POETRY. A CHRISTMAS SONNET. | I IIEARD the children crying from the stair, " A merry, merry Christmas to you all !" I saw down gentle cheeks a tear-drop fall, And on the...

HAPIIOP'Oi "iniioi. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SmR,-The Liberal Unionists may encourage Mr. Goschen to put himself into Conservative harness; but, as a party, they...

THE AMBLESIDE RAILWAY, WESTAMORE LAND. | TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. " I SIR,-M1y attention has been called to your note upon Mr. Hills's letter, as published in the...

A R T. A GLANCE AT VAN DYCK.-GROSVENOR GALLERY. SIR COUTTS LINIDSAY and the Directors of the Grosvenor Gallery have, we think, made one very considerable mistake in the...

BOOKBINDING. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-Your correspondent, " J. D.," is under a misapprehension. He says that, in regard to new books, " the sheets in many...

Clouds Cleared, by the Rev. Claude Smith Bird (Nisbet), is a I collection of sixteen sermons on " hard subjects of New Testament teaching," such as " The Sheep and the Goats...

I Shooting. By Lord Walsingbam and Sir Ralph Payne Galwey. I Field and Covert. (Longmans.)-This is the new volume of "The Badminton Library ;" and as far as one who does not...

Sulvan Winter. By Francis George Heath. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)-Mr. Heath quotes from a letter addressed to him by Lord Beaconsfield, " Sylvan scenery never palls,"...

Collljeisl Facusltq foe Lolg By Walter Hayle Walshe, MI.D.| (J. and A. Churchill.)-This is a " second edition, greatly enlarged," and we may conjecture, though without a...

Like Lucifer, by Denzil Vane (hurst and Blackett), is, in spite of I its rather affected title, a very wvell constructed and more than fairly well written novel of the...

Tales and Rhymes in the Lindsay Folk-Speech. By Mabel I Peacock. (Jackson and Son, Brigg; Bell and Son, London.)-We I shall best give a notion of this little book by...

There is plenty of music, mystery, misery, and " the Meister," in Mrs. Oscar Beringer's A Left-Handed Alarriage. (Remington.)-It is described by the author as " A Story of...

"All But." By " Pen Oliver." (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)- Even distinguished persons have a "last" of their own beyond which it is not well for them to go. "Pen Oliver"...

Lady Queensfield: a Border Holiday. By Nicholas Dickson. (A. and C. Black.)-It is not, perhaps, to the credit of civilised men that such an epithet as " harmless " is not high...

TOPICS OF THE DAY. MR. GOSCHEN'S ACCEPTANCE OF OFFICE. HE Conservatives try hard to suppress the chagrin with T which they see not merely the policy of their party...

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S CONFERENCE. W TE do not look for any important result from Mr. NV T Chamberlain's Conference with Mr. Morley and Sir William Harcourt, unless, indeed, the...

It is quite evident that the late Chancellor of the Exchequer I intended to pose for a time as an advocate of strict economy. In -a Minute, dated December 16th, 1886, and...

An odd incident has occurred in New South WVales. The local government appointed Mr. Julian Salomons Chief Justice of the Colony, and he, on November 13th, 1886, accepted the...

Lord Charles Beresford made an amusing speech at Grantham | on Wednesday, his object being principally to show that the administration of the Navy is being thoroughly...

t Mir. Frederick V~erney writes to yester day's ~i~iues that Il " there is, and always has been, one bond of union between many I Gladstonians and the Unionists,"-namely, the...

Mr. Labouchere is as virulent against Mr. Goschen and Mr. } - I . . . - (ihamberlain as if they were personal enemies of his own. In his speech at Reading on Thursday, he...

The promise of the revival of trade,-if only a great war does not break out,-is shown very clearly in the improved Revenue Returns for the nine months since March 31st last....

The papers are discussing with great eagerness the question ot securing telegraph-wires ; but they arrive at very little result. They are, we think, united in advising that...

I The expedition reached the Burmese Valley of Rubies in safety on the 4th inst., and found the villagers of the locality peaceable people, inclined to trade. The force has...

ATr (Gladstone's third letter is a letter to Sir William I Harcourt on the duty of accepting cordially Mr. Chamberlain's overtures, and taking counsel with him as to the Irish...

T'hP Riiqiq.an Government is said to have put out a feeler I towards a compromise with Bulgaria. If the Bulgarians will agree to dissolve the Sobranje, and dismiss the Regents,...

The "party of labour" is growing strong in the Unites} States. Governor Hill, of New York State, in his annual message to the Legislature, has recommended that the Saturday...

I It is reported by telegraph from Pekin that Marquis Tseng has been appointed head of the Chinese Foreign Office. If that is true, the fact lends a new importance to the...

The Tiwes publishes a statement from the Servian Gazette, an organ of the Prince of Montenegro, which may prove ot importance. That journal says the Prince of Montenegro has...

Mr. Gladstone's second letter is addressed to the editor of | the Scottish Leader, a new Edinburgh paper committed to the cause of Home-rule, the first number of which appeared...

As both Lord Northbrook and Lord Lansdowne have declined I i Lord Salisbury's invitation to join his Government, the War Office, which 'Mr. W. H. Smith now ceases to...

The Timaes, with great good sense, allows its special corre- sponclents to quarrel over the reports about a Russo-German alliance. Their representative in Paris reaffirms his...

Lord Salisbury is going back to the Foreign Office. and Lord I Iddesleigh, who in his present state of health is overburdened by its duties, is likely to retire. He is one of...

NEWS OF THE WEEK. L ORD SALTSBURY has offered the Chancellorship of the L Exchequer, though without the lead of the House of Commons, to Mr. Goschen, and this Mr. Goschen has...

I The German Army Bill is believed to be in serious dancer. The Committee has absolutely refused to accept it as it stands, and has voted only the number of battalions and...

Three political letters have been published from Mr. Glad- stone this week, one of which has greatly disappointed us. Lord Ripon was understood to have expressed Mr....

B OOK S. . THE BISHOP OF DERRY'S POEMS.* THE three poems which occupy the most space in this volume are so full of a certain splendour as well as power, that we cannot help...

THE MAGAZINES. WE wonder whether competition, which certainly does not improve newspapers, improves or injures magazines. Apparently it produces very little effect, each...

WIlY SHOULD NOT LORD SALISBURY SPEAK IN THE COMMONS? THERE is a downright stupidity among Englishmen upon 1 points which is sometimes hardly explicable. They will submit to...

-Together with this may be mentioned An Account of a IVe.,t I Indian Sanatorium, and a Guide to Barbados. By the Rev. J. H. I Sutton Moxley. (Sampson Low and Co.)-Mr. Moxley...

I Books for a Reference Library. First Series. (Simpkin and Marshall.)-We have in this volume seven " lectures on the books in the Reference Department of the Free Public...

I Dr. A. Tucker Wise writes (J. and A. Churchill) Contra-fnli- cations for T'isiting High Altitudes, with a special account of the attractions and advantages of M1aloja, in...

CURRENT LITERATURE. The End of Man. By Albany J. Christie, S.J. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)-One feels that this book is scarcely an appropriate subject for criticism. The...

THE LATEST INFERNO. THE new series of Blackcwood's 3fagazine opens brilliantly with a picture of great power (which we are hardly likely to be mistaken in ascribing to the pen...

DOES AGE HARDEN? 4Nr R. RIDER HAGGARD, in the course of the extrailL ordinary new romance which he calls " She "-a romance for which we venture to predict a demand...

DOCTOR CUPID.* Doctor Culpid is a very clever book, and only just escapes being a beautiful one. It is certainly the best book that Miss Broughton has yet written; almost free...

THE GROUPS. W ;CE have discussed Mr. Chamberlain's proceedings suffig ciently elsewhere, but we have omitted what may be the worst conclusion of all. If it were not that we...

i NEw EDITIONS.- -The Life and Letters of Edgjar A. Poe. By J. N. [ Ingram. (W. H. Allen and Co.)-The first edition appeared about six years ago. It has been reprinted, as...

A Guide to the Study of English Coins, by the late H. W. Henfrey, appears in a " new and revised edition," by C. F. Keary, M.A. (Bell and Sons.) -The writer prefixes a...

Tie Reader's Shakespeare. Vol. I., Comedies. (Walter Smith.)- I The first paragraph of the " Editor's Advertisement " runs thus "The present work contains the complete...

Bookkeeping for Farmers. By Johnson M1. Woodman. (Crosby I Lockwood and Co.)-Mr. Woodman offers a choice of three plans, which may be used according as the size of the...

Tvrpie: a Reminiscence. By Agnes H. M. Macleod. (Alaclehose I and SODS, Glasgow.)-This is a simple and affecting account of an old man with whom the writer became acquainted...

THE OLD ORDER CHANGES.* MIR. MALLOCK'S novel is, taken as a whole, a failure, in spite of one or two very clever sketches of character-or, rather, of typical ways of viewing...

IMR. CLARK RUSSELL'S "VOYAGE TO THE CAPE."* CONSIDERATIONS of health recently caused Mr. Clark Russell to make the voyage to the Cape in the 'Tartar,' which he terms "a...

FRENCH FINANCE. I WELVE years ago, the fiscal condition of France was the Twonder of Europe. In 187,only four years had elapsed since she had experienced the most crushing...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR IRISH CHARACTERISTICS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"] SIR,-Before you finally take leave of this subject, I crave permission to offer two or three...

PIO NONOS WILL. T.HE will of Pius IX , which was translated, not always very T intelligibly, in the Daily News of Wednesday, supplies one explanation of the singular change...

HEINE'S " REISEBILDER."S " WE know well enough," says Heine, in his witty but abominable sketch, Die Btider von Lucca, " that the later works of a true poet are not superior to...