15 JULY 1893

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The news from Bangkok (Siam) grows more and more serious.

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Friday's telegrams show that two French gunboats, after some fighting, have got past the forts, and are now anchored, in company with the gunboat previously in th e river,...

By Monday, however, the prosperous omens had all dis- appeared,

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and the Cabinet had sunk back into the hope- less slough of Republican Concentration. It was announced that M. Peytral had withdrawn his resignation, and it was also made known...

The discussion of the Ninth Clause, determining the repre- sentation

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of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament, was begun on Friday week ; but no decision was reached nor, indeed, any point of importance so much as discussed. On Monday, Mr. Goschen...

The rioting in Paris has died away, and on Saturday

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there was a debate in the Chamber which seemed to promise well for the stability of the Ministry. M. Dupuy won a great victory, and won it not by means of " Republican Concen-...

The Khedive arrived at Constantinople at the beginning of the

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week, and has been treated with great distinction by the Sultan. It appears, however, that though the Sultan is much pleased to see his feudatory doing homage in person, he is...

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

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case.

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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M R. GLADSTONE will succeed in making the House of Lords the most popular institution in the country. The Ninth Clause of his Bill, a deliberate attempt to pull down the British...

NOTICE.—With this week's number of the " SPECTATOR" is issued,

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gratis, an Eight-Page Supplement, containing the Half-Yearly Index and Title-Page,—i.e., from January 7th, to June 24th, 1893, inclusive.

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At a little before 5 o'clock, Mr. Gladstone rose to

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announce that the Government intended to withdraw their proposal for the representation of Ireland in the House of Commons, just as they had withdrawn their proposals for the...

On Thursday Mr. Wallace continued the debate on the "

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in-and-out " clauses in a speech which Mr. Balfour rightly described as " of its kind one of the most brilliant speeches of my whole Parliamentary recollection." He was followed...

On Thursday night, the German Reichstag carried the essential article

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of the Army Bill—i.e., that the peace- footing shall be 479,228 men from October 1st, 1893, to March 31st, 1899—by a majority of 11. This is a great triumph for Count Caprivi...

On Wednesday, it was announced that the French Embassy in

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London is to be given to M. Decrais,—a trained diplomatist of great ability. He is further said to be well fitted to discharge the social duties of his post, to be a negotiator...

On Wednesday Mr. Parker-Smith's amendment to omit the words "Dublin

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University shall cease to return any Member," was discussed. To this amendment, Mr. Swift MacNeill was opposed, on the ground that the Dublin University was a mere instrument...

That perpetual source of international irritation, the French fishing easement

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on the coast of Newfoundland, is again beginning to give trouble. The owners of a factory on the French shore imported from Halifax, and in a British vessel, certain supplies of...

Tuesday's debate began by a motion from Sir John Lub-

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bock intended to cut down the Irish representation to the level of Ireland's contribution to the Imperial Revenue. Mr. Gladstone replied by an argument good enough if Ireland...

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Wednesday's Times publishes a letter from Bishop Tucker which is

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of ,very great importance as regards Uganda. It states that forty of the principal Protestant: chiefs in the country have signed a Declaration expressing their - wish for the...

Two convictions, both by juries, have this week attracted some

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attention. On Friday, July 7th, Mr. Tims, a London County Councillor, was found guilty at the County of London Sessions for having attempted to obtain 14s. 41d. from the London...

On Friday, July 7th, Mr. T. W. Russell moved the

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adjournment of the House to call attention to the failure of justice "at the present assizes in the county of Clare." Nine persons were put on their trial at the Spring Assizes,...

Mr. Conybeare, who published a letter reflecting severely on the

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Speaker for refusing to accept the motion made by him on Thursday, June 29th, for closuring the discussion on Mr. Gladstone's gagging resolution, though in 1887 Mr. Peel had...

Bank Rate, 21. per cent. • New Consols OD were

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on Friday 99i-991.

Mr. Gladstone, having had the letter read at the table,

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then moved that the letter constituted a breach of privi- lege, and as Mr. Conybeare did not admit that he had been in the wrong, the House declared the letter a breach of...

On Tuesday, a still more positive refusal to obey the

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direct authority of the Chairman of Committees proceeded from Mr. Sexton, and was complicated by the most unconstitutional and improper reflections on the action of one of the...

Lord Salisbury made a brilliant speech to the Junior Constitutional

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Club on Friday week, in which he described our present constitutional system as " an impartial combination of hustle and gag," and made an earnest appeal to the people to insist...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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MR. GLADSTONE'S LAST THUNDERBOLT. A FTER Mr. Gladstone had launched his last thunder- bolt on Wednesday, and had explained with airy equanimity to the Committee that he had at...

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MR. SEXTON AND MR. GLADSTONE.

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W E have said more than once that, so far from taking the least satisfaction in the political misdeeds of the Members of the Irish Party, we profoundly regret every mistake...

THE " TONE OF EMPIRE."

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N O thoughtful man, however little he may be disposed by temperament to applaud the extravagances of Jingoism, can help feeling some alarm at the very visible i decline of the...

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THE INCUBUS OF THE REPUBLICAN SUPER- STITION IN FRANCE. to

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reconcile the whole nation to the existing Constitution, and induce the discontented and the reactionary to give up their constructive treasons, melts into thin air, and the old...

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HOME-RULE AND OUR EXTERNAL RELATIONS.

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L ORD SALISBURY'S contribution to the Pall Mall Gazette of Monday last is a very important one, and touches upon points which are too often either left un- discussed, or merely...

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CRUMBS OF COMFORT FROM SIR WILFRID LAWSON.

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T HEprophetic soul of the Secretary of the United Kingdom Alliance is a prey to gloomy forebodings. He sees daily fresh forecasts of the work that is to be done in the happy...

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THE AMENDED BUILDING SOCIETIES BILL. T HE Select Committee of the

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House of Commons on the Building Societies Bills, taking the Government Bill (No. 2) for their basis, have reported an amended Bill which, if passed, will certainly represent a...

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SUSPICIOUSNESS.

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M R. JUSTICE GRANTHAM probably holds that the police and people of Ramsgate have shown a very undue suspiciousness in raking-up so much irrelevant gossip to fix suspicion on the...

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THE FUTURE OF ALUMINIUM. T HE elegant winged figure with which

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Mr. Gilbert has adorned the summit of the bronze fountain designed and cast by him for the centre of Piccadilly Circus, possesses an interest separate and apart from its merits...

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GUY DE MAUPASSANT. T HE newspapers have in some ways made

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a good deal too much of the death of Guy de Maupassant. He was not a star of the fret magnitude in the heaven of letters. At the same time he is an extremely interesting figure...

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THE NEW CODE OF HONESTY.

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O N reading Mr. John Burns's speech, delivered to his con- stituents at Battersea the other day, one is irresistibly reminded of one of Mr. Gilbert's "Bab Ballads," entitled "My...

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CORRESPONDENCE.

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ECHOES FROM AUVERGNE. Mite' Perriere, La Bourboule, Tidy 10th. Citrannarcy questions are surely amongst the things " which no fellow can understand,"—a truth for which I think,...

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THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SFEOTATOR.P] SIR,—I am surprised that this should be looked upon as is complex question. It is, in reality, of the simplest character. If gold was...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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TRUTH-BLINDNESS. ITO THE EDITOR OF THE " SrucTAToo."1 SIR,—After reading with interest your article on "Truth- Blindness," in the Spectator of July 8th, I began to think that...

THE FRENCH NAVY AND THEIR NEW CANAL. .

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!TD THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sra,—We have been frequently informed that the French Government is making a canal from Bordeaux to Narbonne, to be completed in two years'...

THE CJAMPERDOWN.'

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] Sut,—The terrible fate of the Victoria' very naturally so engrosses men's minds that but little attention has been given to the conduct of...

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MR. AUBREY DE VERE'S RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS. [To THE EDITOR OF

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THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—In your review of Mr. De Vere's "Religious Problems of the Nineteenth Century," in the Spectator of July 8th, you ask : " What we want to know is the...

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COOK.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —I have often thought, and I think it the more for your article on cooks in the Spectator of July 8th, that mistresses of households...

SHAKESPEARE AND TEMPERANCE. [To THE EDITOR ON THE "SPECTATOR. "] should

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think much more of Mr. Maurice's approval than I do, if he had not so completely given himself away in the last sentence of his letter, He holds that Sir W. Lawson's quotation...

A CANINE GUARDIAN.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—Having read for years your interesting letters and articles on animals in the Spectator, I feel sure you will like to have a thoroughly...

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BIRD-NAMES.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "' Sin,—The cock-bird is always called the " Tom "-bird in this part of Hampshire, as Mr. Leonard tells your readers (Spectator, June 24th) it...

THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' Sin,—For several years, by the generosity of your readers, our committee have given a day in the country to thousands of poor, and in many...

THE AMERICAN CUCKOO.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] eia,—The article entitled "Cuckoos and Nightingales," in the Spectator of May 13th, speaks of the American cuckoo as an honest bird, as in...

DIGEST OF THE S.P.G.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—With reference to the notice of the "Digest of the Records of the S.P.G.," in the Spectator of July 8th, I would ask to be allowed to...

POETRY.

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AMONG THE BIRDS. To GILBERT WHITE. TnE streams that bear your Selborne rains, One north, one south, to diverse seas, The hollow water-fretted lanes, The sloping Hanger's...

BOOKS.

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THE HISTORIAN OF FEELING.* WHO does not know the faded water-colour paintings of a century or so ago P Either brown impossible landscapes, or groups of high-waisted...

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A FRENCH VIEW OF OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM.* FOR many years

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past the Count de Franquevillo has made the institutions of England, especially in comparison with those of his own country, a subject of close study, and he has now published a...

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A BOOK OF GOSSIP.*

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THE reputation for clever and readable gossip which Sir William Fraser established by his books on Wellington and Disraeli will in no way be impaired by the present work. Hie et...

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MR. RUDYARD KIPLING'S LAST VOLUME.* MN. RGDYAND KIPLING'S rather misleading

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title, which suggests reminiscences of the Patent Office, rather than stories of a singularly vivid and more or less tragic realism; is justified by this quotation from...

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THE RISE OF THE BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA,* WHEN a

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book appears under the unpretending description of a "University Extension Manual," we expect at the most a well-written outline of the subject with which it deals: The little...

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LYDIA.* THE first half of this single volume gives little

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promise of the power and insight of the concluding chapters. The author is, we imagine, a woman, and a woman who has hardly seen enough of life to judge the disproportion...

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Voltaire. By Francis Espinasse. (Walter Scott.) — Mr. Espinasse is

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not by any means a victim to the has biographica. He is just—it might almost be said, severely just—to the subject of his memoir. One cannot help feeling that Voltaire was a man...

Essays. By Sir Morell Mackenzie. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.)—The

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first essay in this volume bears the title of " Specialism ;" the second is a rejoinder made to Dr. Donkin. Sir Morell's contention is "the inevitable disappearance of the...

Instead of a Book. Culled from the Writings of Benjamin

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R. Tucker. (R. N. Tucker, New York.)—Mr. Tucker is the editor and publisher of a journal called Liberty. Here we have extracts from it, interesting because they constitute the...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The English Peasant. By Richard Heath. (T. Fisher Unwin.) —Mr. Heath has collected here a number of papers published at various times during the last twenty odd years. We do not...

The Sportsman and Tourist's Guide to Scotland. Edited by J.

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Watson-Lyall. (118 Pall Mall.)—This is the " twenty-first year of publication," and we welcome an old acquaintance. It has, we observe, a new feature, which should be of the...

By a Himalayan Lake, By "An Idle Exile." (Ward and

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Downey.)—This is a story of Anglo-Indian life, and is of the usual type,—usual, we mean, where fighting does not come into the plot. Hetty Mainwaring, engaged to Jem...

Bourne's Handy Assurance Manual, 1891 Edited by H, S. Carpenter.

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(H. S. Carpenter.)—This periodical has been fre- quently noticed before in these columns, and may be again com- mended to all readers interested in the subject. The most...

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Joanna of Naples. By St. Clair Baddeley. (Heinemann.)— Mr. St.

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Clair Baddeley is, unless we mistake, a minor poet. If this is the case, it is a pity that, having an outlet for his poetical faculty, he does not resolutely keep it from...

Far Cathay and Further India. By Major-General A. Buxton MacMahon.

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(Hurst and Blackett.)—General MacMahon begins by some remarks on the political situation of Burmah as it con- cerns England and China. He then goes back to some his- torical...

In Messrs. Gale and Polden's "Military Series" we have :-

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Handbook to the Martini-Henry Rite; Handbook to the Lee-Mitford Rifle ; Physical Drill, cl^c., Made Easy, by William Gordon ; and Changes in Revised Infantry Drill, by the same...

Heather and Snow. By George Macdonald. 2 vols. (Chatto and

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Windus.)—All the figures in Dr. George Macdonald's story stand out with admirable distinctness on his canvas. Kirsty Barclay, whom we may call the heroine, is a specially fine...

„Essex : Highways, Byways, and Waterways. Second Series. Written and

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illustrated by C. R. B. Barrett. (Lawrence and Bullen.)— " In the first series," writes Mr. Barrett, " I dealt mainly with boroughs and small towns. Now I go among the villages...