9 DECEMBER 1893

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M. Casimir Wrier has yielded to M. Carnot's importunity, sand

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has formed a Ministry, in which the principal figures are General Mercier, as Minister of War; M. Raynal, as Minister of the Interior; M. Burdeau, as Minister of Finance ; and...

The Report of the Committee of Inquiry directed to investi-

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gate the circumstances attending the military suppression of the riot at Featherstone on September 7th, completely exonerates the authorities. The Committee, which contained the...

Mr. Asquith made a short speech at the Eighty Club

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on Wednesday, in which he declared that the Government were determined to dispose of the Parish Councils Bill and the Em- ployers' Liability Bill, as far as the lower House is...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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r is many weeks since we ventured to say that Lord Rose- bery had prevailed upon the Mekong because he had in- serted China between France and Britain, in Indo-China. On -...

The new Ministry may become strong, but it is not

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so yet, Frenchmen being a little sick of so many dinners of tongue cooked with cream. As soon as the Premier eat down, M. Pas- chal Grousset, a sane Socialist of gentle manners,...

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

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ease.

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On Wednesday, the chief point of interest raised was Mr.

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Courtney's proposal that parish charities founded before January 1, 1840, should not be included in the Act. Sir Charles Dille, however, who appears to be the guide, philo-...

Professor Tyndall died on Monday at his house at Hasle-

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mere, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, his death being caused by a very sad accident in his wife's mistake of a bottle of chloral for sulphate of magnesia. For many hours...

During the week, Parliament has done nothing but plough through

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the Parish Councils Bill. On Monday, Mr. Bolton proposed to abolish compounding in the case of parish rates, —i.e., to make the small occupiers pay their rates with their own...

As President of the British Association in its Belfast meeting

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in August, 1874, Professor Tyndall created much sensation by declaring his belief that in matter we find "the promise and potency of every form and quality of life." He...

On Tuesday a deputation from miners' insurance societies in Wales,

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Cheshire, and Lancashire, whose members number 128,000, waited on Lord Salisbury at Arlington Street to pro- test against the proposal to prohibit contracting-out in the...

Professor Tyndall was not only an enterprising investigator,. he was

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one of the most enterprising mountaineers of his day. Mr. W. M. Conway gives an interesting account of this side of the Professor in the Westminster Gazette of Thursday. Not...

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A letter from Mr. Ernest a F. James, who accompanied

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the fleet of small ships which sailed last summer for the Yenesei with rails for the Siberian railway, was published in Monday's Times, giving very satisfactory accounts of the...

On Saturday last, a gathering of old Balliol men, remark-

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able alike in quantity and quality, met in the theatre of the University of London, under the chairmanship of the Speaker, to consider what form should be given to a memorial of...

Bank Rate, 3 per cent.

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New Consols (2i) were on Friday 97 1 1- xd.

Marshal Martinez Campos may be intending an immediate campaign in

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the Riff country. It is said that he is, and that the great Arab tribes are preparing to resist him to the death. His actions, however, suggest to cool observers that he has a...

The evidence given before the Opium Commission in Cal- cutta

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by Mr. James Monro is a remarkable contribution to the literature of the subject. Mr. Monro is the well-known civilian who, after a successful Indian career as Inspector....

It would seem probable that Admiral de Mello, the insurgent

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leader in Brazil, intends to follow the precedent set in Chili. A strongly organised, though small, army has grown up in Rio Grande do Sul, and has beaten the Republican troops...

The Italian Government is in rather a serious scrape. Signor

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Zanardelli has entirely failed in his effort to form a Ministry, he shrinking from the strong measures, especially in the way of taxation and "purification," which statesmen see...

A very strong deputation in favour of the Local Veto

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Bill was received on Thursday by Mr. Gladstone and Sir W. Har- court. The Chancellor of the Exchequer informed them that the Government adhered firmly to their Bill, and were...

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TOPICS OF TIIE DAY.

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THE PROSPECT FOR PARLIAMENT. M R. ASQUITH'S declaration at the Eighty Club, that the Government are determined to go on steadily with the Session till they have done at least...

THE NEW FRENCH MINISTRY.

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M CARNOT has got the Premier he wished for, but whether he has also secured a stable Ministry is a widely different matter. We suspect he has not. M. Casimir Perier is, it is...

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THE LONDON SCHOOL-BOARD THEOLOGIANS.

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rinu prolonged religious controversies of the London - L School Board are not yet at an end, and they threaten indeed to take up so much time as to extend into the era of the...

THE VALUE OF LAND.

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T HERE are many questions about which pessimism is only intermittent—questions which are alternately in the sun and the shadow. English land, however, knows no such occasional...

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THE OGRES OF THE CITY. T HE great financiers of the

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City, the leading merchants, the solvent bankers, and the " powers " of the Stock Exchange, ought to take some action for the reform of the present method of managing large...

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"THE RHETORICIANS OP IRELAND."

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I N the new number of the Fortnightly Review there is an article on" The Rhetoricians of Ireland," which is well worth the attention of any one in search of a clue to the...

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THE PARISH COUNCILS BILL AND LOCAL CHARITIES. T HE debates on

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the thirteenth clause of the Local Government Bill have been of remarkable interest. They reveal the idiosyncrasies of particular Ministers and suggest the irritation and...

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THE HUNT FOR HAPPINESS. T HERE is a dialogue in the

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new Fortnightly by the late l'rancis Adams,—the gentleman, we believe, who shot himself, not long ago, to cut short, by a very brief period, the anguish of a painful death,—on...

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THE CONTINENTAL SENSE OF DIGNITY.

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I T is, we believe, just thirty years since two Prussian officers of the highest character were compelled to quit the Army because they refused to fight a duel. They were Roman...

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A PLEA FOR THE PARTRIDGE.

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I F country-living Englishmen could be polled as to the bird which could least be spared from our fields, the vote would almost certainly fall for the partridge. In one or two...

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JOWETT AND STANLEY.

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[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Though I have only just come across your remarks on Professor jowett's sermon on Dean Stanley, perhaps it may interest you to have the...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE COUNTY BENCH. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"] gratitude were a public virtue, which I fear it is not, the public should be grateful to you for the articles you have...

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WANTED, THE ORIGIN OF A NURSERY-RHYME.

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[To TEIII EDITOR OF THE " STEOTATOR."2 Snt,—I shall be very glad if any of your correspondents can. give me information as to the history and date of the following verse, which...

AN IRISH HEDGE-SCHOOLMASTER,.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIB.,—On reading your review, in the Spectator for December 2nd, of the interesting Irish reminiscences of Mr. Le Palm, it struck me that you...

BOOKS.

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THE LIFE OF MR, W. H. SMITH.* WHEN Mr. Smith first became a candidate for the borough. of Westminster, he was distrusted by Members of his party as a " milk-and-water "...

SIR HENRY LAWRENCE'S TOMB.

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[To THE EDITOR. OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,—Sir Henry Lawrence was certainly not a High Church- man; but after he received his wound, of which he died at Lucknow, he directed that...

" REQITIESCAT IN PACE."

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I hope you will admit a brief reply to Canon MacOoll, who attacked me in the Spectator of December 2nd. He says, I" have failed...

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CUSTOMS AND FASHIONS IN OLD NEW ENGLAND.* To realise the

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antiquity of a country of which the earliest records date only from the beginning of the seventeenth century, needs a complete readjustment of the mental-his- torical telescope,...

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GAOL STUDIES AND SKETCHES.* VMS is a very valuable book,

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which should be of great service to every one who is interested in that important question,— How best to diminish crime and reform the criminal popu- lation ? The question is...

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THREE NOVELS.* POWER to arrest interest, like that displayed in

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The Triumph of Theresa, is a gift to rejoice the reviewer's heart, and make him hope again to meet the name of Jeffrey Arden amongst novelists. During the first volume this...

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HANDBOOK FOR NEW ZEALAND.* NEW ZEALAND is fortunate in being

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the first Colony to secure a place amongst Mr. Murray's well-known guide-books. Nor will her neighbours, the Australians and Tasmanians, grudge her the honour she has received....

THE MAGAZINES.

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ONE of the best papers in the December Nineteenth Century is Mr. Reginald Brett's " The Queen and her First Prime Minister." There is nothing very new in it, but the fascinating...

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Under a. Spell. By Ellerton Gray. Illustrated by Wallis Mackay.

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(Jerrold and Sons.)—The victim of the spell is a lazy schoolboy, who falls asleep in a cornfield on the way to school. What he hears, for his ears are open to the language of...

Dr. Weedon's Waif. By K. Somers. (Digby, Long, and Co.)—

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The " waif " is knocked down by a hansom and nursed by the occupant of it, who turns out to be a doctor. He turns over a new leaf and becomes a page, but being robbed by his...

The Boys of Penrohn. By Mrs. G. Forsyth Grant, (W.

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P. Nimmo, Hay, and Mitchell.)—More unreal boys than those of Mrs. Forsyth Grant we never came across. It seems to be the fashion to treat boys more and more as men, and to...

Good Words, 1893. Edited by Donald Macleod, D.D. The Sunday

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Magazine. Edited by the Rev. Benjamin Waugh. (Isbister and Co.)—We have always admired the good sense with which these two magazines are conducted. Between them they have done a...

The Bents of Battersby. By M. B. Manwell, (Religious Tract

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Society.)—This is an excellent story of a rather conventional kind. It tells of the fortunes of two brothers, the one prosperous, but with an ill-regulated household and...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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GIFT-BOOKS Prince Rupert's Namesake. By Emily Weaver. (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier.)—The Staynor family have been brought very low by their loyal devotion to King Charles,...

Messrs. Partridge and Co. have included in their books specially

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adapted to the present season a new edition of Mr. R. M. Ballan- tyne's The Eagle Cliff. It is one of the best of this favourite author's more recent stories, being a very happy...

Home, Sweet Home. By the Rev. R. G. Somas, B.A.

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(Religious Tract Society.)—Here, with a rather catchpenny title, we have a story which is the reverse of catchpenny. It is a careful study of still-life and of two families, the...

Two Little Children and Ching.' By Edith E. Cuthell. (Methuen.)

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—Children who are fond of animals will enjoy the story of the two children and their inseparable companion, the little Chinese dog, the troubles that ensue from the dog's...

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Sunday Sunshine, edited by Catharine Shaw (J. F. Shaw), is

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a magazine for children. Among its contents we observe an abridgment, adapted for young readers, of " Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," a tale of Indian life, with the title of"...

From. Hospital-Ward to Consulting-Room. By a Graduate of the London

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University. (H. R. Lewis.)—This "medical autobio- graphy" is a candid and instructive book. The writer began as an apprentice to a member of the Society of Apothecaries, passed...

Our Darlings, edited by Dr. Barnardo (j. F. Shaw), is

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a magazine to which we always give a hearty welcome both for its own sake, and for the sake of the cause which it represents in the person of its editor. Its contents seem to be...

Pun and Frolic for Children.—A brilliantly coloured series of pic-

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tures (Dean and Son).—Cielden Hours (same publishers) describes itself as a" Magazine for Girls," and seems to answer fairly well to the description, it being understood that...

A Ready-Reckoner of the World's Exchanges. By J. H. Norman.

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(Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)—This is an account of the monetary system of many countries, more than one hundred and fifty. It cannot be mastered without some effort. Mr....