24 DECEMBER 1864

Page 1

NEWS OF TIIE WEEK.

The Spectator

T HE American Congress assembled on the 6th inst., and re- ceived the President's Message, 'which we have analyzed in another place. His message is the formal annual one, and...

Page 4

MR. COBDEN'S FINANCE.

The Spectator

I F Mr. Cobden had ever taken office he would have go' lied, we imagine, greatly in all the characteristics of a j katcS- ,i man. Responsibility would have given him the...

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Spectator

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. A DRY, shrewd tenacity has always been the characteristic of Mr. Lincoln's Messages, and the one transmitted to Congress on 6th December, is drier,...

Page 6

EMPEROR LAY'S BLUE-BOOK.

The Spectator

M R. HORA.TIO LAY, the gentleman who recently made a clutch at the Imperial throne of China, and missed it by a hairsbreadth, has published a pamphlet to explain the failure of...

Page 7

BISHOP COLENSO'S APPEAL.

The Spectator

I N the greater number of human quarrels, if one can once I really get to thehottom of the facts of the case, if one can only be certain what the disputants have said and done,...

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RAILWAY LESSEES AND RAILWAY BOARDS. T HE public if we may

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judge from some representations which have reached us, still misunderstands the great project which we have designated "Mr. Gladstone's Railway Scheme." Some appear still...

Page 9

ENGLISH HOLIDAYS.

The Spectator

T HE English people are beginning apparently to perceive that among the needs of civilization is a little leisure. The notion that" all work and no ploy makes Jack a dull boy,"...

Page 10

GHOSTS.

The Spectator

the real countenance of which it was the image. voluntary act, —the physical result to a dream, — the fore Nor is it merely the spiritual character such visions assume boding...

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THE CAMPBELLS.—(CONCLUSION.)

The Spectator

B Y his first wife, a daughter of the Earl of Moray, the unfor- tunate Earl of Argyll had three sons, the eldest of whom, Archibald, succeeded him as head of the Campbells. On...

Page 13

THE LEADING MEN IN THE NORTH.

The Spectator

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) New York, December 10, 1864. ON the day after the election of Horatio Seymour as Governor of New York in 1862, one of the most influential, as...

Page 14

THE BATTLE OF FRANKLIN.

The Spectator

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] New York, December 3, 1864. GENERAL HOOD has again come to grief, this time at the hands of General Thomas, whom Sherman, you may remember,...

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BOOKS.

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MR. PLUMPTRE'S RELIGIOUS POEMS.* RELIGIOUS poetry generally tends to the purely lyrical form. It iq not often that genuine poetry of this class will endure the bonds of either...

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UNCLE SILAS.*

The Spectator

Is the brief preface to this powerful and exciting but certainly (if that is of any account) very improbable tale, Mr. Le Fenn points out justly enough that even the quietest of...

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THE ORIGIN OF CARDS.* THE game of cards, it seems,

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is of respectable antiquity. The popular notion, repeated in grave treatises as well as in the ridiculous collections of disjointed information with which little children are...

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THE SALMON.*

The Spectator

WE take shame to ourselves for having left this amusing and exhaustive book on the history, pi actice, and legislation of sal- mon-fishing so long unnoticed. Its author, well...

CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

The Spectator

THE rapid growth of infantile literature involuntarily suggests the multiplication of the species. Children and children's books seem to be much in the same ratio as grown-up...

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CURRENT •LITERATURE.

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French girl, the daughter of a Parisian banker, and of the life of the family to which she belongs—and the plot of her novel is neither new nor probable. Jeanne's father has...

Cakes, Leeks, Puddings, and Potatoes. By George Beton, MA., Oxon.

The Spectator

(Edmonston and Douglas.)--A clever little essay on the "Nationalities of the United Kingdom," by a Scotch advocate. It is not very deep but quite free from narrowness, and most...

devoted to prose and the other to poetry, has gone

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on ,the time- honoured principle of selecting passages from the classical French authors, with a view to giving specimens of good French. This object he has effected admirably,...

Beautiful Thoughts from Greek Authors. By C. T. Ramage, LLD.

The Spectator

(Hamilton, Adams, and Co.)—These extracts are given in the original Greek with a translation, generally well executed ; but there is always a strangeness and incongruity about...

(Smith, Elder, and Co.)—Three excellent little volumes for young chil-

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dren. The language is studiously simple, and yet easy. The subjects are well selected. We have seldom seen works which attain better the very desirable object of introducing...

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Maud Neville. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)—A goodyish story, and about

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as readable as that kind of thing usually is. The heroine is of course a model of dignified good sense, of course falls in love with a roue colonel, of course does not marry...

The London Abnanack and Commercial Record. For the year 1865.

The Spectator

(William Fullar).—A handsomer volume than the public often rceeives at the hands of the publishers of almanacks. Paper, type, and bind- ing are all excellent. Besides the...

Which Is the Winner? By Charles Clarke. (Chapman and Hall.)—

The Spectator

A clevar, readable novel, full of incident and of characters which, if not very interesting, are at least natural. Mr. Clarke writes very much as Mrs. Gore would have done had...

A Selection of Psalms and Hymns. Arranged for the Service

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of the Church of gngland. By the Rev. Charles Kemble. The Music selected, arranged, and partly composed by Samuel Sebastian Wesley. (John F. Shaw and Co.)—Mr. Kemble's selection...

How to Manage It. By Hindus Thomas Prichard. (Bentley.)—A very

The Spectator

striking historical novel, containing by far the most vivid picture of the Indian mutiny yet presented to the public. It is deformed by that excessive dislike, almost hatred, of...

BOOKS RECEIVED.

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John Russell Smith.—Thom's Notelets on Shakespeare. Hooper and Cull.—Royal Insurance Company's Almanack. Saunders, Otley, and Co.—The Lay of the Alabama. Routledge, Warne, and...