ambiguous, but they certainly are open to the interpretation that if the Peers produce a detailed scheme for reform of the House of Lords, the Government will consider such...

would not agree to any sort of concession, but would insist upon the Veto Bill without the alteration of a line, and would thus summarily reject all proposals for reforming the...

are thus forced they will abolish the hereditary principle alto- gether, and have a purely elective Second House. We can only say that such a threat is not likely to intimidate...

when the new Parliament assembles are naturally rife, but we see no reason to alter the view of the results which we gave last week. The Government have it in their power to...

ease.

T HE elections were completed on Tuesday, with the result that the Government majority is practically the same as when Parliament assembled for the autumn Session. The Liberals...

insist on the creation of the five hundred Peers if the Government offer reasonable concessions. If the Government will agree to a real reform of the House of Lords—the more...

the trial objection was taken by the Attorney-General, Dr. Zweigert, to several of the versions published of his remarks about the planning of an attack by Great Britain on...

by its Military Correspondent on the new Dutch Defence Bill. The Bill will probably not be discussed till February. It certainly requires the most careful con- sideration which...

as having contended that the information sought for by the officers was part of some scheme for attacking Germany That is, perhaps, a contention admissible for counsel eager to...

returned home through Austria and Berlin. At Berlin he visited the War Office, and was there shown a beautifully constructed model of the Rock and its defences. Our Com-...

as any Power has a right to put into effect without reference to the interests or criticisms of any other Power. But there is a more doubtful point. This is the proposal to...

have been very formidable examples of Secret Service agents. They would appear to have been inspired by Mr. Erskine Childers's exciting and romantic book, "The Riddle of the...

and Captain Trench, accused of espionage in Germany, began on Wednesday at Leipzig, and ended on Thursday, when they were sentenced to four years' detention in a fortress. The...

for the reinstatement of the railway servants dismissed by the various companies during the recent strike. M. Briand explained that the strike had been declared at the very...

the Judicial Settlement of International Disputes, said that war was still a possibility, and it was unjust and unpractical to insist that a sincere desire for peace was...

will not let the example of Surrey be forgotten by the other counties which are officially under orders to raise Veteran Reserves. Surrey had no exceptional advantages, but...

three policemen and the wounding of others in Houndsditeh on Friday week. On Thursday a public funeral service took place in St. Paul's Cathedral, at which the King was...

Pretoria Colliery near Bolton on Wednesday. It is estimated that three hundred and twenty lives have been lost. A terrific explosion occurred, and so far there is no adequate...

on Monday showed that at least half the men of those com- panies had had experience of active service such as could be found in no other army in the world except that of Russia...

in Surrey from men with military training living in the county, but not now connected with any military unit, has proved a very great success. Its strength is not only...

Royal Statistical Society it was shown that at the end of 1907 the total amount of capital invested abroad was 22,693,738,000, about half being invested in India and the...

Dec. 1st Consols (2i) were on Friday 798—Friday week 791.

upon the extremely able report of its correspondent, published on Thursday, upon the rat plague in East Anglia. The epidemic has lasted for three months, and no adequate inquiry...

AN APPEAL TO ULSTER. T HE great majority of the people of Belfast and of the counties of North-East Ulster are determined that they will not be driven out of the United Kingdom...

T HE elections are over, and the various parties confront each other almost exactly as they did before the Dissolution. This is, we admit, a very unsatisfactory result for the...

T HE shooting down of five policemen in Houndsditch on Friday week, when they were investigating what appeared to be an attempt at robbery in a jeweller's shop, was a crime...

W E sincerely hope that the London County Council will not drive to extremities its dispute with the Government over the question of the Mall improvement. Doubtless there is...

Tin S winter has been a season of gales. The last gale continued a whole week, and culminated with a weight and fury of wind which for three hours on the night of Friday week...

T HERE come to us here and there men and women who are like windows let into the narrowed cabin of our humanity, and help to restore our outlook. There lately lived, first in a...

O NE of the most striking and disastrous events of the inundations which followed the gales and rains of the beginning of the month has been the flooding .of Yaxley Fen in...

SEA LAW AND SEA POWER. [TO THA EDITOR or TH1 " SPECTATOIL.1 SIR,—Will you allow me to put before your readers "the other side" in regard to a portion of Mr. Gibson Bowles's...

[TO THE EDITOR OY THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIlt,—Admiral Mahan, who has told us that next to his own country his warmest feelings are for ours, recently in the Daily Hail and the...

tTo TIM EDITOR OP THE "BrEcrwros.'1 SIrt,—I wish I could dispute the facts which Mr. Bailey sets out in your last issue. But though this is impossible, I think that he...

(To THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR...1 SIB,—Your interesting article in last week's issue on this subject, while admitting the evil, suggests two causes for this decay :—(1) "...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. " ] SIR,—The succinct account given by Sir Frederick St. John of the Referendum in Switzerland, quoted in your issue of the 10th inst., might...

Sydney Smith in the Spectator of December 10th reminds me of another passage by that writer equally applicable to present-day England in the "Letters to Peter Plymley " (Letter...

is not often that I find myself in agreement with the views of the Spectator and of the leader of the Conservative Party in matters of politics. In respect, however, of their...

and ability with which during the past three weeks you have advocated the cause of the Referendum, but surely you are scarcely justified in saying in your last issue that it...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—The article on "The Political Situation" which appeared in your last issue contains a statement which would seem to be in direct...

that none of your numerous correspon- dents on the subject of the Referendum should have alluded to the fact that that process has been in operation in Scottish burghs for a...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. " ] SIR,—Having been a diligent reader of your paper for many many years, I was astonished to find your columns on Decem- ber 3rd open to the...

[ To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—May I express my regret at your abandonment of a tradition which used to make the Spectator honoured even by those who differed from it...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:9 Six, Will you allow me to call attention to a verbal inaccu- racy common both to Irish Nationalists and to Unionists which propagates a good...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Is there any value in the suggestion that the Bill should be passed by the House of Lords with the addition of one section, to the...

[TO THE EDITOR or THE"SPECTATOR. " ] Sin,—Your article on "The Odes of Solomon" in the Spectator of October 22nd has a direct bearing on the revision of the Prayer-book. There...

1802, may help to support your view that punishment should not be made too agreeable " ATTRACTION Or HANGING. A very curious circumstance took place in the kingdom of Denmark,...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sin,—May I suggest to those Roman Catholics who are being asked to sign the Encyclical Pascendi that there are four good and solid reasons...

(To Tug EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —Can you tell me if anywhere in England there is any statue of John Penn, or of Hampden, or of Elliott, and where? Or can you direct me...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] SIB,, —May I remind your readers that holly-berries are the natural food of various wild birds ? To deprive them of sustenance, at a time...

SALOME. FOR the main-spring of the drama of Salome, which is virtually identical with the libretto of Strauss's music drama, there is no authority whatever either in the New...

or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked "Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the mode of...

[TO THY EDITOR OF THE "SpEcrwros.") SIR, —I often in a wind when the sun shines use a burning-glass for lighting cigarettes. Could you tell me whether the next time I take one...

AFTER TRINITY. WE have done with dogma and divinity, Easter and Whitsun past, The long, long Sundays after Trinity Are with us at last; The passionless Sundays after Trinity,...

THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR.* MR. PUTNAM WEALE, the author of Indiscreet Letters from Peking, is probably known to our readers as a very clever writer. This examination of racial...

ME. JAYNE'S most interesting book might have been more properly named "A Century of Portuguese History," for it is much more than a history of Vasco da Gama and his fellow-...

THERE is a peculiar fascination in the study of the history of dead nations. Usually this pleasure is combined with the • The Incas of Peru. By Sir Clements Markham. With 16...

THE wife of a statesman is not as good a subject for the biographer as may at first be supposed. If she is interested in his work, and in full possession of his confidence, her...

THE oldest book in the world is certainly the Egyptian Boole of the Dead, even if we allow the name to the inscription- covered rocks of Assyria and Babylonia ; hence it follows...

THE McARDLE PEERAGE.f IT is perhaps too bold a step to hail in this unknown writer a new political satirist. Besides, "satire" is too harsh a word for the genial, if incisive,...

quaint pieces of inci- dental advice on cookery and health, was well worth reprinting. Miss Macdonell has written a very interesting introduction, in which she gives us a...

AnouT midnight on the 13th of October, 1806, Hegel sat in his room at Jena finishing his Phenomenologie der Geist, and much disturbed about Napoleon, who was preparing for the...

Co. 6s.)—" Roskelly's " is a winter-resort hotel; the revolters are its non-fashionable frequenters, with a certain mysterious "Mr. Yule" for their leader. This is a moat...

net.)—Mr. Fea describes his book as "the record of a random itinerary," and such it is, for in his two hundred and sixty-five pages he takes us through ten counties (all, we may...

author describes the commonplaces, as they may be called, of home life. Many books have been written, he says, about Japanese things, but written from the Western point of view....

[Under this hassling we notice such Books of the week as has. not been reserved for review us other forms.] Principles of the Reformation. By Henry Wace, D.D. (James Nisbet and...

6s.)—Bette Brooks at School. By D. R. Mack. (G. Bell and Sons. 3s. 6d.)—These two stories are both concerned with life in modern British girls' schools. One of these...

3s. 6d.)—Here we have quite the old-fashioned story, with the mischievous children who mean well, the bigoted parson who is a good fellow all the same, the haughty aunt, the...

Werner Laurie. 21s. net.)—We may quote the sub-title, which, defining the meaning of the word "terms," sets forth the purpose of the book. They are words and phrases "used in...

Co. 5s.)—Mr. Story, with the help of five contributors, has made an attractive book on a subject which never can be exhausted. Every land has its folk-tales, but there is...

3s. 6d.)—" Billie Brown" has a violin which he devoutly believes to be the home of a fairy. Some rude hand breaks it, and he is sorely troubled. The joy of his life is gone....

Shelley. (The Clarendon Press. 2s. 6d. net.)—Lepers. By John Jackson. (Marshall Brothers. 3s. 6d. net.)—A history of thirty-four years' work carried on by the Mission to Lepers...

net) describes itself as "a Directory for Writers, Artists, and Photo- graphers "; that is, it enumerates, with particulars of object, ex., the various periodicals, &c., where...

G. Harrap and Co. ls. 6d.)—Mr. Havell goes for his stories to the "Hellenica," carrying on the narrative down to the return of Thrasybulus and the fall of the Thirty, to the...

and Co. ls. and Is. 6d. net.)—This annual appears for the third time. It may be described as a miniature Church dictionary, and is likely to be very useful.

The Earth and its Story. By A. B. Dwerryhouse. (Charles H. Kelly. 5s. net.)—This introduction to geology and physiography is undeniably lucid and interesting. The style is...

net.)—Debrett has more than usual to record in the present issue. Among the hundred-and-odd years of its existence scarcely ono can be found that has given more material. Thero...

6s.)—A certain ambitious man among the New Stoners, Phutt by name, procures from the medicine-man of his tribe a charm, a heart of flint. It gives him the strength by which he...