T HE air is full of rumours about China, but of new facts there are not many. Indeed, there is only one, the departure of an armed Japanese squadron from Nangasaki, and that...

THE PARTITION OF CHINA. T HE German Emperor has already produced one great result in China. He has forced the Russian's hand. It hardly matters whether there is a secret...

Italians to the English will be proceeding while these pages are in our readers' hands. Already the new Egyptian garrison has arrived, and some seven hundred of the Italian...

Europe with disinterested eyes, we sometimes doubt whether the alliance with Germany has not been a source of danger to the Austrian Empire. It has certainly cost the Monarchy...

A STATEMENT to the effect that Lord Salisbury intends to make Cardinal Vaughan a Peer, and thus give the Roman Catholic Church a representative in the House of Lords, has been...

S ELDOM has a party in difficulties sustained so un- expected a shock as the letter of the Duke of Orleans must have inflicted on the French Royalists. The very incident which...

S IMULTANEOUSLY with the production of a new programme—one more programme—for the Liberal party, emanating from the Metropolitan Radical Federa- tion, comes a decision from Sir...

W E always read a speech such as Mr. Arthur Balfour addressed to the Scott Club of Edinburgh on Tuesday with political pleasure. That seems an incon- gruous adjective, but it is...

S TYLE cannot be taught and cannot be acquired by practice, and yet a man may improve his style by care and study. This sounds like a contradiction, and yet it is the final...

O NE cause at least of the interest always excited by the great advocate whose death, if it has not diminished the gaiety of nations, has diminished that of Parliament and the...

A MONG the crop of Law Court stories revived in con- nection with the cases in which the late Sir Frank Lockwood was engaged was one of horse-stealing, in which the Judge and...

THE NECESSITY FOR A COUNTY COUNCIL. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] have just been reading with considerable interest your article on " The Necessity for a County Council"...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR. " ] SIR,—In your interesting article on " Sleep ' in the Spectator- of December 11th you omit to notice a phase of consciousness♦ immediately...

[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—I have lately heard an authentic child-story, which may amuse your readers. Last June a gentleman living in Cheshire was starting to...

" SPECTATOR. "] SIE;In your article in the Spectator of December 18th on "Oar Coal and Our Prosperity" you suggest the more extended substitution of electricity for steam as...

[To Tax EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR, —Will you allow me to protest against the assertion of your correspondent, "Ave atque Vale," in the Spectator of December 18th, that...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, — It is pleasing to see the interest shown by "A Wanderer" in the Spectator of November 13th in the subject of goat culture, and it may...

A NEW BIOGRAPHY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.* IF a knowledge of the original authorities could solve all the enigmas of history, Mr. Hay Fleming's work might be accepted as an end of...

ITo THZ EDITOR OP THY " SPECTATOR."] SIR, — It is not often worth the trouble to write the biography of a common rabbit, but our Jack ' is an exception to the rule. We bought...

EVENING. WEARY-FOOTED Eve, in what celestial orchards, Cool skyey gardens past the mountain's rim, Stray you while the sun blinks o'er the western ocean, While sleep draws...

always exercised upon the mind of man furnishes a very good reason for the stately volume which has been compiled upon its history. A shorter work upon the subject was not long...

Mn. CORNISH and Mr. Shand are writers of the same school, and each of them has produced a most delightful volume of essays on country life and sport, and charming studies of...

No more remarkable testimony to the singular but universal desire on the part of perfectly sane mortals to obtain pleasure through the deception of the senses could be afforded...

As the vast structure of the Russian Empire looms up larger and larger the desire to know more about its history naturally increases. Up to within the last few years there has...

new novel are so formidable as to render its adequate discussion im- possible within the limits of a short review. Hitherto a brilliant miniaturist, she now essays to unfold a...

(A. Constable and Co.)—It is scarcely correct for Mr. Gomme to say that while fairy-tales have been used to exhaustion to provide reading for the young, "English history and...

By William 0. Stoddard, (Hodder and Stoughton.)—The teller of this story seems to have seen the gold of the Montezumas, for he describes the ingots, big and little, and the...

story and paint them. His work consists of drawings and notes illustrative of the Gospels. The whole of the drawings were exhibited, and at the time they were considered in the...

and Co.)—Mr. Rose was Renter's war correspondent in the Greek War, and he has collected in this volume the despatches which he sent from the field of battle or flight. They are...

may be an accidental one, but the volume of stories and sketches by Mabel Quiller Couch collected under the title, Some Western Folk, bears a curious resemblance en form and...

his Son, the Rev. J. J. Pool, B.D. (J. Clarke and Co.)—Mr. R. Pool, who is now enjoying a well-earned leisure, has been a specimen of a somewhat uncommon class, the rural...

Hayne, and recorded by H. West Taylor. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)—Mr. Hayne is a non-commissioned officer in the Mounted Police ; Mr. Taylor is a journalist who has worked...

(G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—One age overlaps another in the history of mankind ; the Stone Age still lasts in one country, while the Iron has well begun in another. So, to judge from...

and Co.)—A. Life of the financial celebrity popularly known as " Barney Barnato" was an inevitable contribution to the history of Great Britain in the nineteenth century. We...

(Macmillan and Co.)—The " Star " is a man who has greatly distinguished himself in academical and Parliamentary life. It is of his successes in the latter region that we are...

quarto deals minutely with the history not only of glass made in England, but also with that which was imported from Venice and Holland. Besides an introduction dealing with...

volume, belonging as it does to "Connoisseur Series," is intended chiefly as a collector's guide ; but the number of beautiful and interesting miniatures reproduced make it a...

Nister.)—The most characteristic thing in this story is the reality with which in the child's belief the continued presence of the dead with those who are left behind is...

(Horace Cox.)—This "Story of the Siege of Chester" belongs, as may be supposed, to the latter days of the great struggle between King and Parliament. Mr. Leatherdale seems to...

by Colonel Malleson, C.S.I. 6 vols. (Longmans and Co.)—Vols. I. and II. are from the pen of Sir John Kaye, III., IV., and V. are written by Colonel Malleson, while the sixth...

of business, should NOT be addressed to the EDITOR, but to the PUBLISHER, 1 Wellington Street, Strand, W.C.

Bellot (H.H. L.), and Another, The Law Relatin g to Unconscionable Bargains with Money-lenders, Sro (Stevens & Haynes) 7/6 Boas (Mrs. Fredk.), English History for Children, or...

UPHAM'S, 283 Washington Street, Boston, Mass., U.S.A.; THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS COMPANY, 83 and 85 Duane Street, New York, U.S.A. ; MESSRS. BRENTANO'S, Union Square, New York,...

January to June, and from July to December, on the third Saturday in January and July. Cloth Cases for the Half- yearly Volumes may be obtained through any Bookseller or...