Tn news from Afghanistan is threatening, though up to Friday it was not reported in the Times, which appears to be careless of its old role as the first newspaper in the world,...

tact as a Governor. In his speech at Pretoria, which has greatly irritated the Boers, he told them that it was impossible to grant them representative government, for 2,000 men...

probably inspired, telegraphs, in very decided lan- guage, his view of the need that the Government should declare its policy. Till then, all is unrest and excitement. The...

are to contest the seat for Liverpool vacated by the death of Mr. J. Torr. The Liberals have accepted Lord Ramsay, eldest son of the Earl of Dalhousie, and representative of the...

instructive speech at Birmingham on Tuesday, which he began by complimenting Birmingham on being selected rather specially by the Conservatives as the centre of their...

practice of political prophecy, as the ordinary work and duty of statesmen, showing that it is nothing but the habit of inferring by experience of the past to the probabilities...

extending household suffrage to the counties as one which would involve a redistribution of seats that must extin- tinguish the claims of Tewkesbury to rank as a distinct Par-...

in Bosnia. Order, they say, has been re- stored, the most complete religious equality has been esta- blished, and the frightful system of farming the taxes, and - especially the...

though not sparkling speech. He inquired why he was asked to join the Liberal party in founding a club, and answered it by a review of the progress of the last fifty years. Time...

mission to America is, as a political enterprise, a failure. The American people are quite willing to relieve Ireland, but not to interfere in her internal affairs. They think...

Gloucestershire constituents at Tewkesbury on Wednesday, in a speech the chief importance of which was his declaration that, so far as the Government were concerned, they did...

Upon the plea that other nations have increased their forces, Prince Bismarck has placed a Bill before the Federal Council, increasing the German Army by eleven new regi- ments...

ties, declares that the famine in Silesia is not to be wondered. at ; that the condition of hired agricultural labourers in Ger- many has escaped attention, but that it is...

of Durham," by a slip of the pen, for " the Bishop of Carlisle," in relation to the remark of the latter (Bishop Harvey Goodwin) that he would rather see Convocation as it is...

yesterday week, and a rather colourless programme it was. M. de Freycinet began by declaring that the change of government does not indicate "the abandonment of that prudent and...

for the working-class with an authority such as no other Member of Parliament possesses, addressed his consti- tuents at Bedlington this day week, in a speech of censure on the...

week, Lord Derby made an admirable and even striking speech on Thrift, prefacing it by the remark that, of course, there was nothing new to say ; but if that were considered. a...

last Saturday) is written in so violent and truculent a spirit against the present Administration of that colony, that one can hardly trust it for the most common-place details....

which the Financial Controllers have submitted, and which he hopes "the Powers "will ratify. Under this scheme the unpaid coupons are repudiated, the short loans exchanged for...

Govern- ment, as well as of the Assembly, is the reception given to General Farre's declaration against special Army chaplains, except in cases of the mobilisation of the...

John Torr, will be one of the most interestin g ever fou g ht. There is usually somethin g of local vanity in the idea which a borou g h entertains on election-day, that the...

extremely lively speech which Sir William Harcourt delivered at Birmingham on Tuesday causes great wrath to the Tories and their allies, really because it is so shrewd,...

M R. BRIGHT'S speech at Birmingham, on Tuesday, did not, of course, awaken all the excitement, the cheers, and the laughter, and the movements of instinctive admiration which...

J the telegrams published in the Daily News and Standard of Thursday are correet, General Roberts may shortly have all his recent work to do over again. According to those xi...

T HE new number of the Edinburgh Review contains a fidgettv and tremulous article on " Plain Whig Princi- ples," the real drift of which is by no means so purely defen- sive as...

T HE young Earl of Fife, who came into possession of his estates last autumn, is the owner of about 120,000 acres in the north-east corner of Scotland. They bring in, on an...

Regulation Act have every reason to be grateful to Lord Penzance. He has afforded them the amusement most congenial to the season, in the shape of an Ecclesiastical panto- mime...

will we deny or delay, right justice. We say " deny" advisedly, because delay in such matters often amounts to denial. A simple statement of the facts will bear out our...

L ORD DERBY'S speech at Liverpool yesterday week on Thrift was, like most of his speeches, a sort of concen- trated essence of common-sense, rising almost to genius. If...

W E wonder whether all men are liberal in their day-dreams, and indulge themselves with imagining, if they were only rich, how much they would give away, how their relations...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, — Your notice on the resistance to the law in the west of Ireland, in last week's Spectator•, would seem to imply that the• Executive...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR, —It was with some surprise that I found Mr. Henry James, in his book on Hawthorne, speaking as if the only source from which a curious...

THE RAILWAY COMMISSION. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] takes public opinion some time to come to a focus, but I shall he very much surprised if there is not a great deal...

THE WINTER EXHIBITION AT BURLINGTON HOUSE. [FIRST NOTICE.—D1OLBEIN'S PORTRAITURE.] This is an exhibition full of interest, both to the artist and the ordinary visitor, though...

MR. MAIN'S TREASURY OF ENGLISH SONNETS.* Tins is a very fine collection of English sonnets, and, as far as we know, omits none which would be unquestionably regarded by all good...

WE are getting to know more and more about Japan. Every year adds something to our knowledge of that interesting country ; but our acquaintance with its history is still very...

of scientific inquiry may occasionally be summed up in a single sentence, but it is otherwise with historical research, especially when regarded in connection with a subject so...

in the subject assigned for his essay. The fact of the government of the civilised world for half a millennium as the provinces of an empire seated and centred in an Italian...

Miss HARDY'S novels are good examples of a certain tendency of the female literary mind. She has made herself sufficiently familiar with the technical part of the novelist's...

Papers on Palmistry. By Rosa Banghan. (Field.)—This brief treatise on the imaginary science of Chiromancy or Palmistry—the telling a person's fortune by elucidating the...

his Nephew, the Rev. T. E. Vassar. (Dickinson.)—" Uncle John Vassar " was an American "Revivalist," and a man of no common type ; devoted to his work, with an absolute and...

make a choice,—one, A Poetry Book of Modern Poets, by Amelia B. Edwards (Longmans), and Short Readings from. English Poetry, by Helen A. Hertz (Rivington). The objects of the...

Inci- dent. By Jacob Thompson, Jun. (Sampson Low and Co.)—This story is written by way of text to the pictures of Mr. Jacob Thomp- son, Senior. Justice is hardly done to the...

This "New American Story " is very like some old ones that we have read,—notably, like " Helen's Babies," but not so amusing or so absurd, according as our readers may have...

and Sons.)—Miss Menzies has found—not, indeed, a new subject, for this is impossible, in so well-known a region—but a new combination of subjects, and has made good use of her...

by Thomas Kentish (Chatto and Windt's), is sufficiently described by its title. We quote from the preface a passage which may set at rest certain apprehensions not unlikely to...

By " K. M." (Vallentine.)—The writer passes very rapidly over the earlier part of the five centuries between the return from the Captivity and the Christian era. The wars of the...

Isaac Taylor, M.A. (Longmans.)—Runic inscriptions, as they are called, are found scat- tered from the Danube to the Orkneys, the Runes being the ancient alphabets of certain...

at the Centennial Celebration of Phillips's Academy, Andover, Massachusets, a school which had the honour of educating the writer, and which possibly is in part indebted for the...

R. Aberigh-Mackay. Vol. I. (Thacker and Co., Calcutta.)—This first volume is partly introductory, containing "a brief account of the different branches of the administration...

and Ferran), is a story told in what we cannot but call in- different verse, but prettily illustrated in outline, of how a little girl is seized with a desire to emulate the...

Acts, 1848-1879, and Other Acts Relating Thereto, by Edward W. Cox, Serjeant-at-Law (" Law Times " Office) ; A Consul's Manual and Shipowner and Shipmaster's Practical Guide,...

with Intro- duction and Notes, by John Ormsby. (Longman.)—Mr. Ormsby has done the English public good service by publishing this volume, which many readers will welcome. Few...

Percival Graves (Isbister), is an excellent and comprehen- hensive manual, which should be of much help to managers, in the first place, and to teachers, in the second. Among...

Knowledge.)—Here we have, in a series of slight sketches, the history of France, ecclesiastical and religious, in outline, from the period of the planting of a Christian church...

ington.)—These are fairly written stories, which might pass well enough as "padding" for a magazine, but are scarcely worth the dignity of a volume. The "Red Light," which,...

of Pebbles; by William Philpot (Macmillan), " picked, sorted, and polished anew," —an edition worth welcome, if only for the excellent "new preface" which has been added, and...

be necessary to show that there was another side to the Bishop's character, than that which the writer portrays. As it is, we can accept the estimate without reserve, and find...

P. Martin Duncan, M.B. (Ca,ssell„Petter, and Galpin), we have five divisions, Ungulate, by Professor A. H. Garrod ; Rodentia, by W. S. Dallas ; Edentate and Marsupialia, both by...

Knox. (Griffith and Farran.)—Here we have some prettily told fairy tales, or rather allegories. Allegories are commonly somewhat hard to understand ; and in these, though their...

the Bible. By Caroline Dent. (Rivington.)—This book is abridged from the " Maz- zeroth " of the late Miss Frances Rolleston, and briefly exhibits the ingenious attempt to find a...

W. Blackley, M.A. (Samuel Harris and Co.)—We have here a series of discourses expository of the period of Church history comprehended in the narrative of the Acts of the...

The Works of Robert Burns. (Edinbmgh : Paterson.)—This volume contains the letters of the poet during the five years which he spent at Dumfries, a consider- able number, and...

M.D. (Sampson Low and Co.), is a most entertaining narrative of a visit paid by the author to Mequinez and Fez, in the suite of the Portuguese Ambas- sador. It is not often that...