3 MARCH 1894

Page 1

The British have sustained a disagreeable reverse on the 'Gambia.

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A slave-raiding chief named Fodi Silah, said to !be a Mandingo by birth, has been giving great trouble both to the English and French, on a strip of land between their...

The German Reichstag will probably accept the Com- mercial Treaty

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with Russia after another determined. speech from Count Caprivi, delivered on Tuesday, in which he reaffirmed that the treaty, of which the Emperor was the architect," was...

Signor Crispi on Wednesday made a startling speech on the

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condition of Southern Italy. He declared that the Govern- ment were ready to do anything to redress the wrongs of the people of Sicily, to readjust all local taxation, and even...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T ILL yesterday the week was full of speculations as to the date of Mr. Gladstone's resignation, which no one ventured to put later than the return of the Queen from Italy;...

On Friday, it came out definitely that Mr. Gladstone will

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give in his resignation to-day, and that its acceptance by the Queen will be intimated on Monday, and that the 'Queen will send for Lord Rosebery; but whether Lord Rose- bery...

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

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case.

Page 2

French diplomatic circles are greatly agitated by the peremptory dismissal

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of Count d'Aulnay, Minister at Copen- hagen. It appears that the French military attaché at that Court fancied that the Princess Waldemar, who springs from the House of Orleans,...

In the House of Lords on Friday week, during the

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debate on the Commons' amendments to the Lords' amendments to the Parish Councils Bill, the Duke of Devonshire raised the very interesting and momentous question of the limits...

A very important letter, signed by politicians so widely separated

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in point of politics as Sir Charles Dilke, Sir - George Chesney, Mr. H. 0. Arnold-Foster, and Mr. Spenser Wilkinson, has been addressed to Mr. Balfour, Mr. Cham- berlain, and...

In the Commons on Thursday, Mr. Gladstone accepted the Lords'

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last amendments to the Local Government Bill under protest, and with the declaration that he hoped an Amending Bill would soon be prepared for restoring the clauses amended to...

On Wednesday, the House of Lords considered the amend- ments

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made by the Commons to the last amendments made by the Lords to the Parish Councils Bill. Lord Salisbury insisted on the population limit for compulsory Councils being three...

On Tuesday were published the proposals for the amalga- mation

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of the City and the County of London, prepared by the London County Council. These proposals have been sub- 1 milted to the Royal Commission, presided over by Mr. Leonard 1...

The Trades-Union Congress is very angry that the Lords should

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have preserved workmen's right of contracting them- selves out of the Employers' Liability Bill. Their Parlia- mentary Committee issued on Tuesday a manifesto in which they...

The Presidential election in Brazil came off on March 1st,

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and it appears to be certain that Senhor Prudente de Moraes is elected. He is said to be a man of moderate opinions, who might bring this dreary civil war to an end, but owing...

Page 3

On the other hand, the Parnellites do not seem at

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all inclined to take any comfort from the prospect of having Mr. Herbert Gladstone as Irish Secretary instead of Mr. Glad- stone as Prime Minister. The London correspondent of...

On Monday, Mr. Justice O'Brien, in opening the Commis- sion

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of Assizes at Cork, referred to the condition of Clare. A comparison with last year showed that there were 117 cases of crime in the period under review, against 118 in the same...

Mr. John Morley made a speech on Monday in Cork

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at a banquet given to him by the Incorporated Chamber of Com- merce and Shipping. A poster, demanding the fulfilment of Mr. Morley's virtual promise to get the Irish political...

On Tuesday, the jury gave their verdict in the case

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of ." Martin et Uxor v. the Trustees of the British Museum." The plaintiff declared herself libelled by matter contained in two books in the Museum, to which the public were...

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

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New Consols (21) were on Friday 99 .1

The India Council is selling its bills readily at last,

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but at only a fraction above is. id. for a rupee. That involves a loss of nearly six millions a year on the exchange, and renders fresh and heavy taxation on India quite...

Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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MR GLADSTONE'S RESIGNATION. I T is said, we do not know with how much truth, that one of the first warnings which Mr. Gladstone received of the rapid failure of his eyesight,...

Page 5

THE ATTACK ON THE LORDS. T HE ultra-Radicals could hardly have

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a worse oppor- tunity, we imagine, than they have chosen for their attack on the Lords, in spite of the fact that Mr. Glad- stone has countersigned the order for that attack by...

Page 6

THE ENGLISH COMMUNES.

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WHOLLY apart from politics, we are glad that the Y Parish Councils Bill has passed. It is a most generous effort by the "power holding classes," as Mr. Kidd calls them, of both...

Page 7

THE TRUE CITY OF LONDON.

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W HEN we talk of the City of Liverpool, the City of Manchester, or the City of Glasgow, we mean what we say. That is, we mean the great concourse of human beings who live at the...

Page 8

THE FORGOTTEN FACT OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION.

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W E do not often devote a leader to a book, but we have an impression that Mr. Benjamin Kidd's book, "Social Evolution" (Macmillan), may have wide political as well as social...

Page 9

THE AFFAIR ON THE GAMBIA.

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O ITR defeat on the Gambia on February 24th is part a the old, old story. Nothing on earth, except defeat, will convince English soldiers and sailors that the dark races who fly...

Page 10

THE DEBATE ON THE RUSSO-GERMAN TREATY.

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rrnE interest to Englishmen of the debate in the _L German Parliament on the Commercial Treaty with Russia turns chiefly on the attitude of the several political parties. The...

Page 11

THE FUTURE STATE OF ANIMALS.

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C ANON WILBERFORCE has been interviewed by the correspondent of the Westminster Gazette on his creed, —or, perhaps, we should rather say, his opinion,—as to the future state of...

Page 12

THE DESTRUCTION OF PHIL/E.

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W OULD it be worth while, if the revenue of Egypt could thereby be doubled, or its cultnrable area increased one-third, to destroy the Pyramids ? Mahommed Ali thought it would,...

Page 13

BATH AS A MIRROR OF MANNERS.

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NI R. ROBERT BITCHANAN'S play, Dick Sheridan. owes its success, in the opinon of the Daily Telegraph, to the fact that it gives a succession of lovely pictures of a very courtly...

Page 14

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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"CONTRACTING-OUT." [TO MI/1 EDITOR OF TH111 SPZOTATOZ."1 SIR,—You speak, in the Spectator of February 24th, as if the Employers' Liability Bill were "the cry of the...

Page 15

THE ITALIAN FINANCE.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"] Sin,—In your article in the Spectator ,of February 24th, on "The Finances of Italy," you say : "Signor Sonnino hopes that a large section of...

JAMES SMITH'S GRAMMAR.

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[To THE EDI MR OF THE SPECTATJR." I SIB,—In vindication of James Smith's grammar, it may be worth while to trouble you with a slightly different version of his lines on Andrew...

THE NEW OXFORD.

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pro Tins EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—It is by no means easy for an outsider, and a Noncon- formist, to understand the complaint of Mr. T. Arnold, your correspondent in the...

Page 16

WITCHCRAFT.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR SIR,—After reading your interesting correspondence on "Witchcraft in a Somersetshire Village," I thought I would pay a visit to an old lady, a...

TOM-TITS.

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rTo THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIE, - I have read the letters in the Spectator about tom-tits, and think that an account of how we have fed them for many years past may...

HOWLERS.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SpuTATori."] SIR,—The following extracts from examination papers may be considered worthy of a place among the "howlers" which you have given. They are...

ART.

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SCHOLARSHIP IN PAINTING. THERE are several ways of dealing with paintings by the Old Masters. One way is to call attention to the most beautiful, with an attempt to define the...

Page 17

BOOKS.

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ONE ASPECT OF DISESTABLISHMENT.* Tux advocates of Disestablishment are accustomed to point with satisfaction to the example of the United States. See,' they say, what a...

Page 18

MR. BENSON'S POEMS.* IT is Nature rather than man, or

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the life of man, that chiefly occupies Mr. Benson in the volume of poems now before us. He watches and notes with the keen eye of a lover every change in her varying mood, every...

Page 19

ENGLISH COMMONS AND FORESTS.* IT is not often, that it

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is given to a man, first to make history, and then to write it. This, in effect, is what Mr. Shaw Lefevre has done in relation to the preservation of commons. He • English...

Page 21

A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE.*

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WE are not surprised to learn that Mr. Stanley Weyman's brilliant historical romance, A Gentleman of France, although only published, so to speak, the other day, has already won...

Page 22

A WINTER IN NORWAY.*

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IN one of the most amusing of the little essays of the American humourist who calls himself "Mark Twain,"—if, indeed, it is not the gem of all of them,—a dissertation on...

Page 24

DR. JESSOPP'S ESSAYS.*

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THERE is nothing more catching than the "antiquarian fever," as Monkbarns properly named it. The disease is taken suddenly in middle-age, or is perhaps inoculated in childhood...

Page 25

MRS. BESANT'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.*

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LIKE many other people who feel that they have suffered from the misconceptions and misrepresentations of the world, Mrs. Besant has written an apologia pro vitci suet: in the...

Page 26

The Engineer's Year - Book. By H. R. Kempe. (Crosby Lock- wood.)—This

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Year-Book is a new publication. It contains " formulie, rules, tables, data, and memoranda in civil, mechanical, electrical, marine, and mine engineering." The enormous variety...

Waiford's County Families of the United Kingdom (Chatto and Windus)

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appears in its "thirty-fourth annual publication." There is little or nothing to be said of this useful volume that has not been said before. It gives information which could...

The "Border Edition" of the Waverley Novels for February (Nimmo)

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contains St. Ronan's Well, a story that would have proved a great tragedy had it not been for the false delicacy of James Ballantyne. As the tale now stands, there is not...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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Some Personal Reminiscences of the Cure de St. Germainl'Auxerrois. (Mathieson and Sons.)—This is an interesting and graphic little sketch of one of the best class of French...

Goethe Reviewed After Sixty Years. By J. R. Seeley, Litt.D.

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(Seeley and Co.)—In 1884, fifty-two years, i.e., after Goethe's death, Professor Seeley published three essays on the great poet in the Contemporary Review. These he has...

Dod's Parliamentary Companion for 1894. Every new republica- tion of

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Dod is welcome. There is no Parliamentary companion so useful and so carefully kept up to date. Only eight months have elapsed since the last publication, but eleven seats have...

The Beatitudes. By E. C. Dermer, D.D. (B. H. Blackwell,

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Oxford.)—These "Studies for Lent "—sermonettes, we may call them, if the author will excuse the unceremonious word—may be commended to readers. The preacher speaks plainly,...

Page 27

The Speeches and Public Addresses of the Right Hon. W.

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E. Glad- stone. VoL IX. 1886-1888. (Methuen and Co.)--This volume opens with the speech delivered in the House of Commons on the "Government of Ireland Bill" (April 8th, 1886),...

Stanford's London Atlas of Universal Geography. (E. Stanford.) —This is

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the second series of the "London Atlas." It has been " revised and enlarged," and now presents as complete a picture of the known world as can be found anywhere. Of folio size,...

Essays about Men, Women, and Books. By Augustine Birrell. (Elliot

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Stock.)—The author of "Obiter Dicta" possesses the happy art of frequently saying the exact and satisfying word in his criticisms of life and books, and when the reader dissents...

Told in the Dimpses. By H. C. O'Neill. (Gibbings and

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Co.)— The praise so justly awarded to Miss O'Neill for her "Devonshire Idyls" has encouraged her to venture once more into the same field. Unlike most sequels, Told in the...

The Newspaper Press Directory. (C. Mitchell and Co.) — This is the

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"forty-ninth annual issue" of a volume which tells us about the newspapers, magazines, reviews, and periodicals generally published in the United Kingdom and the British Isles....

The Old House of Rayner. By Grimley Hill. (Digby, Long,

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and Co.)—The first of the two tales in this volume is a cheerful story of how a certain Dr. Rayner was forced alive into his coffin by an unprincipled relative, of how this said...

Diamonds and Gold in South Africa. By Theodore Rennert. (E.

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Stanford.)—Mr. Reunert wrote his chapters on the "South African Diamonds" for the "Official Handbook of the Cape of Good Hope," and gave the substance of what he has to say...

Bourne's Handy Assurance Directory. By William Schooling. (Trafalgar Buildings, WC.)—It

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will be observed that the work has been taken up, in consequence of Mr. Bourne's death, by a new editor. It presents the same interesting and useful features. If any one item is...

Page 28

The Emancipation of South America. A condensed translation, by William

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Pilling, of General Don Bortolome Mitre's His- tory of San Martin. (Chapman and Hall.)—This is a *ork few people would care to read through. Students of history will naturally...