3 FEBRUARY 1900

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Parliament met on Tnesday,—though, unhappily, to die- tract, and not

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to sustain, the public mind. The Queen's Speech, however, though somewhat long and rambling, shows the right spirit when it exhorts all subjects of the Queen throughout the...

Lord Kimberley in his speech in the Lords on Tuesday

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showed good sense and patriotism. If he could not entirely resist the temptation to revert to the past, he laid far more stress on what the Government ought to do for the future...

Lord Rosebery'e speech was as sound as Lord Salisbury's was

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unsound. He rightly refused to deal for the present with the past conduct of the war, but he expressed himself as "appalled "—as well he might be—at the tone and temper of the...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE military situation will probably be greatly modified before these pages are in our readers' hands, for it was known on Friday in London that General Buller had been making...

From the other parts of the theatre of war there

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is silence, except that we now know General Kelly-Kenny and his division are at Thebus, midway between Generals French and Gatacre,—a disposition which shows that Lord Roberts...

V The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in any

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ease.

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Rumours have been circulated during the week that if the

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Government were to be defeated they would not resign but instantly dissolve. That is, of course, absurd. It involves, to begin with, a charge of want of patriotism against the...

In the House of Commons Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman opened the

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debate on the Address. It would not be fair to condemn his speech as unpatriotic, for it did not pass the bounds of party criticism, but it contributed absolutely nothing to the...

The debate on Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's amendment regretting the want

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of knowledge, foresight, and judgment in regard to the war was continued on Thursday. The most important speech was that of Mr. George Wyndham, who was the first Minister to...

Count Ballestrem, President of the German Reichstag, delivered a remarkable

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eulogy of the Emperor at a dinner held last Saturday to celebrate the Emperor's forty-first birthday. He specially praised the Emperor's habit of in- variably adopting a...

Soon after the resumption of the debate on Wednesday Sir

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Robert Reid, in a long indictment of the negotiations, alluded to the newspaper Press which supported the war as " very likely to be corrupt " in part, denied the existence of...

We cannot leave Tuesday's debate without a word as to

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Mr. Robson's excellent speech. Mr. Robson has really taken the trouble to study the facts of the Transvaal luestion, and hence he is not taken in by the false analogies tbont...

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A vast scheme of Naval and Colonial defence has been

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laid before the French Cabinet. The sum asked for is a milliard of francs (010,000,000), which the Minister of Finance, M. Caillaux, proposes to raise out of ordinary resources...

Details as to the operations which culminated in the night

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attack on Spion Kop show that after five days' fighting the principal points of the ridge known as Mount Taba Myama were occupied on the night of Tuesday, January 23rd, the...

The recent South African Blue-book contains a statement as to

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the Molten interview which we trust will put an end for ever to that controversy. As, however, we have dealt strongly with the matter, we will give, not our own verdict in the...

The Hon. Charles Parsons read a most interesting paper before

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the Royal Institution on Friday week on steam turbines. which, as adapted by him for marine propulsion, seem destined to revolutionise naval construction and sea- borne traffic....

M. de Blowitz gives in Monday's Times a long account

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of a conversation with an open-minded Frenchman who divides his time between Paris and London, and who, as the result of an exhaustive peregrination through all quarters of...

According to the official return published last week, no fewer

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than three and a half million natives are already employed on Government famine relief works in India. The magnitude of the calamity by which India is threatened, and its...

In the Standard of Tuesday, January 30th, appears the following

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:— " atcLICIILA.N.—On Christmas Day, shot, in the Market Square, Harrismith, Orange Free State, South Africa, for refining to light against his own countrymen, John McLachlan,...

Bank Rate, 4 per cent.

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New Consols (21) were on Friday 1001.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE GOVERNMENT AND THE WAR. W HEN Lord Rosebery declared that he was "appalled" by the speech of the Prime Minister he represented the feeling of the nation as a whole. Let...

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WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO.

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W E have dealt elsewhere with the extraordinary attitude adopted by the Government in regard to the present situation, and with their failure to state what they are doing or...

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THE FRENCH SENATORIAL ELECTIONS. T HE French Senatorial elections, taken as

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a whole, can scarcely fail to please and satisfy those who, as we do, wish well to France and the Republic. There are, it is true, incidents which one would rather not have...

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IRELAND'S OPPORTUNITY.

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I T was only to be expected that on the eve of a war Session the Irish party should recognise the import- ance of healing its divisions. We cannot indeed say, with Mr. Redmond,...

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COMPULSORY PHYSICAL TRAINING v. CON- SCRIPTION.

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I T is by no means only "to the military administra- tions of the country "—in the curious dialect of English " speech," so often foisted upon her Majesty and her subjects as "...

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THE NATIONAL "MALAISE."

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I N our modern world of telegrams and special editions, when the public nerves are kept in a perpetual tension, and the bird of ill-omen in the shape of the small newsboy hovers...

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OCEAN CURRENTS.

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S O mysterious are all the physical phenomena of the sea that it is, perhaps, hardly possible to say of any particular one that it is more wonderful than the rest. And yet one...

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A FEBRUARY FOX HUNT

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N OW that the Yeomanry are leaving the hunting field for South Africa, and "registered' horses are commandeered by Government, fox bunting in counties where it isnot the main...

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CORRESPONDENCE.

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CARDINAL VAUGHAN AND MR. MIVART. [To Tax EDITOR OP TRE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The controversy between Cardinal Vaughan and Mr' St. George Mivart is, as Carlyle would have said,...

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HOW TO AVOID CONSCRIPTION.

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[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTA.TOR.1 beg respectfully to submit the enclosed suggestions for your consideration :- (1) To obtain county registers of men willing to learn the use...

LETTERS TO T FIE EDITOR.

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THE CAPE COLONY LOYALISTS. [TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.1 Sin,—The condition of the British population of the Cape Colony at the present time is not an enviable one. By a...

THE NEED OF CONSCRIPTION.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIE,—Since your courteous insertion, in your issue of the 6th ult., of my letter on the above subject, I have read that appearing in your...

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VOLUNTEER DRILL AND TACTICS.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR.1 Sri,—Yes, you are quite right in what you say regarding the future of Volunteer drill and tactics. You might have gone a little further, and...

OUR NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIIC,—The

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following extract from the late Mr. Charles H. Pearson's writings may interest your readers at the present time:— " The instinctive feeling in England is that if an invention is...

COMPULSORY SERVICE.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:'] Six,—The following extract from "The Life of Archbishop Benson" may interest you. It is part of a letter from Dr. Benson to Professor...

A VOLUNTEER'S GRIEVANCE.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR.1 SIR,—There t: re many men in the country willing to serve at the front. Some, perhaps, have got to an age when the effort to serve in the...

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BOOKS.

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THE UNITED KINGDOM.* THERE are many methods of writing history, and the only true way will (we hope) never be discovered. Since Lucian wrote his famous satire, wits and...

OUR FUTURE ARMY.

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[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Considering the number of boys who, after leaving school, loaf idly about the country; considering that they cannot enter the Army until...

POETRY.

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IN MEMORIAM. "H. P. P."—" F. M."—"J. W. A. C." (Killed in Africa). WHEN I lie dying in my bed, A grief to wife, and child, and friend,— How I shall grudge you gallant dead...

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TWO POETS.*

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WE cannot admire Mr. Swinburne's choice of a subject; nor can we allow that he has improved the story by the refine- ments which he has introduced into it. The tale of Rosa-...

FASTI ETONENSES.*

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MR. BENSON must be a man of energy, since he has com- posed this book at the same time that he was writing the Life of his father, the late Archbishop, and carrying on the...

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A HISTORY OF BALLIOL.*

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IT must come as something of a shock to the typical Balliol man of to-day, if he is at all like the popular representations of him (and Mr. Kipling is careful to tell us that...

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NOVELS OF THE WEEK.*

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THE hero of A Fantasy in Fustian, as in Mrs. Blundell's novel noticed last week, is a yeoman farmer. Luke Gaskard, however, though a fine figure of a man and an excellent agri-...

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THE MAGAZINES.

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KNOWLES does good service by reprinting in the Nineteenth Century the article, "The `Confusion Worse Confounded' at the War Office," originally contributed by the late General...

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The American in Holland. By William Elliot Griffin. (Gay and

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Bird. 6s. net.)—Dr. Griffin saw Holland for the first time in 1869, and, after sundry intermediate visits, he was there at the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina. Coronation,...

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

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[Under this heading ice notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] Under Three Flags in Cuba. By George Clarke Musgrave. (Gay and Bird....

Francis Lieber: his Life and Political Philosophy. By Lewis R.

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Harley, Ph.D. (Macmillan and Co. 7s. 6d.)—Lieber was born in Berlin in 1800. The German scribes who are so kind as to lecture and advise us would do well to study that period of...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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THE DUTCH AND QUAKER COLONIES IN AMERICA. The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. By John Fiske. 2 vols. (Macmillan and Co. 16s.) —Mr, Fiske's works on American history are...

Ad Item : Thoughts for Critical Times in the Church.

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By H. Hensley Henson, B.D. (Wells Gardner, Dalton, and Co.)— We have not always found ourselves in agreement with Mr. Henson, nor, indeed, can we assent to all that he says in...

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MISCELLANE01:18.—Some excellent advice, put in plain language that always keeps

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within the limits of good taste, is to be found in An Old Layman's Letter to a I oung Clergyman (Parker and Co., Gd) We cannot wish anything better in its way than for a young...

We have received the twelfth volume of the " New

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Variorum Edition of Shakespeare," edited by Horace Howard Furness (J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 18s.) The volume contains Much Ado About Nothing. Mr. Furness is...

Alfred in the Chroniclers. By Edward Conybeare. (Elliot Stock. 7s.

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6d.)—Mr. Conybeare wishes to give English read. s a picture of the great King as he is described by Assets his con- temporary, and by the chroniclers who probably had access to...

The Latin Hymns in the Wesleyan Hymnbook. By Frederic W.

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Macdonald. (Charles H. Kelly. 2s. 6d.)—The original Wesleyan hymn-book contained no hymns from the Latin, though Charles Wesley had paraphrased the Te Deum. The Supplement of...