I The Little Christian's Pilgrimage. By H. L. Taylor. (Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co.)-This is one of the numerous adaptations which have been attempted from time to time of...

I Songs and Poems of Fairyland. Selected and arranged by Arthiu I Edward Waite. (Walter Scott.)-This selection contains poems from Chaucer's " Rime of Sir Topas " (which, as...

A Fair Emigrant. By Rosa Mulholland. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)-Ireland is again the scene of Miss Mulholland's tale; but this time she has, as a rule, avoided discussing...

Jasper's Conquest. By Elizabeth J. Lysaght. (Blackie and I Son.)-We do not think that Mrs. Lysaght's last book is altogether a success. It is a rather strained, but still a...

| Irving's Sketch Book. Here we have a reprint of the author's revised edition, or rather, we should say, of a special issue of this, called the "Katrina Edition." The...

Flag on the Mill. By Mary B. Sleight. (Funk and Wagnalls, New I York.)-Miss Sleight presents us with an exceedingly charming picture of life in the quiet old seaside village...

I The Flight to France. By Jules Verne. (Sampson Low and Co.) -M. Jules Verne has taken a new departure in this story, and we are not sure that it is a change for the better....

The Missing Merchantman. By Harry Collingwood. (Blackie I and Son.)-Young people will, we think, find little cause to complain of lack of excitement in Mr. Collingwood's new...

Edwy. By Annette Lyster. (Blackie and Son.)-A young boy I is sent home by his father from India to his uncle's house. He I has been brought up by himself, and is an...

I Men, Maidens, and Manners a Hundred Years Ago. By John Asshton. (Field and Tuer.)-Mr. Ashton, who is an expert in this matter, by help of his " thirty-four contemporary...

I Miss Hope's Niece. By Cecilia Selby Lowudes. (Seeley and Co.) -Mrs. Lowndes has written a simple and uneventful tale of English country life. Her work is always...

| On Duty. By Angelica Selby. (Frederick Warne and Co.)- The story of this book is simple enough; but it is told with a most uncommon vigour and spirit. Grace Somers, a girl...

I In the Sunny South. By E. E. Cuthel. With Pictures drawn by T. Pym. (Walter Smith and Innes.)-A father and mother with two children, a boy and a girl, leave England in the...

I Self-Exiled. By J. A. Stenart. (Blackie and Son.)-With those whose delight consists for the most part in scenes of bloodshed and peril, Mr. Steuart's new book will be...

Their Pilgrimage. By Charles Dudley Warner. (Sampson Low I and Co.)-This volume, which is an ingenious and sprightly attempt to combine novel and guide-book, will be found...

The King's Bell Tower. By R. Andre. (Frederick Warne and I Co.)-The author of this carefully written, if also somewhat melancholy romance, has tried to anticipate unfavourable...

" Happy Thoughts " Birthday-Book. Selected and arranged from I Mr. Punch's pages by Rosie Burnand. (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co.)-We cannot regard the idea of this book as...

The Bee-Man of Orn. By Frank R. Stockton. (Sampson Low I and Co.)-The author of "Rudder Grange," surely one of the happiest efforts of American humour, has collected here nine...

THE REPORT ON TTHE NAILMAKERS. M R. BURNETT'S Report on the condition of the nailmakers and small-chain makers in Staffordshire and Worcestershire is a paper of very great...

I Lord Aberdeen and Lord Spencer spoke against the Bill, on the ground only that it does not provide for reducing the arrears in rents which, under the Act of 1887, have been...

Durinz the greater part of the sittings of Monday and Tuesday, the House was occupied with a series of vehement and persistent attacks upon Mr. Balfour and his administration,...

The Bill for extending the advance of money under the Ashbourne Land-Purchase Act was read a second time in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Denman's amendment, that it be...

On Tuesday, the attack upon Mr. Balfour was opened by I Mr. O'Brien, who laboured, with no little acrimony of tone, to show that Mr. Mandeville's death was due to his...

On Thursday night, Ir. Labouchere moved the adjourn. ment of the House in order to discuss a subject ot urgent public importance,-which subject was the state of business....

On Thursday night, during the continued debate upon the Irish Estimates, Sir William Harcourt examined the seven cases given by Mr. Balfour, and declared that he had disproved...

MR. BURN'S ROMAN LITERATURE AND ROMAN ART."* THIS is a pleasant and scholarly book, though it is difficult to agree with the author in his view that English art and literature...

After the Winter. By F. E. ReAe. (S.P.C.K.)-In this short story the writer puts before her readers some of the trials and sufferings of three sisters. And if those who are...

I Meg's Friend. By Alice Corkran. (Blackie and Son.)- Another of Miss Corkran's charming books for girls, which will also find many admirers among people of a more advanced...

I A King, and Not a King, by M. Spring Rice (Sonnenschein), is a painfully pathetic story of a boy-King, who after a brief experience of the sweets, and also of certain of the...

I Thanksgiving Tabernacle. By Phcebe Allen. (Mowbray and Co.) |-A story of village life, in which the pettyj quarrels between Churchmen and Dissenters play a considerable...

The Walks Abroad qf Two Young Naturalists. From the French I of Charles Beaugrand. By David Sharp, M.B. (Sampson Low.) I This delightful volume is a proof that they still do...

Birdie: a Tale of Child-Life. By Harriet L. Childe-Pemberton. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)-There is much that is really excellent in this story, The two children, " Birdie " and...

The Free-Lances. By the late Captain Mayne Reid. (Sonnen- I schein.)-This is, we presume-for the books given to the public by the late Captain Mayne Reid during his lifetime...

I The Captain-General. By W. J. Gordon. (F. Warne and Co.)- Mr. Gordon takes us back to the early days of Colonial enterprise, when the English and Dutch East India Companies...

PATIENCE. THERE is no doubt that this is an impatient generation, partly perhaps because it has been taught to value so highly the commercial importance of speed, that in cases...

FROM WORLD TO CLOISTER.* A LATE critic, himself strongly opposed to Christian teaching, said that to become a saint in the fullest sense of the word, requires as much genius as...

The (Fdipus Tyrannus. A Record, by L. Speed and F. R. Pryor, of the Performance in November, 1887. (Macmillan and Bowes, Cambridge.)-Messrs. Speed and Pryor here give to the...

CURRENT LITERATURE. GI FT-BOOKS. The Art Journal. (J. S. Virtue and Co.)-This veteran periodical| (which, by-the-way, might advantageously state the number ot its years upon...

Our Own Picture-Book. By Emma Marshall. (Nisbet and Co.) I -About a hundred and fifty pictures, with appropriate letterpress, about all kinds of subjects in which young people...

I Plymouth Armada Heroes: The Hawkins Family. By Mary S. I Hawkins. (W. Brendon and Son, Plymouth.)-Mfiss Hawkins, who is descended in the tenth generation from the "Complete...

Brave Deeds, Collected and Illustrated. By Lieutenant-Colonel S. I Marshman. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)-The "brave deeds" which Colonel Marshman has here pictured, are...

True and Noble lVoimtcnt. Edited by Henry C. Ewart. (William Isbister.)-In this volume Mr. Ewart has given us the lives of eleven noble women, written by various pens, and...

The Adventures of her Serene Highness the Moonfaced Princess. By F. St. J. Orlebar. (Bentley and Son.)-If we are to judge from I the title, this book is meant to be jocose....

The artists have determined to hold an Art Congress of I, their own, to hold its meetings every year in some city of the i Kingdom, and be to Art what the British Association...

The story of official assistance to the Panama Canal. to which we referred last week, is denied this week; and M. de 1 Lesseps has asked his shareholders to subscribe...

' The new London School Board, at its first meeting on Tuesday, re-elected the Rev. J. R. Diggle Chairman by 30 votes, against 22 given for the Rev. C. Brooke. When the...

The new Constitution proposed by King Milan is a pretty close copy of the Napoleonic one. The King claims all executive power, the control of the Army and of foreign policy,...

The Berlin correspondent of the Times affirms that Prince i Bismarck is attending earnestly to East African affairs, that he is vexed at English ascendency in that region, and...

a | Sir Lyon Playfair, M.P., addressed his constituents in South Leeds on Monday, and set a most laudable example by devotirg his speech almost entirely to a subject quite...

I Professor Stuart made a verv remarkable sneeoh an WoR nesday, when he moved the rejection of the vote for Mr. Balfour's salary, on the ground that the statement of the...

Moore's Irish Melodies. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)-This is a hand- I some volume of nearly four hundred pages. We have a short biography of the poet which does not call for any...

I Walks in Palestine. By H. A. Harper. < 'Reli,-ious Tract Society.) -We have nothing but praise for the illustrations of this volume. They consist of twenty-four...

The Mirror of the World. By Octave Uzanne. With Designs by I Paul Avril. (John C. Niiiimo.)-M. Uzanne discourses on various aspects of life in France,-on society; on the arts...

Ranche-Life, and the Hunting Trail. By Theodore Roosevelt, (T. Fisher Unwin.) -In this handsome volume, we have repro- I duced the text and illustrations of sundry articles...

H Heroes of Every-Day Life. By Laura M. Lane. (Cassell and Co.) -This little volume, containing something between two and three hundred pages, is one of which any Englishman...

I Marjorie's Magic. By M. L. Ridley. (John F. Shaw.)-This is a story of what the patience and good feeling of a true-hearted girl can do towards turning evil into good....

Pen-and-Ink Notes of the Glasgow Exhibition. A Series of Illus- I trations by T. Raffles Davidson. With an Account of the Exhibi- tion by Robert Walker. (J. S. Virtue and...

The Suiss Fanzily Robinson. A New Translation from the Original, by Mrs. H. B. Paull. (Frederick Warne and Co.)-MNrs. Paull tells us why she has thought it worth while to...

MEMOIRS OF COUNT GRAMMONT.* MR. NImMo has surpassed himself, and the majority of other publishers of 6ditimis de luxe as well, by this superb edition of the Grammont Memoirs....

CAPTAIN GRONOW'S RECOLLECTIONS.* A PERFECTLY candid observer might say that these sumptuous volumes, with their hand-made paper, their duplicate illustrations,-one set being...

St. Nicholas: an Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks. Conducted I by Mary Mapes Dodge. Vol. II. (T. Fisher Unwin.)-This I second half-yearly volume completes the issue for...

I The Hunting of the 'Hydra.' By Henry Prith. (Routleilge.)- The most extraordinary thing in connection with this extraordinary story of adventures among Malays, pirates, and...

I From. Keeper to Captain. By Major-General A. IV. Drayson. (George Routledge and Sons.)-There are few writers of boys' books whose stories give us more genuine pleasure than...

Through Fire and Through Water. By the Rev. T. S. Millington. (Religious Tract Society.)-This is a thoroughly good boys' book. The adventures of Jack Smith are both amusing and...

I The History of Arthur Penreath, by Verney Lovett Cameron (Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Welsh), is an ambitious and not unsuccessful attempt to reproduce the time, and to...

The King's Daughters. By Emily S. Holt. (J. F. Shaw and Co.) -In this tale the author takes us back to the days of Bloody Mary and of religious persecution. The scene is laid...

Sutil's Message. By Emily Brodie. (J. F. Shaw and Co.)-One I of the heroines of this tale is a truant, and that alone is sure to I interest all children. And as Sybil runs...

The Sisters of Ombersleigh. By Rosa Mackenzie Kettle. (T. I Fisher Unwin.)-This is very different from " The Last of the Redcastles." The writer has forsaken the vein of...

Prison Bars. By Catherine Shaw. (J. F. Shaw and Co.)--In I spite of an unpleasant adventure which befalls some of the characters of the story, and the discovery of a dying...

Will it Lift? By J. Jackson Wray. (James Nisbet and Co.)- Mr. Wray has written some very pretty little stories, and this is by no means the worst of them. " The Story of a...

Ned's Victory. By Alice Briggs. (Wesleyan Methodist Sunday- I School Union.)-A very brief story with a happy moral, which relates a drummer-boy's temptation to sin, and his...

THE NATIONAL ART CONGRESS. THE present writer always reads a speech by Sir Frederick Leighton with a certain pleasure. It is usually too ornate and laboared for true oratory,...

THE IRISH DEBATE. T~O conduct an administration so that it will look even tolerably flawless under the microscope, is no easy work. Yet that is the task which Mr. Balfour has...

The Orient Guide, edited by W. J. Loftie, B.A., for the Managers I of the Line (Sampson Low and Co.), appears in a "third edition, rewritten, with maps and plans." There are...

ASTRONOMY AND THEOLOGY. ITO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-Is not Mr. Harrison's, after all, the " geocentric " philosophy? Is it not the tacit assumption of his whole...

BO OK S. DR. CARPENTER'S LIFE AND WORK.* i; DR. CARPENTER," writes Mr. Thiselton-Dyer in a communieation printed in this volume, " was a member of a group of men who lived...

CURRENT LITERATURE. Echoes from Old Calcutta. By H. E. Busteed, M.D. Second I Edition. (Thacker, Spink, and Co.)-We are glad to see a new edition, ' considerably enlarged,"...

WNEEK. NEWS OF THE THE whole nation has been watching anxiously beside the bed of Mr. Bright during the week, and we deeply regret to say that, day after day, hope of his...

Lord Spencer made a speech at Rochester last Saturday, in which he dealt specially with the speech ielivered by the Moderator of the Irish Presbyterian General Assembly at the...

Lord Dufferin delivered his final address to the people of I India on Friday week at the St. Andrew's dinner in Calcutta. It is, in the main, a deliberate condemnation of the...

Lord Randolph Churchill on Tuesday moved the adjourn- ment, in order to raise a debate on the measures taken for the defence of Suakin. He maintained that Government was about...

President Cleveland sent his final Message to Congress on I the 3rd inst. He repeats his argument that the collection of taxes not required by the Treasury is a breach of faith...

I The Baudin demonstration in Paris on Sunday passed off in peace. The Government fully expected a riot, and made extraordinary preparations; but the crowd, never exceeding...

MR. RUSKIN'S LECTURES.* IT is simply impossible to the present generation to comprehend what Mr. Ruskin has done for Art. We can only accept facts as they stand, and try to...

POLLOCK'S "LAW OF TORTS."* [SECOND NOTICE.] WILL Mr. Pollock's book be of practical help to a working barrister or solicitor? This is the question which will be asked by every...

I ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] _ SiR,-In the Spectator of November 24th, I see a letter signed "Lector," in which I am accused of making...

CLOSED CATHEDRALS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE ",S'ECTATOR."] SiR,-May I be permitted, as holding office in a Cathedral Chapter, to say a word on the vexed subject of charges made'...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-I respectfully crave leave to point out that you are still under a misapprehension as to the state of the law. The proposition stated...

[TO THz EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,-With respect to the editorial note to the letter, signed " A. U.," about trustees, in the Spectator of December 1st, I beg to state...

TRUSTEES AND "SETTIKYS." [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-In reference to your article on this subject, in the Spectator of November 24th, it may be of some interest...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. "INCIDENTS OF COERCION." FTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-I shall be obliged if you will permit me to contradict three of the statements in your...

THE AFRICAN BLOCKADE. [TO THrE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SiR,-Will you allow me to say a few words in reference to the interesting letter from "J. G." which appeared in the...

LORD DERBY ON THE IRISH THREAT. I F it were possible to select from time to time a true organ of public opinion, the chief difficulty would be that there are two totally...

THE STRENGTH OF THE HAPSBURGS. FRANCIS JOSEPH of Hapsburg, Emperor of Austria; F and King of Hungary, entered on December 3rd on the fifth decade of his reign. The occasion has...

TOPICS OF THE DAY. THE LIBERAL ILLUSION. THERE is no more difficult exercise of judgment than the wise conduct of Opposition. Nor do we believe that there was ever a worse...

GEORGE BROADFOOT'S MEMOIRS.* FEw readers of Indian history need to be told that George Broadfoot was an officer of rare capacity who was killed in the prime of life, when the...

THE DEBATE ON SUAKIN. LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL is on the warL path again. As usual, his own friends are the objects of his attack, and, as usual, he has found out a weak place,...

TOPD DUFFERIN'S FAREWELL SPEECH. LORD DUFFERIN would not have made the so-called L " National Congress " the subject of his final speech as Vicerov, but for a circumstance...

B O K S. DEAN BURGON'S " LIVES OF TWELVE GOOD MEN." * THE late Dean of Chichester was a pious, learned, and amiable man, but his mind leaned unduly to that "positiveness "...

TWO TALES BY MR. MANVILLE FENN.* I MP. FENN'S CcrnLnodore Junk recalls De Quineey's famous t romance, though, indeed, it was not wholly a romance, of Te I * (1.) Commodore...

THE MAGAZINES. THE December number of the Fortnightly Review is an excellent one, full of instructive papers on subjects of present interest. Lord Wolseley, for example, gives...