12 AUGUST 1871

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Mr. Gosehen on Monday defended the Government in the matter

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of the loss of the Megasra. He accepted the fullest responsibility—a great deal more than he need have done, for he had no more to do with the sending of the vessel than with...

The precise words in which Mr. Reed states that he

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could have saved the Megasra had be chosen are contained in a letter from him to the Times, published on Tuesday, the 8th inst., and are as follows :—" Mr. Goschen goes on to...

The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any case.

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NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE Lords kicked out the Ballot Bill on Thursday. They were too tired, they said, and it was too hot for them to be discussing rubbishy measures of that kind, badly drawn and...

So deep is the scission between the Peers and the

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Government, that only forty-eight Peers could be induced to vote for the Ballot Bill at all, the rest of the " Liberal" Peers preferring to stay away. Under such circumstances,...

Mr. Corry on the same night "called attention to the

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constitu- tion of the Admiralty." 'lie made a dreadfully dreary speech, and littered about snippets of blue-book, and pitehforked un- cooked evidence at Mr. Goschen, but for all...

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There was a grand duel between Mr. Disraeli and Mr.

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Gladstone on Tuesday night. The Tory leader, like Sir It. Peel, is an in- habitant of the House of Commons, and never heartily approves any proceeding derogatory to its...

The report of the Royal Commission on the Supply of

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Coal is out, and will be found analyzed elsewhere. It comes pretty much to this. Professor Stanley Joyous was right, and we are burning our coal-fields up. If everything goes on...

M. There and the Assembly are again at variance, this

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time about the question of indemnity to the districts ravaged by the war. The majority of the Assembly maintain that persons in- jured by the war have a right to full indemnity,...

The " Royal visit" to Ireland —lo people eqsit their

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hemee ?- hue been marred by a bad riot in Ditedin. A monetereAninesty meeting was called by Some leading Nationalists for Saulay, to be held near the Monument in the Phsenix...

Mr. Justice Mellor is assailing the wisdom of our ancestors

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as embodied in proverbs in a very reckless manner. A good- humoured witness in a nisi prins case told a jury on Saturday that he was "as sober as a "—judge, he was going to say,...

M. Dufaure has introduced a Bill into the French Assembly

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making it a penal offence, punishable with fine and imprisonment up to two years, to be a member of the International. This Bill, it is expected, will pass, but its only result...

The court-martial on the officers of the Agincourt for allowing

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her to strike on the Pearl Rock has ended in a reprimand fbr her Captain and Staff Commander, and an admonition for Lieutenant Bell. This would be a most unsatisfactory verdict...

One of the oddest exhibitions of the spitefulness felt by

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some Tories to Mr, Gladstone was made in the House of Lords on 'Tues- day. Lord Oranmore, of Castle Macgarrett, Mayo, wanted to say he detested the Premier, so he said the...

The Indian Civil Engineering College, Euglefield Green, was opened on

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Saturday by the Duke of Argyle, who made a forcible but rather indiscreet speech condemning English Engineers for their want of scientific training, and evidently anticipating...

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The new Water Bill for the Metropolis recommended by the

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Select Committee will not do much good. Its intention is to compel the Companies to give a constant supply, instead of an intermittent one, and it does compel them, but on...

Mr. W. Taylor, F.S.S., read to the British Association a

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paper containing some very suggestive facts. The total number of labourers in England and Wales of all classes living on weekly wages and working with their hands is, including...

The statute holiday on Monday was only partly observed. The

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, clerks went out of town, but the workmen stopped there, which, considering that our long-absent friend the sun has reappeared, glowing with his long holiday, is a pity. The...

A statue of Oliver Cromwell has suddenly appeared before Old

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Palace Yard. It was at first believed that Mr. Ayrton, careless of the refusal of the House of Commons to put the Protector among the Kings, had 'placed him there as a prophecy...

The Centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott was

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celebrated at Edinburgh on Wednesday with great enthusiasm, the great speech at a splendid banquet held in the Corn Exchange being delivered by W. Stirling-Maxwell. His speech,...

The Shakers of America, though slightly cracked as to their

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religious tenets, and given to curious excesses of anthropomorphic speculation, are by the testimony of all observers good people, industrious, self-sacrificing, and pure. They...

Consols were on Friday 931 to 9.

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_4

The earth, then, is either solid, or has an exceedingly

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thick crust, becoming harder as we descend, harder than any known rock. At least, that is the conclusion pointed at in a paper presented to the British Association by the Tidal...

Lord Houghton, in a well-turned speech at the centenary in

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'honour of Miss Hope Scott, the sole survivor of the line, men- tioned the kind of loneliness in which the names of all the great • littdrateurs stand. They have rarely left...

The Times remarks that the returns of British Trade for

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the past month show an extraordinary increase, particularly in our exports, which reached £19,811,000, the largest total ever attained. We are told that there is also a distinct...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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A REFORM OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. T HE Lords have rejected the Ballot Bill without discussing it. So entirely and immovably is the temper of the House at variance with the policy...

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THE DUBLIN RIOT.

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T HE Government were wrong, we fear, in prohibiting the meeting of Sunday in the Phoenix Park. We dare say, in the immense repertory of statutes with which the Execu- tive is...

MR. GOSCHEN AND MR, REED.

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B Y his own account, though that account is, happily for his great reputation, as yet but a guess, the man morally most responsible for the loss of the Megtera is Mr. Reed, late...

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THE TRIAL OF THE COMMUNISTS.

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T HE extravagant horror with which Englishmen regard any attack upon Property was never better illustrated them in the approval, or at least the resignation, with which they...

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ENGLISH RAILWAY INVESTMENTS.

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rrHERE are few economic facts more striking than the recent progress of English Railways. As everyone knows, they have had a most eventful history,—eventful, at least, as...

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THE EXHAUSTION OF COAL.

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F OR the next hundred years it will not be advisable to send coals to Newcastle. But certainly less than three hundred and sixty years hence, the shares of a company with that...

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A NATION AL THEATRE.

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A N idea which always crops up once or twice in a generation, and always excites a certain amount of interest, has this year been started again. It is proposed to reform the...

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A THOUGHT ON THE FUTURE STATE.

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!VIE tendency to believe in a future state does not in this country decrease. Every other form of scepticism flourishes, and finds new votaries ; but the notion that "death is...

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SIR WALTER SCOTT.

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I T is not surprising that there should be a general desire at this time to do honour to the memory of Scott,—the healthiest and most humane man of letters which this century...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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A WORD FOR PROVINCIAL LONDON. [TO TIIII EDITOR Or Tfih "SPROTATOIC1 Sin,—Permit me to say something in reply to the charges brought against Londoners by a Scotehman in your...

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THE ORIGIN OF LIFE UPON EARTH.

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(To THE Eotroa or THE " SPEOVATOR1 Sta,—In Sir William Thomson's inaugural address to the British Association at Edinburgh, he throws out, in his own eloquent language, the...

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BOOKS.

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INDIAN SURVEYS.* Ma. 'MARK:RA:sr, Secretary of the Indian Geographical Depart- ment, has produced a work which does credit to his industry and "bump of order." His "Memoir on...

"HER TITLE OF HONOUR."

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[TO THE EDITOR OP Tilia "SPIRIT/MR.1 Sia,—The letter of "'1'. L. P." requires an answer. May I say how the book came to be written ? The story of Henry Martyn was a story that...

POETRY.

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HORTULUS HORTULORUM. MY friend the Professor of Culture Has a garden fit for a queen, Set with all flowers of Europe, And some Oriental between. A fine dome of glass its...

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ORTOLAN'S IIISTORY OF ROMAN LAW.*

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Is M. Ortolan's a text-book which satisfies the wants of an English lawyer commencing the study of Roman law ? To answer this enquiry and to give the reasons for our answer is...

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BEHIND Tll VEIL.*

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Two brothers live together in a lonely house in New South Wales, a sheep farm in a remote and thinly-populated district. The elder of the two is a man of harsh and morose...

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A GOSSIPPING GUIDE TO WALES.*

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THE title of this little volume explains the character of its con- tents. The Guido abounds . with gossip, some of which is no doubt superfluous, but on the whole the writer,...

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THE STORY OF MY LIFE.* ON turning over the pages

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of this most amusing and vivid book, one involuntarily exclaims, "What an innocent Jean Jacques I" There is the same intense impressionability, the same thin-skinned...

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Inside Paris dining the Siege. By an Oxford Graduate. (Macmillan.)

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—If this book has not all the interest which it might have, it is not the author, who tells his story admirably, but the rapid course of events, that is in fault. The first...

Clara Delamaine. 3 vols. (Tinsley.)—Our criticism on Clara Dela- maine

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will be very brief. It Is simply unfit to read. We have a hint of what is coming in the first volume, when wo aro told that the heroine " was one of those intensely feminine...