Lord Roberts, who has ended his visit to Natal, and will sail I from Cape Town on the 11th, has issued a striking farewell Army Order to the troops in South Africa The...

I Upon the Philippines the President is quite decided. He believes them to be substantially conquered, although a guerilla war-which we may mention employs sixty thousand...

I The Viennese Journal of Poliical Economy (Zeitchnyi fur Staa&-%o otkswirthschcqft) of D-cember 2nd contains a remarkable article entitled "Der Kriigerianismus." History, the...

The interest of the military operations in Sonth Africa I has been concentrated in the efforts of General Charles Knox to "corner" De Wet in the Orange River Colony. By dint of...

I President McKinley's Message sent to Congress on the 3rd inst. is of immense lengtb, the section which concerns China alone occupying four columns. It appears from its terms...

The speeoh of General Meroier in the French Senate on I the 4th inst. has in one way a certain importance. This General, who made so discreditable an appearance in the Dreyfus...

In the Lords the only important speech-Lord Rosebery I devoting himself to the iniquities of the Election and the question of contracts, upon whieh he was as usual sound,...

- The debate on Thursday night in the House of Commons i was chiefly remarkable for the discursive and captious character of the attack on the Government. Sir Henry Campbell-...

I Mr. Kmrger has received a sharp rebuff from the German Emperor. He was, it appears, advised by some of his friends in Paris, probably Nationalists, to proceed at once to...

NEWS OF THE WEEK. THE Session, we fear, will be a most unsatisfactory one. The Qneen's Speech, the curtest on record, simply asks for money to meet "the expenses of the...

I There remains one puzzle in this intervention business which is to us inexplicable. Mr. Kruger, who is essentially a peasant unable to write anything beyond his name, is...

In Cloister and Court. By E. Everett-Green (John F. Shaw and I Co. 5s.)-Up to a certain point this is both a successful and enjoyable effort to place the pure life and...

A Comrde&'s Troth. By E. A. Gillie. (John F. Shaw and Co. I 3s. 6d.)-David Dunbar, Gaelic Scotsman and budding doctor, swears, at the sixteenth page of his biography, to be...

I Introductory Lectures on the Oxford Reformers: Colet, Erasmus, and More. By W. Hudson Shaw, M.A. I . ...- (Longmans and Co. Is net.)-These lectures were delivered in...

Wrong from the First. By Mrs. Hart. (Cassell and Co. Is. 6d.)- I We have here the story of a stepmother who is misunderstood by, and in turn misunderstands, her two...

Clare Lint on's Friend. By Mrs. Hart. (Cassell and Co. is. 6d.) -The plot of this story is a familiar one, but it is well worked out. Clare Linton, in the absence of her...

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK. [U|nder this heading wee notice such Books of the teeJk as have not beo resenvedfor review tit other forms.] I Sparks from Camp-Fires: an...

The Master of Fernhurst. By E. Everett-Green. (John F. Shaw I and Co. 3s. 6d.)-This is a perfectly healthy story telling of how a young man possessed of very high Christian...

I Morte Airthure. From the Lincoln MS. written by Robert of I Thornton. Edited by Mary Macleod Banks. (Lougmans and Co. 38. 6d.)-This " alliterative poem of the 14th century...

ETERNITY: A PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCE. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIn,-The interesting article on " The Limitations of Fancy " in your issue of November 24th recalls a...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. RENAMING LONDON. [TO THR EDITOR OF TIL "'SPOTATOR.") SiR,-Your correspondent, S. Beale, in the S4eciator of December 1st, suggests that the new streets...

HELL RATHER THAN ANNIHILATION? [TO THE EDITOR OF THI "SPZECATOR:'] SiB,-The story of the dying cottager in the Spectator of December Ist may be illustrated by one told of the...

ROYAL ETIQUETTE. [To TEV EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Srz,-The story noticed by Kr. Lionel Tollemache of " I hope that your mother is well " has been fathered on a still more...

CANON HUGH PEARSON AND PRINCE LEOPOLD. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SNECTATOR."I SIR,-As Mr. Tollemache invites verification of his story (Spectator, December Ist) about Canon Hugh...

Mr. Chaplin, lately President of the Local Government Board, has published in the form of a letter to his con. stituents an account of the way in which he was removed from the...

I The ill humour with which some Austrians regard British operations in South Africa is not a little curious. General Ratzenhofer, President of the Military High Court of...

I The returns for the London School Board elections, held I on Thursday week, show a slight gain for the Moderates. The last Board was composed of 31 Progressives, 22...

M Mr. Balfour delivered a speech on Wednesday afternoon at Westminster Town Hall at a meeting of the Primrose League, in which he traced the growth of Conservatism in the...

Lord Strathcona, the Agent-General for Canada, has con- veyed through a representative of the St. James's Gazette some valuable and timely remarks on the loyalty of the...

Mr. Dickinson. the Chairman of the London County Council, entertained the new Metropolitan Mayors at a banquet on Monday evening. Lord Rosebery, who proposed the toast of the...

A Little Book of English Prose, selected and arranged by Annie I Barnett (Methuen and Co., is. 6d. net), is a volume of the "' Little I Library." Mrs. Barnett has chosen out...

Two volumes may be mentioned together as carrying on two valuable series published by Messrs. G. Bell and Sons. These are Worcester: the Cathedral and See, by Edward F. Strange...

The Civilization n'f the East, by Dr. Fritz Hommel (J. M. Dent and I Co., 1s. net), is one of the '* Temple Primers." This is an excellent little summary of the history of...

ENGLISH EDUCATIONAL APATHY. A DROP of more than a fifth in the votes cast at the A polls for the London School Board, as between 1897 and 1900, is a fact which demands serious...

THE GERMAN EMPERORS PLAN. T HE decree of the German Emperor by which he T makes the English language an obligatory subject in all the gymnasia, or as we should say, public...

TOPICS OF THE DAY. THE SITUATION IN SOETH AFRICA. I W E ~are not so much touched by the language of Lord Roberts's eloquent farewell to his army as some of our contemporaries...

SOCIAL OPTIMISM. IT is an interesting fact that while almost all the literature of to-day is pessimist in tone, the mass of political and social speculation is decidedly...

WHAT IS "A COLLOP"P [TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECrAToR."] SIR,-In the review of Miss Katharine Tynan's novel, " Three Fair Maids; or, The Burkes of Derrymore," appearing in the...

THE RUSSIAN PEASANTS' VIEW OF THE CHINESE. (To TSR EDITOR OP TU "'SPKCTATOR."] SIR,-You may be interested to read the accompanying cmious passage, translated from a Finnish...

THE EYESIGHT OF SAVAGES. [To THE EDITOR OF TUEB SPECTATOR"] SiR,-It has been asserted that, in a general way, the Boers eyesight is two miles longer than the British. School...

PROFESSOR RALEIGH'S " MITON." [TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SiB,-In the notice of Professor Raleigh's " Milton" in the Spectator of November 10th your reviewer comments...

THE WORD "DESIGHT." [To THE EDITOR OF TRI "SPxEOATOR.UJ SIR,-I am anxious to ask in the interest of the English language why the word "desight" is gibbeted by [sic] in the...

THE VICEROY OF SHENSI. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-You will be pleased to correct, if you have not already done so, a misstatemem- in the Spectator of September...

THE MAGAZINES. THE Nineteenth Century brings the epoch which gave it its name to an end with an excellent number, in which amateur excursions in reform and criticisms of the...

COVENTRY PATMORE.* THE bi gr Lphy of Coventry Patmore which Mr. Basil Champneys has given us is a laborious piece of work. Its moral qualities of painstaking accuracy and...

THE ELECTION OF THE SPEAKER. ON Monday the new Parliament was opened with the 0 historic ceremony which is something more than a mere ceremonial. Mr. Gully was proposed by Sir...

Two Boys in War Time. By John Finnemore. (C. A. Pearson. 5s.)-This is one of the inevitable results of the South African War. Mr. Finnemore tells of the hairbreadth escapes...

C URRENT LITERATURE. GIFT-BOOKS. In xAfred's Days. By Paul Creswick. (Ernest Nister. 3s. 6d.) -This is an excellent and conscientious attempt to reproduce the England, and...

NOVELS OF THE WEEK.* DR. WEIR MITCHELL resumes in Dr. North and his Friends the leisurely conversational method he adopted in his Characteristics, and reintroduces with some...

POETRY. SOLUS CUM SOLi. You cannot tell how good she is, How gracious, and how fair, By merely looking on her face And all the beauty there. You know not how her lips would...

BO OK S. THE AER'S MEMOIRS.* TEE first volume of this book takes us back four centuries. We seem to be re-reading the famous Memoirs of the Emperor Babar. "When I was nine...

SOLATIA VICTI. THE nation has given, I'm told, The Tories a slap on the face; Yet we are left out in the cold, And they have the pelf and the place. As a Christian I'm only...

SHOOTING AT MODERATE COST.* - I SROOTING is always an expensive amusement, which does not prevent it from being steadily more popular. But most writers on the subject, when...

TfHE SEARCH FOR A NEW ANnMAL. THE feeling that there may still exist, at the "world's T end " or in some unknown central desert or swamp, a few survivors of the prehistoric...

THE PRELIMINARY EDUCATION OF OFFICERS. I DR. MILLER MAGUIRE is a man of proved courage. In the National Review for December he has assailed one of the most inveterate of...

WOMEN AND CULTURE. A CONTROVERSY, both amusing and interesting, has Aarisen in the DaiZy News, initiated by Mrs. Louise Jordan Kiln, author of that clever book, " When we were...