T HAT public nuisance, the Statute Holiday, falls this year on Saturday, the day after Christmas Day, which is also a holi- day. We are, therefore, compelled to go to press too...

the return of the Liberal candidate (Mr. Lyell) by a very large majority, the New Parliament is now complete, and we give the result for the different portions of the Kingdom :—...

those acts of political profligacy which we all trust are impos- sible in this country. It has, in order to influence a debate, used a telegram of the first importance, which it...

any case.

chairman of his election committee in the Rossendale division of North-East Lancashire, denying that any proposals for satisfying the demands of the Home-rule Party in Ireland...

re-elected President of the FrEnch Republic for the next seven years, or there will be a new President in France. It is probable that the struggle, though short, will be severe....

Tuesday's Times, put up on the door of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Kilkenny an episcopal manifesto against mixed marriages which does not read as if the danger of the...

Monday, t'm drift of which was certainly in favour of granting Home-rule to Ireland; but, in spite of this, Mr. Morley spoke with a sense of the gravity of the danger of any...

all favourable. The Military Commissioners have decided that Servia must quit the district of Widdin, and that Bulgaria must retire from Pirot ; and as that is equivalent to...

one supposed that he *out& do. Writing fromitbe Osborne Hotel, Torquay, he says,—me pvesame his communication was addressed to the Press, as it is not said, as quoted Mille...

is a good deal more than one of the nominees whom that leader has been com- pelled, in default of better candidates, to appoint to Irish seats, and to whom he will barely speak....

inst. that the boy-Emperor of China, who is now just fifteen, will assume the Government in February, and that the E m press- Regent, who, it must be remembered, is only an aunt...

denied our assertion that every concession made to Irish demands had intensified the hatred of the Irish people for England. Of manse, neither Mr. Sullivan not may one else can...

which is expected to suppress polygamy within the Territory of Utah. It not only makes it a penal offence, but compels the evidence of husband and wife, and makes adultery...

small disasters. The papers talk nonsense about " massacres " of Europeans, of whom three appear to have been killed ; but it is true that the disbanded soldiers and the Shams...

most undenominational religions teaching ought not to be given in Board schools. At a meeting of the Liberal Two Thousand, held last week (on Friday), a petition in favour of...

examination of the scholars at the British Schools in Derby, and was present at a debate of the boys' parliament on female suffrage, which resulted in a tie, half the boys...

of Spain, Queen Christina, should be supported, and the Catholic Church is exerting itself to the same end. The Diplomatists never lose an opportunity of honouring the Queen,...

Consols were on Wednesday 99k to 99 / 3 6 - ad.

Clerk of the Parliaments (23,000 a year), in the place of the late Sir W. Rose, certainly does look like a very great abuse of patronage. This office is one of the richest gifts...

states, that the gardener of the British Museum, Mr. William Brightwell, has been dismissed by the Clerk of the Works after nine years' service there, following on sixteen...

LORD SALISBURY'S POSITION. W E wonder if Lord Salisbury has at heart a feeling that he does not greatly care for power, and that if he were replaced by a Liberal Ministry—or,...

M R. JOHN MORLEY, in his interesting speech at New- castle on Monday, asks the Spectator whether the Imperial law is obeyed in Ireland now, and whether the Empire is not...

O NE of the worst features in the scheme of Home-rule which, though half imaginary, is now so eagerly discussed, is the proposed method of securing to Ireland a share in...

T HERE are few puzzles, either in history or politics, so entirely perplexing as the failure of the French people to found great dependencies in Asia. We have founded them, the...

I F the Memorial which the Cambridge Heads and Professors have sent to the Archbishops is to be fruitful of good results, there is no time to be lost. It is but too probable...

S O large is the space occupied by prominent politicians in the periodical Press, they loom so large before the public eye during the time of their prominence, that it requires...

T HE saying quoted from some famous German Mephis- topheles in the Times' review of Mr. Irving'e play at the Lyceum, that Mephistopheles would never be properly under- stood...

W E have more than once heard landscape-painters affirm that when they are in search of picturesque views in a town the nose is almost as trustworthy a guide as the eyes, for...

THE EPIDEMIC OF RABIES. LTO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,-I trust you will permit me, in view of the great import- ance of the subject, to bring to your notice a few...

LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—" Audi alteram partem ;" hence I need not make any appeal to you to allow me the opportunity of referring to Mr. Robert Bubb's letter...

(TO THZ EDITOR Or THE " SPECTLTOR."] Sia,—In the Spectator of the 19th inst. I find it stated that, speaking last week, I talked of the inundation of the Alps by women "over...

TO A PLUM-PUDDING. SHALL fumes of haggis fill Apollo's nose ?* Of "country messes" shall the Muse be fain Pt And thou, consummate compound, thou remain But theme (too rare) of...

THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS.: Tim Society of British Artists have been endeavouring to come to the front, and to make people forget their old reputation for respectable...

" SPRCTATOP.."J SIR,—The Spectator does not seem to know that a " Provincia House of Laymen," elected by the various Diocesan Con- ferences by "laymen members only," will be...

LTo THE EDITOR OF TRIG "SPECTATOR. " ] Sia,—The Spectator of December 19th contains a paragraph referring to a Bill recently passed by the United States Senate respecting the...

[To THE EDITOR Or VIZ "SPECTATOR." I believe I shall be doing a service to many of your readers by bringing to their notice the claims of the old, the sad, and the suffering,...

BISHOP LIGHTFOOT ON S.. IGNATIUS AND S. POLYCARP.* THE Ignatian literature is exceedingly voluminous, and is of so intricate a nature that but few people can expect to master...

Mn. OSCAR Baowsrso, who has done so much to vivify and popularise the study of history in Cambridge, has pub- lished, through the medium of the Cambridge University Press, a...

MISS WINCHESTER'S story belongs to a numerous class which, not from any fault of the critics, scarcely obtains due recognition of its merits. Any book, and certainly a...

in the recorded achievements of the surveyor of the Euphrates Valley route any such valid title to fame as the voluntary admission of M. de Lesseps that General Chesney was the...

THE present work is by Professor Wauters, a celebrated Belgian writer and art-critic, and a brother of Emile Waders, the painter. It is one of the series of Art handbooks...

and interesting are strong epithets to apply to a legal work,but they are eminently applicable to Mr. Dicey's book. What Professor Freeman has done for the history, and Mr....

dwelt on by people writing for the young. Yet in all the wide domain of history there is no more terrible record." We think this terrible record has very properly deterred...

commencement to the termination of the eighth and last one. "It has been told," as the author says in his preface, "with as much lightness and as much adventurous detail as is...

GIFT BOOKS. Behind the Cloud, and other Lessons from Life in which the "Natural" is used to illustrate the "Spiritual." By "E. C.," Author of "Lord, I hear of Showers of...

By G. A. Beaty. (Blackie and Son.)—Mr. Rents-, as would be expected, will not -dis- appoint by this tale hid . " dear lade," to whom he presents it in his preface ; he is an...

simple language, the old story so beautifully narrated by Spenser ;" and she has accomplished the task successfully, within the very moderate Com- pass of 140 short pages, which...

Wood's gift of writing pleasantly about "common objects" is well known ; he has given us a pleasant example of it here. This book consists of two parts, "My Back-yard Zoo" and...

is a simple tale of very humble life, which will probably be beat appreciated by reading of a similar class. Several of the inoidents are interesting and skil- fully handled. A...

of a young village poet who goes up to town to seek his fortune, but finds his happiness in the village which it would have been better for him never to have left.

the main complication of the story, to be shortly afterwards combined with another, "On the Ice." The moral of the tale is developed wholesomely and naturally out of incidents...

W. Mowbray.) —This story, which bears the second title of "The Last Days of Darocina," takes us b tck to the days when the Saxons were making their way as conquerors through...

deserves its title of an "Old-fashioned Fairy Tale." It is a story of imps, and trolls, and so forth, and carries the reader with it in a pleasant fashion, without in the least...

volume of Little Folks (Cassell and Co.), an excellent magazine for children, which has already held its ground for some time, and promises to do so hereafter. The Editor, in...

and Lines on Tintern. Abbey and Milton's L'Allegro and It Penseroso, both published by Messrs. Cassell and Co. Each is copiously illustrated ; but we decidedly prefer the...

—Here are some twelve stories of various kinds, and each, after its kind, very charming, and, as the author knows so well how to do, gently suggesting its moral. Effie, tired of...

Di Pennington's Reward" is the second title of this tale—is a girl who conquers certain faults in herself, sad in conquering them helve others to the same victory. "Little...

—This volume contains three narratives. The first is the story of Jeanne Roan, afterwards known as Sceur Rosalie of the Sceurs Grises, of the Rue Francs Bourgeois, an admirable...

Daunt. (Nelson and Sons.)—We must own ourselves at a loss to know whether this is a veritable record of adventure which the writer and the companions with whom he describes...

Album, Seven- teenth Series. (Vanity Fair Office.)—The artists whose names are familiar as contributors to these volumes still (matinee at work, and still exhibit their usual...

Co.)—The good hero of this story is a Frenohman and phil.Hellene, Captain d'Albaret ; the villain, a certain Nicholas Starkos, a native of the Morea, who has busied himself with...

and Co.)—Here are five stories, the scenes of which are laid in foreign countries. The first is "Madame Rebelle," and is described as "an episode of the war of 1871." The...

That child" is an orphan, found greatly injured in a railway accident, nursed back into health and soundness, and then adopted and brought up by a benevolent lady. The lady...

Mrs. Thorpe. (Isbister.)—Here we are brought back again to the region of reality. Mrs. Thorpe tells us a variety of facts about the phenomena of cold, about the natural history...

partisanship has mingled with the worship of the late General Gordon, that it is hardly possible not to be a little suspicions of the motives which led to the publication on the...

one of those happily now numerous little volumes which are of great service as throwing a side-light on history. It is an account of the military achievements of the regiment...

a special word of commendation, as being a very suc- cessful and yet quite unpretentious effort to reproduce London life in the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is a...

Co.)— This is a well-written and enjoyable story, in spite of the proneness of the author to preach Conservatism of the fine old crusted sort. Given Sir George Braidwood, of...

and New York.)—Mr Aldrich is a versatile writer, and many readers unfamiliar with his poetry may remember his stories. All he does is for the most part in a vein peculiar to...

1886 is the eighty-seventh annual issue of this useful and care- fully compiled directory. Its correctness up to date of publication may be gauged by the facts that it contains...

(Longmans).— This is not among the best of Mr. Payn's stories. The writing is sparkling but attenw 5, and the sparkle is of a kind to which we have grown almost too accustomed....