6 DECEMBER 1879

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Great Britain has been visited with what the Americans call

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a "cold snap." The frost has been continuous since Saturday, and since Sunday has been severe, the " readings " of the ther- mometer being much below the average at this season....

Some emotion was excited in London on Tuesday by a

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semi- official statement that the Queen was ill with sore-throat, and Sir W. Jenner was in attendance. Sovereigns are so seldom reported ill unless they are really ill, and the...

Mr. Gladstone delivered a final speech at Edinburgh on Satur-

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day, upon the subject of finance, a most scathing exposure of Sir Stafford Northcote's smooth sayings in defence of his mis- management. We cannot, of, course, condense a speech...

The origin of the mistake appears to have been that,

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in general, the Czar had travelled in the second train, sending his baggage train on before, as a sort of avant-courier to see that all was safe. But in the present instance,...

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

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case.

The intelligence from Afghanistan, though slight, is very un-

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satisfactory. The Viceroy has deemed it necessary to take the extraordinary step of deporting Yakoob Khan, still nominally our ally and an independent prince, to India, where he...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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A NEW and very bold attempt has been made on the life of the Czar, with a result even farther removed from suc- cess than is usual in such cases. The railway by which the...

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Row Mr. Gladstone's mouth must water over American finance Secretary

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Sherman will, it is stated, estimate the re- ceipts for the financial year ending June 30th next at 257,600,000, and the expenditure at 252,800,000, leaving a surplus of...

The Waddington Ministry in France has obtained a vote of

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confidence from the Chamber by 243 to 107, but 130 members abstained from voting. The vote was demanded by the Premier, who declared, in a fine speech on Tuesday, that the Left...

The Government have apparently acceded to an arrangement devised in

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Canada of some importance. The Canadian Ministers are desirous that, with such complicated affairs often on hand,— fishery questions, for example, in which the Imperial and...

Nothing advances at Constantinople except the Floating Debt. The Sultan

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did not, after all, sign Baker Pasha's appointment, and that officer has gone to Aleppo as a sort of Reporter-General, to whom the Sultan may attend, if he pleases. His Majesty...

Mr. Fonder made an admirable speech at Appleby on Thurs-

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day, applying to the Tory Government the old sense of the word " Tory,"—the sense in which, as Mr. Forster showed, by the language of an old Westmoreland woman, it is still used...

It is difficult, as the Cabinet conceals all information, to

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esti- mate precisely the character of the news from the Cape. It seems certain, however, that Sir Garnet Wolseley intends to attack Secocoeni, who has refused his terms ; that...

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It is amusing to see the old partisans of the

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Vatican Infalli- bility now using the very language of the minimisers, for the purpose of excusing themselves from the duty of paying too much attention to the counsels of a...

Yesterday week, the Master of the Rolle granted an injunction

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to Mr. Labouchere to restrain the Committee of the Beefsteak Club from striking his name off its roll. It was, indeed, obvious that the Committee had not complied in any single...

The London School Board elections turned out very well. Out

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of fifty members, twenty-seven served on the last School Board, while twenty-three are new. But of old members who .Mood for re-election only five failed, so that, on the whole,...

The Right Hon. John Arthur Roebuck died on Sunday morning

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last, at the age of 78, apparently from the effects of a cold, caught after dining with the Benchers of the Temple on the previous Tuesday, though the final cause of death...

Mr. Walter (M.P. for Berke) gave the Clergy of the

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Church of England some advice last Tuesday for the improvement of their preaching. Speaking at a meeting of the Homiletical Society, at the Chapter House, St. Paul's Churchyard,...

Archbishop McCabe, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, has spoken out

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plainly, in a pastoral read in the Dublin churches last Sunday, as to the tendency of the present land :agitation. After referring to the great distress in many parts of...

The Times is angry with Mr. Gladstone for saying that

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a third Civil Service Commissionership was created by the pre- sent Government for Lord Hampton, and that the appointment was "as gross a job as has ever, in my opinion, been...

Consols were on Friday 971 to 97-i.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE ATTEMPT ON THE CZAR. T HE assassination of monarchs appears to be one of the most difficult as well as most criminal of tasks. In our day, though one President has been...

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MR. GLADSTONE AS FINANCIER.

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T ORIES are dreadfully perplexed when they have to deal with Mr. Gladstone exclusively as a financier. As a politician, they can dispose of him, in words at all events, easily...

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THE LATE JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK.

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M R. GLADSTONE, in a very graceful reference to one of the bitterest of his antagonists, has expressed his con- viction that Mr. Roebuck's eccentric political attitude was...

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THE SCOTCH AND MR. GLA.DSTONE. T HE population of Scotland has

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risen to the voice of Mr. Gladstone like the audience in an amphitheatre. His fortnight there has been a triumphal march, as well as a campaign. It commenced before he crossed...

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Mit. RUSKIN ON CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

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M R. RUSKIN appears this month in the Contemporary Review as a guide and light to the Clergy ; and in many ways no one is more fitted to be a guide and light to the clergy,...

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LITERATURE AS A CALLING.

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M R. JAMES PAYN has been chatting in this month's Nineteenth Century to Paterfamilias in a very amusing and decidedly misleading way. Every father of a family with big sons in...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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" PERSONAL " ELECTIONS. [To THR EDITOR OF TIER SPROTATOR.1 waited with some interest to see whether you would take any notice of the rebuke given by the Daily News to your...

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WOMEN GARDENERS.

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(To THE EDITOR OF THE SPROTATOR.1 Sfa,—Your kindly allusion upon two occasions to an article in Macmillan which advocated the teaching of horticulture to women, and your...

A HARD CASE.

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[To TIM EDITOR OF THR "SPEOTATOR."] :Sfa,—Pormit me to thank you for your recent article upon Ritualism, and to ask the favour of your perusing the enclosed statement of what...

FIXITY OF TENURE IN BENGAL.

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[To T1119 EDITOR OF Tan " SPEOTA.TOR.1 Slit,—In your paper of Saturday, November 29th, there is a letter respecting Irish tenants, signed "D. H. Macfarlane," the last paragraph...

BOOKS.

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MADAME DE MAINTENON.* [FIRST NOTICE.] "DE L'IGNORANCE, de la faiblesse, de la fausset4, de l'ambition, du in an6ge, des messes, des sermons, dos galanteries, des cabales, voilh...

M. )3IART'S "VOYAGE INVOLONTAIRE."

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Slit,—In a short notice of our translation of M. Biart's "Voyage Involontaire," your reviewer blames us for having left un- corrected his...

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CHARLES DICKENS'S LETTERS.* [SECOND NOTICE.] IN politics, Dickens professed to

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be a strong Radical, but his Radicalism was founded rather on strong sympathy with the poor, and a certain contempt for the conventional Conservatism, of purse-proud property...

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MR. GIFFEN'S ESSAYS IN FINANCE.*

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THERE is no need to commend this book to those who are in- terested in the practical application of economic principles. Not only is Mr Giften's reputation as a scientific...

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BEATING THE AIR.* MR. Buala's novel is more cheerful than

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one expects from its title, which is not attractive. There are several sad episodes in the story, and the life of the hero is, for a groat part of it, passed in vain endeavour,...

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SOME OF THE MAGAZINES.

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To us, the interesting article in this month's Magazines is the Duke of Argyll's account in Fraser of American landscape as it strikes a stranger. It is so difficult and so...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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[Lady Lawrence requests us to publish the following ;—" Mr. R. Bosworth-Smith, of Harrow, late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and author of 'Mohammed and Mohammedanism ' and...

CHRISTMAS BOOKS, ETC.

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Venice. By Charles Yriarte. (G. Bell and Sons.)—This fine work now appears in an English dress. The translation from the French has been well done by Mr. F. J. Sitwell, but the...

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We have received the following magazines and serials for Decem-

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ber :—The Gentleman's Magazine, which this month contains an article on Ireland by Arthur Arnold, in which he says he knows that "the Liberal Government which is looming in the...

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Messrs. Marcus Ward's Christmas and New-Year's Cards, Tablets, and Calendars

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have reached us, and are equal in excellence of design and variety of character and colour to those of previous years. The borders and vignettes, into which are introduced...