very great gain for the Unionists. Mr. Saunders, whose death caused the vacancy, was a Home-ruler, and in 1892 be won his election by 296 votes (for Mr. Saunders, 2,514 ; for...

now reduced to 10; and, of course, there are any amount of rumours. It is said that the Local Veto Bill will be dropped, that the resolution against the House of Lords will be...

to punish incitements to Anarchism, Socialism, mutiny, and irreligion, have ended in total defeat. Practically all parties disliked them, all believing that the Courts and...

has retained the seat in West Dorset, vacated by the death of Mr. Farquharson, by a greatly increased majority, though Mr. Homer, the opponent of the Unionist candidate, was not...

case.

T HE recommendations of the Powers in favour of Armenia are still officially kept secret ; but an account of them has oozed out in so many ways that it is probably accurate. The...

doubtful points have become clear. The Japanese are only to retire gradually from Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei; the French have pledged themselves to provide the money necessary...

outburst of temper on the part of Sir William Harcourt, who was in his most pedagogic vein. Wednesday's debate, however, was marked by an extraordinarily clear and forcible...

Austria-Hungary has come out strongly this week. In Hungary it is confined to the lowest class, who do not vote, and the nobles, but the middle-class are powerless to remove...

hold his seat in the Commons after his succession to his father's honours, was raised by Mr. Labouchere calling attention to the presence of a Member who had become a Peer of...

t unsatisfac- tory. The revenue of 1896 is estimated at t e enormous figure of £185,000,000, but even this leaves a eficiency of £2,000,000. Large retrenchments are most...

of fourteen years, during which he has in foreign affairs never made a serious blunder. This is acknowledged even by his enemies, and his overthrow is due entirely to his del i-...

of difficulty. Magato, the paramount chief of their north-east territory, has dismissed the Dutch Commissioner, and virtually declared war. He can dispose, it is believed, of...

the scandal of the celebration in church of the marriage of a guilty divord, which took place recently at St. Mark's, North Audley Street, and there appears to have been...

New Consols (21) were on Friday, 1058.

of Cromwell go through without opposition. On Tuesday Mr. Hayden significantly asked whether the cost of erection "would be derived from Irish as well as English taxes. It is...

modicum of progress on Monday and Tuesday, but the debate on it in the Upper House of Convocation was much more important, as the new Bishop of Hereford (Dr. Percival) delivered...

day who can make almost any subject he touches interesting ; and on Wednesday he made a most interesting speech on the debt which the general public owe to the medical...

moved the second reading of his Bill for improving land- tenure. Its object is to give more security to farming tenants, and it goes very far. The tenant, for instance, when...

was held at Mrs. Courtney's, to discuss the bearing of the new Factory Act on the condition of work- zing women. The discussion, which was opened by Miss Flora Shaw, was a very...

THE TWO ELECTIONS. T HE Walworth and West Dorset Elections confirm in every respect the confident impression we have formed, that a wave of Conservatism is passing over the...

votes in the German Parliament rejecting great Bills proposed by the Imperial Government, consists in this, that the Emperor is no longer accepted as the leader of the people in...

I T is difficult to speak at all positively upon the value of the scheme of reform which has been submitted to the Sultan by the Ambassadors of the three Powers, so long as we...

T HE House of Commons appear bent on making themselves ridiculous over the claim of Lord Sel- borne to sit in the Lower House till he has been summoned to the Upper. They seem...

Hereford's speech in Convocation on Welsh Disestablishment on Tuesday was a model of what such a speech should be if it were to be given from that point of view at all. It was...

great rise in the value of all securities which are at once sound and capable of quick realisation,—a rise which is beginning to affect every interest, every business, and every...

I T is positively distressing to read a debate like that of Wednesday on farm tenures. The Liberals seem to. us to be wandering so far out of the true path in dealing with...

M R. IRVING'S pan at the Savage Club on Saturday to the Bohemian glories of the Savage Club strikes us as a little overdone. Even those of us who never entered heartily into...

T HE most remarkable fact about farming in the present day, is that there are still applicants for farms. There are desperate struggles over rent, and concessions are demanded...

T HE "sense of locality" awakens more interest when shown by the bird than by the bee, because the former has a mind of an order more human, and more cognisable by our senses....

P EOPLE who can only manage to come once to Kew Gardens during the mon th of May do well to time their visit so as to hit off the moment when the hardy azaleas are in flower,...

Sin,—The Duke of Rutland and others may recollect another "bantering " quotation applied by Sir Robert Peel to C. Wood when Chancellor of the Exchequer :— "Te triste lignum, to...

LT0 TH11 EDITOR OE THE " SPECTATOR."' Sin,—Being a frequent reader of anecdotes of the sagacity of animals in your paper, I think you may consider the following trait of...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' SIR,—There is oue feature of the character of the agri- cultural labourer, in these parts at any rate, with which he is perhaps not...

OUR STATESMEN AS HUMOURISTS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —I shall be much obliged by your admitting into your paper a more telling illustration of Sir R. Peel's...

THE ACADEMY.—II. "SUBJECT-PICTURES," OR PICTORIAL IMAGINATION V. THE ILLUSTRATION OF NARRATIVE. I MAINTAINED last week that the first condition of popularity in a picture was...

MORE ABOUT MARY STUART.* Ws wonder how much reality there is in the feeling about Mary Queen of Scots which now and again keeps cropping up to the surface of contemporary...

ONE cannot imagine a country and a people more suited to our author's pen and paint-brush than Cho-sen—as it should be called—and its quaint, original, and most picturesque in-...

Ma. BOSANQUET has done a useful piece of work. He has put together in a popular form valuable facts and opinions upon a few of the difficult questions which press upon our...

HUMAN nature never shows its weakness so clearly as when it sets out to perform some noble and heroic achievement, towards which it is urged by the purest motives and a desire...

we may say roughly that the ground travelled over by Mr. Barker in his last book, Wanderings by Southern Waters, lies low down to our left, and the scene of his present book...

IF he only knew it, there is nowhere better food for that butterfly of the bookshelves—the general reader—than the pages of The State Trials. The new volume is no ex- ception....

The Tragedy of Morant Bay. By E. B. Underhill, LL.D. (Alexander and Shepheard.)—Dr. Underhill has employed part of his leisure since quitting his active and useful life as...

Pauline von Hugel. (Catholic Truth Society.)—This is a booklet of short stories, all of them having a religious character, but written in a tone far removed from the commonplace...

and Co.)—Anybody desiring a companionable volume for a railway journey is likely to find his requirements met by Thirteen Doctors which purports to be a collection of anecdotes...

Sons.)—A short list of aphorisms, mainly culled from tradi- tion, on weather-lore. Much of this popular weather-prophecy is based on observation of the demeanour of animals, and...

Edition. Corrected and Revised by W. B. Tegotmeier, F.Z.S. With 60 Large Plates, coloured by hand. 2 vols. (John Nimmo.)—The aim of this large and handsome book is...

In this novel the hero's troubles are caused by his having engaged himself to a middle-aged bourgeoise, accepted .£10,000 from her, and subsequently allowed his affections to go...

title of this story is derived from the mabimonial experiment of a young gentleman and lady who agree to go through the ceremony of marriage as an unavoidable concession to...

" The Tribes on My Frontier." With 80 Illustrations by R. A. Sterndale, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S. (Thacker and Co.)—A good popular account of Indian natural history is much needed for...

Craw- fwd. Illustrated. (Chapman and Hall.)—This is a collection of papers lately published in Black and White, and now issued together in a large volume, beautifully...

is a web composed of threads supplied partly by his- tory and partly by imagination, which are woven together so dexterously that it is not always easy to distinguish between...

Alfred Miles. (Hutchinson and Co.)—" This volume," says the editor in his preface, " is devoted to the Humorous poetry of the cen- tury." A review of its contents makes us think...

hero of A Great Indiscretion makes his first appearance disguised as an unknown foundling, left mysteriously at a cottage door, the intelligent reader has no difficulty in...

English verse by J. Howard Deazeley. (Henry Frowde.)—Mr. Deazeley has not solved, or even come near to solving, the problem of adequately rendering Horace. He presumes that he...

Johann Loserth. Vols. I.-II. (Trubner, for the Wyclif Society.)—It is certainly strange that this work of so eminent a man as Wyclif should now be " first edited." Dr. Loserth...

(Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co.)—This is a very pleasing volume of literary gossip, with just a touch of criticism, but criticism of the approv- ing kind. Leigh Hunt is the subject...

one of the series of " Popular County Histories," books which always make us think regretfully of the genuine County History with its massive proportions and unstinted wealth of...

Paul, Trench, and Co.) — This volume belongs to Triibnees Oriental Series." The translator seeks to place "before English readers a carefully prepared book of selections from...

and Co.)—Mr. Williamson believes in Fair- trade, in Retaliation, in Commercial Federation, and other cognate theories. We cannot undertake to argue these points in columns...

the second bearing the title, contains two unacted plays, The Album and The Reprobate. It is not easy to see why Mr. James, who has proved to the satisfaction of all reasonable...