Hotel by the Midland Union of Conservative Associa- tions, Mr. Balfour spoke with great good sense on the situa- tion in the Transvaal. What complicated the problem, he pointed...

• A 5 the South African debate in the House of Commons on Friday night will not have taken place when we go to press, we can only deal generally with the situation. It is clear...

Wednesday, contains a very able despatch by Sir Alfred Milner. The most important passage is that which deals with and defends his insistence upon the franchise being the...

Schreiner to the Transvaal Executive, which was sup- posed to be meant to encourage the Boers not to give in. As a matter of fact, it was intended to prevent them committing...

and " bloodthirsty " in certain quarters, but for ourselves we are exceedingly glad that it was made. Though we are most anxious to avoid war, we hold that at the present moment...

to be recorded. The first was President Kruger's quarrel with the Raad over the dynamite monopoly. The Raad wishes to put an end to it, but the President is determined to main-...

General Weyler, it is known, thinks that the civil Government, though Conservative, is not favourable enough to the Army, and • in the Senate on Wednesday he openly declared...

that the middle classes of Germany have changed, or are changing, their attitude towards the Socialists. They no longer wish them to be subjected to the exceptional laws which...

drift of which is that the Dowager-Empress and one or two of her closest allies have been for some time arranging with the Japanese Court for an offensive and defensive...

partially failed in India. It is now officially admitted in a telegram from the Viceroy that, although there has been a full supply of rain in Bengal, the North-West Provinces,...

restoring discipline. General Negrier, "Inspector" of one of the Eastern divisions of the Army, and a member of the Supreme Council of War, informed the superior officers under...

Arnold- Forster criticised very severely the organisation of the War Office, and quoted Sir Redvers Buller's evidence before the Decentralisation Committee :—" I should like to...

unreasoning violence so often displayed by strikers in the United States. In a quarrel, for instance, which has been going on all this week in Cleveland, Ohio, between the tram-...

deal specifically with these allegations, and only made a general defence of War Office arrangements. He denied that they had injured the Army by depleting the Reserve, for the...

that of " Colonel " Ingersoll, who, though a lawyer, commanded an Illinois regiment in the Civil War, and who was recognised throughout the States as the most militant upholder...

is steadily making his mark in public life, introduced the Tithe Bill in a very able and well-considered speech, a speech which emphasised all the strong points in the case for...

Queen's Club last Saturday, ended in a hard- fought victory for Oxford and Cambridge. It is worthy of note that all four long races were won by the British athletes, the winners...

his power of going straight to the essential condition. He insisted upon the necessity for recalling the fact that the law which governs the whole subject of rating is the Act...

of the Colonial Nursing Association on Wednesday in support of the appeal for £3,000 needed to complete the endowment of the society. The object of the Association, which was...

New Consols (2k) were on Friday 1061.

OLD-AGE PENSIONS. I T is asserted that the recommendations of the Old-Age Pensions Committee are to be framed on an heroic scale. Speakly broadly, they recommend a, pension of...

I T is most sincerely to be hoped that the latest news as to the attitude of Canada and of the United States on the question of the Alaskan boundary is true.. In that case, a...

enthusiasm so often manifested in this country for Japan is, we confess, to us a source of continual perplexity. That Englishmen should be interested in the development of any...

T "gradual desertion of the country for the town by all agricultural labourers is not half enough discussed. The process goes on endlessly, and at a gradually accelerated rate,...

A T the beginning of next week, if not at the end of this, we shall be able to say,—The Peace Conference has met and parted, and Europe is not at war. This may seem but a...

E must confess that we do not quite understand the great place which Colonel Ingersoll occupied in American imagination. He was to entire classes an object of horror, to other...

T HE very interesting account just published of the present Pope (" Pope Leo XIII.: his Life and Work," by Julien de Narfon ; London : Chapman and Hall) presents an attrac- tive...

R ECENTLY the Thames Conservancy have ventured to make rules aiming directly at the preservation of the birds and flowers of the Thames. Our largest river has thus become a...

THROUGH AUSTRALIAN SPECTACLES.—III. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] SIR,—The landscapes of a country have their special physi- ognomy, their characteristic tints and...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:'] SIR, —Many of the Liberals in the Church of England would go with you in your plea for comprehension and diversity if they were quite sure to...

RESERVATION. [To TUE EDITOR OF THE " SFECTATOR."1 San,—Quite alive to my presumption as being impar congresses Achilli , I must again ask you to let me take exception to the...

Sin,—Last week the two Archbishops sat at Lambeth to hear arguments as to the legality of Reservation of the Sacrament in the English Church, and judgment was reserve& On Sunday...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."' SIR, With all deference to the usually judicial fairness of the Spectator, I venture to think that many of us may reasonably demur both to...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — In your interesting note on Dr. Karl Peters ' s recent discoveries in the valley of the Zambesi (Spectator, July 22nd), you say that...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — In the Spectator of July 22nd you refer to certain falls on the Godavery River, which you describe as being far larger and more...

SIR, — There may be some of your readers who will find the enclosed lines from Theognis interesting. I came upon them the other day, and was at once struck by the neatness of...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, — We have been amused for the last week by the presence of mice on the window-sill of the large dining-room at meal time. Our table is...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — In a recent article on John Wesley you speak of " the other aide of the Atlantic, where simple and healthy Paritan life had made its...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. " ] SIR, — Can the history of Charles Waterton ' s " A Nonde- script, " and the drawing of it in the third edition of his " Wanderings in South...

Trees go airy and bright, Winged with the gold-green feather, Veiled in the deep-sea light. Clad in the emerald silk, All a-flutter, a-glitter ; Blossoms white as the milk,...

SKETCHES AND STUDIES IN SOUTH AFRICA.* WE must say with regret that Canon Knox Little has mis- used a great opportunity. At the present moment passions in South Africa are...

" GIVE me the gift of Song," one asked of Fate, " That I may sing of beauty and of Spring; Of woodland glades where streams are murmuring ; Of snow-topped mountains, lone and...

a new series, is in most respects carefully written, and with many of the judgments we find ourselves in agreement, yet it does not present to us any adequate portrait of...

THERE is a fascination in ancient diaries and letters which we vainly seek in more pompously intentioned literature. The very artlessness of words which never expected to get...

MR. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL adorns everything—politics we neither include nor except—which he touches. A happy choico of electors made him Quain Professor of Law at University...

in romantic fiction than that of making the hero resemble a Royal personage, but this ancient motive is handled with no little vigour and ingenuity in The Black Terror. Mr....

The Edinburgh .Review for July is full of solid papers, the most interesting perhaps being those on " British Finance in the Nine- teenth Century," on "The Fall of the Western...

Modern Mysticism." The writer regards Madame Guyon, Maeterlinck, and Huysmann as all mystics in their several Mystieiam," he says, " may be called the twilight of , nascent , or...

Boston, U.S.A. 6s.)—This number contains biographical notices of Professors Lane and F, D. Allen. The first died full of years, the second in what might have been the prime of...

and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—We cannot do more than indiesze the position which Mr. Hutton takes up in these lectures. :in thinks that Darwinism has been corrupted by its later pie -...

Gould. (Grant Richards. 3s. 6d.)—This is an amusing adaptation of the well-known nursery rhymes to purposes of political satire. The pictures are, however, better than the...

with a Preface by Mrs. Humphry Ward. (Duckworth and Co. 5s.)—We regret that by an oversight this book has not been reviewed earlier. Mrs. Humphry Ward's preface has again...

[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] Seventy - one Not Out. Edited by "Mid-On." (W. Blackwood and Sons....

3s.)—This is an account of Universities in Great Britain, Ireland, the Continent of Europe, and Canada, with a special reference to the facilities which they afford for women...

Alexander Kerr. (E. Arnold.)—Professor Kerr has not the same idea of " English Verse " that we have. Thus in the messenger's story of the death of Pentheus (1,043-1,152) we have...

and A. K. Johnston. ls. or ls. 6d.)— This map is in five - and- twenty divisions, some of them containing but small portions of land. No. 25, for instance, gives us the South...

K.C.B. (Macmillan and Co. 21s.)—This is the third edition of a work which has come to be recognised as a classic. Eton has in it a standard history such as no other public...

Carey. (Elliot Stock. 1s. 6d.)—We are not disposed to deny that Mr. Carey makes out a strong case for his view of the doctrine of justification as it may be stated " according...

(Ward, Lock, and Co.)—This work of Bunyan's has met with comparative neglect, or, certainly, with less appre- ciation than it deserves. For, indeed, it is in parts very fine,...