been refresh- ingly dull. On Monday, indeed, the House of Commons was the scene of a public "act of contrition,"—or rather, perhaps, " attrition," as the Catholic theologians...

also raised in the Commons. Sir Edward Grey could only say that five of the prisoners in whose behalf Mr. Stevenson specially pleaded that the Foreign Office should make...

O N Tuesday, Lord Rosebery stated the net result of Siam's acceptance " of two different sets of terms at two different times." France is to have (1), the left bank of the...

case.

the fiercest tariff war recorded in history. Russia began by placing on German goods an augmentation of 30 per cent. on the maximum duties levied under her tariff. The German...

the Foreign Office vote the occasion for reviewing the policy of the Government in regard to Siam. The Government had declared that it was necessary to maintain the independence...

East Africa Company " was held at Winchester House. The Company's case against the Government was put con- cisely in certain questions addressed by a shareholder (Mr. Bishop) to...

Friday week, and Mr. Acland that for England and Wales on Monday. The Scottish vote was £548,073, an in- crease of £16,000, but the total cost of education in Scotland is...

the cost to the country of suppressing licences, supposing the Local Veto Bill should succeed in putting down the sale of alcohol. The Excise at present covered more than three-...

notice that, since the adoption by the Government of the policy of retaining the Irish Members for all purposes,— British as well as Irish,—he can no longer count himself a sup-...

of Beeslack, the chairman of his Midlothian Committee, on the subject of the Ninth Clause in the Home-rule Bill as it has now been remodelled by the Government. Mr. Gladstone is...

from Ireland points out that the Irish Catholic of July 22nd expresses great indignation be- cause Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, has granted a free pardon to the remaining...

in Fulham, stated that when he saw Mr. Logan approach Mr. Carson, he believed that " Mr. Logan was really going to strike a blow." "If be had behaved in a similar manner and had...

a dog, given in evidence before the Gateshead Magistrates. A man over eighty, charged with keeping a dog without a licence, did not appear, but the chief-constable informed the...

ming in the Navy, given in the House of Lords on Monday, was, on the whole, satisfactory. It seems that all the sailors and officers can swim, because they enter the service as...

majority of 24 (161 to 137), negatived Mr. Lopes's motion regretting that, in spite of the depression in agricul- ture, the Government " have not thought it their duty " to take...

New Consols (2) were on Friday 98:--1.

address on Bimetallism to a large gathering of City merchants. What, he inquired, do we ask of legal tender ? " We ask that it should be a stable measure of value; that it...

the City of Glasgow. In a speech as modest and straight- forward as that of a soldier should be, he spoke some 'excellent sense about the craze of "India for the Indians." The...

after listening to the usual stream of complaints in regard to the Ordnance Survey and its maps, passed to votes on harbours and lighthouses. In the course of the discussion Mr....

THE TRUE LESSON OF THURSDAY WEEK. T HE more we hear of the scene of anarchy on Thursday week,—and we have heard almost as much of it as a solar-microscope could reveal of the...

Q OME of the newspapers have been talking about " Lord Rosebery's surrender of our rights in Siam," and making other accusations of a like kind ; but, unless we mistake not, the...

NU R. GLADSTONE'S letter to his Midlothian con- stituents to explain the retention of the Irish Members in Parliament for the discussion not only of Im- perial but of...

W E are not sure whether Lord Wemyss's speech in the Lords yesterday-week was an elaborate joke or an expression of genuine terror. But as the Lords agreed to take him...

far as regards its effects on the position and influence of our leading public men, has been the return of Lord Randolph Churchill to active political life, and his successful...

a vigorous attempt to regain their hold upon London. For this purpose, an association has been formed called " The London League," and a wide and what is intended to be an...

W HEN supporters of the Bill for the better government of Ireland are unable to defend that measure on its merits, they fall back on the assertion that its anomalies are merely...

I N the current number of the National Review, Mr. Saints- bury, in an article on Guy de Maupassant, points out how the French realist, even when he strove most after uncon-...

Edinburgh Review contains one of the most unprofitable contrasts between the characteristics of two very eminent men lately dead, which we can ever remember to have read,—so...

I T is a commonplace that some of the worst crimes and outrages against humanity are committed either uncon- sciously or else from the purest motives. A good example of this...

CHRISTIANITY AND EMPIRE. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.'] SIR, — Again, in your article on " Christianity and Empire," as in that which I criticised last week, you seem to...

[TO Me EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] Sin, —I think you must look deeper for Radicals' dislike of the Referendum than the reluctance to be deprived of a grievance. The National...

dangerous to attempt to answer even so courteous an editor as your own impersonal self. May I there- fore say that I in great part agree with your article in the Spectator of...

[To nu{ EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, — I venture to send you some suggestions regarding a reformed senate for our country. (1.) Fix the number, as you propose, at two...

dog " letter in the Spectator of July 15th is wonderfully like my experience, some years ago, with my little red Blenheim, Frisk.' She always slept in a basket, close to the...

[To TII74 EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR, —The Minister of Agriculture, in his speech at Rotham- sted on July 29th, held out a gleam of hope to us farmers that the price of...

M. RENAN.* WE sometimes hear it said at the present time that Renan's standpoint is a thing of the past, and that the best criticism has got so far beyond his conclusions that a...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTATOR."1 SIR, —The writer of the article on the Winchester College five hundreth anniversary, in the Spectator of July 29th, did some- what of an...

MR. HUDSON is already well known as the author of a delight- ful volume entitled The Naturalist in La Plata, and on the ornithology of South America he may be regarded as an...

have lived well, or fought well, or studied well, must always possess some interest for the student of human nature. Their struggles are probably akin to his struggles, their...

A Mingled Yarn, is not fiction, and albeit the author tells us some stories which savour of romance, he tells us many that are doubtless true, and none that are not either...

in the highest sense a know- ledge of history. Thus to know history is like knowing a country from maps. A map cannot show how a country appears to a traveller ; and a mere...

THE August number of the National Review is a strong one, and promises well for the new management. A noticeable new feature is the "Episodes of the Month,"—a series of longish...

(Macmillan.)—This is the second volume of Mr. Dakyns' valuable translation of Xenophon. It contains "Hellenica, IlI.-VI.," "Agesilatis," the " Polity of the Athenians," the "...

(Chatto and Windus.)—Here is a book which can only be de- scribed as a shilling shocker expanded into three volumes. A is about to be married to B, the widow of the convict C,...

ceedingly clever character-sketch, with this moral 0 Sylvia if you should ever have a girl, never let her tread the road with care. weak and trivial companionship as I have...

Mr. Macdonald brings to bear on his subject the experiences acquired during a long residence in Africa. Without attempting to determine the value of his book, we may welcome it...

(Eyre and Spottiswoode.)—Mr. Lias here defends the conservative posi- tion as to the date and authorship of the Scriptures. It may be studied with profit, along with the...

This is a tale of the world before the Flood, a theme already treated in verse by James Montgomery and Jean Ingelow (by the latter in a poem of much power, " The Story of Doom...

are certainly some good things in Disinherited, but we cannot allow that the plot is one of them. The opening of this story leads us to supposs that tie indignation of Blanche...

George Matheson. (W. Blackwood and Sons.)—Mr. Matheson's object is thus distinguished from those aimed at by previous writers : "I do not seek the permanent elements of religion...

Mar- ston, and Co.)—The Bishop of Exeter, with his wife and daughter, visited Japan, where his son holds a see, and the daughter here gives a description of the country as she...

Mr. Stoddard has little that is new to tell us, he puts the old with freshness and force. There is, too, a certain element of novelty in all impressions of travel made on an in-...

(Clarke and Co.)—This is not so much a story, as a lecture to lovers of the male-kind put into narrative form. The lover is lucky because he has his mistakes pointed out to him...

have the industrious and the idle apprentice going their ways and meeting with their appropriate reward. Of course, the in- dustrious one is slandered, and the father of his...

Bell Scott, H.R.S.A., LL.D. With an Aftermath of Twenty Short Poems. (Mathews and Lane.)—Mr. Bell Scott's "Autobiographic Notes," published six or seven months ago, called forth...

collaboration with Major-General H. T. Rogers. (Macmillan.)—This volume may be road with interest, whether the reader has or has not the practical object before him of being...