between France and Germany are again becoming "strained." The German semi-official papers have been requested to take notice of a revival of Chauvinism in France, and to say...

to all who knew anything about the matter,—that the British nation will have to increase the National Debt by some £120,000,000 at the very least,—very likely more,—in...

people, that he never agreed to such an arrangement, and that he will not accept it. He has even withdrawn his representative, M. Zanoff, from Constantinople. The Prince fears,...

T4 ONDON has been excited all the week by a rumour that Mr. Chamberlain and Mr..Trevelyan have placed their resignations in Mr. Gladstone's hands. Having heard the Premier's...

his Budget to the Chamber. It is a disheartening one. Successive Ministries, with the approval of the Deputies, have for years thrown fresh expenses upon the Extraordinary...

on Procedure, and the Government has laid before it its proposals, which are, in the main, those of the previous Administration. Their idea is to divide the whole House into...

any case.

not be forgotten, that the expropriation of Irish landlords will probably be fatal to the maintenance of the Irish Protestant Church in the three Southern Provinces. It appears,...

about the outlay on the London Parks. The vote against the grant was on Thursday rescinded as far as the Royal Parks are concerned, and they regained their allowance; but the...

the House of Lords on Monday, questions being asked as to the Galway murder and the shocking display of feeling towards the widow of the murdered man after the murder,—a...

Devizes, on Tuesday, at a meeting held to celebrate the elevation of Sir Thomas Bates= to the Peerage, to which he now belongs under the title of Lord Deramore. Mr. Plunket...

on the Lord Chancellor's Lunacy Bill, was not, to our minds, at all satisfactory. Lord Selborne pleaded hard for private asylums ; Lord Cranbrook supported him ; and Lord Grim-...

accepted the Chairmanship, will be one of the most important that ever sat. It was originally intended that it should inquire into the expediency of legislative interference...

to announce the fall in Irish investments which has taken place, first between January 1st, 1885, and January 1st, 1886, and then between the first day of this year and March...

of Commons to crush Messrs. W. H. Smith and Co. He declared that the great newsdealing firm made £148,000 a year out of the London papers—an exaggeration—and moved that it...

asserting the ecclesiastical independence of the spiritual Courts of the Established Church of Scotland on Wednesday, urging on its behalf that it did not alter the law, but...

read nor answer just now the replies to his letters. He is studying and relieving distress on the West Coast of Ireland, which, owing to a failure of the potato, is growing...

eloquent and a very amusing speech in favour of free sittings in the National Churches, and against the appropriation of pews which is so common. The Bill, however, of which he...

the military establishment in India, thus raising the white force to nearly 70,000 men. That number will, therefore, be added to the Army Estimates, so that the force at home...

to 1001.

to Thursday's Times, disapproving, as Lord Byron's grandson, of the proposal to get up a centenary celebration of Byron's birth two years hence, unless the great majority of...

crime in'Kerry, where there are three hundred cases of crime specially reported ; and in Galway, Chief Justice Morris reports a very grave increase of crime, where there are...

speech which showed that he regarded the Bill rather as an endeavour to tempt the laity of the Free Church back into the Established Church without their ministers, than as an...

THE RUMOURED RESIGNATIONS. T HE rumoured resignations in the Cabinet, if they turn out to be true—and we suspect they will prove true, for it is scarcely possible for Mr....

T HE Cobden Club has just published* a remarkable pamphlet by Sir Louis Mallet, which he modestly calls a pamphlet on our " National Income and Taxation," though it is a great...

I T will be apparent, from the letters of more than one correspondent who knows Ireland well, that very grave fears are entertained of the revival of religious persecution in...

W E have repeatedly expressed the belief that if Democracy wrecks itself in Europe, it will be either by rash legis- lation about property, which will make Conservatives of all...

I T is pleasant to find that the Government is not yet quite carried away by the flowing stream of Socialism. So excited has been public feeling by sensational reports of dis-...

argument against importing the French system of a second ballot in elections in which no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes polled will be best seen by...

T T is a curious example of the potent effect of mare lapse of time, that Mr. Mundella's Railway and Canal Traffic Bill has been received by every newspaper but the Times with...

M R. CHAMPION announced the principle on which he, as one of the Socialists, was prepared to act, in words which he expressly declared to be carefully considered and "sober,"...

J USTICE was done, we suppose, in the case of "The Queen v. Richard Belt." We see no reason to impugn the verdict at which the jury arrived after a most careful inquiry, and...

THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY IN IRELAND. ITO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—You have uttered so many wise and true words on the question of Home-rule for Ireland, that we...

Six,—Many of us are at a loss to account for the silence of the English Roman Catholic Bishops ; it is a cause of distress and dismay in the actual state of disorder and...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Before any schemes are entertained for the purchase on the part of the State of the landlords' interest in agricultural property,...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] is always assumed that, if there were any failure in maintaining the conditions on which Mr. Gladstone is willing to admit legislative...

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR. "] MacColl, in his letter to you—Spectator, March 13th— falls into the common error of the reckless controversialist,— the disregard of...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —I was much struck with the accuracy of your views on the relations of the two political parties in your article on " Lord Iddesleigh...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—We country Liberals can hardly endorse your statement that " Political opinion has, in truth, ceased—for a time at least —to be a...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR '] SIR,—In your article of February 27th on " Lord R. Churchill in Belfast," the following statement is made :—" Ulster is not Protestant,...

HOLMAN HUNT'S PAINTING.* [PRELIMINARY NOTICE.1 IT is peculiarly unfortunate for Mr. Holman Hunt's present reputation that the first collection of his works should be minus...

THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE. HE cannot walk, he cannot speak, Nothing he knows of books and men, He is the weakest of the weak, And has not strength to hold a pen ; He has no...

THE B 0 STONIAN S.* Ma. HENRY JAMES calls The Bostonians " a novel," and as we suppose that the characters are fictitious, and as the work is one in three volumes, perhaps he...

THE thoughtful, interesting, and very suggestive dialogue which serves as an introduction to these historical studies, appeared first in the Contemporary Review for August,...

Sydney Dobell's Balder, another " dramatic poem," never very enthusiastically received, and now, we fancy, mostly forgotten, though not by those who have read it as carefully as...

underlying Colonel Barras' ludicrous description of the profound ignorance of the British taxpayer regarding our Indian possessions, an ignorance, indeed, that may be said to...

from the impressively—indeed, the tragically—modest preface to this work whether the use of the word " personal " in the description of it was the late General Grant's own...

: Select Plays," Twelfth Night, edited by William Aldis Wright, M.A. (the Clarendon Press), a volume whicl comes recom- mended by the editor's great reputation as a learned and...

a somewhat strange story, less happy, we are inclined to say, in its general conception than in the details of its execution. The cen- tral figure is an ex-Bishop, artist,...

wonderful capacity for word painting. Nothing could be better than his pic- tures of sea scenery, of the terrors of tempests, the ominous stillness of calm, of all the wonderful...

Scott, B.A. (Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge.) —This is an interesting study, not so much of a great man as of a great work. The person- ality of Tilfilas, indeed, is clearly...

Co.)—Various types of ministers and laymen, within and with- out the Established Church, are described in this volume, and described for the most part with humour, good sense,...

The Church Quarterly Review, January.—There is a very able and important paper in the current Church Quarterly, entitled "Evolution and Design," showing, by means of very...

E. Thorold Rogers, M.P. (S.P.C. K.) —This " short history " is an excel- lent example of the author's manner and style when they are at their best. Mr. Rogers's utterances do...