6 DECEMBER 1873

Page 1

President Grant appears to be very anxious to return to

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specie payments. One plan for this purpose is to restrict the National Banks in paying interest on deposits, an idea intended to keep money afloat in business' and diminish...

As regards 'British subjects, though sonie doubt has been thrown

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on the statement which we made, now a fortnight ago, that sixteen of them, all poor men, sailors, stokers, and so forth, were put to death on November 7, without, so far as we...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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M ATTERS look threatening between the United States and Cuba. It appeared till last night that the Government of the United States and that of Spain were quite agreed as to the...

The Committee to consider the Bill for abolishing the election

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of Mayors of Communes and substituting nomination by the Ministry of the Interior has been formed, and consists of nine members of the Right and six of the Left. M. Depeyre, who...

For the President's Message insists on the necessity of emancipa-

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tion in Cuba in very emphatiC and significant language. Cuban Slavery, he appears to have said, "is opposed to' granting relief to misrule, has no aspiration towards fraedom, no...

The Right and Left in the French Assembly have been

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engaged all the week in a new straggle. The Government have shown a desire to confine the Committee of Thirty on the Constitutional Laws almost exclusively to the Right, instead...

Mr. Gladstone has told the Agricultural Labourers' Union that he

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shall be happy to receive a deputation from them to urge the extension of household suffrage to the counties towards the end of January. This looks as if the Government were...

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

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case.

Page 2

The bombardment of Cartagena does not succeed, for though the

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city is nearly destroyed, the forte are not yet taken. General Ceballos therefore proposes to storm them, but the fleet will not help, a Council of Admirals having decided that...

The results of the School-Board Elections in London, which were

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not known last week, are, on the whole, in very fair accord- ance with those obtained in the rest of the country. The party professing to favour the voluntary denominational...

It looks very much as if the Prussians were preparing

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for a civil war in Posen. They are filling it with troops, and have summoned Archbishop Ledochowski to resign his See, which be has refused to do. He will, therefore, be...

There has been some extraordinary intrigue going on lately about

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Rmunania, either the Sultan or the Czar being exceedingly annoyed at the new protection Prince Charles has obtained. On September a Circular was addressed by the Porte to its...

One of the most terrible of modern disasters is reported

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this week,—a disaster comparable to the wreck of the Northfleet. At two in the morning of the 22nd November, the French steamer Vile du Havre, bound from New York to Havre, came...

All the news of the Bengal famine this week is

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despondent, the reports suggesting that some of the poorer classes are already- pinched, as there have been grain riots. All our letters confirm our belief that the scarcity...

Our great fear still is that the Viceroy, while exerting

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himself to the utmost to feed the famine districts, will overlook the human residuum in the distressed districts, with their huge area. There is in every district of Bengal a...

Page 3

Despatches from the Gold Coast were published in London on

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Tuesday announcing a victory over the Ashantees at Abra- krampa, where a gallant little force of 50 Marines and Blue- jackets, 96 negroes of the 2nd West India Regiment, 75...

The Irish University debates have really produced some good results.

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They have quickened the Irish Catholic intelligence, and made the English Catholics act on their principles. A very remarkable protest har3 been addressed by seventy students,...

As far as we know, there is no case in

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which a clear Secularist majority has been elected on any School-Board except that at Birmingham. On several the Secularists have improved their posi- tion, and on several the...

'The Dutch will have as much to do at Acheen

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as they can manage. They must conquer the place or give up their benefi- cial scheme of conquering Sumatra, but Acheen is the only inde- pendent Mussnlman sovereignty in the Far...

The grand scheme put forth for an English Catholic College

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is not as yet matured, and nothing has yet been published as to resources, but there seems at least to be no lack of confidence in the laity in its inception. Instead of...

A meeting was held at Willis's Rooms on Tuesday afternoon

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to raise a fund for a memorial to Bishop Wilberforce. It was addressed by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Gathorne Hardy, in terms of what seems to us extremely one-sided and exaggerated...

Consols were on Friday 911 to 91i.

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The rate of discount was on Thursday reduced. to 5

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per cent.

Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE LATEST EFFORT OF THE LEFT. T HERE is no subject in all Continental politics upon which it is so difficult to form an opinion as the wisdom or folly of Parliamentary...

Page 5

CITBA AND THE UNITED STATES.

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T HE President's Message to Congress is, as we anticipated, cordial in its tone to Spain, and even seems in passages to assume that the difficulty is really at an end, and that...

THE LONDON SCHOOL-BOARD ELECTION.

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I T would seem probable that the Metropolitan School Board may change all its original atoms in even less time than is assigned for that process to the human frame. We have...

Page 7

MR. STEPHEN ON THE ENGLISH EXECUTIVE.

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T HE two main points of Mr. Stephen's powerful essay en the defects of Parliamentary Government, printed ha this month's Contemporary, are that Parliament, when legls.. closer...

THE NEWS FROM ASHAN TEE.

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T HE news from the Gold Coast which appeared on Tuesday is most important, and the importance consists in thin: It affords a measure of the capacity, so to speak, of the cam-...

Page 9

LOUIS VEUILLOT.

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MHE editor of the Univers displayed his wonted vigour and ferocity during the fight to place "the King" upon the throne of France. M. Thiess, M. Gambetta, M. de Broglie, and...

Page 10

DON QUIXOTE IN THE FLESH.

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W E are inclined to think, from the detailed story given in the Times of Saturday, from the broad facts admitted in the Union, and from the hints given in Parisian jeetrnals...

Page 11

MR. KNIGHT'S LAST ESSAY ON PRAYER.

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M R. KNIGHT has written a much abler and more satisfactory paper in the new number of the Contemporary Review, on the subject of his controversy with the Free Presbytery of...

Page 13

MR. SEEBOHM'S SUGGESTIONS ON THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

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[TO TER EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The suggestion made by Mr. Seebohm in your last number on the subject of compulsory attendance at primary schools seems so valuable,...

A NOTE ON MR. BALDWIN BROWN'S LETTER.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR, —Your singular patience in admitting corrections holds out hope that you may allow a line of remonstrance against Mr. Baldwin Brown's...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE LIBERTY OF NONCONFORMIST MINISTERS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE SFECTATOR:] Stn,—Allow me, as one who has seen both sides of the hedge, to confirm the Rev. Baldwin Brown's...

Page 14

"TIMOTHY CRIPPLE."

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[TO THE EDITOR OP TEIR SPECTATOR:'] Ste,—Referring to your criticism of this work, in your issue of Nov. 29, permit me to say that I did most certainly read the 10th and every...

ART.

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"THE SHADOW OF DEATH." WE know of no painting of modern date which challenges so many diverse kinds of criticism, or may be made the subject of so many distinct points of...

POE TRY.

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Is fluting near my garden seat, Your sky is fair above my head, And Tweed rejoices at my feet. The squirrels gambol in the oak, All, all is glad, but you prefer To linger on...

Page 15

BOOKS.

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GILLRAY'S CARICATURES.* THE present generation know little or nothing of one of the greatest caricaturists who ever lived,—James Gillray, whose powerful and humorous...

Page 16

MOODY'S LECTURES AND LESSONS ON ART.* MR. MOODY is a

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man of decided opinions and peremptory expres- sions, who speaks so plainly of other people, that he cannot Lectures and Lessons on Art. By F. W. Moody. With Illustrative...

Page 18

A NOVEL BY MRS. ALCOTT.*

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MRS. Accorr, whose specialiti consists in her vivid and truthful delineations of life and character, has perhaps in her last story succeeded even better than in any of her...

Page 19

THE BIBLE FOR THE YOUNG.*

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The Bible for Young People—translated from the Dutch into plain, intelligible English by Mr. Wicksteed—is an attempt to meet a Practical difficulty of much interest to those who...

Page 20

SOME OF THE MAGAZINES.

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THE Fortnightly is full of good though not very interesting papers, the beat of them, perhaps, being that on "Free Schools," by Sir Charles Dilke, whose argument, however, seems...

Page 22

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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From Patmos to Paradise. By the Rev. John Cumming. (Black- wood.)—It is a pity that Thackeray, who, we believe, first set the example of 'these alliterative titles by his "From...

Reginald Bramble. A Cynic of the Nineteenth Century. An Auto-

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biography. (Henry S. Ring and Co.)—Accustomed as one grows to the general dreariness of modern fiction, there is one particular kind of dreariness which never fails to...

Is it for Ever? a Novel. By Kate Mainwaring. (London

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: Samuel Tinsley.)—If the author of this novel had reduced the inci- dents by one-half, and left out nine out of ten of her descriptions of dress ; if she had also made her...

Page 23

De la Rue's Improved Indelible Diaries and Memorandum-Books for 1874.—These

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handsome and pretty pocket-books, diaries, and memo- randum-books have appeared once more, though without the astronomical picture which lase beautified them in previous years....