15 OCTOBER 1870

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Al! this is favourable. On the other hand, the reports

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from Paris as to provisions are not so satisfactory. M. Gambetta says the city has enough "for long months," but the best estimates show beef and mutton only for five weeks at...

Yet another disaster for France ! Will the list never

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end ? The Provisional Government seated at Tours had with infinite trouble and difficulty enrolled, armed, and in some sort drilled about 90,000 men, whom they called the Army...

The incessant defeats have emboldened M. Gambetta to take the

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first really revolutionary step taken in the war. He has issued, as Minister of War, a decree suspending the laws about promotion and service, and enabling the Ministry to...

M. Gambetta has at once assumed the Ministry of War

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and a virtual Dictatorship. After declaring that 400,000 men are armed in Paris ; that the fortifications are provided with splendid guns, taken from the fleet, and that Paris...

M. Gambetta left Paris by balloon this day week, and

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arrived, after a very perilous journey, at Amiens. At first, when he, his secretary M. Spuller, and his aeronaut M. Trichet, rose above the Prussian lines, many bullets whistled...

On the 11th, Von der Tann continued his march to

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Orleans, and encountered the French, who though largely reinforced—for their General says they "were on their march to Paris "—did not hold their ground. They fell back on...

NEWS OF VIE WEEK.

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Q OCIETY " is greatly excited by the news that the Queen, 13 following the precedents of the Stuarts, the Tudors, and the Plantagenets, butbreaking the traditions of the House...

** The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in any

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case.

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The French fleet, which, according to the Danes, was very

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badly found, and commanded -by officers so ignorant that they did not know when the Baltic was closed by the ice, has returned to the North Sea, probably with orders to make...

The actively political portion of the working-class, on the other

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hand,—a very small portion, by the way, —is generous to rashness in the exuberance of its sympathy with the young Republic. Lad by Professor Beesly and Dr. Congreve, a certain...

A battle, which also went against the French, was fought

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on Thursday week (October 6), in the Vosges mountains, between Raon l'Etape and Saint Die, about thirty miles south-east of Lune- vine, between a French army under General...

Count Bismarck is evidently restless under the defence of Paris.

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Should the defence be protracted to the last, there would be dan- ger of a catastrophe which would overwhelm all Europe with horror, the death by starvation of two millions of...

Mr. Bass, M.P. for Derby, on the contrary, in addressing

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his constituents on Tuesday evening, expressed his belief, amidst "loud applause," that English "sympathies are now changing in some degree towards unfortunate France, laid as...

The Republic seems in no difficulty about money. It pays

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for everything either in bonds or cash, and we hear no talk of aasignats ; but we wonder what it will do about the Rentes due on December 22. It cannot pay them in Paris, and...

The Liberal Members for large constituencies are not very unanimous

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about the war, except on the point of keeping out of it. Sir Thomas Bazley, in addressing the Liberal Club yesterday week in the Chorltou Town Hall, Manchester, apologized for...

The military accounts from Paris are much more favourable than

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those from the provinces. There, at least, there seems to be a General who knows what he can and what he cannot do. 'The firing of the forts had compelled the Germans to fall...

The Provisional Government has finally decided to postpone the elections

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until the Germans have left France. The reason assigned is the occupation of so many departments by the enemy, but the real reason is probably the fear of being hampered in the...

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Margaret Waters, the baby-farmer, was executed on Tuesday.

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The Times of yesterday published for the first time the

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curt assertion of Count Bismarck that their correspondent, Mr. Russell, had given an account of the conversation between the Emperor and the King of Prussia at Sedan which was...

The assertion made in the letter of the Daily News

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from Tours that the Empress not only expected General Bourbaki, but wanted him to take the Prince Imperial back to Metz, with a view to his 'being proclaimed as Napoleon IV....

An Ursulan nun of Blois is said to have predicted

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in 1808 great troubles for France and for Blois both in 1848 and in 1870. In 1848 these troubles actually came. For 1870, the prophecy ran that the grands malheurs were to begin...

Curious and convincing evidence has been produced that France was

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really at heart very hostile to the war, which the Emperor declared had been forced upon him against his will by the enthusiasm of the French nation. The Government of Paris...

Consols were on Friday 92i to 92i.

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Another and very considerable battle has been fought before Metz,

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and was witnessed by the excellent correspondent of the Daily News at Maizieres. On the morning of October 7, Bazaine, taking advantage of a deep fog, made a false attempt on...

The Provinces, stirred by the operations of the Middle-Class 'Schools'

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Commission, are beginning to find out that they them- selves may be able to take a good deal of work out of the Com- missioners' hands by local organization. A very important...

A few addresses have already appeared from candidates for election

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for the Metropolitan School Board. All had, however, been singularly colourless, talking vaguely of the wish for unsec- tarian teaching, but not specifying in detail the policy...

Why does not Lord Granville announce in some one of

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the hundred ways open to him what he is doing to avoid disaster in -China? Has he sent three regiments of Sikhs to Singapore ; or warned Lord Mayo, who is accessible by...

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THE CHANCES OF FRANCE.

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I T is quite possible that the War may be over in a week ; that the Parisians may be unable to bear that most dreadful of military tortures, shells falling from points to which...

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THE DEMEANOUR OF PARIS.

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-N OTHING in all this wonderful War is more wonderful than the attitude of Paris. If it continues—and the best German authorities, Count Bismarck and General von Moltke, and the...

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THE LATEST IMPERIAL INTRIGUE.

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under the title of Napoleon IV., with his mother as Regent,— his father being willing to abdicate in his favour. General Bourbaki is said to have told the Empress plainly, in...

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DIPLOMATIC BELLIGERENCE.

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D IPLOMATISTS, in time of war, of course become soldiers in disguise ; they fight with their own peculiar class of weapons for their country's common end, with as much zeal as...

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THE VANITY OF EXPERIENCE.

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A SOMEBODY who was present at the execution of Margaret Waters on Tuesday morning wrote a letter to the Echo of the same day to explain that, at nine o'clock on Tuesday, he...

THE IRISH EPISCOPALIANS.

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T HE Episcopalians in Ireland are greatly annoyed by the failure of their effort to raise a Sustentation Fund, the total sum subscribed being scarcely sufficient to endow the...

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behold it,—which is not only not a novelty, but is

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indeed the very IN the midst of a very great war, a war the history of which ground upon which those who think it desirable for exceptional 1 will be studied centuries hence...

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ESTIMATES OF THE ENGLISH KINGS.

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XL—EDWARD III. F EW English - Kings have left behind them so great a reputation in the Chroniclers, and yet few Kings are so slightly deli- neated in their personal...

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AMERICAN TRAVEL

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"] Ix the following letter, a young English girl gives a bright an& vivid account of the experiences of herself and her sister on a• journey...

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BOOKS.

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A "PENNY DREADFUL" IN THREE VOLUMES.* MR. Ross has written books of no trifling ability. His best, The Pretty Widow, was a book of real art, and indicated very considerable...

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PRUSSIAN CHAPLAINS IN WAR TIME.*

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HERE we have a glimpse of Prussian military organization from a new point of view. The details given us of the system under which both the great confessions represented in the...

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A UNITARIAN PREACHER.*

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THESE are pleasing and thoughtful sermons, the production of a reverent, tasteful, and reflective mind. But they leave upon us the same defective and cloudy impression which all...

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WILLIAM OF M.kLMESBURY"S ENGLISH PRELATES.* THE well-known Gesta Pontifiewn of

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William of Malmesbury comprises records of the early English prelates, which are, for the most part, geographically arranged, so that in the first four books he begins with the...

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PARIS IN DECEMBER, 1851.* The Second French Empire is already

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so completely a thing of the past, that a translation published a few months back, from an edition scarcely older, of a work relating to its beginnings, seems by this time to...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Contemporary Review. October. (Strahan.)—Last week we briefly directed our readers' attention to Mr. Ludlow's article on the "Principles and Issues of the War," which...

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Appleton's European Guide-Book. New York : Appleton. (Longmans.) —This book

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is of American origin, and has the completeness which becomes a nation which travels even more than we do. It gives routes for the traveller in every European country, in most...

Love Poems of All Nations. Compiled by Joseph Kaines, F.A.S.L.

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(Pickering.)—This pretty little volume is not wanting in interest. The compiler has ranged far and wide in making his search; every European tongue and not a few of the...

The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1870,

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by John Timbs (Lockwood), is a modest and useful volume, of which we have noticed previous issues with a commendation which we are glad to repeat. With this may be mentioned the...

A Guide to English Coins. By H. W. Henfrey. (J.

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R. Smith.)—Mr. Henfrey gives a description of all the coins, gold, silver, and copper which have been coined for use—excluding, that is, patterns and proofs— in England since...

Filial Honour of God. By William Anderson, LL.D. (Hodder and

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Stoughton.)—Dr. Anderson proclaims his adherence to and sympathy with Evangelical believers (a class which he explains as containing those who hold "the expiatory sacrifice of...

Porrav.—A Seaside Story, and other Poems. By Elizabeth Hereby Whiteman.

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(Bell and Daldy.)—The Seaside Story is a pretty tale, with. a fine moral of its own, which Miss Whiteman tells in blank verse that has fluency and something of grace, but wants...