despatch from its Berlin correspondent on the subject of the Kaiser's health. It appears that "various irresponsible Press agencies" have been indulging in specu- lations...

Reichstag on Wednesday, and expounded in an able speech by the Secretary of State, Baron von Stengel. We deal elsewhere with the curious financial position of Germany and the...

T HE opening of the Japanese Diet on Thursday was marked by one of the most significant events in the modern history of Japan. The Emperor in person de- livered the Speech from...

the Independence party. At a Conference held on Friday, the 4th inst., a resolution was adopted by 54 votes to 28 to the effect that, in exchange for the acceptance and...

an amusing duel between Herr Bebel, the Socialist leader, and the Imperial Chancellor. Taking the new Finance Reform Bill as his text, Herr Bebel attacked the Imperial policy on...

case.

the emergence of a new political party in Spain. The new organisation, which is known as the Democratic Liberal party, is the result of a coalition between Sefior Montero Rios,...

made an important speech to the Canadian Club at Ottawa. He approved of the action of the Canadian Com- missioners in the Alaskan question, and proposed that if a similar case...

Congress, this year a very lengthy Message, in which be reviews every department of politics. The chief interest naturally centres on the passages dealing with the Alaskan award...

deputation of the Trades and Labour Councils, the African Labour League, and the White Leagee last Saturday at Johannesburg, and made an important statement on the Labour...

the Balkans. According to the telegrams, it was expected that the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Ambassadors would begin on Tuesday their Conference with the Porte on the...

the remarkable promptitude and vigour of the Deputy Governor-General, Colonel Mahon, already well known for his distinguished services in Egypt and South Africa, where he...

held on Tuesday evening, Major-General Sir H. Hildyard freely acknowledged the value of the corps as tested at the recent Manceuvres. Contrasting his own experiences at the...

the Venezuelan Arbitration at the Hague, the development of the Army and Navy, and the relations of Capital and Labour. The President congratulates Congress on the steady...

on Tuesday at Brighton in his eighty-fourth year. Mr. Spencer, who has always been a delicate man, has succeeded, like Locke, in living to a great age and doing a vast amount of...

on the occasion of the opening of the new public hall which has been erected by the Town Council, at a cost of 250,000, to replace the old Assembly Rooms. After discussing what...

to the utterances of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who spoke at Halifax on Thursday; but his speech contained nothing of special significance, unless it was the incidental...

of Agriculture held at the rooms of the Society of Arts on Wednesday, the discussion on preferential tariffs was resumed and pushed to a vote. Mr. Rider Haggard on November 3rd...

with the various matters, other than Free-trade, which are part of the Liberal programme, and at considerable length with Mr. Chamberlain. "The time was coming when, if an...

on Friday 89.

HOW TO SAVE THE FREE-TRADE UNIONIST SEATS. H OW are the seats of the Free-trade Unionists to be saved ? That is a question which, naturally enough, seems of supreme moment to...

M R. AKERS-DOUGLAS is properly and officially reticent as to the contents of the Speech from the Throne. No one Minister, he says, must anticipate any of the announcements which...

W E have grown accustomed to hearing German fiscal policy applauded and held up as a worthy example for our imitation, and the prosperity of the German people used as a reproach...

engineering might well find a fit subject for celebration in the achievements of the Public Works Department of Egypt under English direction, especially in the field of...

W E are foolish, and without excuse foolish," wrote, Ruskin, "in speaking of the 'superiority' of one sex , to the other, as if they could be compared in similar things." . We...

I N Mr. Herbert Spencer almost the last of the great figures of the Victorian era has departed. Few men have ever more completely dominated national thought in their own...

N the account of Colonel Mahon's successful operations against the "new Mahdi," it is noted that on the march back to the river a number of the horses died from eating "poisoned...

Nv RENEVER a writer is accused of obscurity it is worth while to inquire what precisely the accuser means. Three meanings at least are possible. An obscure writer may be a...

(To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Fancy and myth about things Japanese are so very much to the fore at the present time, that it would be wrong not to warn the British...

THE CHURCH AND THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR. [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SrzarAmoR.1 Sin,—Unlike your correspondent, Mr. Osmond Dobree (Spectator, December 5th), I found your appeal to...

to the clergy of the Church of England (Spectator, November 21st) urging us to form a decision only after considering "the claims of the very poor." In trying to follow out this...

SIR,—Few or no Britons at either the beginning or the end of the great South African War contemplated the probability of our huge if ill-directed efforts, so long and Patiently...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] STR,—In support of his previous statements, "R. H." pub- lished in the Spectator of November 28th certain details of the cost of the...

Sra,—In the Spectator of November 28th there are two letters referring to mine which, appeared in your issue of October 31st. The fuller information asked for by Mr. Fort is....

[To TRIM EDITOR OP THIB 'SPIOTATOR..f Sra,—When you urge upon Free-trade members of the Unionist party the necessity of disregarding party ties, and possibly opposing the...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEC1'ATOR..".1 SIR,--In reading your admirable review of "Labour and Protection" in the Spectator of December 5th, I was struck by a curious fact, which...

"SPECTATOR."] SIR,—My whole life previous to 1897 was spent as a labourei in a quiet part of Bedfordshire. I have for several years kept a strict account of my income and...

"SPECTATOR."] Srn,—A remarkable comment on such a jeremiad over the iron and steel trade as Mr. Brailsford indulged in a short tone ago is afforded by the following Return...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") certainly did not understand Mr. Tollemache to suggest that Mr. Gladstone invented the phrase "bag and baggage" (Spectator, November 28th),...

November 21st, p. 867, we are bidden to remember that the phrase "bag and baggage" occurs as early as in "Tristram Shandy." It might have been added that it occurs twice in Lord...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sul,—In the Spectator of November 7th you inserted a note from me on the subject of " dumping " of plate-glass. What follows here applies to...

[To THE EDITOR OD THE " SPECTAT011.1 Spz,—The reviewer of the autobiography of Helen Keller in the Spectator of November 28th is in error when he states that, compared with her,...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR-1 Ste,,—In the interesting "Recollections of James Martineau," by the Rev. A. H. Craufurd, which is noticed with commenda- tion in the...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I send the enclosed list of books in answer to the letter of "D." in the Spectator of November 28th.—I am, Sir, &c., C. Pict ion....

NERO.* THE place which the six Caesars hold in history is, and prob- ably ever will be, unique. They were absolute masters of the whole Western world ; they lived at that...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sut,—Could you spare a moment's attention from fiscal and national topics for one purely sanitary and local ? Here in Cobdenburg the...

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE -spaarszoa...] 5i,—If ocular testimony is of any service in the discussion on this familiar topic reopened in the Spectator, permit me to state that I...

Spectator of November 21st of the warfare between the inhabitants of the sea reminds me of a curious scene I witnessed some thirty years ago at the Brighton Aquarium. I was...

IN MEMORIAM No triumph-hour of death for him In the wild rapture of the fray ; Only to watch as sad and dim To darkness waned his latest day; Dreaming, maybe, he heard once more...

THOMAS CairEvEv, a famous man in his own day, had by a singular accident of fate dropped completely out of know- ledge until Sir Herbert Maxwell published this excellent...

LORD WOLSBLEY has given his autobiography a very appro- priate name. It is a soldier's story, and in its long record of years there is hardly one which is not connected with...

further proof of the fact that Charles Keene was among the greatest of English artists. Great natural modesty and a peculiarity of temperament made him not only shun publicity,...

THE AMBASSADORS.* IT should be hardly necessary to offer an apology for delay in noticing Mr. Henry James's new novel. That ihgehious writer in his latter phase does nOt lend...

THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW. In the Independent Review for December "A Liberal" writes of the possibilities of "an educational Concordat." He divides religions education in schools...

Good Words. (IsbistA3r and Co. 7s. Od.)—The title of Mr. S. R. Crockett's romance, the serial of this year's Good Words, is cer- tainly a taking one. "The Adventurer in Spain"...

the Barriers," which runs through this year's volume is doubly interesting by reason of the author's wish to remain anony- mous till the last. The biography of Mr. Spurgeon is...

has again given us a most excellent story of adventure, which has for its characters and scenery Devonshire men and the Devonshire coast. We have remarked before that he does...

Chambers. 6s.) —Shirley Kendal comes to the country home where Julia Cairns is the only child. She is beautiful, lively, and accomplished, and she makee Julia fearfully...

and Co. 3s. 6d.)—Miss Wood's story is interesting in itself, and is made the occasion in the writer's hands of some very curious pictures of life in rural Sweden. Karen,...

(A. Constable and Co. 6s.)—Readers who are deterred by the not very attractive title from reading this book will miss a very good novel. It must be confessed, however, inasmuch...

[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] SOME RECENT BOOKS ON THE FISCAL QUESTION.—Trade and the Empire. Four...

and Co. is. 6d.) —The compilers of this epitome give the titles and objects of the statutes which were passed by Parlia- ment between 23 Henry VIII. (1532) and the 35 Elizabeth...

L. P. Jacks, M.A., and G. Dawes Hicks, M.A. (Williams and Norgate, 12s. 6d. net). It is described as "a Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology, and Philosophy." We wish it all...

guardians, do not know Mark Lemon's story of The Enchanted Doll: a Fairy Tale for Little People (1s. 6d. net), illustrated, as it had the special good fortune of being, by...

have three volumes to notice,—Guide to the Civil Service, by John Gibson (3s. 6d.) ; Guide to the Legal Profession, by a Lawyer (3s.) ; Journalism as a Profession, by Arthur...

is competent to appreciate it, is The Life of Christ, by F. W. Farrar, D.D. (Cassell and Co., 10s. net). We have criticised Dean Farrar's work with some freedom in the Spectator...