a plan for the federation of their con- tinent, have commenced their sittings in Sydney. They have decided that their meetings should be public, and have elected Sir Henry...

T HE Canadian elections have ended in a victory for the Conservative Government, which obtains a majority of twenty-five. This is a great reduction on its former majority of...

hastily. Indignant at the language used by the Parisian Press about the visit of the Empress Frederick, he has ordered or sanctioned a sudden revival of the restrictive passport...

case.

demands cu. behalf of Ireland. He has written a letter to Father O'Halloran stating that the Home-rule he should like to see is "what has worked so well in the self-governing...

and took a sort of new departure. He repeated again the speech on the Police and the Land, which he has now said over so many times, hardly varying a phrase ; but be added that...

Canadian Liberals, on February 6th addressed to his constituents a long and able letter resigning his seat and his place in the party. He asked them to keep his reasons secret ;...

by Mr, Ritchie) that Mr, Sta,TheW wee moving the second reading of a Bill, instead of merely proposing to the House an abstract resolution, replied to Mr. Howorth that the...

Mr. Ritchie's were the most important. Mr. Chamberlain excited much amusement by showing how very reluctant Mr. Gladstone had been, when in power, to support abstract...

Mr. Stansfeld's motion,—the numbers being 291 against 189. The Gladstonians mustered very strong, a ll but one of them, it is said, having either voted or paired for the...

on Wednesday, Mr. Bryce proposed the health of the Government in a very graceful speech, in which he• admitted that it, was more in his way to assail than. to eulogise the...

out a Bill, introduced by the Duke of St. Albans, to abolish the qualification now required of County Magistrates,—namely, possession of a freehold worth £100 a year, or a...

of the registration law, and the adoption of the principle of " One man, one vote," in the House of Commons on Tues- day night. Mr. Stansfeld maintained that no prompt and...

any English author who prints his work in America, or sells it to a publisher to print there, will have the same rights as an American. The change will enrich English popular...

Clergy Discipline (Immorality) Bill on Thursday night, the object of which is to get rid of the black sheep of the clergy more easily and satisfactorily than the present law...

Mr. Thorns would have said of Ann Telford (her maiden name being Ann Charters), the old lady who died at Maryport on Tuesday night, aged 111 years P She was born in 1780, nine...

between the young Emperor and his Conservative counsellors has ended in the victory of the monarch. The Son of Heaven is tired of the .endless restrictions in which he is...

been finally decided not to separate the High Commissionership in South Africa from the Governorship of the Cape. Both offices are worthily held by Sir H. Loch ; but the effect...

of the great Siberian Railway, which is to connect the Baltic with the North Pacific, is being eagerly pushed forward. A few versts only will be constructed this year on the...

of the Old Czech party, whose place has been taken by the Young Czechs. The policy of the latter is to oppose every Government formed in the Cis-Leithan Parliament, and in- sist...

Labour, which are to be investigated by a Royal Commission, and disclaimed any idea that legislative inter- ference, except for the protection of women and children, would be of...

New Consols (2t) were on Friday 961 to 96*.

LORD SALISBURY ON LEGISLATIVE INTER- FERENCE IN TRADE. I - 4 0RD SALISBURY, as a Prime Minister, certainly improves from year to year. His fault has been the too great sarcasm...

police powers in respect of the streets can be shown to be wanted for the Universities, they should be given by a statute empowering the borough police—the Universities are...

T HE division on Mr. Stansfeld's motion showed clearly enough that the Irish Home-rulers, both Paruellite and Anti-Parnellite, regarded Mr. Stansfeld's motion as a mere party...

T HE "Australian Federation Convention," which is to found a nation on the island-continent, held its first sitting for the despatch of business on March 3rd, and dis- cusssed...

T HE discharge of the fireman Sadler, accused of murdering the unhappy woman Frances Coles, has renewed public interest in the strange series of crimes known as the Whitechapel...

the skeleton in the cupboard this year has grown to such horrible dimen- sions, and in spite of carefully worded and ingeniously ambiguous reports has gained such common...

R. LESLIE STEPHEN'S lecture on Macaulay at Toynbee Hall this day week, seems to us, if we may trust the report, to have done scant justice to him. Macaulay was too much of a...

" A UNTIE, dear," said a little child the other day, running in crying out of the fierce cold, with her fingers blue, and her nose red, "please kill the nasty frost." The...

T HE show of " Shire " horses—as the old breed of the English cart-horse is now generally called—that took place at the Royal Agricultural Hall during Wednesday, Thursday, and...

T T is not yet two months—" two little months "—since the late Duke of Bedford was laid with his fathers. The -circumstances of his death were singular and painful, and were...

GANGES v. NERBUDDA, [To ma EDITOR OF TRH " SPROTATOR."] was away from home, and did not see my Spectator of February 14th till long after the date of publication, and this must...

TEE " SPECTATOR. "] am not aware if the following very striking passage• from the writings of Cardinal Newman has been quoted in. connection with the attempt- now being made to...

[To TEE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—As an instance of the sagacity of the elephant, the fol- lowing anecdote may be of interest. It was told me by Mr. . Quay,--at the...

[TO TUE EDITOR OF THE g ' SPECTATOR:1 you receive a suggestion from a constant reader on the subject of sermons for country congregations ? I have heard—I do not know on what...

[To TEE EDITOR OF TEE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —Although you "are getting weary , of this . cry of plagiarism," you may perhaps be willing to tolerate one more anecdote. I knew the...

[To THE EDITOR OF VIE " SPEOTATOE."1 SIB,—In reference to the correspondence in the Spectator on -the subject of "Books for the Blind," may . 1, through the medium of your...

is the havoc wrought by the opposing factions on each other's musical instrumonto.] THE minstrel boy to the war has gone, Begorra! 'tis there you'll find him : His father's...

PAINTER-ETCHERS AND OTHERS. ON a first visit to the exhibition of the Painter•-Etchers, the work of Mr. William Strang is likely to blot out other im- pressions. At short...

SPECTATOR." J 'SIR,—For "last word" on the subject of birds pecking their fellow-birds to death merely because of their ex- itibiting unusual plumage, I should like to suggest...

TO SPRING. THOU art coming, joyous Spring! With the sunshine for thy dower, And the love of leaf and flower, And the swallow on the wing, Hark, how the thrushes sing ! Thou art...

DR. JOHNSON IN SCOTLAND.* DR. HILL appears to find an irresistible attraction in Johnson. . He has written more about the famous Doctor than any man- living, and increase of...

and "curious and entertaining" facts, are proverbially unsatisfactory. Reading them is like dining off nothing but a series of rich entrees. Judged from the point of view of...

Manners Makyth Man," seems to have been a maxim that impressed itself upon the mind of George Washington at a very early year of his life. Among his manuscript-books that are...

WITH the Philoctetes, Professor Jebb completes the first half of his monumental edition of Sophocles. Three plays and the Fragments are still before him. But his task is already...

best way of getting outside ourselves is to see ourselves as others see us ; and this is most easily done by inducing a foreigner to set down frankly, clearly, and honestly, his...

Br far the most interesting paper in the Contemporary Review for March, is Mr. J. J. Claney's account of his reasons for .adhering to Mr. Parnell. Mr. Clancy writes like an...

author of this neat little treatise, who dates from the Johns Hopkins University, seeks, he says, to meet the wants of many who, lacking the time for a more thorough study of...

The Essentials of illethoci. By Charles Do Garmo. (Heath and Co., Boston, U.S.A.)—The author of this interesting little book, who is Professor of Modern Languages in Illinois...

Carlyle, M.A. (Elliot Stock.)—The author of this little book, which appeared originally in the form of lectures, has at least the courage of his opinions. Admitting the value of...

Boys. (S.P.C.K.)—Mr. Boys is careful to state in his preface that his book is intended only for juvenile readers, and is composed of three lectures. In these popular...

Scott.)—This little volume, like so many of its fellows, is written rather to fill a place in the " Great Writers Series," than because the biographer has anything specially...

(Burns and Oates.)—Mr. Allnatt has written ten letters (two series of five each) addressed to some Protestant disputant, and going over the ground of the Roman controversy. We...

Batsford.) —Although this is a second edition, the care with which the original work has been revised, and the excellence of the new photo-lithographed illustrations which have...

Q.C., Thomas Eustace Smith, and Frederic E. Weatherly, Barristers-at-Law. (Cassell and Co.)—Parliamentary draftsmen may go wrong, or Parliament make havoc of their work, and the...

a Lieu'. in H.M. 87th Regiment. Written by Himself. Introduction by H. Manners Chichester. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—A reprint of this singular autobiography is well worthy of a place...

vols. (Chapman and Hall.)—Mrs, Sutherland Edwards describes her book as " a tale of country, camp, court, convict, and cloister life in Russia." The descriptive element is...

and Downey.)—This collection of stories would seem to be the gathering of several years ; one tale, "The Log Hut," we have a remembrance of having read a long time ago. The main...

of the Works of Flavius Josephus. (George Bell and Son.).— The third volume contains Books vii.-xi. ; and the fourth, Book xii. —end of "The Antiquities of the Jews." Sir...

Notes, and an Essay on Milton's English and Versi- was published about the close of 1874, and was reviewed in the Spectator in the following February. The volumes have been upon...

—This is a remarkably well-written story of the War of Inde- pendence in America, War and love are mingled together in it. The two rivals for the love of the fair Daisy are also...

of the• Church of England. (S.P.C.X.)—We need scarcely say that it contains a great amount of interesting matter. Here is a fact which might be useful for purposes of " Church...

and Son.)—There is a groat work connected with the future of Africa which remains for such a writer as Mr. White to perform, It calls for the knowledge of the scientific...

Mr. R. Dunthorno. "The Homeward-Bound Pennant" has the special interest of having been etched by the artist himself from his picture of " H.M.S. Nelson' Coming up the Mod way."...