20 FEBRUARY 1864

Page 1

The news from Denmark itself arrives slowly, and in a

The Spectator

very imperfect way. It appears, however, that the King issued on the 6th February an address to the army, in which he confesses that the retreat from the Dannewerke has "thrown...

Mr. Hennessy asked the Government a very embarrassing ques- tion

The Spectator

yesterday week about the "miming despatch" to St. Peters- burg. He affirmed that Lord Russell had sent to St. Petersburg a despatch embodying his declaration at Blairgowrie that...

NEWS OF THE WEEK,

The Spectator

THERE has been throughout the week a lull in the Schleswig- - 1 - Holstein war, and the present position of affairs would appear to be as follows ;—The Danes occupy the Island...

Mr. Newdegate last night asked Lord Palmerston in his place

The Spectator

if, supposing the Germans to enter Jutland, Her Majesty's Govern- ment would adopt a more decisive line of action. Lord Palmer- ston characterized that entrance as "an...

The Pays calls England the Pontius Pilate of Politics, because

The Spectator

our only vocation is now to wash our hands of others' guilt while acquiescing in its results. There is something in the taunt. Pontius Pilate was well-meaning, but weak, and had...

Since the election there has been a regular cross fire

The Spectator

of letters and explanations, most of them very ill-tempered. Everybody asserts that everybody else pledged himself to resign on certain conditions, which the offender urges were...

The Liberals have lost the seat for Brighton in the

The Spectator

most im- becile way. They actually allowed four candidates to start, not one of whom had any particular business there—Mr. Fawcett, a man who, being respectable, could never be...

On Monday night, Lord Campbell asked Lord Russell whether the

The Spectator

treaty by which England guaranteed Schleswig to Denmark in 1720 did not bind us to resist any violent separation of that Duchy as a consequence of the present war. The words of...

Page 2

Mr. Lincoln has issued a proclamation calling out 500,000 con-

The Spectator

scripts, a number which, however, includes the 300,000 men of the last draft. This order has been dictated, first, by a desire to accelerate volunteering, those who intend to...

Sir George Grey brought in on Thursday night his Bill

The Spectator

to amend the laws relating to penal servitude, chiefly in the direction advised by the Royal Commission. The new powers proposed to be taken by the Government are ample for the...

Mr. Adderley criticized the measure sharply from his own favourite

The Spectator

point of view—that of shorter, sharper, purely deterrent sentences, with no remissions or reformatory machinery of any kind. We are not prepared to abandon the hope that this...

The week has, of course, been full of rumours, but

The Spectator

only two of them are worth notice. One is that Prussia and Austria agree to make a "personal union" between the Duchies and Denmark the basis of final arrangements, thus...

Lord Palmerston explained yesterday week that England, "in conjunction with

The Spectator

France, Russia, and Sweden," and "with the concurrence;' he believed, of Austria, had proposed an armistice on the basis of the evacuation of Schleswig, except the Island of...

Mr. Gladstone has introduced a most important bill. It is

The Spectator

technical in form, professing only to do away with certain restric- tions, but its real objects; are twofold. It enables the Chancellor of the Exchequer to turn the Post-office...

The Army Estimates have appeared, and show a reduction of

The Spectator

some 200,0001., produced by knocking about 1,500 men from different corps. This is an unimportant reduction, and the military force of the country still costs 14,884,186/.,...

The Navy Estimates have been published, and show a decrease

The Spectator

of 303,422/. on last year, namely, 10,432,6101. against 10,736,032/. for 1863. The chief decrease is on Vote 10 for naval stores, machinery, and ships built by contract, which...

The second reading of the Insane Prisoners' Bill was taken

The Spectator

on Monday night. Our objection to the measure, that it provides no security to the public for the criminal's insanity, leaving it, as before, to the certificates of the visiting...

Page 3

The Manchester Examiner gives a curious bit of London gossip.

The Spectator

The two sons of Baron Lionel Rothschild, though proposed by Earl Russell and Lord Granville, were within the month both black- balled at Brookes's.

The Suez Canal Company are still endeavouring to settle their

The Spectator

, differences with the Viceroy of Egypt. It seems that the Pasha requested them to diminish the number of forced labourers to 6,000, to pay them Is. 8d. a day, to sell him the...

Another sale of 300,000/. in bills has been effected by

The Spectator

the Council of India at previous rates.

The Revue des Deux Mendes, representative of all in France

The Spectator

that is at once educated and moderate, pronounces, we perceive, in favour of renewing the alliance between England and France in -order to preserve Denmark.

Of the Chancellor's livings ordered last session to be sold,

The Spectator

37 have been sold, 53 are under negotiation, and 85 have been inquired about. The purchase-money of the 37 livings has been 65,3001., -the majority of the prices offered being...

The return of the Bank of England shows a further

The Spectator

increase in the stock of bullion of 111,364/. The amount now held is 13,583,635/. The supply in the Bank of France has declined to about 7,000,000/. The New York Banks hold a...

The imports of the precious metals have been on a

The Spectator

fair average scale, and nearly the whole of them have been disposed of to the Bank of England.

All military resistance to the French in Mexico appears to

The Spectator

have ceased, the State of Guanaruato having submitted, and it is reported that the voting for the Emperor Maximilian is going on very favourably. Meanwhile the Church party, who...

The Confederate steamer Tuscaloosa has been seized in Simon's Bay

The Spectator

(26th Dec.) by order of the British Government. She was formerly a Federal vessel named the Conrad, and was seized and -condemned by Captain Semmes, of the Alabama, who made of...

A case of considerable importance to shareholders and directors of

The Spectator

railway companies was tried last week in the Queen's Beuch, Mr. Parsons, chairman of the Hammersmith Railway Company, and another director, purchased the Talbot estate, in the...

The Emperor of Austria prorogued the Reichsrath on the 15th

The Spectator

of February, in a speech of which the following is the only note- worthy paragraph :—" In conformity with the vote of the Federal Diet, I have, as a German prince, taken part in...

On Saturday last consols closed at 9 t to 91*

The Spectator

for money, and 01* f for account. Yesterday they left off at 91* I for transfer, and 91* for time.

Most of the Continental exchanges have become more favourable.

The Spectator

The Ways and Means Committee of the Northern House of

The Spectator

Representatives have proposed that taxes should be imposed upon articles of luxury calculated to produce 70,000,0001. a year. That amount is more than the sum which will be...

Mexican stock has ruled firm, and has touched 42. There

The Spectator

is also a better feeling on the Confederate loan, and the quotation is now 55 to 57. Railway shares have, in many instances, realized enhanced prices.

Mr. Gladstone carried the second reading of the Bill authorizing

The Spectator

the manufacture without excise duty of malt for cattle on Mon- day night without a division. The most serious objection raised was that of Mr. Bass, who maintained that the use...

The demand for accommodation is steady. In the open market

The Spectator

the best short bills are now done at 61 per cent. On the Continent money is becoming easier in price.

Yesterday and on Friday week the closing prices of the

The Spectator

leading Foreign Securities were :- Friday, FA. 12. Friday, Feb. 19. 214 231 - . • — • 96 32 .. 93 • 13 13 • 70 71 071 .. 69 • • 47 .. 60 Subjoined is a comparison of...

Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Spectator

A NATION - UNDER AMPUTATION. T HOSE Englishmen are oddly made who can read the daily tidings from Denmark without a stifled feeling of shame. The bravest of little kingdoms,...

PROFESSOR MAX MULLER'S APOLOGY FOR GERMAN AGGRESSION.

The Spectator

llE German cause in Schleswig appears to be par excellence the cause of the professors. It was hatched by a pro- fessor in the University of Kiel, the eminent historian Dahl-...

Page 6

be always writing usually are, merely for his own edification,

The Spectator

class, and is becoming the torture of the poor, will be abo- or that of a provincial audience. It was the expression of a lished. The first clause of the little bill on a...

Page 7

W HEN a great orator sp , ' :•om the steps of a

The Spectator

throne he is pretty sure to be , and the interest excited by Prince Napoleon's recent t i on British policy in Egypt is therefore easily understood. • After all the allowances...

RAILWAY LEGISLATION. F RIGHTENED by the crushing amount of the private

The Spectator

busi- ness which has to be disposed of in the present Session, Mr. Milner Gibson is bestirring himself after the accustomed English fashion. He is carrying out all the...

Page 8

FATHER NEWMAN'S SARCASM.

The Spectator

AIR. KINGSLEY has just afforded, at his own expense, a 1t1 genuine literary pleasure to all who can find intellectual pleasure in the play of great powers of sarcasm, by...

Page 10

THE WIRE-KING.

The Spectator

HE authority of M. Reuter has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." The entity described under that name, supposed sometimes to be a company, sometimes a Jew...

Page 11

THE GRENVILLES.—(THEIR DECLINE.)

The Spectator

I N November, 1756, Lord Temple took office under Pitt, as First Lord of the Admiralty ; but not being (through illness) con- sulted as to an alteration in the Address in answer...

Page 13

THE SANITARY COMMISSION AND THE FAIRS.

The Spectator

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] SINCE the battle of Chattanooga the events which have most interested "the Federais " have been the great fairs held for the benefit of the...

Page 14

OXFORD REFORM.

The Spectator

To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." SIR,--Though I have already trespassed on your space far beyond the ordinary limits of a correspondent, I trust you will not deny the the...

Page 15

BOOKS.

The Spectator

MISS COBBE'S THEOLOGY.* Miss COWIE is a fair, graphic, and vigorous critic, and writes, though this is by no means peculiar to her, very touch better when she is criticizing...

Page 17

MADELEINE GRAHAM.* WE have read this book, bad as it

The Spectator

is, with a feeling of sincere pleasure, for it seems to us a proof that the reaction against the sensation novel, the return to a perception of the true ends alike of fiction...

Page 18

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN IN SPAIN.*

The Spectator

THE principal charm of the writings of H. C. Andersen, the fervent love and admiration of all that is great, and good, and beautiful in the world, reaches its climax in the...

Page 19

TEN MONTHS IN THE FIJI ISLANDS.*

The Spectator

THIS is the second work on the Fiji Islands resulting from the special mission of inquiry despatched by the Duke of Newcastle in 1860. Dr. Berthold Seemann, attached to the...

Page 20

THE FINE ARTS QUARTERLY, No. UL

The Spectator

THE commencement of a second volume marks a step in the course of the Fine Arts Quarterly Review, and furnishes a con- venient opportunity for making some remarks on its...

Page 21

Horeb and Jerusalem. By the Rev. George Sandie. (Edmonston and

The Spectator

Douglas.)—Those who take up this volume under the idea that they are about to reed an ordinary book of travels will be disappointed. The author and his companions are but little...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

The Spectator

Pictures of the Past, and Other Poems. By William Bradfield. (Longman and Co.)—Judging from what the author says of himself, we imagine that he might have produced a very...

The Relation between the Divine and Human Elements in Holy

The Spectator

Scripture. By the Rev. J. Hannah, D.C.L. (John Murray.)—This volume contains the eight Bampton Lectures for 1863, and, we think, forms no exception to the general character of...

The National Magazine. Vols. XL, XII., and XIIL, illustrated with

The Spectator

original photographs. The National Magazine. Vol. XIV. (W. Tweedie.)—The staple of this magazine is of course "tales," and tales of a rather sensational character ; but they...

The Chikken'e Party; or, a Day at Upland. By Cousin

The Spectator

Helen. (S. W. Partridge.)—At Upland Hall the nurse breaks her leg just before an intended children's party, which is in consequence postponed, and Cousin Helen tells them...

Page 22

Historical Odes and Other Poems. By Richard Watson Dixon, M.A.

The Spectator

(Smith, Elder, and Co.)—The first of these odes is on Wellington, and. Revolution is apostrophized as follows :— "Blind, self-tormenting, raging, fiend of Dante, In force of...

Sylvia's Lovers. By Mrs. Gaskell. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)—Lost and

The Spectator

Saved. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton. (Hurst and Blackett.)—We have so recently criticized these novels at length (see Spectator for 1863, pages 1699 and 20391 that it will now be...

Poems. By G. Washington Moon, author of a "Defence of

The Spectator

the Queen's English." (Hatehard and Co.) Poems. By B. H. Farquhar. (F. Pitman.)—One is unwilling to speak unkindly of little books of this sort, which have a directly religious...

Golden Words. (John Henry and James Parker.)—A volume of elections

The Spectator

from the writings of English divines of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, by a lay member of the Church of England. We shall, perhaps, give the best idea of the book...

A Mathematical Course for the University of London. By Thomas

The Spectator

Kimber, M.A., London. Part I. (Longman and Co.)-7-A new edition of this work having been called for, Mr. Kimber has published that portion of it which was needed by students who...

Maude Winthrop's Life Charge. By Mace Anstruther. Two vols.

The Spectator

(C. J. Skeet.)—If this novel is the work of a novice, it is of some pro- mise—the story is fragmentary to a degree, and the conclusion marries off only the insignificant...

The Life of Stonewall Jackson. By Hon. J. M. Daniels,

The Spectator

a Virginian. (Bacon and Co.)—General Jackson is greatly to be pitied. A short modest narrative of the exploits of so heroic a character could not but be acceptable, but this...

The Two Families; or, the Power of Religion. By J.

The Spectator

C. Bateman. (Hatchard and Co.)—There are certain families in this tale who never open their lips except to speak in Biblical language, and they are models of virtue, and attain...

The Art Union of London has done itself great credit

The Spectator

by publishing Mr. Noel Paton's Illustrations of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. Much of the weird and unearthly spirit of the original has been infused into those pictures ;...

Poems and Songs. By Charles Welsh Mason. (Bell and Daldy.)—It

The Spectator

would be unjust to deny that the author has both taste and feeling, but the principal poem, a monody on the death of the Prince Consort, is, we think, an unfortunate subject. It...