attacked by two Powers, Great Britain must intervene ; while if Russia is attacked by two, France must either declare war, or, accepting a British alliance, must renounce her...

and we congratulate both him and his countrymen ; but it is a pity that his first use of his recovery has been to wound the historic pride' of Great Britain. Speaking at Hanover...

seas safe, and so secure an inviolable base of operations. It is reported on good authority that they have purchased or hired numerous trading steamers to serve as transports....

W AR between Russia and Japan draws perceptibly nearer. The Russian Government, which always needs time to draw its great but scattered resources together, delayed its answer to...

Witte by a recent issue of the Copenhagen Politiken. The Danish paper gives a summary of the views on the treatment of Finland expressed by the Russian ex-Minister of Finance in...

ease.

Unionist Peers, has written an important letter to the Times. He admits that with the appointment of Mr. Chamberlain's Commission Protection pure and simple is staring us in the...

in Monday's issue with regard to the Russian Jew as an agriculturist. The Governors of the fifteen provinces where Jews are allowed to reside were " circularised " by the...

gives the Labour party the balance of power, that party having secured nearly half the seats in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives having increased its member- ship...

from Kishineff, dated December 21st, announced the result of the trials of the authors of the disturbances which led to the massacres of the Jews. Two of the accused, by name...

rather melodramatic story about the finances of the Vatican. Cardinal Gotti, Prefect of the Propaganda, recently, said the journal, presented himself before the Pope carrying...

at a great public reception in the Wanderers' Hall, the cost of which was defrayed by a public subscription limited to a shilling a head. According .to the Times,eorre-...

Ealing Central Conservative Association calling upon him to support Mr. Balfour, has written a letter which admirably sets forth the position we should like to see adopted by...

Mosely Educational Commission in America appeared in Monday's Times. The writer, dealing chiefly with the American Uni- versities, inclines to the view that we may learn a good...

Land Act of 1903 was given in Dublin on Monday in the Land Judge's Court by Mr. Justice Ross. It is to the effect that the tenant-for-life ought not to be allowed to appropriate...

the Companies Winding-up Act is a very interesting docu- ment. The total number of new companies during last, year was 3,596, the number of cases in which winding-up pro-...

in regard to the Education Act was defined by Mr. McKinnon Wood on Monday in an able and temperate address. He readily allows that the Act, with all its draw- backs, affords...

fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Jasper More was an- nounced on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Hunt, the Conservative candidate, being returned by a majority of 970 votes...

Wales was held at University College last Saturday afternoon. The objects of the Association, which is open to persons of either sex, are defined as being "to promote the...

Association, which aims at doing for classical study what, the British Association does for the advancement of science, should be held annually in some University town of...

on Monday night. He dealt chiefly with Mr. Chamberlain's new Commission of Inquiry, and subjected the proposal to some very pertinent criticisms. Mr. Chamberlain bad declared at...

Consols (2i per cent.) were on Wednesday 88f.

I T has always been a charge against Mr. Chamberlain that he entered upon a fiscal revolution without any clear idea of the system which he wishes to see substituted. for that...

RUSSIA AND JAPAN. W E scarcely see, if the accounts now pouring in from Tokio and the European capitals are even moderately correct, how war between Russia and Japan is to be...

silence the people who never weary in insisting that the High Commissioner has lost the confidence of South Africa. The number and cordiality of the addresses presented, the...

Commonwealth' Parliament will come as a surprise to those who had imagined that after the events of last spring the Australian' Labour party bad suffered some loss of credit. In...

Francis Joseph on the day of the meeting of the Delegations in Vienna last week was a scene full, not only of picturesque interest, but of illumination. Most people recognise,...

on " The Irony of Sophocles" introduces his theme with the remark that " some readers may be a little surprised to see irony ascribed to a tragic poet." The surprise, perhaps,...

O N the fells and high moors the Spirit of the Mist makes a league with the frost fairies to decorate for Christmas the forms of mountain plants, and the faces of the chiselled...

"T HE great silent men ! Looking round on the noisy inanity of the world, words with little meaning, actions with little worth, one loves to reflect on the great Empire of...

Snt,—Mr. Norman's views about Japan's ideals (Spectator December 12th) are in contradiction to my own experience, an experience including a residence of seventeen years in...

JAPANESE IDEALS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 Siu,—I have read with some interest and considerable astonishment the series of letters on Japanese subjects from your...

[TO THE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Is Home-rule dead P That is, and must be, as promi- nent a question as any other in the minds of many of us. " Home-rule has ceased to...

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—If the objections to the proposed fiscal policy rest on no firmer basis than that disclosed in Mr. Phillimore's letter in the Spectator...

THY EDITOR Of TEE "SPECTATOR.'] Sm,—" Les fautes et les sottises des hommea supezieurs none ravissent, elles nous soulagent de l'admiration." Is there not a suggestion of...

[To THE EDITOR OV THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —Will you allow me to say that when you judged by the tone of my letter (Spectator, December 19th) that I do " not realise the great...

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, It would be interesting to know whether Mr. Phillimore (see Spectator, December 19th) voted for the Radical candidate for Ludlow. This...

[TO THE EDITOR OE TUE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —In your " News of the Week " (Spectator, December 19th) you state that the American Legislature " would be far more likely to reply to...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] Sra,—Mr. Chamberlain has made a bold bid for Trade- Unionist support on the ground that Trade-Unionism is essentially Protective. No...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Mr. Chamberlain's comparison of the British Empire with the Campanile of St. Mark's in Venice seems to have given great satisfaction...

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sin,—May I bring to the recollection of your readers the brief statement of fiscal policy set forth by Mentor in Fenelon's " Telemaque" P- "...

"SPEOTATOR."J read in the Spectator of September 12th a com- munication headed " Canada and Mr. Chamberlain's Scheme." Is it any wonder that Canadians might have a certain...

great interest the discussion as to • the relative advantages of Protection and Free-trade which has been carried on in your columns. Possibly you will allow me in a few words...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Snt, — It is perhaps a shame to give away the secrets of poetry; but the secret of Keats's line (see Spectator, December 19th, p. 1,080) is...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sin,—The articles and letters you have published about the fiscal changes proposed by Mr. Chamberlain have been of re- markable interest,...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIB,—While there may be many opinions as to the propriety of the actions of the United States in dealing with recent events at Panama, there...

ITO THE EDITOR OP Till "SPECTATOR."' Sra, — In the Spectator of December 19th, p. 1,070, I read : "No man, as Dr•. Johnson said, was ever written down except by himself." Now...

SIR, —I do not think this means " The round world must be right" (Spectator, December 19th). If so, it is a vain tale. The "round world" once judged itself circumnavigated de...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SpEcrAToR."1 SIR, — Although the career of Mr. Gladstone at Eton scarcely foreshadowed a Double First at Oxford, and was chiefly re- markable for...

THE CASE OF THE LATE-COMER. IT is curious to observe in recent discussions of the un- punctuality of concert-goers, and of the efforts made by concert- givers to deal with the...

THE LEGEND OF THE ASS. " WHAT means the mark upon thy back, dear Griz P I trace it on thy shoulders as I ride. Slender the cross it seems that shadowed is Even to thy side."...

THE PROBLEM OF THE ARMY.* THE reviewer is at a disadvantage in treating such a book as this. It is so closely reasoned and so packed with informa- tion that it resists all...

opportunities of observing the later career of the distinguished Judge of the City of London Court who passed away a year ago, has now collected and given to the world the...

WHEN the history of the Victorian era comes to be written, there will probably be few subjects more deserving of atten- tion than the Volunteer Movement of 1860. Yet none will...

IT is a hundred years since two brilliantly gifted young daughters of Isaac Taylor•, the engraver•—Ann, aged twenty- one, Jane, aged twenty—with an older friend, Adelaide...

"Romance of the Free Forest" takes us into a new field. Ned Trent has made his way as a " free trader" into the preserves of the Hudson's Bay Company ; it is his third •...

This is not, as might be inferred from the title, a critical essay. It is a collection of short stories, ingeniously constructed on a principle which gives them a certain unity....

DENIS DENT.* IN his new romance Mr. Hornung harks back to Australia, which afforded him materials for his earliest successes. No one will quarrel with the choice, for Mr....

OXFORD WITH PENCIL AND PEN. Oxford. Painted by John Fulleylove. Described by Edward Thomas. (A. and C. Black. 20s. net.)—All will agree that this is a very delightful book. Of...

Tube, Train, Tram, and Car. By Arthur H. Beavan. (G. Routledge and Sons. 6s.)—This account of the growth and present statistics of the new forms of locomotion is an agree- able...

The Political Writings of Richard Cobden. New Edition in 2 vols. (T. Fisher Unwin. 7s. 6d.)—We do not know that many of these political pamphlets are of abiding value from an...

6s.)—One of the best characters in this novel is Mrs. Lambert, an Englishwoman who has married an Irish squire, and become, according to custom, not a little Irish herself. One...

R. N. Findlay. (T. Fisher Unwin. 15s.)—Mr. Findlay saw great quantities of game in the Cheringoma and Gorongoza district of Portuguese South-East Africa. Ascending the Pungwe,...

(Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Caudwell's book divides itself into two portions. In one he deals with his experi- ences in some of the poorer regions of...

Figgis, and Co., Dublin. 2s. 6d. net.)—The upshot of Mr. Irvine's paper is that there was no such person as Brighid (commonly spelt Bridget). To this conclusion he is led by the...

notice over several books treating of special subjects. To deal with them adequately would require a particular knowledge which we have not at command, and, could that defect...

(Ginn and Co. 7s. 6d.)—The "little brother" is the racoon, about whom Mr. Long has many interesting things to tell us, as he has, indeed, about the other animals, birds and...

Creighton. (Longmans and Co. 65. net.)—The greater part of these lectures appears for the first time. Of thoso previously published the most striking is that on " Laud's...

[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hare not been reserved for renew in other forms.] War Sketches in Colour. By Captain S. E. St. Leger. (A. and C. Black....

6d. net.)—Mr. Low commences his preface with a little story : how A and B, being equal players, were made unequal by B taking to study "one of the illustrated treatises on golf,...

directions to the gardener from the pen of Miss Rose Kingsley (prefixed to each month), a piece of poetry for each day, and a space for notes, —a very pleasing and useful little...

Frank Sidgwick. First Series : "Ballads of Chivalry and Romance." (A. H. Bullen. 3s. 6d. net.)—" Of making selections of ballads," writes Mr. Sidgwick in his preface, " there is...

by Isaac Taylor. (Otto Schulze and Co. 16e. net.)—In the "Astolat Oakleaf Series" (A. C. Curtis, Guildford, ls. net), we have On Gardens : Two Essays, by Francis Bacon and...