26 FEBRUARY 1870

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On Thursday, however, only two days after, M. 011ivier had

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an experience as to the value of a nominee majority. On Wednesday, M. Picard and others asked if the Government abandoned the practice of official candidatures, to which the...

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

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case.

Town his been interested and disgusted all the week with

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the great " Warwickshire Scandal," the Mordaunt Divorce case. Lady Mordaunt, wife of Sir Charles Mordaunt, daughter of Sir T. Moncreiffe, and connected with endless aristocratic...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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M JULES FAVRE introduced his threatened interpellation into the Corps Legislatif on Monday. His argument was two- fold. In the first place, the Ministry had not yet assured the...

The Prince of Wales is, we are happy to say,

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well out of this mud. He gave his evidence ou Wednesday very posi- tively, and in a style which impressed all who were in Court most favourably ; nor was his evidence on oath...

The reports of this case have roused once more the

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old question as to the propriety of hearing them in private. Great objections are made to such reports as corrupting, but they seem, in this case at least, to indicate a good...

A considerable opposition is rising against Mr. Forster's Education Bill,

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founded,—(1), on the provisions enabling School Boards to permit the teaching of particular religious views in the schools under their control,—an objection we have discussed...

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It is said in quarters likely to reflect the views

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of the Papal party that the question of infallibility is to be brought formally before the Council next week, and a decision in all probability obtained upon it immediately...

The Roman Catholics are dissatisfied with the Education Bill,— which

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is a great bit of good fortune for the Government. The Bill, their leaders say,—after two days' careful consideration, with Lord Howard of Glossop at their head,—will, " if it...

A very unusual case was heard on Thursday before the

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Ex- chequer Court. Dr. Williams, the well-known chest doctor, attended the Earl of St. Maur in September last for a tumour in the throat, which stopped his breathing. It was...

How high feeling is rising in Rome between the Galilean

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party of Monseigneur Dupanloup and the Roman party of Monseig- neur Manning, may best be judged by the language used by " the venerable and saintly Bishop of Laval," as our...

Lord Derby, as we have explained in another column, has

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de- clined the leadership of the Tory party in the House of Lords, and it has since been pressed upon Lord Salisbury, whose difficulty in acting with Mr. Disraeli will be no...

The report which we cut from the Globe last week

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as to Mr. Bruce's reply about the corporal punishment inflicted on O'Dono- van Roma was, as we suspected, the exact contrary of the truth. Mr. Bruce did not say that no corporal...

The Maidstone election was a very close and equal contest

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in the early part of the day. It ended, as we feel no doubt from the 3 o'clock poll, in the return of Sir John Lubbock. The Maidstone Liberals could not have selected a better...

Mr. Goachen on Friday se'nnight moved for a Select Committee

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to inquire into the incidence of rating in a speech full of facts and ideas, but, of course, wanting in the " broad policy " for which some members wished, and which must...

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The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol has written quite a

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pathetic letter to his dean about the Bishop of Exeter's speech in the Upper House of Convocation,—the more pathetic because Dr. Ellicott speaks so gently and candidly of Dr....

It is asserted that the death-rate is higher by 4

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per thousand (-4 per cent.) in districts where the water is " soft," than it is in districts where it is hard (i.e., usually water impregnated with lime). Glasgow and Manchester...

Messrs. Coleman,—regarding, we suppose, the question of the quality of

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Australian meat as one of public interest,—have sent us some of the Australian cooked mutton, off which the present writer has made a most satisfactory lunch. It is certainly...

Mr. Bernal Osborne has been elected for Waterford, after a

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-contest excessively savage, not to say brutal, on both sides. There will be some fun in the House of Commons now.

Nottingham has returned the Hon. Auberon Herbert, Radical, by 4,971

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votes to 4,675 given to Mr. Digby Seymour, " Liberal" with Tory proclivities. This balances the loss at South- wark, Mr. Wright, the retiring member, having been a Tory. Mr....

The atmosphere of America reduces all the most romantic things

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to matter of fact. We have long known that ghosts get them- aelves photographed (gratis, by the way), and take great delight in flinging about furniture and committing practical...

The Land Bill has, on the whole, been well received

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in Ireland. 'The Nationalist newspapers call it illusory, but all the moderate Liberal papers praise it highly. Lord Granard, the leader of the -extreme Catholics, says that the...

The new number of Macmillan contains an article of con-

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siderable political importance. It is a paper read at Sion College by the Solicitor-General (Sir J. D. Coleridge) on the free- dom of opinion necessary for an Established Church...

Consols were on Friday evening 92i to 921.

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Another mitre is at Mr. Gladstone's disposal, in consequence of

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the death of the old Bishop of Chichester, who has long been unequal to the full discharge of his episcopal duties. As no one has yet been appointed to St. Aaaph, and it seems...

The North Germans seem to think that with a Constitutional

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' , Government in France there is nothing more to fear, and are eager to go on eating the artichoke. On the 24th inst. a resolution was introduced into the Reichstag inviting...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE 'RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY' IN THE EDUCATION BILL. W E publish elsewhere a letter on Mr. Forster's Education Bill, which no doubt touches the one point on which it will usually...

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LORD DERBY'S RENUNCIATION.

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L ORD DERBY has had the firmness,—a firmness which has already elicited many sarcastic comments,—to insist on being himself, in preference to "Heading his party with a sense 0'...

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THE OBJECTIONS TO THE LAND BILL.

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B. GLADSTONE'S Land Bill has, on the whole, beam. 131 well received in Ireland. The Irish Members intend to support it, the Irish landlords see clearly that it will increase•...

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MR. LOWE'S LAST GREAT IDEA.

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B OLD as Mr. Lowe is in suggestion, he sometimes fails to see the enormous advantage which a new idea gains from its own audacity, from striking the imagination as well as the...

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THE FRENCH MINISTRY.

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T HE French Ministry are playing a very dangerous, though for the moment a very successful game. They are try- ing to work a strictly Parliamentary government without call- ing...

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THE ABOLITION OF FEUDALISM IN SCOTLAND.

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N OT the least important of the Government measures of the year, we venture to think, is the Land Rights' Amendment Bill, introduced in the Commons on Thursday night last by the...

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THE COST OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.

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S OME ONE who signs himself " Percy Le Clerc " sends us this week a little red pamphlet entitled " Our Royal Family." It is not a very interesting production, being neither...

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HANS BREITMANN AND HOSEA. BILLOW.

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T HE new poems of Hans Breitmann,* which in humour are quite up to the standard of those which we have from time to time reviewed, naturally suggest a comparison with those of...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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BAITING A HERETIC IN 1870. 170 TIIE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Some weeks ago you published a communication on certain "New Phases of Scotch Religious Thought ; " will...

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THE " RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY" IN THE EDUCATION BILL.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE .` SPECTATOR."] Sir,—You think Mr. Forster has solved the religious difficulty ; that he has shirked it. You are so generally right in your opinions, that...

THE CABINET CRISIS IN VIENNA.

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[TO THE EorrOa OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—This is the last letter with which I will trouble you, as it would be waste of time on my part to continue a controversy with an...

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" OUR COINS."

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—An article with this title in the Spectator of the 12th inst. advocates several changes in our system of tokens, and especially the...

BOOKS.

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THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.* MR. FREEMAN has now reached the central point in his history, the actual Conquest of England. The means by which William settled himself firmly...

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AN OPTIMISTIC REALIST.* Ir is now some years since, in

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criticizing a book of Mr. Gilbert's, we used as the aptest epithet to signalize certain salient charac- teristics of his work the term Defoe-like. This assuredly expressed...

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BARN UM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.*

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THE successful showman who has made his name typical of his profession, and who has so often boasted of being a humbug that what would otherwise be an insult is accepted as a...

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TIVE HISTORIES OF INDIA.*

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thing, but in all Barnum had an eye to business. The effect on LITTLE more than a year has elapsed since we had the first volume of Sir Henry Elliot's _Vallee Histories of India...

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THE HOME LIFE OF SIR DAVID BREWSTER.*

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WE plead guilty to the weakness of having enjoyed this book ; that it is weakness, we may confess ; critical eyes should be occupied with detecting motes and leave the enjoyment...

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THE " OPUSCULES " OF M. VAN DE WEYER.* Tuts

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book will be a good deal read in Belgium, and but little read in England. That is, perhaps, a strong reason for noticing it here; since it is surely one of the privileges of a...

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COUNTRY COURTSHIPS.* Miss BEALE makes the mistake of sacrificing her

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plot to her moral. A mistake we think it, because novel-writers must, after all, aim at pleasing rather than teaching, cannot indeed hope to teach at all, not having the...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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Transatlantic Sketches. By Greville John Chester, B.A. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)—Mr. Chester travelled through most of the West India Islands and through a considerable part of...

A Tale of Eternity, and other Poems. By Gerald Massey.

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(Strahen.) —Mr. Massey founds his principal poem on a belief which, whatever one may think of it, is one of the oldest beliefs in the world, the notion of the revenant, the...

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Elementary Lessons in Astronomy, by J. Norman Lockyer (Mac- millan),

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is an admirable manual of its subject, which has somehow missed the notice which it ought to have received from us some months ago. Interesting it could hardly fail to be on...

Clementis Alerandrini Opera. Ex reconsione Gal. Dindorfii. 4 vols. (Clarendon

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Press.)—It is very satisfactory to observe that the Uni- versity of Oxford, while it is doing so much by the action of its press to help education, is not neglecting learning....

Misunderstood. By Florence Montgomery. (Bentley.)—Misunder- stood would be a charming

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book, which we could recommend without hesitation, if it were diminished by the last hundred pages or so, which are very sad. It is not meant for children, we are told, but for...

China and the Chinese. By the Rev. J. L. Nevius.

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(Sampson Low and Co.)—Mr. Nevius was for many years an American missionary in China, and his book has a distinct value as a record of his experiences. That he is quite free from...

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SERMONS. — The Peace of God. By William Basil Jones, M.A., Arch-

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deacon of York (Strahan).—Archdeacon Jones's discourses are evidently the work of a well-instructed theologian, acquainted in a manner far less common now than it has been in...