5 AUGUST 1876

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From Constantinople we hear of nothing, except the slow death

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of the Sultan, and the difficulty in proclaiming his successor. Murad is either already dead, or so prostrated as to be unable to give any orders whatever, or even to understand...

The long-expected debates on the Eastern policy of the Govern-

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ment came off in both Houses on Monday night. We have analysed the discussion in the Commons—which was principally remarkable for an exhaustive and most statesmanlike speech...

We purposely omit references to small actions, which only bewilder

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readers without military maps, but it is admitted on all hands that Prince Nikita has gained an important victory. He succeeded in inducing Mukhtar Psalm, with sixteen...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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N EXT week ought to bring important news from Servia. Eyoob Pasha and his Prussian adlatus • finding, or be- lieving, it impossible to force the defences of Alexinevatz, are...

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

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case.

The ultras on both sides of the House are growing

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furious over the Education Bill. A powerful deputation of Radicals, Parlia- mentary and Provincial, waited on Lord Hartington on Wed- nesday, to urge him to reject the Education...

No date has yet been officially fixed for the rising

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of Parlia- ment. On Monday night, Mr. Disraeli, being reminded by the Marquis of Hartington that he had promised to make a state- ment relating to public business, announced...

This was expected, but either encouraged by this victory, or

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in pursuance of some secret understanding, Lord R. Montagu moved an amendment, the effect of which would have been to make the 25th Clause compulsory, and create a burning...

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In the House of Lords, Lord Granville, in a speech

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occa- sionally amusing—as when he stated that the £100,000,000 we had lent to Turkey had had precisely the same effect as giving rum to savages—maintained that the object of the...

The annual dinner to her Majesty's Ministers came off at

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the Mansion House on Wednesday, but Mr. Disraeli and Lard Derby were both absent. Lord Salisbury therefore responded for her Majesty's Ministers, and told his audience that the...

There has been a distinct rise in the price of

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silver during the week, and it is now 51d. the ounce, while the bills drawn by the India Office on Calcutta were assigned at 1s. 7fd. the rupee. It is believed that this rise is...

Lord Salisbury also endeavoured to extenuate the conduct of the

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Turks in Bulgaria, though with much more attention to English opinion than the Premier has shown. He quite admitted that Eng- land would condemn such crimes, but denied that the...

The Bravo inquiry has reached the nineteenth day, and still

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there is no definite result, except the destruction of individual characters. Mrs. Cox, in her six days' cross-examination, ad- mitted that Mrs. Bravo's intimacy with Dr. Gully...

Lord Camarvon made his promised statement on Barbadoes affairs on

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Tuesday, in a capital though, to us, unsatisfactory speech, which we have carefully analysed elsewhere. He acquitted the Governor of anything but indiscretion in using phrases...

Lord Derby's speech in reply was principally remarkable for admissions.

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He admitted that Europe ought to settle the future condition of Turkey. He admitted "that there had been, on the part of the Turkish Government, great and grievous faults of...

Mr. Jenkins on Friday week raised a debate on Barbadoes,

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which was made unimportant on Tuesday by Lord Carnarvon's statement, but we cannot pass over one singular remark from Mr. Lowther. Mr. Pope Hennessy finds that in this island...

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Popular songs, particularly if they are rather vulgar and sense-

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teal, are, it appears, often very important copyrights. Mr. Sprake, on Thursday, sued, in the Common Pleas Division, Messrs. Hey- wood for inserting four songs, known as "The...

The Italian and Egyptian Governments are engaged in a serious

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quarrel. A Central-African expedition recently left Italy, under the command of the Marchese Antinori, who was furnished with an autograph letter from the King to the Khedive....

The correspondent of the Times at Constantinople gives, merely incidentally,

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an account of a transaction in the Turkish islands which shows, better than a volume of argument, how Turks govern. The people of the Southern Sporades, about 115,000 in number,...

The Bill for preventing the sale of liquor on Sundays

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in Ireland, though carried in the House of Commons against the Government, has been practically dropped. The Government at heart disliked the Bill, and proposed that, if passed,...

The impeachment of General Belknap, the American Secretary at War,

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has ended in an acquittal. General Belknap was accused of selling the appointments of " traders "—that is, purveyors to the forts—and on his own confession was im- peached...

The Home-rulers made another attempt on Tuesday to procure the

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release of the nine Fenians still in durance, but were defeated by 117 to 51. The debate owed its importance to a speech from M. Bright, in which he appeared to lay down two of...

It appears that the Pashas, who are now, during the

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illness of the Sultan, supreme at Constantinople, are so convinced of Mr. Disraeli's friendship, that they even venture to withhold the in- terest on the guaranteed loan of...

The announcement now publicly made that the Rev. Dr. Wallace,

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Professor of Divinity and Church History in the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, and minister of Old Greyfriars' Church in that city, has resigned both church and chair, and become a...

Consols were on Friday 961 to 96i.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE DEBATE ON TURKEY. T HE long-postponed debate on the Turkish question, which came off on Monday night, was not an exciting, but it was a most valuable discussion. Nobody made...

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BARBADOES. T HERE are two entirely separate questions involved in the

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controversy as to Barbadoes, namely, the conduct of the Governor, Mr. Pope Hennessy, and the general condition of the island, and on neither of them is the decision announced by...

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A "WHITE TERROR" IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

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I T would probably be useless to address any appeal to the political sense of the White people in the Southern States, but if the leaders of the Democratic party have any...

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MR. DISRAELI AND THE BULGARIAN "ATROCITIES."

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W E wish we could bring fully home to our readers the serious, even the disastrous consequences which will arise to the British Government from the attitude which Mr. Disraeli,...

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THE PRIME MINISTER AND PUBLIC BUSINESS.

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Ar . DISRAELI condemns his offspring to destruction with a composure which would be imposing, if it were not so obviously the result of carelessness. Even what has seemed like...

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BANK BALANCES.

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W E sometimes wonder, when we hear people talking glibly , of commercial crises and a possible suspension of London Bankers, or repeating with epigrammatic unconcern that" money...

THE RESULTS SECURED IN EDUCATION.

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iza0ORD SANDON had his "hour of glorious life" on Tues. day. Recent events have shown that he is a statesman not of the forcibly fighting, but of the feebly drifting order ;...

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A NEW SOCIAL FORCE.

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TIRE Vice-President of the Council appeared to think that the most formidable point in his Educational statement of Tuesday was the reference in it to the important increase in...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR,

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THE PROVINCIAL v. THE LONDON PRESS. (TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTAT011.1 SIR,—A correspondent, under the signature "A London Scribe," calls in question your assumption that...

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GREEK VOLUNTEERS.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—My attention has been called to a telegram from the British Embassy at Therapia, dated July 14, 1876, respecting the enrolment of those...

THE EASTERN WAR.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Before discussing any question, it is a great thing to make sure of the meaning of your words. I would, therefore, ask those persons...

LOCAL LEGISLATION.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—On this question of the Irish Sunday-Closing Bill you appear to have departed from your usual impartiality. You con- tend that because...

WHERE IS JOHN WILKES ?

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(TO THE EDITOR OF TIM SPECT.A.TeR.1 SIR,—Can you, or any of your readers, tell me aught of John Wilkes, who, in 1838, was domiciled in Paris? His house was at Passy, the one...

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POETRY.

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A SUICIDE. JUDGE not ! 'Tis past thy ken ; Strangely the web of destiny is ordered ; In highest-natured men The loftiest wit with depths of madness bordered! Judge not ! The...

SNOW IN JULY.

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(TO THE SEISM OF THE ..EleaorAToa..1 SIR, —It may interest you to record the coincidence that yester- day, when your issue containing the article on "London Under an Indian...

BOOKS.

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COMPANIONS FOR THE DEVOUT LIFE.* Ix the midst of the hurry and the heat, the rush and whirl of modern life, to tarn aside for a quiet hour with such words as those before us, is...

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A SAUNTER ROUND THE WORLD4 MR. CAMPBELL, of Islay, had,

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according to his own statement, nothing to do, so he turned "globe-trotter," and spent a year in wandering round the globe by the now beaten tracks of the West. He had no aim...

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NEW GUINEA.*

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CAPTAIN' MORESBY'S narrative of discovery and survey on the coasts of New Guinea makes a valuable contribution to our geographical knowledge. It is written in a very pleasant...

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THE MAGAZINES.

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THE Fortnightly has many good papers this month, but nothing of very exciting interest One of the best, perhaps, is the account of Russian expansion, contributed by Mr. D....

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A Bat with Three Tales. By Mary A. Lewis. (Henry

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S. Sing and Co.)—This is a capital children's story-book, but it seems to be born out of due time. It should have been published at Christmas, when people are on the look-out...

Sir Hubert's Marriage. By Gertrude Townshend Mayor. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—Here

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are one thousand and four pages, fairly filled with type, all of them occupied with about as small an amount of matter as ever novel was made up of. Sir Hubert terrifies his...

Tinsley's Magazine, for August, is very poor, the copy of

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verses by poor Felix Whitehnrst, is the best thing in it. What can be the object of printing such common-place stuff as that, for instance, about the "Byways of Health ?" "too...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Portfolio. for August. (Seeley and Co.)—The striking thing about the August Portfolio is the remarkable excellence of the letter- press. Almost every article has some...

Conversations on the Gospel of St. Luke. By Emily Temple

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Frere. (Nisbet and Co.)—Surely there is no need to print such conversation as this It must be very awful to see an angel!' said Cecilia.—' Yet we shall live among them some day,...

Of religions or semi-religions periodicals, we have The Congregation- alist,

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edited by Mr. Dale, of Birmingham, a magazine which seems penetrated by the spirit of the now famous motto of the Nonconformist newspaper. The "pretty quarrels" of the political...

Belgravia, for August, (Chatto and Windus), has an entertaining account,

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by Mr. R. A. Proctor, of the well known "Lunar Hoax," which is extremely well worth reading. Mr. Charles Heade must be amused at his meagre and trivial contribution having any...

Tremadoc Sermons. By H. N. Grimley, MA. (Henry S. King

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and Co.)—There is an interesting preface to this volume, giving a full and particular account of the origin and history of Tremadoo Church, the birth-place of these sermons. A...

London Society, for August (S. Low and Co.) is very

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like Temple Bar, "only more so." It opens with an article, by Mr. J. F. Boyes, called "Queen Scarborough," which we have found very readable, hitting off some of the more...

Finally, we have two other serials, which can hardly be

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called maga- zines. One, The Picture-Gallery (Sampson Low and Co.), aims at giving month by month photographs of the works of distinguished masters of the English school. There...

Temple Bar, for August. (Bentley.)—When a magazine has serial stories

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in the same number by writers of the calibre of Mr. Trollop°, Mr. Wilkie Collins, and Mrs. Alexander, it encourages its readers to regard tho remaining articles as padding. Mr....

We have found nothing to note in the Argosy. — Nor can

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we say anything this month in favour of the Victoria Magazine; some of it indeed (for instance, the note on "Aristocratic Charwomen "), is bad domestic economy, and worse taste...

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Lift with the Hamran Arabs. By Arthur B. R. Myers.

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(Smith and Elder.)—There is very little here about the Hamran Arabs, beyond an account of the manoeuvres of their Sheik to make as much as he could out of the strangers whom...