event of Sir Henry Brand's retirement from the Speakership, the Conservatives will bring forward Sir Matthew White .Ridley as a candidate for the post. We do not know that Sir...

begun at last. Admiral Courbet, in a telegram dated December 160, informs the Minister of Marine that he left Hanoi with his force on December 11th, and by the 16th had carried...

as almost barring discussion. The Due de Broglie made a speech on the Votes of Credit, denouncing the general feeling that criticism was unpatriotic, but still that was the...

Mr. Bright, as usual, became almost incoherently indignant. And yet he virtually admitted the abstract principle, when he suggested this as the proper reply to the demand made...

lunch and onceud an evening meeting. At the lunch he do.. dared his belief that the House of Lords was not absolutely unteachable, and that to speak of it as a. Home for...

of vengeance for the execution of O'Donnell, and the Home Office believes them to be serious. At least, the most elabo- rate precautions have been taken under orders from London...

case.

the tribes between Suakim and the Nile, writes to the Times to say they are not as yet influenced by the Mahdi. They are in insur- rection to secure independence of the...

the agricultural labourer, as a person quite unfit for Parliamentary representation ; and a demand for redistribution in the representation of boroughs, which he declared to be...

on Tuesday by a furious attack on the Egyptian policy of the Government, his idea being that we should restore Arabi, re- pudiate the public Debt, sponge out the debt of the...

path. He has introduced two Bills into the Prussian Chamber, altering the incidence of the Income-tax. By the first, all persons with less than £60 a year are declared exempt,...

state. A pleasingly absurd little fiction was kept up that he was living at the Prussian Legation to the Vatican, and not at the Quiri- nal, and Cardinal Jacobini gravely called...

Baker having been delayed in his departure for Suakim by want of money. He has, however, started at last, with full powers from the Khedive, but written orders to be as little...

" trilogy " of speeches in Edinburgh by a speech on Ireland, on which we have said almost enough in another column. We may add here that he accused the Government of having...

Birmingham on Monday. We have said enough of 'Sir Charles Mire's singularly able speech elsewhere, but we wish to quote from Mr. Chamberlain's a sentence or two which 'are worth...

of the Fourth Party, with his own choice lan- guage. Sir Henry Drummond Wolff spoke at Birkenhead on Wednesday of the time having come when the people should smite to get rid...

Wednesday a Beaconsfield Club at Shrewsbury, and in doing so made a very elaborate speech on the Irish policy of the Government, bitterly condemning it for the past, indeed,...

so far as the statistics can be trusted, the marriage of deaf-mutes very rarely indeed results in offspring who have the same congenital de- fect; while Mr. Dalby, the aurist,...

Consols were on Friday 100i to 100i1 x.d.

public life. It has addressed a circular to all Liberal unofficial Mem- bers, asking whether they are in favour of making the Franchise -Bill the first item in the programme of...

position of the poor was well illustrated in a speech of Lord Lorne at Glasgow on Tuesday. He has been making many speeches on emigration to Canada, often very good, though with...

the peerage conferred upon Mr. Tennyson, and indeed in a style of eloquence so elevated, that it appears to reveal him as the probable author of a remarkable article in a weekly...

W E fear the French are at last committed to a most serious enterprise, the conquest of Tonquin in the face of Chinese resistance. It is conceivable even now that the peasantry...

MR. BRIGHT AS CONSERVATIVE. B OTH in the speech at Keighley yesterday week, and in the speech near Padihani on Tuesday, Mr. Bright posed as, what in many re3pects he really is,...

I T is a genuine pleasure to any Liberal politician to read a speech like that delivered by Sir Charles Dilke, at Birmingham, on Monday. Liberals are suffering just now from a...

• W E confess to a keen disappointment at Lord Randolph Churchill's Egyptian speech. We have hoped against hope that this young man—who, though he chose to,present himself as a...

" Fr it , hark, I hear the strain of strutting Chanticleer!" says Ariel, in the Tempest ; and the ears of the. canny Scots who listened to Lord Randolph Churchill's speech of...

T HE Daily News of Monday contained a terrible disclosure of the miserable conditions in which labour is carried on in shops, and especially in the shops of Retail Drapers....

C ANON LIDDON, in the fine sermon preached last Sunday in St. Paul's, on the comparative influence exerted by the seen and the unseen on the quality and energy of human con-...

I T is sometimes a misfortune for a man to have a confirmed habit of lucid statement, or such a command of words that his meaning can never be mistaken. Lord Chief Justice...

SLR, —As a Nonconformist minister, who has been for some years in the habit of reading the Spectator, I am delighted to find an article on the " Horton " case without your usual...

To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Will you allow me to relate a short anecdote illustrative of the wise position taken in your recent article on "Agnostic Examinations in...

CHANGE OF RESIDENCE AND ELECTORAL EIGHTS. LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] S1R,—The letter of "J. J. H. S.," which appears in the Spectator of Dec. 8th, shows that the real...

[To THZ EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — I would ask whether, in your notice of the Liberal victory at Ipswich, you have not omitted to mention a cause which surely had...

SIR,—There is one reason against examining laymen in the Thirty-nine Articles which you have not noticed. The Church of England nowhere requires her lay members to profess their...

an article on "The Long Vacation," in your last number, you say,—" It is only the Judges of the High Court who need this lengthy repose. The County-Court Judges, who are made...

SIR, — We have heard a good deal lately of the incongruity of nominating a Nonconformist to examine in the "Rudiments of Faith and Religion" in the University of Oxford. We do...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The review of Samuel Palmer's version of Virgil's "Eclogues," which appeared in your issue of the 15th inst., oontains some statements...

Samuel Palmer's "Eclogues of Virgil," which appeared in the Spectator of December 15th, the reviewer asks, "Why it is that where fine-art publishers produce in the same work...

"THE NEW JEREMIAD." BY AN OLD YEAR'S TORY. Wn are a merry family, we are, indeed we are ! We feel that we were born beneath the true prophetic star; For north and south, and...

THE INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN OIL COLOURS. [FIRST NOTICE.] THE first exhibition of the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours opened its doors to the public on Monday last, with...

ON THE "ECCE HOMO" OF CORREGGIO. TlIE parted, livid lips, the soft brown hair That falls about His neck, the thorny crown Wounding his brow, the blood-drops trickling down,...

MR. SAYCE'S " HERODOTITS."* To show what light has been thrown by recent discoveries in the East on the earlier books of Herodotus, and to see exactly the point to which...

Hester is hardly one of the best of Mrs. Oliphant's novels. It wants more compression, especially in the first volume, more • Hasler: a Story rif Contemporary lefe. By Mrs....

in this book taken a quite new step in his very successful project of popularising, without vulgarising, the great Greek and Roman Classics. In some, indeed, of his tales from...

an apparently authoritative announcement to the effect that the publishers of Don John of Austria do not intend to issue a popular—and it was also to be hoped an easily...

WE recently referred to Mr. Walter Besant as one of the two novelists of the day who are at once realistic and romantic, Mr. Clark Russell being the other ; here is a new story...

of modern English history which may fitly be called original. For, although more than hinted at by Ranke and others, it has never yet been presented with such force, or so...

is a gorgeous-looking book, with many pictures. The one in which a girl is sitting fascinated by a huge snake may be of doubtful scientific value, but is intended to illustrate...

Hon. Mrs. Green. (Nelson and Sons.)—The first of these stories—laid so far back as 1648—is full of English country pictures, which hardly need the en- gravings to illustrate...

and Co.)—The first of these stories is a somewhat amusing account of the perplexities which arise from a mistake made in a friendly exchange of cards. One of the parties gives a...

F. Shaw and Co.)—The boy who took such good care of his mother's book, "Little Bill" by name, is almost too good and clever, perhaps, at seven years old ; but he is so lovable...

Co.) —Mrs. Berkley gives in this volume a connected history of Egypt from the earliest times down to its conquest by Alexander, interspers- ing the narrative with sketches of...

GIFT BOOKS. The Book Lover's Enchiridion ; Thoughts on the Solace and Com- panionship of Books. By Alexauder Ireland. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.)—This is a delightful work....

a considerable literature of "street cries," going back to the seven- teenth century. Into this Mr. Tuer has made diligent inquiry, and has now given the results to the public...

Darton, and Co.), sufficiently explains its object by its title. Thirty drawings of various domestic scenes present outlines which young folks are to fill in with colour. The...

book of elegant trifling, making pretensions to learning which are not always justified (as when Heliogabalas is described as the son. of Caracalla), but quite frank in what we...

Greysmith." (Macmillan and Co.)—Though "Hannah" is but twelve years old when her adventures begin, they are of a kind to interest those chiefly who are beyond childhood. The...

is a very lively tale. After some preliminary adventures, our heroes land in the Crimea, and go through the battles of the Alma and of Inkerman. So far, we follow the track of...

of a decidedly religious kind, not wholly to our taste, but certainly well intentioned.

taken occasion to explain, a real annual, as that word used to be under- stood, and not the collected issue of a magazine that has been published throughout the year. It is,...

Sons.)—It is by something of an effort of imagination that these sketches are styled sketches of "school-girls." Daphne, the Greels girl, and Izananis, a young lady of Japan, do...

the French by C. A. Jones. (Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co.)—This is a pathetic story of the Breton maiden, Francoise Dane. We find her an orphan in the first chapter, and leave...

is the sixth and concluding volume of a very meritorious work. "Canterbury," with its magnificent cathedral, which disputes with Westminster Abbey the distinction of being the...

contents of L'.Art, Nenvieme Anat., Tome III. (Remington), bat we may mention as specially noteworthy among them M. Emile Michel's two articles on " Rubens in the Munich...

and Co.)—The "young Zemindar " is led by a fakir or dervish—we feel rather hazy as to his precise status—to join in a tieing against the British Government. The rising fails, as...

With a Preface by C. J. Ellicott, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. New edition. (Rivingtons.)—This is not the kind of book which it is possible to criticise. Indeed,...

(Griffith and Farran.)—There are various tales, some of the fanciful, some of the real kind in this book. "The Kettle and the Pot" is a fairly suc- cessful imitation of Hans...

Twenty-five Original Etchings, by A. Delierre. (Nimmo and Bain.) —The translation here republished, "after extensive and careful revision," is that which was published in Paris...

touched with/ humour of the quietest sort. Of humour, indeed, the Americans have in perfection the two extremes, the most extravagant and the most. restrained. Here we have a...

"exhibits," numbering in all between seven and eight hundred, comes a series of sixty illustrations, reproduced from the originals by the various processes of etching,...

S. Holt. (J. F. Shaw and Co.)—Here we have three tales of early Christian days. The first has to do with the kinsmen of Our Lord who were accused before Domitian. But is it true...

we believe, of all the country pocket-books. It is fall of engravings, sometimes very good ; of poetry, for which we can say but little, though here and there we find a pretty...

and Son), is a full account and explanation of the Act of last Session. Mr. Hobhonse has given an introduction and notes, and has illustrated the provisions by reference to...

(Rand, McNally, and Co., Chicago), is of proportions suited to the continent of which it figures a part. We have not seen anything like it before. The best maps of our ordinary...

compiled business, Court, and official directory has now reached its eighty-fifth annual issue, and the area of the metropolis with which the present edition deals extends from...