T4 ORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL on Monday resumed the adjourned debate on the Affirmation Bill in a clever speech, which he commenced by taunting Mr. Gladstone with his obscure...

that Mr. O'Brien naively suggested that Members who found diffi- culty in swearing allegiance to Queen Victoria, and who would have been very glad to admit conscientious...

rema4ed that Lord Randolph's chief object had been to prove that iL was he on whom "the mantle of Elijah had descended," though of the new Elisha Mr. Labouchere had formed...

a speech which was a variation on the well-known song, "Pity the sorrows of a poor old man r indeed, a threnody on his hard fate, in being worsted, by Lord Coleridge's...

Irish trials. Fitzharris (" Skin the Goat"), the carman who drove the murderers of Lord F. Cavendish and Mr. Burke, has been acquitted by the jury. Nobody doubted his presence...

case.

Messrs. Fitzwilliam (South-West Riding, Malton, and Peterborough), none of whom explained their remarkable vote ; Sir E. Watkin (Hythe) ; Mr. M'Cullagh Torrens (Finsbury); Mr....

was held in the Deanery, Westminster, Mr. Matthew Arnold presided, and delivered one of his eloquently humorous and humorously eloquent speeches on the genius of Words- worth....

the victory which Colonel Hicks, in command of the force in the Soudan, has gained over the followers of the Mahal. He was attacked on his march to Obeid by about 4,000 men, but...

by the Conservatives for a new Conservative journal, —a picture of the beautiful clock tower and clock of the Houses of Parliament. It was curious because, the merit of a clock...

great éclat by a magnificent banquet at the Westminster Aquarium, where some 1,900 members, representing at least 400 English towns, sat down together, showed that it understood...

a number of resolutions, declaring, among other things, that the English Government" has no moral right whatever to exist in Ireland "—the consent of the majority of Irish...

the League does not contemplate warfare, which is outside its organisation, it considers warfare for Ireland as lawful as the warfare for the Thirteen Colonies. The League,...

held a very successful meeting on Tuesday, at the house of Lord Mount-Temple, the Earl of Shaftesbury in the chair. The Bishop of Oxford discussed at it the meaning of Dr. Lyon...

of the Tripartite Treaty in the Senate, in a speech which was +really a declaration of policy. He asked the Government whether the alliance was or was not menacing to France. He...

favour of Local Option by 206 to 130. His idea is that the inhabitants of districts should have power to abolish all public- houses in their districts, if they please ; but his...

singular one. He denied official information of the alliance, stating that French Ambassadors could only know what they were told, and they had not been told about this. He...

life, -attended the annual meeting of the Liberation Society. After the formal proceedings, in which the abolition of the Scotch Church was strenuously urged, as the first work...

interest, Lord Rosebery quizzing the Tories for their attempt to represent their party as the true friends of popular measures, -and Mr. John Morley insisting that England was...

I T is simply ridiculous for the Tories to object to the National Liberal Club, whose opening was celebrated on Wednesday, as a kind of Supreme Caucus. They have had the thing...

THE DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. T HE English people have many fine qualities, but a steady reasonableness is not one of them. They cannot emu- late the Scotch and Welsh here for a...

T HE Government has evidently made up its mind not to retire from Egypt in a hurried manner, or without the fullest evidence that its objects have been accomplished. The few and...

W E take it that the Parnell party among the Irish- Americans did, on the whole, carry the Philadelphia Convention. The representatives of the Ultras were numerous and fierce,...

M R. BRIGHT'S speech on the Establishment proves to demonstration what, for our part, we have never doubted, that the Established Church of England is not, and has never been, a...

T HE debate in the French Senate on the Triple Alliance, or understanding, or, as M. Challemel-Lacour prefers to calls it, the rapprochement, between the two central European...

M RS. OLIPHANT and Mr. Venables both take up the cudgels against Mr. Froude, in current numbers of the May Magazines,—Mr. Venables in the Fortnightly, and Mrs. Oliphant in the...

" I WAS a fish, and I shall be a crow," said Lady Constance Rawleigh, who had just been reading the "Vestiges," to the horror of Tancred, who had thought the young beauty...

SIR WILLIAM PALMER AND CARDINAL NEWMAN. ETo THE EDITOR OF TEX "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—You have for many years taken so kind an interest in me, that I venture to hope you will let...

ROYAL ACADEMY. (FIRST IMPRESSIONS.) THIS is not intended to be more than a sketch of a first impres- sion of this year's Royal Academy Exhibition, and the hope of giving any...

go THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' you kindly allow one who knew "George Eliot" for many years, to reply to your query in the Spectator of April 28th,—" Is there any authentic...

LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,— " A Constant Reader" seems to be in fear for the village thildren, lest engrossing reverence for their squire (like that decreed to...

THE WISDOM OF GOETHE.* PROFESSOR BLAME has collected and skilfully translated for us in this little book a very striking and valuable collection of some of Goethe's most...

and several pictures which are far above the average. Pictures, moreover, look well here, some little regard to relative tone, subject, and shape,being paid by those who have...

IN his preface, the editor of these beautifully got-up volumes asserts that more interest is usually taken in natural history early in life than later on, and there are...

CAPTAIN HAWLEY SMART is Et capital story-teller. We use the expression advisedly ; for in these days of many-mouthed criticism, a novelist is nothing unless he has his species...

Barca's life-like sketches of Mexico, forty years ago, no work has appeared which gives such vivid pictures, combined with so much solid information as to the resources of the...

well worth publishing, if it were only for the sake of giving to the world his very remarkable essay—the third in the volume—on "The Jewish and Heathen Conceptions of a Future...

Tax Nineteenth Century is readable, though amidst the crowd of contributions we notice nothing of unusual im- portance. Mr. Matthew Arnold finishes and does not improve his...

T. Treherne and J. H. D. Goldie. (Bickers and Son.)—In 1881 a great boating festival was held, at which some two hundred "Old Blues "—i.e., oarsmen and coxswains who have taken...

Moorish Lotos-leaves. By George D. Cowan and R. L. N. John- ston. (Tinsley Brothers.)—A residence of some standing at Mogador has given to the authors of this volume...

their lives." Nor do we perceive what there was in him which won the heart of the heroine. Fitzmanrice, the adventurer, is more finely drawn. The writer, however, seems to get...

(Elliot Stock.)—This volume of verse belongs to the class of books—their number is legion—which cannot possibly afford any gratification, except to their authors, and those...