the new Imperial Secretary of the Interior, laid stress on the influence exerted by international factors in determining the prica of corn. Although the increased prosperity of...

gives a deplorable account of the present state of the racial feud in Macedonia. In the Kaza of Florina, the principal theatre of the Greco-Bulgarian conflict, one hundred and...

Wednesday summarises the conclusions of M. Charles Chaumet, the Reporter of the Naval Estimates for 1908. The Report is indeed gloomy reading. The French Navy, which formerly...

I N the Prussian Diet, which was opened on Tuesday, Prince Billow introduced his measure for the expropriation of Polish landholders. This, as the Berlin correspondent of the...

was raised in the Reichstag on Monday by Herr Scheidemann, a Socialist Deputy. He asserted that the average increase in the cost of living during the last ten years was...

case.

present condition of the Unionist Party. The writer points out that Lord Cromer cannot be fairly blamed for identifying Tariff Reform with Protection in view of the resolutions...

timely speech on education and employment. As regards employment, the chief difficulty was that England had a larger number of casual workers than there were in either Germany...

man of Mr. Birrell's intellectual calibre rebuking Irish Nationalists for being clear-sighted enough not to take the imitation when what they want, rightly or wrongly, is the...

of Ireland was reported in the Irish daily papers as having occurred on October 16th. Mr. Frederick Pierce, the caretaker of an evicted farm near Crusheen, was shot at about six...

been making in Ireland during the past ten days. In one of them, addressed to a great meeting in the Palace Theatre in Belfast on Friday, November 22nd, he essayed to answer...

large- type communication over the signature of "Compatriot," a signature which is understood to be that of a very welbknown Tariff Reformer. There is, " Compatriot" declares, a...

Liberal banquet on Saturday last, Mr. Birrell declared that "had his proposals been accepted—they were not meant to be Home-rule .proposals, they had nothing whatever to do with...

Elementary Schools has been published by the Board of Education. It lays down principles for the work which will begin with the New Year under the Education Act of 1907. The Act...

with Mr. Deakin in which he said that the recent Australian tariff had "reopened the door" which had been " banged, barred, and bolted " by the British Government on, the...

published iu Glasgow, a letter from Lord Balfour of Burleigh replying to an " Open Letter" addressed to him shortly before. The discussion is conducted with much courtesy on...

willing to express their views plainly and boldly in caucus meetings or at banquets, those views tend to dwindle almost to nothing when they get face to face with the electors....

to entrusting the work to the medical officers indicated, but we have no doubt whatever as to the desirability of introducing medical inspection in some form. England has...

its mind as to the value to us of the new Australian tariff, which, as Punch, excellently showed, raises the wall against us six feet and provides a stool six inches high to...

of the coming Licensing Bill. The Free Church Council deputation asked for a very drastic measure, and Mr. Asquith sympathetically replied that in urging their remedies on him...

Nov. 7th. Console (21) were on Friday 821—on Friday week 82.

THE WORSHIP OF TAXATION. p ERHAPS the strangest thing about the very strange condition of British politics at the present moment is the devotion to taxation in the abstract...

I T looks as though the French might be unwillingly drawn into the serious entanglement in Morocco which, by their policy of restraint and patience, they have conspicuously been...

T HE straightforward and statesmanlike protest made by Lord Cromer against State-provided, non-con- tributory old-age pensions has not been without effect. Already there are...

I T is greatly to be regretted that the speech of Lord George Hamilton on Thursday week at the Unionist Free-Trade Club banquet was so inadequately reported. Even the Times...

T HE appointment of a Royal Commission acts almost inevitably as a check upon immediate improvements in the area to which it relates. When the administration of a great public...

" H ERE was perfect purity, perfect intrepidity, perfect abnegation; yet there was also narrowness, isolation, an absence of perspective, let it be boldly admitted, an absence...

T HE voice of the claimant is heard in the land. One hare starts others; and, in a different sense from that which Johnson intended in his " Vanity of Human Wishes," " claim...

G AMEKEEPERS are more often than not sons of game- keepers, and the traditions of their fathers remain with them. He is a very enlightened man to whom a kestrel is anything...

MR. BIRRELL AND THE STATE OF IRELAND. [To mos EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR."_1 Sin,—The Chief Secretary for Ireland, judging by several sentences in his Belfast speech on the 22nd...

[To THE EDITOR O P THE "SPECTATOR] SIR, —With reference to Lord Monkswell's severe strictures on your article of November 16th, and his equally indignant condemnation of the...

SIR, - - Poor Mr. Birrell ! Failed again ! The business of a Government is to govern. If it fails to do so it is a sham Government, like a battleship made of cardboard and...

are rapidly reverting to their familiar chaos. The extremists on both sides are having it all their own way, and we hear no more of the policy of peace, conciliation, and...

LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 Sra,—Mr. Balfour has given his party a riddle which will puzzle the most ingenious brains to solve, — i.e.," How to be and not to be at the...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTLTOR."1 Sla,—The Conservative Party is now saddled with Protection, just as the Liberal Party is saddled with Home-rule. Both measures are of...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,-A great deal of the criticism that has been applied to the reduction of the grant to Victoria University seems based on the assumption...

Pro THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sia,—In your issue of the 16th inst. a correspondent raises the question, Why do Socialists favour municipal trading ? He points out, truly...

[To vas EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, —Sir Frederick Milner, writing to the Times in 1903, set this matter at rest by proving that Mr. Gladstone went to the Criterion Theatre...

SIR,—Professor Jones, of Liverpool, in last week's issue corrects the reviewer of a book in your paper for repeating a very old statement " that Mr. Gladstone went to the...

have never been able to comprehend Mr. Morley's statement (see Spectator, November 23rd). That Mr. Gladstone was at the theatre that night I fancy there can be no doubt. Whether...

[To THE Eorroa Or TEE "SPECTATOR."] Sru,—In your editorial article headed "The Prime Minister and Political Unrealities " in your issue of the 16th inst. you state you would...

[To TRY EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR, — As chairman of the National Association for 'Employ- ment of Reserve and Discharged. Soldiers, I beg you to allow me to make a very...

[To TEE EDITOR or THE •`SPAorAvroa."_, SIR,—At the recent General. Convention of the American Episcopal Church held in Richmond, Virginia, at which' the Bishop of London was...

[TO TIM EDITOR Or TIM EFRCTATOR."] your issue of the 23rd inst. I read with much interest the letter over the signature of your correspondent "A Bad Economist." I do not see...

[To TUB EDITOR or Tue .. spacrAroa."3 Stu, — Will yon allow a Wesleyan minister to correct a " Wesleyan Layman" (Spectator, November 23rd) ? The excellent newspaper which he...

[To TIM EOrTOR. Or TIM - Sr tcorkTon."] SIR,—With a local patriotism that always finds favour in the eyes of the Spectator, Mr. J. Lindsay Hilson, of Kelso, endeavoured in your...

[To MB EDITOR or TIM " SPECTATOR:] SIR, —By transferring the story of the Earl of Kildare and the Cathedral of Cashel (see Spectator, November 23rd, p. 805) from the reign of...

tvo TIM EDITOR Or TUX 'EPROTATOR:1 SIR, —The last line of Mr. Munby's poem in your issue of November 23rd runs thus :— " There is our haven of rest, there is the home of the...

[To MR EDITOR OF TIM " &ROTATOR:1 SIR, —Knowing your zeal for the preservation of English undefiled, I venture to ask you to lend your influence in suppressing the word "...

STATES. ITO TIE EDITOR OF TINS "SPDEITATOR:a Sin, — Considerable comment is being made in the Canadian papers over an address recently delivered before the Canadian. Club of...

TO THE DEVON MEN IN TOWN. (The Twentieth Annual Dinner of Devonians in London, November 29th, 1907.) MEN of the West, whose hearts still hold Love for your winding denes and...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPROTATOR."{ Sts,—In a review of "The Court of Philip IV." in the Spectator of November 16th, inspired by the writer's usual unfriendly feeling towards...

ITO THU EDITOR Or TRH SPROTATOR:1 writers who take their work seriously suffer, I suppose, from the irresponsible comments of light-hearted reviewers, and, if they are wise,...

THE MOLLUSC. " C'EsT nne etrange entreprise," says Moliere, " quo cello de faire rire les honnetes gens " ; and there could hardly be a better definition of the business of...

THE GOLDEN AGE OF VENICE.• THE second part of Molmenti's great book on Venice deals with the Republic in the heyday of her strength. The days of struggle and creation were...

THOSE who "walk the studious cloister" should, if Milton is an authority, also love " a dim religious light" more than other • Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, By J. B. Mayor, W....

THE contemporaries of Coke of Norfolk would hardly have believed that he would have to wait so long for a serious biography. Harriet Martineau used to say that she had grown up...

READERS of that thrilling book, The Flight of Marie Antoinette, will be attracted by the names of the same author and translator on the title-page of this new volume. M. Lenotre...

LADY DE LA WARR has written a pleasant and careful monograph, admirably illustrated by contemporary portraits, and vividly reproducing contemporary life, on one of the most...

was elected a Fellow of Peterhouse at eighteen (by Royal mandate, he tells us). In 1591, having obtained license of non-residence, he set out on a series of wanderings which...

THE FURNACE.* TEE excellent promise 'shown by Miss Macaulay in her first novel is fully redeemed in her new venture. In more senses than one, The Furnace is an exceptional...

and Brothers. 6s.)—This book contains a collection of short studies of girls all living some hundred years or so ago. The analysis of New England life is given with all the...

6s.)—In The House of Lynch Mr. Merrick tells how the daughter of an American millionaire marries a man whose distaste of the manner in which his father-in-law's fortune was...

(W. Heinemann. 5s.)—There is no need to introduce the author of "Godfrey Marten" and "Maitland Major and Minor " to the readers of the Spectator. His new book, though it carries...

Introduction by Frederic Harrison. (Chapman and Hall. 12s. 61 net.)—Part I. of this volume contains five addresses given by Dr. Bridges on various occasions and to various...

[Under this heading as Isaias such hooks of the week as haw rat been reserved for revisal is other forms.] In Our Tongues. By Robert H. Kennett. (E. Arnold. 35. 6d.) —In these...

by Marmaduke Pickthall. (Duckworth and Co. 8s. not.)—This collection begins with a cosmogony as conceived by a " learned Moslem," which may be profitably compared with Genesis...

Bristol. Gs.)—A story of the machinations of a celebrated highwayman, in which for once the xeader's sympathies are engaged on the side of virtue.—My Merry Rockhursf. By Agnes...

which- came out year by year with his name—sometimes three, or even four, in a single season—together with the other literary work which he was known to do, seemed to indicate a...

—The chief employment of Mr. Van Dyke'a "days off" seems to be fishing. This sport he describes with not a little gusto. Hells, even inclined to sympathise with the resolute...

(Longmans and Co. 4e. 6d.)—This is a complete manual of the subject, the work of one who knows it from beginning to end, and has the power, which this knowledge does not always...

Frowde. 3s. 6d. net.)—This is a carious bypath of history. No one would imagine how large the subject is. It was Augustus's boast that he found a Rome of brick and left a Rome...

Mr. Shorter says in his " Prefatory " notice, " is not for my brother-journalists to read." As, however, it has been sent to this journal, we have ventured to disregard his...

By H. S. Perris,. M.A. (T. Seeley Clark and Co. ls. net.)—Mr. Perris does not promote the cause which he has at heart by this kind of talk. It would be as unreasonable for us to...

Co. 5s.)—Every one would not guess that the "art" is that or writing letters,—that is, good letters, letters which are delightful- to read at once and remain a possession for...