1 MAY 1880

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The Cabinet consists of fourteen Ministers :—Mr. Gladstone, who takes

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the double part of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Lord Granville, Foreign Secre- tary; Lord Hartington, Secretary for India ; Sir William Harcourt,...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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O N Thursday the new House of Commons met and re-elected unanimously the Speaker of the last House, 114. Brand. The General Election had been concluded on Wednesday, by the...

No Lord-Lieutenant has as yet been named for Ireland, but

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it is rumoured, with an appearance of authority, that Earl Cowper is to be sent there,—by no means a brilliant appoints meat. We still think that Lord Dufferin would have been...

*** The Editors cannot 'undertake to returnMannscript in any ease.

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The secondary appointments are many of them singularly good. Mr.

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Fawcett becomes Postmaster-General, and will have to superintend the execution of the project for issuing the new Post-Office currency. Mr. Mundella becomes Vice-President of...

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The Government appears to have some difficulty in filling up

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the Embassy to Constantinople, where it is, of course, indis- pensable to make a thorough change. The appointment has been offered to Mr. Goschen and to Lord Carlingford, and as...

It is now certain that Mr. Lowe has been offered,

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and has accepted, a peerage, and it is rumoured that he will sit in the House of Lords as Viscount Sherbrook. We regret to see that an able Liberal evening contemporary...

Prince Bismarck can hardly be content. He has been beaten

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in the Reichstag by a vote of 128 to 112 in his attemptto make of the Samoan group a German colony, to be managed through a South Sea Trading Company, the majority considering...

Sir Donald Stewart's battle on April 19th outside Ghuznee was

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a considerable one, and he was, as we imagined, in greater danger than the official telegrams admitted. The enemy had mustered from 15,000 to 20,000 strong, and when the General...

The Army and Navy Gazette points to Sir Henry Havelock-

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Allan as the fittest soldier in the House to succeed Lord Enstace Cecil as Surveyor-General of Ordnance. Sir Henry had a decided reputation in India as a leader as well as...

The tribesmen, undeterred by the news of the defeat of

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the 19th, made a bold attack upon General Ross on the 24th. The - form of the attack is still not reported, but apparently the Logaris and people of Wardak attempted to stop his...

The transition of Mr. Lowe to the House of Lords

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leaves a vacancy in the representation of the London University, and it is stated that a meeting of the Liberal party in that University will be held on Monday at the...

The dispute between the Porte and the Montenegrins. is not

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over, and may become serious. The Sultan signed the decree conveying to Montenegro the ceded lands, and his Commander-in-Chief on the spot, Moukhtar Pasha, evacuated, them ; but...

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The Merchant Taylors conferred the freedom of the Company on

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Wednesday, on Lord Cranbrook and Sir Stafford Northcote, both of whom appeared to think that those who, being dead, yet speak, should speak chiefly to give utterance to the...

Mr. Shaw is far more moderate. In his speech to

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a meeting of his section of the Home-rulers, at Dublin, on Tuesday, he expressed the fullest confidence in the new Government, which, in particular, would settle the franchise...

The Birmingham Post repeats and credits a rumour that Lord

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Hartington, on his entry into office, discovered that the recent "prosperity budget" from India was erroneous, that the cost of the Afghan war had been underrated, and that a...

Mr. Parnell, who will, it is believed, sit on the

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Tory side of the House, and be accepted, we trust, as a Tory ally, has -developed his land scheme for Ireland. He denounces fixity of tenure as only an "attractive phrase." He...

The Pall Mall, which has been telling us for we

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do not know how long that the return of Mr. Gladstone to power would extinguish England in the councils of Europe, is now telling us that the change in the British Government is...

Consols were on Friday 95 to 5911.

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Sir Stafford Northcote also was very anxious to seem wholly

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undismayed. He dwelt, somewhat injudioiously, we think, on the success his Governinent had had in keeping the majority undiminished throughout the six years of office, for now...

'The Daily .News, in a very interesting table compiled for

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its issue of Thursday, shows that out of about 2,500,000 electors who had the opportunity of voting in the general elec. tion,—i.e., in constituencies where contests...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. T HE most opposite criticisms have already been made on the new Administration. It has been said in society to be little more than a reckauffe of the...

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THE INDIAN APPOINTMENTS.

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T HE two great Indian appointments are both good, but they are both a little surprising, and both require a little de- fence, or rather, explanation. The public had jumped,...

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LIBERALS AND ADVANCED LIBERALS.

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T HE Tories are very fond of descanting upon the immense differences which, as they affirm, exist among Liberals, whom they declare, with a sniff which almost consoles them for...

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THE NEW SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN. THE new situation in Afghanistan,

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bad as it is, will not increase the difficulties of the Ministry, but rather smooth Lord Hartington's path. That situation may be described in brief as general insurrection...

THE " FORTNIGHTLY " ON THE TORY DEFEAT.

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A LETTER, evidently proceeding from one of the very highest political authorities of the day, which appears in the new number of the Fortnightly Review, gives very striking...

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MR. CHAMBERLAIN AND THE CAUCUS.

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T HE inventor, or, at all events, the importer, of the " Cau- cus " is a member of the Cabinet. It is well to put the fact thus boldly, because there is no doubt that Mr....

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THE PHYSIOLOGICAL VIEW OF DEGENERATION. DROFESSOR RAY LANKESTER has published,

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in what Messrs. Macmillan call their "Nature Series," the very interesting lecture on "Degeneration," which he delivered last August before the British Association at Sheffield....

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ATHEISM AS A CAUSE OF FEAR.

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R. R. H. HUTTON, in a paper on "The Atheistic View of Life," published in this month's Fraser, makes some temarks on one of the less thought-of results of the general spread of...

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UNFASHIONABLE PARIS.—II.

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G INGER-BREAD, in every variety of form, of all qualities, and from many parts of France, is the raison d'i;tre of the great Fair that opened on Easter-Sunday, and is even yet...

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DISTRIBUTION OF SEATS.

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(TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'SPECTATOR.) S1R, — It is not surprising that you should accept in your columns any suggestions that may lead to the consideration of the true and secure...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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'THE PUBLICANS AND THE ELECTORS. (To THE EDITOR OF TILE "SPECTATOR,'] SIR,—It seems to be taken for granted on all sides that the influence of the publican in determining the...

UNIVERSITY CONSERVATISM AND LIBERALISM. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "

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SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In the Spedator of last Saturday, attention is called to the fact that "all the Universities return Conservatives, exceFt- ing the University of London and the...

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LORD BEACONSFIELD AND THE CONSERVATIVES. go THE EDITOR OF THE

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" SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—It is satisfactory to have one's actions justified or accounted for by such a paper as the Spectator. " The cynical and cruel spirit displayed by the Prime...

(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

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Sin,—With reference to your note on University representa- tion, will you allow me to point out that it is the two smaller Universities in Scotland that are distinctly...

"DON GARCIA IN ENGLAND."

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(To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Star—Your critic of my book takes exception to its title. "Don Garcia in England," he says in effect, is as great an absurdity as "Sir...

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POPULATION AND REPRESENTATION. (To TUE EDITOR OF TILE " SPECTATOR:1

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SIR,—I quite agree with your correspondent "11." that the question of the redistribution of seats is a most important one. But I think the inequalities Which exist in...

M. RENAN ON MORAL PROBATION.

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[To TILE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Will you permit a constant and sympathetic reader of your articles on the religious question, to say that the impres- sion derived by...

THE ADVANTAGES OF SPECTACLES.

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[To THE mama or THE "SPECTATOR."] am one of those unfortunate people who are obliged, through shortness of sight, to wear spectacles, and at the same time am extremely fond of...

ART.

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THE SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS. [FIRST NOTICE.] Tax main features of this exhibition, which is a good one, are such as usually distinguish the collections of the"...

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BOOKS.

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MR. GOLD WIN SMITH'S " COWPER."* IN his little book on Cowper, Mr. Goldwin Smith is both too brief and too apologetic. He does not say as much as might fairly have been said of...

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MR. SENIOR'S " C ONVERSATIONS." *

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"THE influence of commercial considerations upon literary form," would be an interesting and profitable subject of specula- tion, had we but time to pursue it. As, however, our...

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CLASSICAL WRITERS.*

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IT is not easy to criticise these little books on great subjects, at least within any limits of space which are at our command. To give an estimate of a great writer and his...

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THE HAWKINS' VOYAGES.*

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IN 1847, the Hakluyt Society issued its first publication, the Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins in his Voyage into the South Sea, and, this is now out of print. The volume...

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EBERS'S NEW EGYPTIAN NOVEL.*

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PROFESSOR GEORG EBERS, whose Egyptian Princess, Uarda, and Homo S16711. have secured for him an honourable name in this country, as well as great fame in his own, comes before...

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A STUDY OF KEA.TS.* Or all the poets who have

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died, before their time, Keats is, per- haps, the greatest. Fervid imagination, delicious fancy, the faculty of pictorial representation, an ear for exquisite music, are among...

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Science Teachings in Living Nature. By W. H. Watson. (Stanford.)

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—Here are five chapters on physiological chemistry and sanitary science. We are told something about the composition of the human body, something about the food of plants,...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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English Girls : their Place and Power. By Mrs. G. S. Reaney, with a Preface by R. W. Dale. (C. Regan Paul and Co.)—This is a small book, intended for the benefit of girls of the...

POETRY.—Ivan's Love-Quest, and other Poems. By Malcolm Charles Salaman. (Remington

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and Co.)—This is a small book of poems, apparently of the sensuous and materialistic order as to thought, and certainly mystical in expression ; not, however, pos- sessing the...

Town and Window Gardening. By Catherine M. Buckton. (Long- mans.)—This

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little book cannot fail to prove useful in encouraging a taste for the cultivation of window plants amongst children, and especially amongst the children of the poor. It...