A CTION has commenced at Suakin], but up to the evening of Friday, no important news had been received. On Thursday a reconnaissance in force was made in the direction of...

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY. T HE rage of the Conservative rank and file, rage as of leopards in a net, which so perplexes and worries their leaders, is not without excuse. Their...

much of their threatened resistance to the Financial Agreement on Egypt described by Mr. Childers on Wednesday. We like nothing in it, least of all the mercy shown to the...

M R. GOSCHEN'S letter to the honorary secretary of the Liberal Association at Ripon has a great interest rather for the question it suggests than for the question it discusses....

M R. FORSTER, in his speech at Cambridge last Saturday, expressed not only his own view, but the view of almost all English statesmen of note or weight, when he insisted on the...

T HE doubts of some of our Liberal friends as to the necessity of being firm on the Afghan frontier are not unnatural, though we wish they were not entertained. Englishmen have...

H OW many, we wonder, of our readers are old enough to remember the happy old days when the House of Commons had still leisure and taste to spend its Wednesdays in listening to...

T HE extraordinary letter about the Prince of Wales's visit to Ireland, addressed by Mr. Sexton to Mr. John Clancy, and endorsed by Mr. Parnell, is a perplexity to all...

M R. R. L. STEVENSON has as good an idea of children and their favourite notions as any English writer of our time. His "Treasure Island" is the delight of all children, big and...

T HERE is a homeliness that is very pleasing about kithianian life, even in that of the old noblesse, who are generally rich, but never parse-proud. The house—or palace, as it...

LORD DIIFFERIN ON M. DE GIERS. LTO THE EDITOR Or TEE " SPECTATOR." J &n,—Now that the attention of England is concentrated upon the state of affairs in Central Asia, it may...

LTO TILE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."] Sin,—In relation to the interest now centred in Herat, an elaborate French jeu de mots, the offspring of a former crisis, as old as the days...

r To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:1 Sia,—Your article on the " Clothworkers' Company" contains a good many statements which those who know anything of the history of English...

rro THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." _I SIR,—With the general drift of the "Memoirs of Mark Pattison," reviewed in your last issue, I shall not meddle here further than to...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " $PECTATOR:1 SIR,—As one of those present in Convocation during the recent debate on the Vivisection question who were not qualified to vote, I should...

I - To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."J SIR,—The reporter, on whose authority you criticise some expressions used by me on Tuesday week, in Convocation, states (with perfect...

[To THE EMT= OF THE " SPECTATOE."1 SI11,—The Universities have it in their own power to increase - their constituency beyond the reach of hostile critics. Let all Masters of...

rTo THE EDITOR OF THE 'SPECTATOR."] Stn,—The theory that the nine of diamonds is called "the -curse of Scotland," because the Duke of Cumberland wrote an -order on it before...

I To THE EDITOR OF THE " BPECTATOE 'SIR, - A story which came to my knowledge a few months ago may be of interest in connection with the Spectator's series of -anecdotes...

SOME NOTES ON FRED WALKER' 8 PAINTING. IT is nearly ten years since there was an exhibition of the late Fred Walker's pictures and drawings, and the occasion then was the sad...

A MODERN DIEDALUS, THIS is a very entertaining little book, dealing with the extraordinary disturbances which would be introduced into human society by the discovery of an...

THE history, especially the remarkable religious history, of Madagascar, has caused it to be written about very largely of late years, and the works of Mr. Ellis and Mr. Sibree...

Reminiscences by Mr. Mozley. We fear that, emboldened by the success of his former book, Mr. Mozley has raked together the contents of his diaries and note-books, and connected...

WE doubt whether we have a single contemporary poet of real intellectual culture, imaginative sensibility, and literary facility who is so disappointing and even irritating as...

THIS is a good idea, and in some parts well carried out. Mrs. Lawson has caught the true notion of what a local history should be,—that is, a contribution to the general history...

Mosr novel-readers exclaim with Blanche Amory, "Il me faut des emotions !" And however reprehensible the craving may have been in that heartless young lady—whose emotions wore...

Chess Eccentricities. By Major G. H. Verney. (Longmans.)— There is said to be a gentleman in America who has 3,000 books about chess. Here is another for him, as curious as most...