POETRY. THE TRANSIT OF VENUS. " Now, tell me, tell me, Lady Vjenus, What unkind thought has stept between us, That you should seek to cross me so, In face of all the world...

ART. TIHE ROYAL SOCIETY OP PAINTERS IN WATERCOLOURS.-"A GENERAL VIEW." IT is one of those strange ironies of fate or circumstance, of which every-day life shows us so many...

MR. RAIKES AND THE PUBLIC WORSHIP REGULATION ACT. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] *tSi,-Miy attention has been called to a remark in the Specialaor of November 25th, that...

A CORRECTION. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.'"] 'Sin,-In Mr. lIomanes' very able article on "The Fallacy of Materialism " in the Nineteenith Centary for this month, there...

On Fridav week. the remaining Procedure resolutions concerns I ing the two great Standing Coinnmmittees on Trade aund Law were cardied with Eon0le amendment, but very little...

It is stated, semi-officially, that tho ]rencuch Covernment as I yet has refused to give up its share in the Joint Control in Egypt, and says it is entitled to compensations,...

Lord Salisbury made a speech at Hitchin on Thursday, which' had not much of his usual vcrve, and. went very near to expressiug a positive reluctance to admit that under a...

Mr. Forster also spoke on Thursday, at Bradford, eliering, a very temperate defence of his Irish policy, and shoing triurmphantly how false it is that he had not given his...

The Sultan's terrors are mastering him. On Friday week, I being convinced that a plot had been formed to depose hin,he dismissed hi8 Premier, Said Pasha, and his Minister of...

The rumours of a reconstruction of our present Cabinet are again assuming consistency. It is now said that the work will hae accomplished before Christmas, in order that the...

Parliament was prorogued till February 7th on Saturday, I with a very dull Queen's Speech. Her Majesty notices with pleasure a "marked improvement" in Ireland, and hopes that...

MR. ANTHONY TROLLOPE. T LIE death of Mr. Anthony Trollope, without a familiar knowledge of whose works no historian who emulated the style of Macaulay would even attempt to...

Mr. Mackonochic has resigned the living of St. Albans. IIolborn, and is to be succeeded by Mr. Suck-ling, Vicar of St. Peter's, London Docks, The Bishop of London, who has...

Mr. Pawcett, the Postinaster-GCeneral, has been lying in a I very critical state all the week, under an attack of diphtheria and typhoid combined, that has puzzled the doctors....

I The appointment of Mr. Albert Dicoy to the Vinerian Pro. fessorship of English Law at Oxford, secures the services of a very strong man and a very learned and scientific...

Thce result of the Liverpool election will not be known till tilis evenling, and for ourselves we have little lope. The Tories stick to their men, the Irish are ordered to...

We are happy to observe that a provisional hall of residence for women students attending University College, London, and the London School of Medicine for Women, has been...

The French Government have found it possible to prosecute I 14. Boutoux and the other directors of the notorious Union 'Un6rale. The Public Prosecutor charges theon with...

The Message of the American President is this year of little I interest, and is considered a mere speech of conciliation. The 1 most important sentence in it is a...

I Mr. Shaw-fiefevre made a speech at Stratford-on-Avon, ou Wednesday, of some importance. He said the new Frauchise Bill would be certainly introduced in this Parliament,...

| Dr. Horuby, Head Master of Eton, aud Tory by hereditary right, has compelled Mr. J. L. Joynes to resign, for having published a rather Radical book about Ireland. That is to...

THE USE OF MONDA&Y'S PAGEANT. FAR the most striking feature of a Royal Progress through FLondon is one which is never adequately recorded. It is the method of Englishmen to...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Mt. MORISON'S "MACAULAY." [To TICE EDITOR OF THtE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,-It is surprising that Mr. Morison should not have taken the trouble to refer to...

THE LIBERALISM OF SCHOOLMASTERS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. l Srn,-I have been struck by the remark made in one of your articles this week as to the Liberalism of...

JEAN PAUL RICHTER AND MR. ST. GEORGE STOCK. ITO TIHE EDITOR OF TH1E " 'rECTATOU."A SIR,-In your notice of a book called " Attempts at Truth," by Mr. St. George Stock, you, say,...

CURRENT LITERATURE. ILLUSTRATED AND OTHER GIFT BOOKS.-IV. We have in Storigs of the Days of King Arthur, by Charles Henry Hanson, with illustrations by Gustavo Dort (Nelson);...

NEWS OF THE WEEK. IHE Archbishop of Canterbury died early last Sunday morn. ing,-Adveilt Sunday,-just four years after the Advent Sunday when lie lost his wife,-after a long...

England lias lost this week anothei distinuruished man, who I has probably done more to amuse the country than any rival he las left behind him. Mr. Anthony Trollope died on...

The Archlbishop's death leaves a very momentous vacancy. I If the rather petty conventionalism which gives a sort of unwritten claim to the two great Universities to nominate...

Riaz Pasha, old Mahommedan and Egyptian Minister of the Interior, cannot stand the English compromise in, favour of Arabi. He has resigned, and his resignation has been...

I The trial of Arabi, which has for six weeks impeded the settlement of Egypt, has ended in a compromise. Under the advice of his Counsel, who acted, no doubt, upon agreements...

TrHE MAGAZINES. MR. J. KNOWLES has not yet induced the Mikado to send himi a paper for the Nineleeuth Centwiy, on the future of Japan, nor has the Empress of China entered...

CIIILDIREN 0.1' TILE WORILD.* P'AUL, IirvYsn has Won for himself' a good nam11e ill Ge1rnman literature as the most elegant of living novelette-writers, one who tells in limpid...

TIHE LATEST SWISS PLEBISCITE. T HE whole Swiss people have been greatly exercised for months past about the appointment of an Under-Secretary, at a salary of £240 a year. This...

TIME ALtOBI(J(ORAlPLY 01 SIR ARCIIIBALID ALlISON .* JUL late Sir Archibald Alison never kept a journal, but wrote at his leisure chapters of an autobiography, which, as...

THE BETTER SOCIALISTS OF THE CONTINENT. M LOUIS BLANC, whose death is recorded this week, - was an able, though limited man, who wrote history after a brilliant, pictorial...

IMMORTALITY WITHOUT GOD. TFIE gruesome picture which we endeavoured to draw in our last number of the creed gradually gaining ground amongst modern Spiritualists,-though, of...

THE FATE OF ARABI. LORD DUFFERIN has torn the Egyptian Government out L of an impasse by the hair of the head. Owing to the direct clash of the Eastern and Western...

LORD SALISBURY IN HERTFORDSHIRE. LORD SALISBURY'S vinegar grows weaker. It used to .L be at least sour wine, but now it more resembles the vinegar produced from beer. His sneer...

A LANCASHIRE NOVEL.* SINCE the days of Ruith and Mary Barton, the manuracturing districts of Lancashire have become a veritable happy huutiDggroundfor novelists. Mr. John...

BO OK S. MR. TRAILL'S " STEERNE."* 'IN March, 1760, a country clergyman, who some two months ,previously had published his first work, alighted from the York Mail in London,...

TOPICS OF THE DAY. TIlE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. TTIE Primate we have lost was certainly a great man. T Neither a great theologian, nor a great statesman, nor a great bishop,...

I THE PROSPECTS OF LIBERALISM IN GERMANY. BARON GEORGE VON BUNSEN'S paper in the B For taigytlt, on the position of Liberalism in Germany is not pleasant reading for Liberals,...