19 JUNE 1875

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The City is frightened again, and this time with some

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reason. There have been a series of failures this week, including Messrs. Collie and Co., of Manchester, with nominal liabilities of £3,000,000; and Messrs. Young, Borthwick,...

The House of Commons, has granted a Commission of Inquiry

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into the prevalence of corrupt practices at Norwich. The inquiry may go back to the last election, and it seems to be admitted on all bands that it will reveal a regular...

The ruler of Zanzibar—or "Sultan," as he is called here,

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although he is not even an independent Prince—has been dragged about London all the week, and is supposed to like the process. According to the reporters, he is most struck with...

The Minghetti Government in Italy has nearly been over- thrown.

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It has demanded special powers to deal with the Mafia, the terrorist society of Sicily, which levies black-mail from all classes, threatens the officials, and defies the Police,...

The week has been full of rumours about something which

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was about to happen in Greece. The King was about to abdicate. A Russian fleet had been ordered to the Pirmus. A British fleet had been ordered to the Pirteus. A Turkish fleet...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE Goloss, a paper published in St. Petersburg, argues, in an article which has attracted great attention, that the league of the Three Emperors is in danger. It was formed...

Lord Derby on Friday week made a curious speech at

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the " Speech Day" festival at Merchant Taylors'. He had to-return thanks for the Lords, and chose to defend his House from the imputation of want of influence on politics. The...

• * The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript in

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any case.

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Sensible people are soapy with all this folly, that Mr.

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Cross, though horribly afraid of the Sabbatarians, whose influence he- exaggerates as an infidel exaggerates the influence of a Catho- lic priest, has been badgered into a...

A monster meeting to prepare for the debate in Parliament

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on the Permissive Bill was held in its favour in Exeter Hall on Monday night, when Cardinal Manning made an eloquent speech, which he himself described as strictly "political,"...

Referring to this reflection on the Licensed Victuallers, Sir

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Wilfrid Lawson, who spoke late in the debate, said, with happy irony, in allusion to the present licensing law, that he, on the contrary, considered the Licensed Victuallers...

The debate on Monday on the flogging clause in Mr.

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Cross's Bill for amending the law for offences against the person was remarkable for the weight of argument against that punishment. Mr. Henley, who is not a sentimentalist,...

A great debate has been going on in the French

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Assembly as to the future Universities of France, the Radicals wishing to place at least the Degree-giving power completely in the hands of the State, while the Bishop of...

The Court of Exchequer, sitting in Banco, has decided that

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the directors of the Brighton Aquarium must close that establish- ment on Sundays. All four Judges agreed that the absence of newspapers and music made no difference, and that...

The debate on the Permissive Bill on Wednesday was as

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languid as most other debates in this languid Session, when nobody appears to feel much interest in anything human, or at least anything political Mr. Julian Goldsmid remarked...

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Sir John Lubbock has obtained from the Government a half.

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promise to see whether they cannot so far modify the scheme which he carried against the Government for the preservation of Ancient Monuments, as to meet his views without...

We have given some account in another column of Mr.

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Fitz- james Stephen's opinion against the legal right of a clergyman of the Church of England to take public part in Nonconformist ser- vices, or, indeed, in any religious...

Consols were at the latest date 921-98.

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The Government have dropped their Bill for the incloaure of

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Dean Forest, which we criticised some time since. The Bill gave great dissatisfaction in the Forest, and as we pointed out, was thoroughly out of harmony with the recent course...

Dr. Kenealy has dropped the Tichborne case for the present,

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at least in the House of Commons, and devoted his energies to a Bill for establishing Triennial Parliaments. He was counted out in moving for leave to bring in this Bill on...

Mr. Seymour Haden has concluded this week his very prolix

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and pedantic communications to the Times, in favour of the very sensible reform which he proposes in our customs of burial, with a letter in which he maintains that the burial...

One point comes out in the Blue-book on the Baroda

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trial which ought to attract Lord Salisbury's serious attention. It is quite evident that the standing quarrel between Bombay and the Viceroy's Government has extended to the...

The appeal against the monstrous damages given by a Scotch

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jury against our contemporary the Athourum, for the alleged "libel" of the firm of Keith Johnstone contained in its review of the last edition of his "Atlas," has been so far...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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SIR WILFRID LAWSON. C OUNTRY gentlemen make just the sort of humourists which the House of Commons likes best. Their Squire- archical simplicity, their downright plain-spoken...

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THE WEST SUFFOLK ELECTION AND TENANT-RIGHT.

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I T would be quite useless to deny, even if we wished to deny it, which we do not, that the result of the West Suffolk Election is a considerable triumph for the Government. An...

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THE RUMOURS FROM ATHENS.

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A RE Monarchs people in business, and therefore entitled to retire, or are they sentries ? We confess we are tempted to lose patience with the growing prevalence of the former...

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MR. CROSS AND THE LABOUR LAWS.

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T HE working of the Master and Servant Act of 1867 is entrusted to a Criminal Tribunal, using the machinery of the criminal law, which is empowered to treat the breach of a...

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THE TRAMMELS ON THE CLERGY.

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UR. FITZJAMES STEPHEN has given an opinion, which 111 is probably good law, Mr. Stephen being a very cautious and sound lawyer, and the reasons which he assigns bearing in...

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AN ANGLO-RUSSIAN ALLIANCE.

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T HERE is very little, we fancy, in the notion of a Russian alliance with Great Britain. Even if the Goloss, the Russian journal which is advocating that policy, as an alter-...

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DEAN STANLEY ON TIIE PRESS.

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T HERE are both "sweetness and light" in the Dean of Westminster, but when he is talking on subjects which interest without moving him, he tempts us sometimes to wish that he...

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FLOWER-TRAPS.

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A S far as we can gather, the years which have followed Mr. Darwin's announcement and verification of the great principle of "natural selection" as an efficient cause of changes...

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TWO EMINENT ASTRONOMERS.

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T HE general impression conveyed by the remarks which close the recently issued Report of the Astronomer-Royal to the Greenwich Board of Visitors is that they are intended to be...

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ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

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AL FTER withdrawing for many years from the work of Arctic research, in which she formerly led the way, England has once again undertaken to explore the unknown regions which...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND IN IRELAND. [To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:1 S111,—There is one point with regard to Mr. J. G. AfacCarthy's Bill to enable the State to buy up and...

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• THE INTELLIGENCE OF BEES.

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rro THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR?') SIR,—I have just read your extremely interesting paper on the power of Bees to communicate with each other. I do not know if the following...

BOOKS.

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NEW GUINEA" WE experience a great difficulty in commenting upon this remark- able book, which we have read with much pleasure and interest. That difficulty is not easy of...

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THE ORATIONS OF DEMOSTHENES.*

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ONE often wishes that we knew more about the every-day life of Greece and Rome. We may be sure that it would have been full of interest for us. It would have had, in a number of...

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ON THE WING.*

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Tars book is not at all inaptly named. It is not a book of travel, it is indeed a flight, and a rapid flight too. Once , on the wing,' the writer only stops for brief periods...

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THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MULLER.* SOLLY'S book on William Muller

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is compiled on the same- system, or, to speak more correctly, with as great an absence of system, as his life of David Cox. He has brought together an amount of material which...

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THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA.*

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THE subject of this work is one of which the author is thoroughly master, and which it would seem from the preface has been his study from his youth up. The book itself forms...

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HOW WE DIE IN LARGE TOWNS.*

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ONE of the characteristic institutions of Birmingham is the penny class or the penny evening lecture for artisans and shopmen. Efforts to induce the hearers to pay beforehand...

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CURRENT LITERATURE.

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The Civil Laws of France to the Present Time. By D. M. Aird. (Longmans.)—This volume may be said to have a twofold interest,—as a contribution to jurisprudence, and as a...

Ancient History from the .3f onuments. Egypt, by S. Birch,

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LL.D.; Assyria, by George Smith, Esq. ; Persia, by W. S. W. Vaux, MA. F.R.S. (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.)—The Christian Know- ledge Society has followed the...

the personal narrative of a German lady, who, after many

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wanderings, has taken up a permanent abode at New York, and who considers that no eulogy can be too strong or enthusiastic for the land of her adop- tion. With such sentiments...

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Hereditary Bowismen; or, Is it all in vain? (Tinsley Brothers.)—

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This novel is a mixture of cleverness and absurdity, difficult to account for on any theory of mental construction. There is plenty of good- sense in its treatment of social...

Legends and Memories of Scotland. By Cora Kennedy Aitken. (Hodder

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and Stoughton.)—There is not much to be said against the attempt to record and invent Scotch legends, and to sing them in Scottish words, but we cannot say that those in the...