new and the old spirit. It begins with a statement as to why the first Parliament was temporarily dissolved over thirty years ago,—the ground alleged being the necessity of...

T HE chief event of the week is the opening of the Turkish Parliament by the Sultan in person, which took place on Thursday. The scene, which is admirably described by the...

Austrian Prime Minister, Baron von Bienerth, intervened with important declarations as to the situation,—declara- lions, however, marked by the tone of official optimism, if...

in the Austrian Chamber on Wednesday. The Christian Socialist leader, Prince. Alois Liechtenstein, moved that the Bill of Annexation be read a first time, and after justifying...

ships by Dutch warships has resulted in a declaration of war by Venezuela. Since, however, a state of war already exists, it can hardly be said that the declara- tion is a...

case.

Redlich, the well-known writer on English Constitutional Jaw. Professor Redlich seems to have made an exceedingly anti-British speech sown with ridiculous accusations that we...

the reforms which he and the Viceroy are to introduce into the Indian Government. The matter is so complicated, and deserves such careful consideration, that we will to-day only...

was moved in the House of Lords on Tuesday by Lora Beauchamp, who denied that it was a miners' Bill, and denounced the estimates of decreased output and increased prices as...

right to press for amendments in Committee, admitted the special claims of miners, and announced his intention to vote for the second reading. Lord St. Aldwyn cordially...

of the Provincial Councils by a number of members elected by munioipalities, landlords, Mohammedans, Chambers of Commerce, and the Indian commercial com- munity. These...

His proposals would, he declared, be extremely illogical if he were endeavouring to set up a Parliamentary system in India, but that was not the goal to which he aspired. "If I...

with the charges of corrupt action brought against the United States Government in connexion with the Panama Canal. The story, which originated in the New York Wand, owned by...

the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt, strongly supports the commercial independence of Turkey in an able, letter in Monday's Times. The exceptional fiscal privileges—....

to celebrate Speke's discovery of the Victoria Nyanza. Sir W. Garstin read a most interesting paper in which he reviewed the exploration of the Nile since Speke's time, and...

of last Saturday notes that many Trade-Unionists who had paid for twenty or thirty years into the funds of an association organised for providing strike-pay, out-of-work...

to Mr. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., in recognition of his municipal services to London. The Progressives of " the civic renaissance of 1889" had, be declared, inspiration and ideals....

. fact that the Lords had in effect rejected the Licensing Bill before a word had been uttered in their House in explanation of its principles. He compared with the treatment of...

Mr. Asquith's speech. We must, however, protest as Free- traders against his monstrous suggestion that the Liberals should at the next General Election go to the country on the...

Street Police Court for selling an indeeent book entitled "The Yoke." A second summons required him to show cause why the copies of the book on his premises should not be...

28th. Consols (24) were on Friday 831—on Friday week 831.

'WHY NOT THE REFERENDUM? -w RITING last week before Mr. Asquith's speech on the question of the House of Lords had been delivered, we ventured to prophesy that it would...

is an event which is bound to create a very great amount of sympathy and interest in this country. Should the experiment be a success, and the Parliament do its work...

to the Eighty Club on Tuesday was notable for its lucidity, its common-sense, and, we would add, for its simplicity. Lord Cromer's ratiocination always carries the mind along at...

W E have no love for carping criticism of men who are engaged in a difficult task, and the adminis- tration of Ireland is assuredly at all times no light occupation. But it is...

I T is not always easy to follow the motives which - govern the action of the House of Lords. The Peers are supposedla a general way to give Bills much the same treatment which...

" T HE attempt to classify one's acquaintance is the common sport of the thinker," we read in an amusing little American book about bores—and people who are not bores, for whom...

N EARLY all proverbs are true,—no doubt because they are truisms. The existence of the same proverbs in nearly all nations of similar civilisation proves this. But we venture...

D ECEMBER, holds a day of lustrous quiet which belongs to deep and mild winter alone. From dawn to dusk no ray of open sunshine falls on any space of ploughland or lawn. No wind...

THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN 1909. [To THE EDITOR Or TRM "SPIMTATOR.1 SIR,—The Navy of the United States now stands, by common consent, second only to that of Great Britain,...

article in the last issue of the Spectator regarding slavery in Portuguese West Africa, we desire to draw your attention to an extract from the article reading as follows :—...

your readers to know what other firms there are besides the one you name in your last issue by whom slave-grown cocoa is not used.—I am, Sir, Sic., G. J. N. [As far as we know,...

SLAVERY IN PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA. [To THE EDITOR OF TRY " SPICT•TOIt."1 8113,—May I thank you very heartily for your admirable leading article on this subject in last...

rTo THR EntToR Or THE "SPECFATOR.1 Sin,—There is a great deal of force in the statements made by Mr. H. C. Irwin in his letter entitled "Sedition in India" (Spectator, November...

[To Tea EDITOR OP TIM "SPECTATOR:] Sra,—You say in your comment on Mr. Kavanagla's letter : "We hold that the free working of economic laws will prove in the end much less cruel...

Tfli "SPECTATOR:] Sra,—I do not suppose that Unionists need take much notice of the Prime Minister's recent fulmination against the House of Lords. None of it was very...

rTo TEE EDITOIS OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-Mr. Heramerde's point that "this building value is the creation not of the Duke of Northumberland but of the people of Northumberland"...

" sesorwroto] Sin,—As a resident of many years' standing in Nyasaland (formerly known as the British Central Africa Protectorate), I think you deserve the thanks of all classes...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—To reimport the hereditary principle into a reconstructed House of Lords would surely be to reimport the dry-rot. That principle has had...

you believe one who has spent long years in such places, there would be less drink and immorality among men in the outlying parts of the Empire, deprived of the refining...

SPECTATOR."f SIR,—In your most interesting article under the above beading in your issue of October 10th, just to hand, the writer appears to have committed one oversight. In...

(To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR,—I should like to tell you of an incident which has come within my personal knowledge. It bears on the above subject, and incidentally...

[To TEX EDITOR OF TEX " 13PIW1AT0R.".1 SIE,—Last week I met the manager of a colliery. I asked him how he felt with regard to the Miners Bill. He said :— "At last they have...

SIR,—I am sorry that Mr. Hugh Wharton in his letter (Spectator, December 12th) does not consider that a judicial investigation in a County Court can discover the truth. I take...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPROTITOR..] Sia,—Like your correspondent "Twenty Years in Germany" (Spectator, December 12th), I can speak from experience of German school life,...

J SIR,—I have 210 to invest for the benefit of a young servant- girl of eighteen, as, if the money were handed to _her, her family would have it all from her in a very short...

[To TER EDITOR OF THR " SPXOTATOR."] SIR,—I am really a good deal astonished at your editorial comment on my letter in the Spectator of December 12th. But for the painful...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTLT0R.1 SIR,—With reference to your most interesting article on "The Commendations of Christ" in your last issue, may I venture to point out that...

SPECTILT011." . 1 SIR,—Some of your other readers may, like the present writer, find that their Greek has grown too rusty to allow them to read the original text with pleasure....

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] SIR,—In the review of the biography of "Ian 3faclaren " which appears in your issue of last week the writer speaks of the late Professor A....

[To THE EDITOR Or THE "Specraroa."] SIR,—Might I crave the indulgence of your widely read paper at a time of year when many charitable people are providing gifts of clothing for...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOE."] SIR,—In the Spectator of the 12th inst. Dom Nolan says that the Orange ascendency party in Ireland direct the policy of England towards...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J Si,—Will you kindly allow me to express through your columns my gratitude to the friend who sends me the Spectator ?

or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked "Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the mode of...

MR. CHURCHILL'S EAST AFRICAN JOURNEY.* IT would be just to say of Mr. Churchill's book that it is capital, and in places brilliant, journalism. It has all the • My African...

ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH. BEYOND the serried streets and mean, Beyond the houses grey, I spread, beneath a sky grown clean, My apron to the day, Where men may rest and men may jest,...

ENGLISH readers have had to wait a long time for a fall and authoritative history of Russian literature. Of partial studies, dealing with individual authors and schools, not a...

that these two great tragic volumes are lengthy, are monotonous, contain among their seven hundred and eleven letters many that were not worth preserving from a literary point...

THE critical and biographical studies which Sir Charles Stanford has collected together from among his contributions to periodicals during the last five-and-twenty years will be...

readable book Mr. Colquhoun gives us the key to a life full of adventure and achievement, which we trust may be as fruitful in the future as in the past. "My chief ambition," he...

MR. BUCHAN needs no introduction to the readers of the Spectator, who will recognise in this collection of essays and studies not a few papers that first saw the light in our...

HALFWAY HOUSE.* BEGINNING with Mediaeval and Renaissance romance, Mr. Hewlett made a successful excursion into modernity with The Stooping Lady, and has now given us, for the...

65.) — It is obvious that if an author wishes to write a novel pointing out the terrible punishment meted out to his hero for committing a sin, it is necessary for him to begin...

Os.)—The character of a heroine must be indeed a masterly creation for the reader to wish to follow her through three novels. Mr. Marion Crawford seems to find his present...

Illustrated Archaeologist, Edited by the Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., XIV. of New Series (Bemrose and Sons, 12s. net). This, we may remind our readers, is a quarterly journal,...

(Whittaker and Co. 6s. net.)—Miss Kingsley tells us how to make a rose garden and what to grow in it, and how to prune and propagate. She illustrates what she says by telling of...

Matthews, M.A. (Edward Arnold. 6s. net.)—A reader in England must feel himself somewhat at a loss in estimating this book. Mr. Matthews • pleads for the use of brotherhoods in...

(The New Age Press. 5s. net.)—Mr. Pugh has certainly some- thing worth hearing to say about Dickens. And we may make use of it without accepting some strange dicta which we find...

Langham, and Co. 15s. net.)—If any one has a taste for horrors, here he may satisfy it to the full. We do not say that these things should not be recorded, but it should, we...

modern story in which a quiet elder sister sacrifices herself for the benefit of her brilliant junior. The sacrifice, however, turns out to be to the advantage of the...

the Russian by Constance Garnett. (W. Heine- mann. 68. net.)—The story opens at Odessa, one of the great mannfactaring centres of Russia; we see at once how closely economical...

[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been r eserved for review in other forms.] The Exploration of Egypi and the Old Testament. By J. G arrow...

net.)— This publication is meant, to quote the first sentence of the preface, to meet "the difficulty of knowing where to place stories and articles," and, it may be added,...

a new periodical, The Country Home, of which the first volume (May—October, 1908) lies before us. It treats of many things that concern country life, gardening being eminent...

6d. net.)—This is a very convenient and cheap directory, giving lists of the clergy and of benefices (with value) and population, particulars of Cathedral establishments, &c. We...

Rev. John Kirk, D.D. Edited by J. Hungerford Pollen, S.J., and Edwin Burton, D.D. (Burns and Oates. 7s. 6d.)—John Kirk (1760-1851) intended to continue Dodd's "Church History,"...