23 MARCH 1895

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The Government of India has resolved on a rather surpris-

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ing policy. It finds it necessary to order Umra Khan, the Pathan chief who has seized Chitral, and is besieging Mr. Robertson there, to retire under penalty of an instant appli-...

The Radicals on Monday raised the question of our "bloated

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armaments," Sir W. Lawson and Mr. Labouchere moving reductions in the Naval Estimates. They have a case; for there can be no question that the sixty millions we spend in the...

The election for East Bristol is a most curious piece

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of business. The seat is Gladstonian, and Sir W. H. Wills, the baronet who is so great in the tobacco trade, and is highly popular besides, was supposed to hold it in the hollow...

The vacant Spe,akership has been the subject of political gossip

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all the week. Mr. Courtney, finding that his election would not be unanimous, has withdrawn his name from amongst the candidates ; and Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, who finds that his...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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W E regret to learn that Lord Rosebery's recovery from influenza has been very seriously retarded by the return of the sleeplessness from which he formerly suffered rather...

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

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On Friday, March 15th, the House went into Committee of

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Supply on the vote for 15:5,403 men on the Home and Colonial establishments, exclusive of the Indian Army, and Mr. Camp- bell-Bannerman made the usual statement on the Army...

On Thursday Mr. Asquith moved the second reading of the

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Bill for disestablishing the Church in Wales and Monmouth- shire, in a speech to the ability of which Sir Michael Hicks- Beach paid a very high compliment in his reply, but...

Spain has suffered three misfortunes this week,—the loss of an

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ironclad cruiser with all hands, a successful military é.neute in Madrid, and a grave diplomatic affront. The cruiser was the ‘Reina Regente,' of 4,800 tons, which was on her...

The financial year does not close till the last day

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of March ; but it seems pretty certain that the Revenue for the year, when the final account is cast, will exceed the estimate by nearly a million. The estimate was for...

On Tuesday an interesting discussion as to the financial position

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of Cyprus arose over the motion to vote £29,000 as a grant in aid to the revenues of the island. The facts, though they look so complicated, are really simple enough. When we...

Mr. Asquith spoke at Cambridge on Wednesday to the members

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of the Liberal Club. If when the election came and the verdict was given, it was against the Government, Mr. Asquith declared that they would be able to reflect that they had...

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The Radicals greatly enjoyed themselves on Wednesday. They passed, by

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201 to 163, the second reading of a Bill which, if it means anything, means that Justices of the Peace ought to be elected by the people, but which, in practice, leaves the...

Canon Duckworth has been much condemned for not accepting the

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urgent recommendations of the people who wished to have the Curate in charge appointed to the vicarage of St. Botolph, Aldersgate Street. But he did not base his refusal clearly...

Major Wingate, the head of the Egyptian Intelligence Depart- ment,

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has succeeded in rescuing Slatin Bey, an Austrian officer, formerly Governor of Darfour, who is the last of the important prisoners in the Mahdi's hands. A Soudanese merchant...

As usual, the Turkish Government is doing all it can

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to suppress evidence as to the atrocities it has committed in Armenia, and, as usual, confirmation of them is slowly trickling in. The special correspondent of the Daily...

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

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New Consols (2f) were on Friday, 1044.

Lord Salisbury made a remarkable speech at Limehouse on 'Thursday

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about religious teaching. He does not think the Board-schools will eat up the voluntary schools, but rather, if anything, that the voluntary schools will win the battle. - They...

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, in a very able reply, directed, however,

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more against Disendowment than Disestablishment, pointed out that Mr. Asquith's Bill will take away from the Church tithes of which much the greater portion is willingly paid by...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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INTERVENTION IN THE FAR EAST. T HE illness of Lord Rosebery just at this moment is most unlucky. It is part of the unwritten Constitu- tion of this country that the initiative...

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THE LEAMINGTON QUARREL.

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W E have no great hope of settling the Leamington quarrel as it ought to be settled. When the local managers of two allied parties disagree with the central managers, there is...

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DEMOCRACY AND WAR. T HE division on Monday on the Naval

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Estimates, in which only thirty-two Members voted for reducing them, marks a noteworthy recoil in popular opinion. There can be no doubt that Great Britain, almost uncon-...

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THE SPEAKERSHIP.

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I T is odd enough that the man who is wanted, not to speak, but to control the speaking of others, should be called the Speaker. What we really want him for, is generally to be...

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THE UPPER NILE.

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W E wish we could feel sure that the Government are taking sufficient thought about the Upper Nile. We are not to be reckoned among those who imagine that in diplomacy...

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ESTABLISHMENT AND DISRUPTION.

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C ANON FREMANTLE contributes to the Times of Tuesday an interesting letter on Church Defence. It is not, of course, of the usual type of such letters. Canon Fremantle is a...

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THE LATEST INCIDENT IN SPAIN. T HE catastrophe in Madrid which

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appeared imminent in the beginning of this week has apparently been averted by the personal ascendency of Marshal Martinez Campos, but the danger was very serious, and the...

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PRAYING FOR GLADNESS. T HE British Weekly of last week gave

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a prayer composed by Robert Louis Stevenson, and read aloud to his family only the evening before his death :—" We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favour, folk of many...

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THE WISDOM OF EARLY RISING.

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meal, the time for which they will not deduct from the sun-lighted period of labour. The economy of this system is obvious, and as Benjamin Franklin pointed out in his amusing...

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THE PUBLIC JESTER.

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W ITHIN the space of one short week death has carried off from amongst as three people who in their day have done much, not only to increase the sum of our gaiety, but also to...

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CHISWICK EYOT.

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D URING the fortnight before the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race the Thames between Putney and Mortlake enjoys a brief renown. The reaches from Pelham Palace, past the grounds of...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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A PLEA FOR SUPERSTITION. [To THZ EDITOR OF VIZ 0 8PZOTZTOR. ° ] SIE,—Probably the article in the Spectator of March 16th on the punishment supposed to follow the sin of...

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AN OFFICIAL TRUSTEE.

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[To FRI EDITOR OF TIM "Brzorkroa."] SIR,—To those of us whose lives are spent for the most part in advising trustees of the properties and funds in settlement in this country,...

THE IRISH LAND BILL.

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[To TEE EDITOR OF THE 'SPECTATOR"] Sur,—As I have been both an owner and a tenant of land in Ireland, perhaps you may spare me room for a few words on the interesting letter of...

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ART.

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THE ROYAL INSTITUTE AND THE PAINTER SOMEWHERE in the scriptures of William Blake there is a vicious phrase about Albion being given over to strong Feminine Delusions. The...

"POSTE RESTANTE."

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THN "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — Amongst several reviews which were forwarded to me by my publishers, Messrs. Black, 1 find one which appeared in the Spectator some...

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BOOKS.

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SIR BARTLE FRERE. , BIOGRAPHIES of recently deceased statesmen are eminently unsatisfactory both from the historical and the personal point of view. A brief political study like...

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ARCHBISHOP LAUD.*

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BEFORE Land, no one in high place had died for the Anglican Church, as understood in our day by Keble and Pusey ; he set the seal of his blood upon the English Church as a...

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THE - VERNEY PAPERS.—VoL. IlL* THE first instalment of the Verney

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Papers was of great his- tAric,a1 interest, and full of curious and entertaining matter. It cannot, however, compare for a moment in readability with ttle third volume now...

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ST. JAMES'S PALACE.*

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THERE is no Royal residence, except Windsor Castle, that possesses greater interest for English people than St. James's Palace. The Tower and Hampton Court are no longer lived...

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"SUBJECT TO VANITY." *

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THERE are people who look on dumb animals as mere adjuncts to daily life in the country, sometimes owned reluctantly, as necessary, but more often classed under the head of...

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TWO MINOR POETS.*

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THERE is a great deal more of poetry of the second order, but really good of its kind, written now than there was fifty years ago—a great deal that, if it had been written...

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Two of Mrs. Juliana Horatia Ewing's delightful books have been

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reprinted in a convenient form (S.P.C.K.) These are Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances and Melchior's Dream and other Tales. The latter contains the preface written for the first...

A Dark Intruder. By Richard Dowling. 2 vols. (Downey and

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Co.)—This is as clever a book of its kind as Mr. Dowling has ever written ; but then, the kind is one which makes the task of re- viewing very difficult to a reviewer who wishes...

The Gates of Dawn. By Fergus Hume. (Sampson Low and

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Co.)—Mr. Fergus Hume's latest story is so very old-fashioned that it has some of the novelty of antiquity. The young peer who travels about the country in a caravan in the...

Messrs. Warne and Co. send us a series of very

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neat and handy volumes bearing the title of Cameos of Literature from Standard Authors. This is a "modernised and revised edition of Charles Knight's 'Half-Hours with the Beat...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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Absent, yet Present. By Gilberta M. F. Lyon. S vols. (Digby, Long, and Co.)—The substance of Miss Lyon's story does not disclose any meaning or relevance in its rather silly...

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In " Bohn's Standard Library" (G. Bell and Sons) we

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have received as the fourth volume of a reissue of " Hawthorne's Novels and Tales," Mosses from an Old Manse. Another repub- lication of a standard work is that of Sir William...

A Maid of the West. By Mrs. Grange. (Hurst and

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Blacked.) —Assuming that fictitious cha -acthrs may be defined as deriving their origin from one or other of three sources—first, the author's own imagination ; second,...

Chapters from Some Memoirs. By Anne Thackeray Ritchie. (Macmillan.)—Mrs. Ritchie

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has seen, and kept picturesque reminiscences of, a number of interesting people. Her earliest recollections are of Paris. She saw Jasmin, the Provençal poet, and heard him...

The New Standard Elocutionist. (Hutchinson and Co.) — This work is the

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result of a joint effort. The selection has been made by Mr. Alfred H. Miles, whose laborious volumes, bringing to- gether the best work of the poets of the century, are well...

The Play - actress. By S. R. Crockett. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—The "Antonym

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Library" goes on well, and promises to excel its pre- decessor, the "Pseudonym," excellent as that was. After all, it is better to call a book by its author's name rather than...

Some Men are such Gentlemen. By Arabella Kenealy. (Digby, Long,

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and Co.)—Lois Clinton, the quick-tempered, unconventional, but plucky and likable heroine of this novel, is a young lady of good family in extremely reduced circumstances,...

A Beautiful Soul. By Florence Marryat. (Digby, Long, and Co.)—This

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story relates how an excellent, middle-aged, plain spinster, with 1.5,000 a year, obtained a prince consort in the shape of a handsome, penniless young man, whom she thrice...

The Witch of the Juniper Walk. By Mrs. Frank May.

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(Gay and Bird.)—These five fairy-stories which make up the contents of this volume are of the new kind. They are didactic ; they have a moral. The old folk-lore fairy-tale is...

The Art of Horsemanship. Translated from the Greek of Xenophon

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by Morris H. Morgan, Ph.D. (J. M. Dent and Ca.) —This is a very careful translation, executed with a conscien- tious resolve to do complete justice to the original. This...

Mend Marian, Artist. By Eglanton Thorne. (Religious Tract Society.)—This is

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a pleasant story, written, it would seem, with a certain amount of knowledge of Roman places and things. It ends with the usual, or even more than the usual, pealing of wedding...

The Story of Sonny Sahib. By Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sara

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Jeannette Duncan). (Macmillan and Co.)—This is one of the "Pocket Novel" Series, the latest form of the reaction against the dominance of the three-volumed tale. "Sonny Sahib"...

The Mill on the Usk. By Mrs. Arthur Preheat°. (Kegan

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Paul, Trench, and Co.)—This is a Welsh story, harmless, but of indifferent merit. Two young barristers—one of whom quite unexpectedly turns out to be a Q.C.---go down for a...

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Vernon's Aunt. By Sarah Jeannette Duncan. (Chatto and Windus.)—These "Oriental

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experiences of Miss Lavinia Moffat" make up a farcical story, at which doubtless some people will laugh. 4 ' Vernon " is an Indian official, and his " aunt " is a middle-aged...

A Black Squire. By Mrs. Alfred Hunt. (Chapman and Hall.)

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—A" Black Squire," according to our author, means a landowner in orders (otherwise called a " Squarson ). We had thought that it meant a landowner whose money came from...

From the Clyde to the Jordan. By Hugh Callan. (Mackie

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and Son.)—Mr. Callan gives us here the "Narrative of a Bicycle Journey." He began this journey at Calais, saw Paris on the occasion of the funeral of the Communist leader, Endes...

Five Thousand Words Often Misspelled. By William Henry B. Phyfe.

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(G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—This is intended as a com- panion-volume to the same author's "Seven Thousand Words Often Mispronounced," and is likely to be even more useful Mr. Phyfe...

Flamborough Village and Headland, By Various Writers. Edited by Robert

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Fisher, M.A. (Andrews and Co., Hull ; Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London.)—This book is published in aid of the fund for rebuilding the tower of Flamborongh Church. Its...

The Boy and the Angel, being Sunday Morning Talks to

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Chsldren. By the Rev. John Bytes. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—We are sure that not a few of our readers will know, and knowing will highly prize, an earlier work by Mr. Byles, "Spring...

The Mask and the Man. By Percy Andreae. (Smith, Elder,

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and Co.)—The plot of this story is evolved with an old-fashioned patience which has many things, but not the fashion of the day, to recommend it. The story is essentially simple...

Northward Ho! By Alexander Gordon. (Isbister.)—This is a sequel to

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a volume of stories of north-country Scotch life, which was noticed in our columns some time ago. It contains sound "descriptive" work, and the pathos and the humour are as...

A Daughter of this Wend. By Fletcher Battershall. (W. Heinemann.)—The

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people who figure in Mr.—or are we to say Miss P—Battershall's story are of a very strange kind, and the strangest kind of all is that which is typified by "Father Axon." That a...

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Nieol Thain, Materia/isf. Millions and Milne.)—This book, by the author

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of "Thomas Wanless, Peasant," will be read, if only for the sake of its merciless realism. It would be difficult to conceive a more repulsive creature than Nicol Thain the...

Tales of Crime and Criminals in Australia. By Henry A.

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White. (Ward and Downey.)—This is an interesting though gruesome book, written with the authority of thirty years' experience of the subject of which it treats. Mr. White starts...

The Watcher, and other Weird Tales. By J. Sheridan Le

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Fanu. (Downey and Co.)—The power possessed by the late Mr. Sheridan Le Fenn of summoning the eerie and terrible from the vasty deep of his own imagination was very...

Popular Lectures and Addresses. By Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson).

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Vol. II. (Macmillan and Co.)—This second volume, appearing, as our readers will remember, after the third, com- pletes the collection of Sir William Thomson's lectures and...

In the Dozy Hours, and other Papers. By Agnes Repplier.

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(Gay and Bird.)—Miss Repplier has made her 'way with a speed to which it would not be easy to find a parallel in recent times, to the front rank of essayists. The sound sense,...