tan able article on " The Value of the Territorial Force " with which this number of the Quarterly begins is scarcely hopeful as regards the success of Mr. Haldane's scheme ;...

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The Sweet o' the Year : Thoughts from a Village

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Garden. By Emily Ridgway. (J. E. Cornish, Manchester. 3s. tld. net.)—The title might seem to mean that season which is called the "sweet o' the year,"—late spring and early...

The Life of Richard Steward. By the late Nicholas Pocock.

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(Masters and Co. 3s. 6d.)—This work was left in MS. by its author at his death in 1897, and scarcely called for publication. It seems to us to lack the historical spirit ; Mr....

The Tidong Dialects of Borneo, By Mervyn W. H. Beech,

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M.A. (The Clarendon Press. 5s. net.)—Mr. Beech was for three years District Officer at Tawao, in British North Borneo. Here he learnt the Tidong language, being, indeed, the...

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

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[Under this heading itS notice suoh Books of the tusk al hoe, not Wen rsserved for 11111141117 in other ferns.] The Lawrences of the Punjab. By Frederick P. Gibbon. (J. M. Dent...

Daily Mail Year Book. Edited by Percy L. Parker. (Associated

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Newspapers. Cl. net.)—The purchaser will get a quite amazing amount of information for his money, and not information only, but speculation also. Home and foreign politics,...

We mention with sympathy and hearty good wishes for the

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success of the society whose operations it chronicles, The Tenth Annual Report of Our Dumb Friends' League (118 Victoria Street). It chronicles many acts of kindness to various...

The Hibbert Journal. Edited by L. P. Jacks, M.A., and

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G. Dawes Hicks, Litt.D. (Williams and Norgate. 12s. net.)—Here are nearly fifty articles, with supplemental matter, running to but little short of a thousand pages. Any one of...

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Thom's Official Directory. (A. Thom and Co., Dublin. 216.)— We

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are glad to see again this admirable Directory. There is nothing quite like it elsewhere. Of course England is too big for a single volume of the kind, but it would be possible...

The Fruit Growers' Year Book. (Cable Printing Company. ls. net.)—This

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annual, now in its seventeenth year, is full of useful information. The work of each month in planting, pruning, protection against harmful agencies, &c., is given. There are...

Herbert Fry's Royal Guide to London Charities. Edited by John

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Lane. (Chatto and Windus. ls. 6d.)—We need not describe or praise this indispensable manual. No one who gives ought to neglect the information which it supplies. The question of...