10 MAY 1890

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The Inquiry Commission has reported that the Panama Canal could

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be completed for 236,000,000, but "the material and preparations of the old Company are reckoned as amounting to at least half" of the sum required. The Com- mission think that...

The Emperor's speech has been followed by a remarkable outburst

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of approval. All the parties applaud it, and the Radical organ, the Tageblatt, and the most popular paper, the Vossiselte Zeitung, both agree that the Radical Party will vote...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE German Emperor opened the Reichstag on Tuesday in a long speech, in which he dwelt on three points,—that his policy was peace, that he must have more soldiers during...

The great Labour Demonstration in favour of the Eight. HLtr

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Day came off on Sunday in Hyde Park, and was unexpectedly large. There was a rivalry between the Legalists, who wish the eight-hour day to be fixed by law, and the...

On Friday, May 2nd, Dr. Cameron's motion in the Commons

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in favour of disestablishing and disendowing the Scotch Church was lost by only 38 votes, 218 and 256 being the numbers on each side. The most noticeable point about the...

M. de FreAcinei'has made a change in the Ministry of

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War vita& does Wot suggest a strong belief in the continuance of , peace. He is himself Minister of War, as well as Premier; but / he has appointed General de Miribel...

*** The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in any

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case.

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Mr. Goschen on Thursday, at the request of Mr. Gladstone,

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agreed to postpone the clauses in the Budget Bill which im- pose a fresh tax of 6d. a gallon on spirits, and assign part of the money-4350,000 a year—to the County Councils, to...

The annual banquet of the Royal Academy was held on

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Saturday last, and there were some bright speeches, the best being Lord Salisbury's and Mr. Morley's. Lord Salisbury was in high spirits, and told the artists that they had...

Mr. Chamberlain made a spirited speech at Oxford on

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Wednesday, on one important section of which, conveying his belief that the Purchase Bill would be wrecked by obstruc- tion, we have dwelt elsewhere. He attacked the leaders of...

On Tuesday, the second reading of the Customs and Inland

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Revenue Bill was made an excuse for a rambling debate upon the general fiscal policy of the Government. In replying to the taunts of Sir William Harcourt and others, the...

Mr. Goschen, in a speech delivered in Rossendale on Wed-

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nesday, offered a most formidable Parliamentary argument against the premature creation of Iris& County Councils. He said that the Government Bill for making light railways in...

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The financial world of Paris is greatly exercised by a

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new scandal. M. Leveque, sub-governor of the Credit Foncier, a bank so closely connected with the State as to be almost a sub-department, has resigned, and stated on Thursday in...

On Tuesday, the London County Council decided, by 87 votes

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to 24, to undertake the erection of a model lodging-house, to accommodate from 300 to 350 persons, on a plot of vacant land, now in the possession of the Council, in Shelton...

Bank Rate, 3 per cent.

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New Consols (2i) were on Friday 971 to 98.

The Select Committee of the House of Commons to which

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the consideration of the Western Australia Constitution Bill was referred, has struck out the clause limiting the action of the Colonial Parliament in regard to a portion of the...

It is often said that the " case " of

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the Continental, and especially the German labourers, is exaggerated, incomes, as well as wages, being lower throughout the Continent than in England. That is true; but one...

The papers, both in Germany and England, continue to pub-

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lish statements and stories the meaning of which is that the German Emperor and Prince Bismarck are gradually becoming more hostile, that the Prince is in a state of extreme...

The House of Commons Committee has decided that the preamble

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of the Central London Railway Bill had been proved, subject to certain conditions, chief among which are provisions for preventing the sewers and mains being interfered with. In...

The final Report of the Select Committee of the House

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of Lords on Sweating, just published, really comes to this, that very little can be done except by the operation of opinion among capitalists. Government may look after its...

The accounts of the fire which destroyed the Montreal Lunatic

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Asylum on Tuesday, call up a picture weird and terrible in the extreme. As soon as the building took fire, large numbers of its inmates jumped from the windows, and filled the...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE GERMAN EMPEROR'S EXAMPLE. T HE recent action of the German Emperor, as described in his own speech of Tuesday to the Reichstag, may have most important effects, not only...

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HOME-RULE ALL ROUND.

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I T is evident from Mr. Asquith's speech at Cambridge, that the younger and more vigorous section of the Gladstonian Party have become inspired by a real enthu- siasm for...

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STANLEY'S PYGMIES.

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T HE orders for Stanley's forthcoming book, say the reporters in their preposterous English, "are already phenomenal," and no wonder. Nothing in modern history or fiction,...

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S WARNING.

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W Pi really cannot discuss Mr. Chamberlain's plan for entrusting the management of the Land- Purchase Act to local bodies any more. It is at best only a counsel of perfection....

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THE DEMONSTRATION IN HYDE PARK.

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S UNDAY'S demonstration was in every way creditable to the working classes of London. They managed to collect a quarter of a million of people—that is, five Continental corps...

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COMPENSATION TO LIQUOR-DEALERS.

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TH! Session seems not likely to pass without the ppearance of the usual cloud in the clear sky. Till lately, Ministers had, to all appearance, a good chance of carrying their...

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• THE IMPERISHABLENESS OF MODERN LITERATURE.

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M R. MORLEY, in returning thanks at the Academy dinner on behalf of Literature, ended a bright little speech by calling it "the happiest of all callings, and the most...

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THE SPRING HABITS OF BRITISH QUADRUPEDS.

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T HE first really warm days of spring tempt the shyest, and even the night-feeding animals, to show themselves and revel in the sun. On such a morning last week, a hedge- hog...

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THAT SAD SECOND VOLUME.

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T HERE is perhaps no better illustration of the inherent conservatism of Englishmen, than the continued enforce- ment of the unwritten law which decrees that the only strictly...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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BIMETALLISM. [To THE EDITOR Os THE " SPECTATOB:9 SIB, — Will you allow me to add a few words to Mr. Samuel Smith's comment on your interesting article on Bimetallism ? You say,...

ANCIENT GRAMMAR.

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pro THE &MOE OF THE "SPECTATOR:9 Sin,—Mr. Murphy's statement that "It is I" is a modern Latinism, is certainly not correct. A reference to the English versions of St. Matthew...

MODERN GRAMMAR.

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LTO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOE:9 Sin,—" 0 Ma! baby tore it." The change to "Me tore it" will mark a new stage in" baby's "psychological development; and the final "I tore...

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THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — Allow me to point out that the clause in this Bill of which you speak as "relieving all clergymen from any legal obligation to...

ART.

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THE GROSVENOR GALLERY. THE Grosvenor this year is the most interesting of the Exhibitions. It might have been expected that the nets of the Academy and New Gallery would drag...

MATTHEW:PRIOWS POEMS.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] should be unwilling to occupy the valuable space of the Spectator with a controversy as ancient as that raised by Mr. Dering. I wrote the...

STORIES TO LET.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The "fl ne faut pas le damner legerement " story of which you and your correspondents have given so many varia- tions, is surely "a...

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BOOKS.

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OUTDOOR PHILOSOPHY.* THE love of liberty is one of the fundamental passions of human nature. However much civilisation has overlaid life with a crust of conventionalities, the...

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HISTORY OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN SCOTLAND.* THE new volume of

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this work is in some respects, not in all, an improvement on the two that preceded it. Dealing with subjects that come closer to the quick of feelings and interests still...

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THE STATESMAN'S YEARBOOK.*

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THE twenty-seventh issue of The Statesman's Year-Book deserves special notice. It is not The Statesman's Year-Book of Mr. Frederick Martin's editorship ; it is not even The...

COURT LIFE UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS.* Mn. HALL claims that this

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is an exactly accurate historical novel, that "every personage acted and spoke almost precisely as represented in this narrative, and every event took place at the exact time...

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WEISMANN ON HEREDITY, VARIATION, LIFE, AND DEATH.*

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IN the later editions of his Origin of Species, Darwin betrayed, in a few well-known passages the circumstances attending the insertion of which it would be interesting to know,...

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THE MAGAZINES.

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M.B. KNOWLES has at last enlisted a reigning Sovereign among his contributors. In the Nineteenth, Century the King of Sweden and Norway publishes the first in- stalment of a...

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The Bondman. By Hall Caine. 3 vols. (W. Heinemann.)— The

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scene of Mr Hall Caine's story is laid partly in Iceland, partly in the Isle of Man. He warns us in his preface not to take either of these localities in too critical a spirit....

Our Journey to the Hebrides. By Joseph Pennell and Elizabeth

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Robins Pennell. (T. Fisher (Tnwin.)—It is quite as well that, to avoid any possible mistake, Mr. and Mrs. Pennell begin by telling us that their trip to Scotland was "moat...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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In every sense the best article in the May number of the _English Illustrated Magazine is Mr. Albert Fleming's on Albert Diirer. It is an excellent piece of writing, admirably...

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Declaration of War. By Douglas Owen. (Stevens and Sons.)— Though

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largely and inevitably of the nature of a compilation, this is nevertheless a valuable work of its kind. There are in existence both treatises on international law and works on...

On the Children. By Annie Thomas (Mrs. Pender Cudlip). 3

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vols. (F. V. White and Co.)—We cannot compliment Mrs. Pender Cudlip on her taste in plots. Surely it is possible to devise an interesting situation in life without having...

The New Far West and the Old Far Bast. By

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W. H. Barneby. (Stanford.)—Mr. Barneby seems to be an old traveller, but he has nothing very original to relate about Manitoba, British Columbia, Japan, and Ceylon, which were...

Babbage's Calculating - Machines. (E. and F. N. Spon.)—Mr. Henry P. Babbage

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has here collected some thirty papers of various kinds, bearing on the calculating-machines, and has added an interesting summary of the great mathematician's work. The idea of...

Christianity and Islam in Spain. By C. R. Haines. (Regan

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Paul and Co.)—This little book (originally a prize essay), dealing with a period between 756 and 1031 A.D., about which a good deal is at once generally and vaguely known, is...

Knowing and Being. By John Veitch, LL.D. (Blackwood.)— Professor Veitch,

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of Glasgow University, who is almost equally well known as a Hamiltonian in philosophy and a Wordsworthian in poetry—both, of course, with variations—publishes here in book form...

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Memoirs of Bishop McDougall and of his Wife. By C.

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T. Bunyon. (Longmans, Green, and Co.)—The life of the first Bishop of Labuan and of Sarawak, and of his wife, is well and, in the main, impartially described by Mrs. McDougall's...