I The A-nglo-French agreement has not yet been signed, but all the omens are most favourable, and we may, we think, safely conclude that no unfortunate incident will now occur...

It would seem from the latest accounts that Colonel Younghusband is by no means anxious to be compelled to go on to Lhasa. He has again offered, through the Chinese Amban, to...

I The details of the fight with the Tibetans on March 31st show that it was a most untoward incident. On that day Colonel Younglhusband was met at Guru, one hundred and seventy...

NEWS OF THE WEEK. - -_ TILL Friday the news from the Far East was limited 1 to telegrams showing that the Japanese army in Korea I was advancing and had occupied Wiju, while...

Meanwhile, the Japanese naval attacks on Port Arthur seem ! to have been suspended for the time. Presumably Admiral Togo was busy guarding the transports, but the fact that the...

The Russian Treasury is beginning to feel the drain of war upon its finances, and the Czar has been induced to sanction certain large economies. They are to be arranged upon a...

The Times of Thursday has a leading article pointing out I that the Admiralty is committed to an expenditure of nearly a million and a half on submarines-twenty-nine submarines...

Last Saturday's papers contained the welcome news of the safe arrival at Lyttelton, New Zealand, of the 'Discovery,' of the Antarctic Exploring Expedition, together with the...

During the past week there has been a variety of Budget rumours. The most likely suggestion, on the face of it, is that which appeared in the Daily Mail,-i.e., a tax on...

I A correspondent of the Times enumerates in an interesting article in Tuesday's issue the various encouraging signs of the educational awakening in England. These evidences...

On Wednesday Major Seely was returned for the Isle of I Wight without opposition, the tariff reformers being unwilling or unable to find a Protectionist who would face the...

I The King of Spain paid a visit to Barcelona on Wednesday, the 6th inst., and was received with unexpected cordiality, the people turning out to the number of two hundred...

I A Reuter's telearam to Friday's papers states that the United States Census estimate for 1903 shows the population of the United States, excluding Alaska and the annexed...

The Times Paris correspondent published on Thursdav a remarkable memorandum on the condition of the Turkish Empire, drawn up, it is said, or at all events sanctioned, by " some...

The position of the Jews in Russia grows worse and worse. ! The Governors of provinces, in their abhorrence of popular movements, seem willing to protect them; but organised...

! Though a Times telegram from Pekin published on Friday states that the local arrangements are nearly completed, the Imperial Government have not yet concluded their...

The intensity of Anti-Clerical feeling in France may be I gauged by an Order just issued by the Ministry of the Interior. From time immemorial all Courts of Justice in France,...

The Berlin correspondent of the Times declares that I Protestants throughout Germany are much irritated by the decision of the Imperial Government to readmit the Jesuits. They...

Buddha. By Herman Oldenburg. (Arthur L. Humphreys. 15s. net.)-This is a reprint which, though it is given in a very austere form, without preface, contents, division into...

Hades. By E. S. Pells. (Skeffington and Son. 5s. net.)-There is much in Mr. Pells's book that we do not find it easy to follow; but there are some things on which iti is...

A new edition has been published of Cornish Ballads, and other I Poems, by R. S. Hawker (John Lane, 5s.) Some poems hitherto - - . . .. . I . I unpublished have been added,...

Monte Carlo Facts and Fallacies. By Sir Hiram S. Maxim. I (Grant Richards. 5s.)-This volume is made up on what wemay call the "Open Court" method. Sir Hiram Maxim expresses his...

. Letters of Bishop Tozer. (Universities Mission to Central I Africa. Is.)-This cheap reprint should be welcome to many readers. Bishop Tozer added to a fervent piety a sound...

Monument Facts and Higher Critical Fancies. By A. H. I Sayce, D.D. (R.T.S. 2a.)-This gives in a compressed form the I argument for the conservative case in the Bible...

COMBINATIONS AND PERMUTATIONS. [TO Tim EDrToR OF THE " SPECTATOL"] SIR,-It would be interesting to read an accurate list of the various alliances, triple and otherwise, which...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. TIlE COMING MINISTRY. [To THE EDITOR oF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-The constituencies have already decided that there is a coming Ministry; the first...

RECENT VERSE.* THERE is no mistaking the vigour of Mr. Paterson's verse; there is no difficulty in feeling the strong human interest which moves in it. It is true that the...

THE CRIMINAL AS MAN. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SiR,-The writer of the article under the above heading in the Spectator of April 2nd puts a series of inquiries as to...

FREE-TRADE AND THE TOBACCO-DUTIES. rrn rat PFT TA-nR fly T11V " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,-Your reference to Sir Frederick Wills, M.P., in the Spectator of April 2nd would lead one to...

AN EARLY FREE-TRADER. LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIP,-As there were brave men before Agamemnon, so there were Free-traders before Adam Smith. One of them was Sir...

Myra of the Pines. By Herman K. VieI6. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.)-Miss Myra Dale lived at a place of which nothing could be said but that it was "eight miles from Thebes" (not the...

| Strong Mac. By S. R. Crockett. (Ward, Lock, and Co. 6s.) -Mr. Crockett has got back in this story to Galloway; and it is, we think, in Galloway that he is at his best. In...

I Yarborough, the Premier. By A. R. Weekes. (Harper and I Brothers. 6s.)-The interest of this book, which contains a great deal of promising material, is diminished by the...

The Prince of Lisnover. By Grace RThys. _ . - . . - , , . -- .. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)-If this is not as good as "The Wooing of Sheila"-too much, perhaps, to expect-it is...

RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. THE diplomatic skill of the Russian Government in devising and pushing its plans is, we suspect, a little overrated in Western Europe. It is there believed...

HAKLUYT'S VOYAGES.* THE third and fourth volumes of Messrs. MacLehose's excellent reprint of Hakluyt's Voyages far surpass their predecessors in interest. The author has left...

I The Stock Exchange Official Intelligencer, 1904. Edited by the I Secretary of the Share and Loan Department. (Spottiswoode and Co. 50s.)-This volume appears for the...

I Manv Dersons will be grateful to Canon Newbolt for zivinz them Prayers,Psalms, and Lections for the Household (Longmans and Co., 2s. 6d. net). For the prayers the...

I Eikon Basilike. Edited by Edward Ahuack, F.S.A. (A. Moring. 2s. 6d. net.)-This volume, belonging to the series of "The King's Classics," appearing under the general...

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK. [Under this heading we notice such Books of the ueek as have not been reserved for reBeow in other forrs.] A NewR English Dictionary. Edited by Dr....

Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poetry. Edited, with Notes, by Thomas Arnold. Third Edition, Revised by Williain T. Arnold. (Clarendon Press. 3s. 6d.)-Tllis third edition is...

C URRENT LITERATURE. A NEW KIND OF BOOK. I Real Conversations. Recorded by William Archer. With I 12 Portraits. (William Heinemann. 6s.)-Mr. Archer is to be thanked for...

THE TWO ENGLANDS. PROBABLY nineteen out of every twenty foreigners visiting this country form their impressions of its appearance and climate from the landscape of the South....

THE LORD LONDONDERRY'S SPEECH AND POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT. I THIS is certainly the strangest Government that ever T held office. As long as its corporate actions are...

THE INCIDENT IN TIBET. IHE regrettable incident at Guru-for it is a regretT table incident-clears awav at least one objection to the expedition to Tibet. It has been said, very...

TOPICS OF THE DAY. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE OVER-REPRESENTATION OF IRELAND. THE duty of a Unionist Government is to do everything T in their power to preserve the Union, and so...

HAWFINCHES ON WIMBLEDON COMMON. [TO THlE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-It may be of interest to some of your readers to mention that on March 25th no less than four...

PROLEGOMENA TO COMPROMISE ON THE EDUCATION QUESTION. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-In the Spectator of March 12th I read: "When a man is de]b:irred by the State...

A CORRECTION. [TO TEz EDITOR OF THE " SPECrATOR."] --- SiR,-May I ask that, of your courtesy, you will correct a misprint in your last issue, which makes the first part of my...

THE RACIAL CONFLICT IN THE UNITED STATES. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-If you will continue your dissertations on the relations of whites and negroes in the United...

THE EVANESCENCE OF VULGARITY. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,-" It is impossible to define vulgarity" (Spectator March 12th). But may one offer the reminder that the...

THE ' RETVISAN' AND THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN ALLIANCE OF 1799. [TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."1 SIR,-Your plea to the Press and to the nation for moderation in their natural...

CHRIST AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. CHRIST constantly quoted the Old Testament. His mind J was saturated with the Hebrew Scriptures. He quoted them to illustrate His meaning, as men...

TRAMWAYS v. ROADS. ENGLAND, which has long been behind most other E countries in the use of tramways, seems determined to make up for lost time. The tramcar has lately made its...

NOVELS. THE NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL.* THE task of the novel reviewer, never enviable, is rendered still more arduous by the descent into the arena of fiction of so formidable...

GREEK RELIGION.* DURING the last few years the study of Greek religion has been revolutionised; as late as the closing decades of the nineteenth century there was a tendency to...

BO OK S. SIR SPENCER WALPOLE'S HISTORY.* SIP. SPENCER WALPOLE has continued his history of the first half of the nineteenth century down to the fall of the Second Empire, and...

POETRY. THE WATER-CARRIERS: AN AFGHAN BALLAD. I (FROM THE PUSHTOO.) WHEN evening comes, my Lady attires her head (All me! how the fire is burning in my heart!) In a kerchief...

ATHLETICS AND HEALTH. THE Daily News has broken old ground with a new spade. T " In view of the grave disquiet which has for some time existed as to the physical degeneration...

THE MAGAZINES. THE editor of the Nineteenth Century caters in his April number for tastes of all kinds, and with no little success. On the topic of the hour there are three...