The Pulpit Commentary: Isaiah, Vol. 11. (Kegan Paul, Treneb, and Co.)-This useful work is carried on with a creditable energy. The volume before us contains the second part of...

The Science of Thought. By F. Max Muller. (Longmans.)-Tbero I are many interesting philological statements scattered over the pages of this volume; but its main thesis is...

The English Parliament. By Dr. Rudolf Gueiat. Translated byI R. Jeremy Shee. (H. Grant and Co.)-It is almost impossible to judge this book fairly, it has been so vilely and...

La Marchesa, and other Tales. By Paul Heyse. Translated by I John Philips. (Elliot Stock.)-There can be no doubt as to the excellence which the translator sees in these tales,...

Sta-ford's London Atlas of Unxiversal Geography, Ehibiting the | Physical and Political Divisiovns of the I'arioos Co.,t ico of tho Torld. I Folio edition. Ninety maps, with a...

HARVEST CUSTOMS. [TO T-E EDITo. OF -HE "SPECTATOB.'] SIR,-There is yet another variation of the custom mentioned in your article of September 3rd, which Mr. Elworthy has...

P O E T R Y. B BLIND BOY'S BRIDGE. WEE Johnny's face was dark or bright In the fall or rise of the gleams, As he crouched at the set of the winter night, Dreaming a blind...

MY TWO GARDENERS. [To THE EDITOR OF T-E " SPEcTATO."] SIR,-I am always glad to read anything that can be said for that doomed race, the landed proprietors of England. In your...

THE IRISH POLICE. [To T-E E-roR OF TE- " SPECTATOR. ] SIR,-Punch, I believe, once had a cartoon representing a householder holding a pistol to a burglar, and saying,-" If I...

THE COTTON TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN.* IT is highly significant of the go-aheadness of these times, and the growth of invention, that the greatest of British industries is also...

NEWS OF THE WEEK. T HE Great Sobranje, or Constituent Assembly of Bulgaria, met at Tirnova on Sunday, and on Thursday held a special Session for the election of a Prince. A...

Farther, Mr. Gladstone accased Lord Hartington of having shown in relation to his Irish policy an " extreme mutability," which rendered it unreasonable for him to expect that...

On Saturday, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone were entertained at I dinner by Sir Joseph and Lady Pease, to meet the Liberal Members for Northumberland and Durham, and after dinner, Mr....

In receiving the Liberal Unionist deputation from Oxford and Cambridge Universities at Devonshire House on Tuesday, Lord Hartington seized the occasion to return Mr....

STUDIES OF GREAT COMPOSERS.' IN no branch of native literature are such ineptitudes of expression to be met with as in the province of musical criticism. No art-jargon is so...

DR. HILL'S EDITION OF BOSWELL'S " JOHNSON."* I Tuns is, we think, the most exhaustive edition of Boswell's famous work that has hitherto been published. The splendid and...

[TO TE EDITOR OF TIlE "SPECTATOR."] SIRs,-Perhaps you will allow a Liberal ex-M.P. to express a hearty approval of Mr. Dicey's last letter. If it be true that the maintenance...

THE IRISH DIFFICULTY AND THE ORGANISATION OF THE EMPIRE. [To To EDITOR O - T; ISPlCT-TOE.' ] SIR,-I have long been amazed at the imperviousness of the Spectator to the justice,...

CURRENT LITERATURE. I The most seasonable and readable paper in the JMly number of the Asiatic Quarterly is Professor Douglas's "A Chinese Jubilee." In the year 1790, the...

In iaMr. Baring Gould's novel of " Red Spider," which is at present -running in Temple Bar, there figures one of the most powerful and repulsive charaotersthiaauthor has ever...

I We are glad to see that in the July number of the Cernhill MSaa- nine there is only one short story, a rather weak thing, called "Princess Poppceo: a Mystery," in addition to...

" MUTABILITY " AND LORD HARTINGTON. typo any one who studies dispassionately the controversy 1 between Lord Hartington and Mr. Gladstone which commenced at Manchester a...

Man Overboard. (F. V. White.)-It is not given to everybody to _ . . . . . .. . I construct a good plot. In this story the great defect is the way in which the villain is made...

To say that the Quiver threatens to become too Sundayish aod I Biblical, is at the worst, of course, to attribute to it a literary failing that leans, in these days at any...

The Anuato-y of Physiology ad Character. By Fmrneaux Jordan. I (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)-Mr. Jordan is, we suppose, a thoroughgoing materialist. " Morality is a chapter in...

Mr. Frank Stockton's peculiar humour does not show to the best I advantage in " The English Country," which appears in the July number of St. Nicholas. Writing for boys and...

I The Heir of the Ages. By James Payn. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)-This is one of the most readable of Mr. Payn's stories, partly because there is so little story in it. The...

An U isociu Z Socialst. By George Bernard Shaw. (S wa. I Sonnenschein and Co.)-We do not quite know whether Sidney Trefusis, who masquerades as Jeff Smilash, is meant...

I London of To-day: an Ilustrated Handbook for the Season 1887, I by Charles Eyre Pascoe (Sampson Low and Co.), is a well-arranged and well got-up book, bht it is hardly so...

Land in Fetters. By T. E. Scrntton. (Macmillan and Co.)- This little book was originally a prize essay at Cambridge, and if it is in anything like its original form, the...

Poeety an- the State. By Herbert G. Mills. (Kegan Paul, Trench, I and Co.)-Mr. Mills relates a neat apologue, how he fonnd a baker, a shoemaker, and a tailor out of employ....

I Diane de Breteuille. By Hubert E. H. Jerningham. (W. Blackwed and Sons.)-This little love-story is a reprint from Blackwosod's Magazine, and is said to be founded on fact;...

THE NEW PRINCE OF BULGARIA. - THEE Bulgarian Grand Assembly has assembled in difficult circumstances, and like all popular bodies en placed, except the House of Commons, has...

THE HOUSE-BOAT NUISANCE. UMMER life in a house-boat on the Thames has become, during the last twenty years, a rage among some thousands of well-to-do people. There is an...

TWO BOOKS ON AFRICA.* TAKEN generally, Mr. Theal's book is one of those works which, supplying a gap in our literature, should be carefully read, and have their merits...

MADAME MOHL. LTo T-U EnDMo oP T " ShmCTTo"] Snt,-In reply to Mr. T. R. Harvey, of Waterford, allow me to say most emphatically that my great-annt, Madame Mohl, was not of Irish...

BO OK S. MR. HOOPER'S "CAMPAIGN OF SEDAN."* TnIs is an admirable history. No one who reads these clear and sparkling pages could realise all the labour that has gone to the...

THE SANTHAL MISSIONS. [To TIE EDITOR OP -x " SPECTATO."] I Sra,-In a reeent number of the Spectator, in a review of Sir G. Campbell's work on India, you quoted a sentence of...

MODERN ARMIES AND MODERN WARFARE.* BARON vON DER GOLTZ, a shining light among the junior members of the German Staff, and now, if we mistake not, in Stamboul instructing the...

MR. PHILLIPS BROOKS'S SERMONS.* THE characteristics of Mr. Phillips Brooks's preaching are well known in England, and the volume of sermons before us does not materially alter...

THE LIFE OF A VETERAN.* " I scxvE striven here," says the honourable and gallant gentleman whose work lies before us, " as well as my faculties will allow,though I know that is...

THE TEACHING OF THE SESSION. T HE Session which, thank God! ended on Friday, has, we think, left three broad impressions upon the political mind of the country. The first is,...

I The French Chamber on Wednesday decided a question con- nected with the Military Bill which seems to be considered or great importance. Clause 49 empowers the Minister of War...

Mr. Gladstone rejoins, in a letter published in Thursday's Times, that as regards the feeling of " little less than horror" with which he read Lord Hartington's speech in the...

The good and the bad quality of the new House of Commons came out strongly on Tuesday night. Members ot all parties united to censure the Home Secretary because he had, as they...

As to the differences in the Cabinet four months pre- viously to September, if Mr. Gladstone had obtained the Queen's permission for making them public, Lord Hartington held...

In relation to the subsequent diseussions inl886,Lord Harting- I ton still holds that any constitutional separation of Ulster from the rest of Ireland would have been utterly...

Mr. John Morley, in his speech to the Radical Union at I Manchester on Wednesday, contributed something to the discussion. He altogether repudiated Lord Hartington's suggestion...

In the same speech, Mr. Morley denied in the most indignant I fashion that the Gladstonians have connived at obstruction, I and quoted Mr, W. B, Smith's admission that, on one...

I The case, therefore, was brought before the Houseof Commons on Tuesday evening, Mr. Atherley Jones moving the adjournment of the House for that purpose. He insisted that...

THE MAGAZINES. THE first paper in the Nineteenth Century, by Sir Mountstuart Grant-Duff-" After Six Years "-is, to our thinking, by far the most attractive in the magazines of...

I Pla~ing at Botany. By Phoebe Allen. (Hatohards.)-Some simple teaching abont plants is put here in a fairy-tale form. Two young people, Rhoda and Hugh, are privileged by Dame...

EXPERIMENT. A10-NG the many signs which meet the eye everywhere of the triumphant progress made by Physical Science in our day, none is more striking than the way in which the...

THE GOVERNMENT AND MISS CASS.' .s .. .. . . . .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1'I 1ti police, the Magistrate in Marlborough Street, and the T Government all blundered sadly...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. THE INDIAN PRINCES. LTo TH- EDITOR 01 TEH ''SPEATOE=.'"j SIc,-In your thoughtful article in the Spectator of July 2nd, upon "The Effect of Travel on...

GNOSTIC AGNOSTICISM. rTo !,Z EDITOR OF T-E " SPETATOR.] SIn,-The moral drawn by Professor Minchin from man's increasing apprehension of the vastness of the universe is the...

A MISTAKE CORRECTED. [To T-E EDITOR OF TE 'SPECTATOR,."] SIn,-In your number of July 2nd, you state that the address presented to Lord Hartington includes the names " of the...

THE PCOLE NORMALE SUPtRIEURE. [To -HE EDITO. OF TS " SPECTATO."j SIR,-It very seldom happens that I meet in an English paper, and more especially in the Spectator, of which I...

being seriously divided in opinion over the right way to meet a most threatening financial position; and it it goes to pieces, a C16menceau-Boulanger Ministry and the...

THE GOVERNMENT AND THIE RIGHT OF PUBLIC MEETING. SIR lWILLIAM HARCOURT'S speech on Monday on the proclamation of the Ennis meeting was nothing more than the argument of an...

THE PLEASURES OF TRAVEL. -S IR OWIN LUBBOCK, in the pleasant little volume which he has just issued on " The Pleasures of Life,"* remarks on the difference between the notions...

THE FORTUNES OF SCOTCH FAMILIES.' IT may be questioned if the historic families of any nationality have earned so little of the gratitude of the bulk of the people composing...

The evidence given at the trial of three Strasburgers, now accused of treason before the Supreme Tribunal at Leipzig, has greatly irritated Germany. The principal of the...

The election for the Spalding Division of LincoInshire was I held on Friday week, and ended in a defeat for the Unionists. In 1885, Mr. M. E G. Finch-Hatton carried the...

I Mr. W. Morgans, a mining engineer, who deserves the highest credit for the intrepidity with which he espouses the duty of humanity to the horses in colliery pits, at the risk...

Hlow dangerous is political prophecy! A year ago, at I Nottingham, on July 11th, Mr. John Morley predicted confidently that in twelve months the policy of Home-rule would...

The Pope, through his Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla, I has addressed to the Nuncios a remarkable circular defining his attitude towards the Temporal Power. While...

Mr. Goschen on Wednesday made a long speech to his consti- tuents of St. George's, Hanover Square, chiefly directed against obstruction. He maintained that the Home-rule...

I Thursday's debate on the third reading of the Irish Crimes Bill was opened by a very eloquent speech from Mr. Gladstone, in which he specially characterised the Bill as an "...

LIBERAL UNIONISM. [TO -E E-TOI7 Or T.E "SPECTATOR."] SIh,-Will you permit me to express my hearty concurrence in the suggestion of Mr. W. II. Hall which appears in your issue...

MR. MAUDE AND HOME-RULE. [To -H EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] SIR,-I have such respect for the impartiality with which the Spectator generally scrutinises the attitude of...

CURRENT LITERATURE. Although we do not approve of the views of the Westminster I Ievie-s upon the Irish Question, and think that the article en " Home Affairs " looks too much...

I SCIIOOL BooE.s-Notes O- Jdlius Cmesar, by T. Barnett, B.A. (Bell), are intended for the use of candidates for the University, local, and other public examinations. Our...

I Church 7VorL Mission Life. Elited by the Rev. G. Deed. (Wells Gardner.)-We have great pleasure in noticing the appearance in a collected form of this publication. Two...

Too Curiouts: a Novel. By Edward J. Goodman. (Bentley.)-To I the best of our knowledge and belief, the idea from which this remarkably clever novel is evolved is entirely new....

THURSDAY'S DEBATE. THE great interest of Thursday's debate was the eloquent and remarkable speech of Mr. Gladstone, and the replies which it elicited from Mr. Balfour, the...

TOPICS OF THE DAY. SURSUM CORDA. M R. HALLEY STEWART'S victory at Spalding sur-_ passed greatly even the expectations of the most sanguine of his friends. It was a great...

LETTERS FROM A MOURNXING CITY.* DB. A XEL MUNTHE is, we gather, a Swedish physician practising in Paris, who, when the cholera broke out in Naples in the autumn of 188 t,...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. PROFESSOR DICEY ON UNIONIST DELUSIONS.-VI. FTo THE E.ITO- OF SHE "SPECTATOR.] SIR,-Unionists of repute believe or hope that the demand for Home-rule may...

ALLAN QUATERMAIN.- MR. RIDER HAGGARD does not lose any of his charm in telling tales of African adventure. These closing scenes of Allan Quatermain's life are full of the eager...

BOOKS. THE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD.* THIS work is a fit sequel to the former work of Dr. Harris. In The Philosophical Basis of Theisms he laid the foundation, in the present...

MR. STANHOPE'S NEW WAR OFFICE. A T the tail-end of the Session, in Committee of Supply, A Mr. Stanhope has described what he calls "a large measure of reform," and what Mr....

I THE FOREIGN POLICY OF FRANCE. W E wonder if any one in Europe, France included, underW stands clearly the present drift of French foreign policy. It must have a drift,...

THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. ON Monday last, the foundation-stone of the Imperial Institute was laid by the Queen. The ceremony, which took place in a vast tent covering an...

THE NEW GUNPOWDER. IT is rumoured in St. Petersburg that a new form of gunpowder has been discovered the qualities of which are such as may be expected to completely...

INDIAN ABSTEMIOUSNESS. O NE of the graver newspapers-we think it was the St. Jaemes's Gazette-made, a few weeks ago, the paradoxical remark that a main difficulty in the way of...

WEALTH IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND. HE Times on Wednesday started a question which, as it T involves the whole future of society, and is not connected with Ireland, it may be...

LEAR'S NONSENSE-BOOKS.* AMONG the writers who have striven with varying success during the last thirty or forty years to awaken the merriment of the "rising generation" of the...

MR. BALFOUR. THE personal feature of the Session that closes this week has been the rise of Mr. Arthur Balfour. There can no longer be any doubt that the present Chief...

MR. GALTON ON TEMPER. IF Mr. Francis Galton is right, temper is even a larger factor in the household unhappiness of English people than is commonly imagined. He declares that...