25 JULY 1885

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The "Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Bill" is in a rather

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critical position at the present moment. The Govern- ment, who took care to overbid Mr. Jesse Collings in the Bill they brought in, have this week been pulled up sharp, either...

General Grant died on Thursday morning after a very long

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struggle with that most painful and terrible disease, cancer of the tongue, from which it is stated that he was suffering. It is a disease to test any man's fortitude; but...

The scene of yesterday week was the first great public

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exposure of the Session. Mr. Parnell on that evening called attention to what he deemed the miscarriage of justice under the Irish Crimes Act during the Administration of Lord...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE news from Russia is insignificant. The rumour is that the difficulties about the Pass of Zulfikar are only raised in order to furnish an excuse for demanding Meruchak,- the...

Lord Randolph Churchill's Government, as everybody now calls it, is

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discrediting itself more rapidly than any Government of recent times. Indeed, as Mr. Labouchere observed in the course of the debate on the Medical Relief Bill, no Government...

Thereupon, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach very brusquely refused to have anything

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more to say to the Bill, and Sir William Harcourt took it up ; and it was recommitted, to discuss a clause of Mr. Orr Ewing's excluding Scotland from its operation. This clause...

The Mahdi, according to a good many different accounts, which

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seem to receive credence at Cairo, died from small-pox on June 22, and one sheikh even asserts that he had witnessed the Mahdi's funeral. On the whole, it seems probable that...

*** The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in awy

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case.

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Mr. Gladstone's letter concerning Lord Spencer, an extract from which

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was read by Lord Hartington during the Irish debate on Friday night, is so terse and so true that it is worth preserving as a whole. It ran as follows :—" My dear Harting-...

It was understood on Friday week that Lord Carnarvon had

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raised hopes that the Government would step in to aid the Munster Bank, or at least to alleviate the misfortune of its failure. But when a deputation of shareholders waited upon...

Sir William Harcourt took up the cudgels when Sir Michael

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Hicks-Beach sat down, and commented with great severity on the change which had come over the spirit of the Conservative dream since Mr. Parnell made his last demand of this...

Mr. John Morley asked a question on Monday concerning the

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appointment of the Second Charity Commissioner, Mr. Charles .Alderson (Lord Salisbury's brother-in-law), with a special salary, to the post formerly filled by Mr. Longley, who...

The Princess Beatrice was married on Thursday to Prince Henry

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of Battenberg, amidst the general rejoicings of the people of the Isle of Wight. The Princess has received cart- loads of wedding presents from the Queen's loving subjects, and...

Mr. Brodrick and Mr. Lewis confessed their dismay with perfect

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frankness. Lord Hartington then expressed for himself and Mr. Gladstone the profound confidence which Lord Spencer's administration had inspired in them,—reading a part of Mr....

To this speech Lord Randolph Churchill himself replied with a

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compliment to his leader, Sir Michael, on the remarkable " dignity " with which he had expressed the sense of heavy responsibility felt by the Government. He contrasted with...

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On Saturday last Sir Charles Dilke was entertained at the

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Reform Club, the dinner being one of congratulation to him on the ability which he had shown in conducting the Redistribu- tion Bill through Parliament. Sir Charles Dilke said...

Captain Gosset has this week resigned the office of Serjeant-

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at-Arms, to the great regret of the whole House of Commons, which he has now served, in one office or another, for forty-nine years. He has discharged his duty with so much...

Swansea is so very little given to Conservatism that the

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attempt of that party to start a Conservative candidate for the General Election is regarded in a light almost comic in that grim and very plain-spoken place. Last week an...

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At Colchester, on Wednesday, Mr. Sohn Morley and Mr. Trevelyan

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delivered public addresses, Mr. John Morley speak- ing to the London and Counties Liberal Union, which held a meeting in that place. Mr. Morley said that he did not think any...

On the subject of Ireland, Mr. Trevelyan's speech was of

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con- siderable interest. He was prepared, he said, to give Ireland complete self-government on the subject of education, and to give her civil self-government, in the sense in...

Sir Charles Duffy urges Lord Carnarvon, in a long letter,

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to settle the Home-rule question by giving Ireland the freedom of a Colony. That is just what Lord Randolph Churchill would probably like to do ; but it is hardly possible for...

Mr. Trevelyan's speech was made on the opening of a

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Colchester Liberal Club, of which he is to be president. He held that the newly enfranchised classes would long retain the memory of their political serfage, and that this...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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PARNELLITE TORYISM. T HE scene of yesterday week in the House of Commons may well prove a memorable turning-point in our political history. On that evening Mr. Parnell brought...

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EARL SPENCER.

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TS the character of the Irish race undergoing a fundamental change ? Some say that the traditional wit and gaiety of the Irish peasant have largely given place to a temper of...

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THE CONSERVATIVES AND MEDICAL RELIEF.

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T HFRA is too much comedy now in the House of Commons. One feels as if half the speakers were playing a part instead. of expressing judgments and convictions. And this...

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A LIGHT ON BISMARCK'S POLICY.

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T HE Paris correspondent of the Times is so given to romancing that the British public appears either to have left off reading his communications or to distrust the genuine-...

THE IRISH LAND PURCHASE BILL.

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T BERE has seldom been a measure against which more could be said than the Irish Land Purchase Bill. It is admitted on all hands to be an experiment, and surely if there be any...

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JUDGES, WITNESSES, AND PRISONERS. T HE statement made by Mr. Baron

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Huddleston at Bury St. Edmund's last week, as to the effect of the Assize system on poor witnesses, was startling. -" Last year," he said, "when I was on the Oxford Circuit, we...

THE NEW LONDON UNIVERSITY SCHEME. B EFORE making a few further

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criticisms on the scheme of the Committee of Convocation for recasting the Uni- versity of London, we must correct the error by which we spoke of it last week as the scheme of...

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A SCOTCH PORSON.

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B UT little notice has been taken, even north of the Tweed, of the death, which took place a few days ago in Edinburgh, of the most painstaking of Scotch, perhaps indeed the...

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THE FASCINATION OF TERROR.

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I N an interesting letter addressed to last week's number of the Lancet by Mr. William Curran, there are various illus- trations given of the effects of terror on the...

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GYMNASTICS BY THE BLIND.

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O N Saturday last there was to be seen at the Crystal Palace a spectacle which we are hardly using too strong a term in calling a marvellous one. We allude to the gymnastic...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE NURSING IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL. rro THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR...1 SIR, — Many of the Fellows and friends of University College, London, must regret to find...

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MR. AYRTON AND EPPING FOREST.

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To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." I Sta,—My attention having been called to a statement at page 950 of your issue of the 18th inst., "that only fourteen years ago a Bill was...

FREE EDUCATION.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] should like to call a little more attention to the cry of Free Education. It is one that I have always dreaded, not only from its social, but...

LOCAL AND IMPERIAL TAXATION.

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LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'l SIR,—As the reply of "A Scottish Landowner," in your issue of the 11th inst., appears to have escaped the attention of "C. A.," will you...

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VINCENT BOURNE AND COWPER.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPF,CTETOR."] fillte••COWper—" I love the memory of Vinny Bonnie "—would, perhaps, have been little pleased by praise of his," Jackdaw,"— " A...

BOOKS.

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M. TAINE ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CON VENTION.* THE submission of France to the Convention, the subject of this long and, it must be confessed, somewhat tediously padded- out...

VILLAGE INDUSTRIES.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 am favoured by a number of communications from your readers respecting village industries. On the specific points on which they ask advice I...

SONNET.—A JERSEY SUMMER DAY.

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A SUNNY land, soft air, and drearaful ease, I lie, and watch a distant sail glide by, And wonder at the azure of the sky,— Not here the thunder of the tumbling seas :...

POETRY.

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LL A.NMAD 0 C. • THIS is the key of England, cried the Dane On high Llanmadoc's rampart; either shore Is mine, Severn and Loughor : holm and tor, Cavern and crag, my warriors...

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THE ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND.* Tins work contains a

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collection of the myths, legends, and folk- lore of the Algonquin Indians. The collector, Mr. Leland, well- known to literature in connection with the name of "Hans Breitmann,"...

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ST. CHARLES BORROMEO..

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THE subject of the biography before us is probably but little known to the majority of English readers. We have probably heard the name of St. Charles Borromeo, we may have seen...

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ENTANGLED.*

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A WIFE'S discovery of a crime committed by her husband prior to her acquaintance with him, with the tremendous revolution effected in her life by the revelation, is a subject...

WORDSWORTH IN EDUCATION.*

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MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD, in one of his recent critical papers, has spoken of Wordsworth as fortunate in that all who have written about him have written well ; and Mr. Hudson's...

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STEPPING-STONES TO ST. STEPHEN'S.* THE approach of a General Election

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renders everything bearing on election matters particularly interesting, and Mr. Parker's work will be found well worth study by intending candidates, and those who occupy...

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THE POETRY OF THE ROSE.* THERE is only one complaint

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to be made concerning the getting- up of this beautiful little volume,—that, being clearly intended to be read and not merely to be looked at, its external delicacy and...

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MARK RUTHERFORD'S DELIVERANCE.* Mark Rutherford's Deliverance is a sequel to

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the Autobiography of Mark Rutherford, which came out four years ago. The reality of its pictures makes what would otherwise be nn.- pleasing too interesting to be laid aside....

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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Chronicles of No - Man's - Land. By Frederick Boyle. (Ghetto and Windus.)—Mr. Boyle's sketches of travel and of the very varied forms of life with which a large experience has...

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I Regular Pickle. By H. W. Nesfield. (G. Redway.)—The career

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of a ne'er-do-weel who mixes himself up with a number of objection- able people, and does a number of objectionable things, is not a pleasing subject to most readers, though...

Lord Tennyson : a Biographical Sketch. By Henry Jennings. (Ghetto

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and Windus.)—Mr. Jennings begins by quoting the poet's fine lines written "After reading the Life and Letters of a Deceased Poet." And he observes in his book the limitations...

to be false and contemptible is a subject which, though

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scarcely agreeable, has a certain fascination about it. Novelists are certainly fond of it, and readers, it may be presumed, find an interest in it. 3Iiss Pirkis treats it, in...

We have received the first volume (containing the issue for

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the half-year ending May) of Book-Lore : a Magazine devoted to Old- Time Literature. (Elliot Stock.)—" It is," to quote from the preface, " a large and increasing class that...

Studies in Low-German and High-German Literature. By M. W. MacCallum.

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(Began Paul, Trench, and Co.)—German literature, and especially that known as Low German, is so closely akin to English literature that anything relating thereto can hardly...

Not Drowned. By Antony Bathe. (Chapman and Hall.)—Two of the

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personages of this story go through an experience which may be described in the words "not drowned." Margaret Kirkward, being left in poverty, determines to go to the Cape. She...

Two Englishmen. By an American. (Griffith, Ferran, and Co.)— On

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a very slight thread of narrative is strung a considerable quantity of talk about the United States. Frank Rossmore goes out to the States to seek his fortune,—which he does...

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Through Troubled Waters. By Hannah Lynch. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—Though

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this cannot be called a pleasant tale, it is not without considerable merit. Miss Lynch is Irish and she is patriotic, but her patriotism is not unreasonable or partial. Indeed,...

The Dark House. By George Manville Fenn. (Ward and Downey.)

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—Mr. Fenn, like the wise man and versatile novelist that he is, swims with the stream. Seeing that the sort of fiction most in demand jest now is of the cheap and sensational...

Celestial Motions: a Handy Book of Astronomy. By William Thynne

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Lynn, B.A., F.R.A.S., formerly of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Third edition. (Edward Stanford.)—The purpose of this little book is to give "a concise digest of the most...

Li/ Lorimer. By Theo Gift. (Ward and Downey.)—A novel above

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the average. The scene of the story is laid for the most part in Buenos Ayres, and the descriptions of life in that part of South America are both instructive and entertaining....