10 JANUARY 1880

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The rumours of some catastrophe approaching in Central Europe have

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been increasing all the week, their chief basis being a statement current in Berlin and Perth, and repeated with every kind of detail, that the Russians are concentrating an...

The Times publishes a biography of Abderrahman Khan, who may

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soon be the strongest claimant for the Afghan throne. He is the son of Afzul Khan, elder brother of Shere Ali, and, according to English ideas of primogeniture, natural...

Sir H. Layard has failed in his last fight with

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the Turks. The Sultan handed him back Dr. Koller's manuscripts, the German Ambassador having taken up the Missionary's cause, but declined to dismiss Hafiz Pasha, alleging that...

' 0 * * The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

But little news has been received from Afghanistan this week,

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and that little is not very promising. It is reported demi-officially that Mahommed Jan, before his flight, informed General Roberts that he should continue the war until the...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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— 4 ,— Til news from the Transvaal is disquieting. The Boers l - feld their mass-meeting on December 10th, at Doom n Kop, and it was attended by some 6,000 persons, who passed...

Lord Derby made a very striking speech at Huddersfield on

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Thursday, at the opening of a new school for technical educa- tion, on the prospects of revival in trade. He showed that, as compared with 1870, England is getting richer, not...

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A correspondence has been published between Mr. Gladstone and Mr.

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Bourke, the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in relation to the assertion of the latter, at Leeds, that Mr. Glad- stone had "sent an emissary to Russia, for the purpose of...

The distress in Ireland, though still in its acute form

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con- fined to three or four counties, increases, and as the Duchess of Marlborough's Fund does not draw rapidly, the Government intends, it is said, to take 2250,000 from the...

It is the same with the furiously anti-Gladstone journals. On

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a matter in which it is possible to believe evil of Mr. Gladstone, they are incapable of discerning facts ; and on one of them, at least, even Mr. Alexander's refutation of the...

Mr. Gladstone, in a short, prefatory note to the new

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reprint of his Scotch speeches, states that he has received from the Chancellor of the Exchequer proof that the appointment of Lord Hampton to the Civil Service Commissionership...

The Egyptian Bondholders, having induced Lord Salisbury to engage British

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power to help in pillaging the Egyptian peasantry in their interest, the Turkish bondholders thought they also might press the Foreign Secretary. On Tuesday,. therefore, the...

Mr. Osborne Morgan, on Monday, made a striking as well

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as an amusing speech to his Denbighshire constituents, in which he said that this Government had invented a new in- dustry,—the manufacture of dead-letters. They had not only...

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Mr. Waddy, Q.C., and M.P. for Sheffield, was fated by

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the Finsbury Liberal Association last Monday, and made a speech -on the rapid change which Tory views of the election for Sheffield underwent during the day of the poll. Up to...

There is a great hue-and-cry over the scarcity of small

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birds in England this winter. And no doubt some of them have fallen victims to the destructive agencies spread for them. The Rev. F. 0. Morris, writing in Thursday's Times,...

Mr. Chamberlain delivered a strong speech to his constituents at

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Birmingham, on Thursday evening. He expressed his belief that the country had at last found out the foreign policy of the Government, and asked scornfully, "Where is the peace...

The assertion that the French Ambassador at Berlin, M. do

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Saint Wilier, had resigned his post in consequence of his din. inclination to serve under M. de Freycinet's Government, appears to have been a complete mistake. The Times'...

As Parliament is about to meet, the Indian Government, tinder

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instructions from home, has agreed to place the Rules :about Special Correspondents in Afghanistan in abeyance. The correspondents are only to be "licensed," a proviso intended...

The evidence taken before the Court of Inquiry into the

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Tay-Bridge disaster has brought out nothing of any import- ance, except the fact that one of the officials on the south side of the bridge noticed sparks issuing from the train...

Of course, the outcry in Scotland as to Sabbath-breaking as

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the moral cause of the disaster, has begun. Dr. Begg and his friends could not lose so great an opportunity. We think, however, it might be proved to even their satisfaction...

Consols were on Friday 97t to 97f.

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The Times informs us that the returns of recruiting for

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1879 will show that short service still continues highly - popular. The full number of men required presented them- selves, and indeed the recruiting-officers were able, through...

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THE SITUATION IN CENTRAL EUROPE.

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W E are unable to believe in the imminence, or even the probability, of a war between Germany and Russia. It may occur, as any other war may occur, when nations are armed, as at...

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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LORDDERBY ON MILITARISM AND COMMERCE. L ORD DERBY has struck a blow at the Government, which was all the heavier for its incidental, though strictly relevant character, in the...

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LORD LYTTON ON AFGHANISTAN.

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J T is difficult to imagine news more unsatisfactory than that we receive from Afghanistan. So far from the Govern- ment of India regarding General Roberts's recent victory as...

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IRISH DISTURBANCES AND THE LIBERAL PARTY. T HE order in which

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laws are enforced or amended will naturally be different in different circumstances. Where a law is plainly unjust, or where disobedience to it is the result of something very...

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THE CONSTITUTION AND THE DEMOCRACY IN VICTORIA.

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S INCE we last wrote on the fascination of the Plaiscite for the people of Victoria, the Victorian "Hansard," con- taining the debates on the first and second readings of the...

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THE ATTITUDE OF THE BOERS, T HE Transvaal difficulty may easily

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be made sericrus, but we do not think it is very serious yet. It is evident from the resolutions passed at the Boers' mass-meeting of the 10th December, that a large proportion...

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A VIEW OF NIHILISM.

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[We print this paper as one thoughtful and reasonable view of the Nihilist question, but it is not the one we agree with. Nihilism has, as we believe, a distinctly political...

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DU MAITRIER. T HE sixty-three curiously skilful drawings which Mr. Du

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Manner has just selected from his contributions* to Punch, exhibit, perhaps, a larger amount of insight into the various forms of conventionality in English society, than even...

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WINDFALLS.

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A LDIOST any one who has ever lived on an English country- side, or has become well acquainted with the less intelli- gent classes of a country town, finds one mental...

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CONFIDANTS.

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P EOPLE now-a-days often deplore the extinction of the old type of servants. There are no such servants now as there used to be, we are told ; wages increase, but fidelity de-...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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DR. HANCOCK ON IRELAND. [TO THE EDITOR OF TEl SPECTATOR:1 SIR,-Thirty years ago, when he was Professor of Political Economy in the University of Dublin, Dr. Hancock published...

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POETRY.

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IRISH LAMENTATION. COLD, dark, and dumb lies my boy on his bed ; Cold, dark, and silent the night dews are shed; Hot, swift, and fierce fall my tears for the dead ! His...

BOOKS.

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THE FAC-SIMILE OF THE CODEX ALEX.A.NDRINUS. * " Iv Fielding's Parson Adams were now alive, and not quite at - desperate grips with poverty, we may feel sure that he would, have...

IRISH TENANTS-AT-WILL.

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(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SLa,—What is the practical remedy for the state of things described in Mr. Shepherd's letter, in your issue of December 27th? Not, I think,...

FRA_NCE AND THE PILLARS OF HERCULES.

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(TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sr,—In your last week's article on the change of Government in France, you tell us that "to say that M. de Freycinet's Government are the...

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MR. HENRY JAMES'S NEW NOVEL.*

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IT cannot be said of any one of Mr. James's stories, "This is his best," or, "This is his worst ; " because no one of them is all one thing; like human beings, they are partly...

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AN ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUER.* No doubt, Mr. Walmsley has thought, and

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probably with truth, that the public would be impatient of personal details in the life of a man only known to them as a politician ; but then, he should have called his book,...

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YOUNG MRS. JARDLgE.*

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HERE and there in the history of art we come across a name which suggests no idea but that of constant growth, the name of some supreme worker who, to the last hour of life,...

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"MIND," FOR JANUARY, ON FREE-WILL.* Mind continues to be very

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ably conducted, and to represent, for the most part, the predominant philosophy of the day,—the philosophy of the empirical and physiological school,—with great clearness and...

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SOME OF THE MAGAZINES.

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THE Fortnightly is, on the whole, the best of the Magazines this month. Mr. Morley gives us at least five interesting and four valuable papers. The one which is interesting, but...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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Aunt Judy's Magazine, for December and January. (George Bell and Sons.)—Aunt Judy has only one serial story in her first new quarter, but it is one which opens with spirit, and...

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Daughters of Armenia. By Mrs. S. A. Wheeler, Missionary in

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Turkey. (Oliphant.)—Mrs. Wheeler is an American missionary, who has spent many years among the Armenians, and she makes a very readable little book out of her experiences. A...

Domestic Medicine and Hygiene. By William J. Russell, M.P. (Everett,

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Bonverie, and Co.)--This is a handy little book, which, so far as a layman can judge of it, is written with good sense, and no pretence of teaching non-professional persons to...

A catalogue of noble authors would now pass all reasonable

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limits, but the list of royal writers is still limited. Hence, Charles XIL, by "Oscar Fredrik," translated from the original Swedish by George F. Apgeorge (Bentley), would have...

The History of Co - operation in England : its Literature and

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its Advocates. By George Jacob Holyoake. Vol. II.—The Constructive Period, 1845-1878. (Triibner.)—On one thing at least all readers of Mr. 1101p:fake's second volume will be...

The Rights of an Animal : a Law Essay in

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Ethics. By Edward Byron Nicholson, MA. (C. Kogan Paul and Co.)—The public is lunch indebted to Mr. Nicholson for this able and manly essay. He goes back to first principles,...