NEWS OF THE WEEK A DISASTER which may prove of most grave importance, both to England and France, has happened in the Soudan. Colonel Hicks, a retired Bombay officer in the...

great stake held by France in this affair, and may add here that Mahommed Ahmed was reported months ago to be in full communication with the chiefs of the great monastic...

any case.

meeting of the Metropolitan Liberal Councils at the Cannon- Street Hotel, and made an excellent speech on the necessity for a reform of the present government of London, which...

for London with their whole strength. The Lord Mayor, a typi- cal Tory, on Monday made to the Turners' Company the bold and foolish speech criticised elsewhere, in which he...

commands ; by Mr. O'Donovan, the able corre- spondent of the Daily News ; and by an artist employed by a German illustrated paper, who is, we have some impression, an...

to the whole of their dependent Empire, stretching from the Third Cataract for an indefinite distance towards the Lakes, and from the Red Sea to the western border of Darfur....

in the matter of the Suez Canal, which he said left not only a financial monopoly, but a political monopoly to M. Lesseps .(who does not, nevertheless, own the Cape route), de-...

proposal of the Metropolitan Railway to connect Praed Street. with Westminster. The line would be invaluable, if it could be made without too much destruction, but it is to...

very near. Admiral Conrbet has received his reinforcements. and very decided instructions, and the French Government fully hope to receive a telegram to-morrow announcing that...

France, and has been succeeded by N. Jules Ferry. There- never probably was a Minister about whom opinion was so unanimous. M. Challemel-Lacour, by the consent alike of friends...

vote for Mr. Milner (Conservative), was 3,91.8; for Mr. Lockwood (Liberal), 3,927; majority, 21. The poll of the Conservative is eleven less than * that polled by Mr. James...

by a crushing majority over the Conservative. The poll was,—Mr. M'Mahon (Nationalist), 922; Mr. Spaight (Con- servative), 473; majority, 449, or very nearly a majority of two to...

able attempt to "draw" Lord Derby upon the annexation of New Guinea and the Western Pacific Islands, but has not quite succeeded. Mr. Murray Smith asked to be informed on what...

address at Birmingham to the Suburban Institutes Union, on Literature as the greatest monument of human activity which the earth contains. We have commented suffi- ciently on...

of its ridiculous charge that Mr. Gladstone's ecclesiastical appoint- ments had been unduly favourable to the High-Church party, tries to attenuate the force of our statement by...

Consols were on Friday 1011 to 101t.

to the Secretary of the National Union of Elementary Teachers, in which he points out that though in the 18,000 Elementary Schools of England and Wales instances of...

for Promoting the Reform of Convocation was held on Monday last, November 19th, at the Palace, Exeter, the Bishop of Exeter in the chair, when various resolutions were passed,...

the Admiralty,—made a curious speech on Ireland, in which he said that what the present Government had done during the last twenty years had gravely injured the character of the...

of eighty- seven, the possessor of wealth which is supposed to have exceeded even the great sum of twelve millions sterling. He was the eon of the Rev. Lewis Loyd, a Unitarian...

evidently improving. Last Wednesday week a Conservative meeting, held under the auspices of the Godahning and Witley Conservative Association, and presided over by Viscount...

T HE new Lord Mayor has spoken out strongly against the proposal to make London a Municipality, and as he is in his way a representative man, and as the Bill for that pur- pose...

THE CATASTROPHE IN THE 8017DAN. ?T HE stars in their courses fight against the evacuation of Egypt. General Hicks, Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army in the "Soudan," has...

A GREAT deal will depend on the spirit in which the Government and the country consider the various changes by which the opinion of the country could be more truly represented...

T ORD OVERSTONE was one of the few who have ren- dered the possession of enormous wealth, not derived from land, dignified and attractive. For the most part, the owners of vast...

M R. W. H. SMITH can hardly have intended his remarks on Ireland, addressed to the "London and Westminster Working-men's Constitutional Association" on Monday, to be reported. A...

history than to watch it in the making. They have almost forgotten Sarawak, yet Sarawak is, perhaps, in some ways the most interesting of the forty or fifty States or separate...

[We do not vouch for the accuracy of the following account of politics in St. Petersburg ; but the writer, the author of " Underground Russia," has exceptional means of...

S IR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE'S address on Literature at Birmingham, as President of the Suburban Institutes Union, was certainly not suburban. His general view, that the words and...

A BOUT fifteen years ago, the following story was told to the present writer, with reference to the business which the poet William Morris had started and was managing. The Linn...

IT ARDLY any tendency in the human mind is quite so hard to explain satisfactorily as the one which the educated call Mischievousness, and the uneducated, with a clearer idea...

THE NEGATIVE VOTE. To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Ilt.,—The proposal of Mr. F. W. Raikes in your last number as to a "minus vote" is certainly novel, but it is startling to...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Stn, — As this question is now engaging much public attention, and seems likely to take precedence upon the meeting of Parlia- ment, I think...

SIR, — The remarks on negative voting in your issue make me think it worth while to call your readers' attention to a pam- phlet on this subject written by Mr. Greer, of...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' Sut,—Will you allow me a comment on your , editorial note to my last letter? You say that the cumulative vote would secure the victory to...

170 THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sra,—Dinners given to poor children are a form of relief. They cost so much to the givers, are worth so much to the receivers, and are given...

(To THE ED/TOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 fully agree with you that Mr. Parker Smith's scheme is impracticable, from its want of simplicity. If, however, the principle of minority...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE h SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—Mr. Chapman makes a very grave statement with regard' to our Memorial. The memorialists describe themselves as "resident in or round...

VOX VENTURA. WRIT . LL I do wi' my vote, when I've got it? Nay, don't yer ask! Tapping your beer's no good, till yer've got your beer in the cask ; Votin' agin my Sqnoire...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] '&14—Mr. Freeman, in last week's Spectator, tells us that in -the days of Sir Roger de Coverley the hair on the upper lip kept the name of...

Two previous poems described the lives and characters of two Students from the Highland district of Rannoch. The following poem closes the series :— BLIT one more grave, and...

OLIVER MADOX BROWN.* ENGLISH readers have reason to be grateful to Mr. J. H. Ingram for his admirable edition of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and for his judicious editing of...

IN adopting the autobiographical form for his latest novel, Mr. Justin M'Carthy has not done so rash a thing as most writers do when they undertake an evolution that demands for...

Mn. MATTHEW ARNOLD, in the new preface to his Literature and Dogma, says with that air of authority which suits his manner so well, and his critical principles so ill, that the...

Drapers' Dictionary had already proved his capacity to extract sentiment and philosophy from a haberdasher's store, here writes of gloves, with the knowledge that can only come...

history of our relations with the Far East, one of the most interesting episodes, as Mr. Thompson well says in his preface, is that of our early and brief connection with Japan...

novel sensation to each member of the human race, for at least once in his or her life ; but that does not prevent it from being a sadly hackneyed affair to the race as a whole,...

of his Homes and Haunts of Luther. (Religious Tract Society.)—The additions consist chiefly of biographical details, col- lected. by recent research. Among the illustrations,...

looking at The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Gustave Dore. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Mr. Stedman's "comment upon the poem" which is prefixed is, of course, worth...

Maurice Jessop. (Eyre and Spottiswoodo.)—The drawings here are of decidedly good quality, the birds being, perhaps, some- what better, or, anyhow, more pleasing than the "...

GIFT BOOKS. OF the annual volumes of magazines, we are inclined to place first, for the variety and interest of its contents, The Magazine of A7 t. (Cassell and Co.) The...

more dis- guised than we might wish, is Far-famed Tales from the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. (Hogg.) Still there are readers who will welcome the fishermen, genies, viziers...

Henry Frith (Routledge and Sons), is a modernisation, suited to the spelling and, we may add, to the manners of our own times. We do not know that it is better done than other...

KNOWLEDGE.—Paths in the Great Waters. By E. A. Hoare, M.A.—This is a story of the colonisation of Virginia. Mr. Hoare mixes together, after the manner of his craft, real and...

Defoe. Newly edited after the original editions. (T. Fisher "Unwin.) —The editor, using the initials "8. R. B.," gives in an introduction an account of Defoe, which is brief and...

their colouring. Some of them are familiar designs. "Carlo Malatesta taken Prisoner" is from a well-known picture, and there is the 4 ' Brides of Venice." But most will be as...

difficult sub- ject, more difficult because it has less of the attraction of novelty, in the "boyhood and manhood" of the first President of the United States. Bowes, Everett,...

and Walter Raleigh ; and in more recent days, Sir John Franklin, and Michael Faraday, and Abraham Lincoln are among the heroes whom she celebrates. We need not inquire whether...

Christmas Number for Children.—This magazine scarcely does itself justice in adopting this name. We mean that it is much more than a book for what is called Sunday reading, and...

Charlemagne—the Charlemagne of legend, not of history—are grouped the knightly figures of whom Roland is the most picturesque. Then there are Ogier the Dane, and Oliver of...

narratives, tales of adventure and of discovery, of peace and of war. The volume begins with Prince Henry of Portugal, and goes on to speak of the great discoverers of the...

(David Douglas, Edinburgh.)—These are the Psalms "according to the version approved by the Church of Scotland." Mr. M`Laren has, he tells us in his preface, made "an attempt to...

Messrs. Ackermann, of Regent Street), have sent us some of their very elaborate and ingenious Birthday and Christmas Cards and Valentines, set in silk and fringe. Some of them...