29 DECEMBER 1906

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Morocco continues to afford the world a spectacle of un-

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paralleled comedy. The Shereefian troops are drawn up on one side of Tangier, and Raisuli and his men on the other. The Minister of War, however, means business, and has...

On Monday the Court-Martial on the officers concerned in the

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battle of Tsu-shima was concluded. Admiral Nebogatoff and his Captains were condemned to death, but the sentence has been commuted to ten years' confinement in a fortress. The...

Last Saturday an Imperial Ukase fixed February 19th as the

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day for the elections to the Duma. M. Stolypin goes on his path of gradual and Constitutional reform undeterred either by the screams of the reactionaries or the threats of the...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

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T HE St. Petersburg - correspondent of the Times, tele- graphing to Friday's paper, states that the Russian and Japanese Plenipotentiaries have issued a reassuring state- ment...

In the debate in the French Chamber on the Supplementary

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Separation Bill on Friday week M. Briand, the Minister of Education, made a remarkable speech in defence of the Government. The Government, he said, had always known that the...

27ie Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in any case.

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In the Lords several Bills were passed through their last

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stages. the Agricultural Holdings Bill leading to some sharp animadversion on the omission of amendments which bad been accepted by Lord Carrington. Lord Crewe demurred to the...

Die Information gives some very curious instances of the way

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in which the tie between Austria and Hungary is gradually loosening. For example, at the Sugar Convention held in Brussels the signature used was not that, as former]y, of...

Both Houses of Parliament met at noon on Friday week,

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and in the Commons a number of questions were addressed to the Prime Minister by members of his party with a view to his considering the desirability of a new Standing Order...

The case against the Channel Tunnel is put with admirable

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force by M. Harduin, a well-known French journalist, in the Matin. England, he declares, is the only European Power with no frontiers to guard, Nature having surrounded her with...

The question who is to succeed Mr. Bryce at the

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Irish Office has been discussed at considerable length in the news- papers. The greater number of the amateur Cabinet-makers indicate Mr. Winston Churchill. No doubt his great...

It was formally announced on Thursday that Mr. Bryce had

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been appointed to succeed Sir Mortimer Durand as our Ambassador at Washington. Mr. Bryce's long and honour- able record in our politics, and his deep knowledge of American...

The Prevention of Corruption Bill, which comes into effect with

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the New Year, will, we hope, work a salutary reform in commercial life. It makes it a criminal offence for any agent corruptly to accept, or for any person corruptly to give,...

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We regret to announce the death of Principal Rainy last

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Saturday at Melbourne, and of Professor F. W. Maitland, of Cambridge, on Friday week at Grand Canary, to which be had gone for his health. We have dealt elsewhere with the...

Sir Howard Vincent deserves the congratulations of the public on

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the passing into law of the Public Trustee Act,—a piece of legislation which he has lost no opportunity of pressing on the attention of succeeding Parliaments. As Sir Howard...

The Times published on Wednesday its annual review of the

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pauperism of the Metropolis. From this it appears that the legal poor of London at this moment number over 123,000, or at the rate of twenty-six per thousand of the population,...

The Petit Parisien has been conducting a plebiscite on the

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question of the relative importance of the great French- men of the past century. Over fifteen million votes were recorded, and the result may be taken to represent average...

The Report of the Departmental Committee on Small Holdings was

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issued on Monday. The main reoommenda- Lion is that existing machinery for the provision of small holdings should be supplemented and assisted by the direct intervention of a...

The Report of the Housing Committee, issued on Friday week,

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takes a serious view of the situation. The Report . attributes the undoubted house famine to the negligence of Rural Councils in administering the law; to bad landlords, some of...

Bank Este, 6 per cent., changed from 5 per cent.

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Oct. 19th. Consols (2i) were on Friday 86—on Friday week 85i.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR INDIA. T HE Indian National Congress was opened on Wednes- day, Mr. Naoroji delivering the presidential address. He took as the text of his discourse the...

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ELECTORAL REFORM IN AUSTRIA.

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D ECEMBER 1st, 1906, will be remembered as one of the landmarks of Austrian history. On that day the Reichsrath passed in second and third reading a Bill of electoral reform...

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THE TREATMENT OF VAGRANTS.

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T "public are indebted to Sir William 'Chance for a • conveniently arranged review of the Report of the Departmental Committee on Vagrancy, which has just been published by...

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PRINCIPAL RAINY. T4 AST Saturday there died at Melbourne, whither he

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had gone for his health, the most conspicuous man in modern Scotland. He may not have been the greatest living Scotsman, but he was assuredly the greatest whose activities were...

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A NEW FOE TO COMMONS AND OPEN SPACES.

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NV [ publish to-day a letter from Sir Robert Hunter, Chairman of the National Trust, and one of the most prominent members of the Committee of the Commons Preservation Society,...

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"THE FIRST TRUE GENTLEMAN."

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T HE Elizabethan poet Dekker said of our Lord that He was "the first true gentleman that ever breathed." The passage is worth quotation :— " Patience ! why, 'tis the soul of...

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LOCAL COLOUR.

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M RS. GERTRUDE ATHERTON in a recent letter to the Times took the world into her confidence as to her methods of work. She pleads with some reason that author- ship is a...

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THE VILLAGE ALMSHOUSE.

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G REY hairs are out of fashion nowadays, when the hoary head is counted less a glory than a reproach. Old age meets with small patience and slight reverence at the hands of the...

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CORRESPONDENCE.

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THE STATE OF THE NAVY. VII.—RECENT SHIPBUILDING POLICY, LTO THE EDITOR Or TR& "SPECTATOR,"] Sin,—Lord Cawdor's Statement of November, 1905, dealt fully with shipbuilding...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE LOSS OF THE EDUCATION BILL. [To THE EDITOR Or TIES "SPECTATOR."] have read the notes of the week in your issue of Saturday last, and your article on the loss of the...

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THE COMING STRUGGLE IN THE UNITED STATES.

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pro THE EDITOR OW THE "SPECTATOR,"] SIR,—In the article under the above heading which appeared in your issue of December 22nd you make one or two assumptions that the facts...

NAVAL GUNNERY.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE *SPECTATOR.") SIR,—" A Naval Officer" says :—" The truth is that the shooting of the British Navy is not only good now, it has always been good"...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

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SIR, — When will the Unionist Party learn that the Duke of Devonshire is a safer leader to follow than Mr. Balfour ? Mr. Balfour split the party by carrying, through a...

pro THE EDITOR OF THE "Srscueros."3 SIR, — Your article of last

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week with the above title will necessarily receive the attention due to all the utterances of the Spectator. May I, therefore, be allowed space to point out that the writer of...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.]

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S13, —While in general agreement with your article of last week on the Education Bill, I must say that in my opinion you are not fair in fixing upon the Archbishop of Canterbury...

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SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION.

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[To THE EDITOR OP TUE SPECTATOR."] SIE,—Many of your readers, no matter to what political party they belong, will be grateful to you for the position which you have taken up in...

OUR DISTRIBUTABLE WEALTH. (TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SP

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EOTATOIL" . 1 Sin,—The question what wealth there is to distribute by fair racans and foul may perhaps be now nearer the domain of practical politics than it was a hundred years...

WITLEY COMMON.

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[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR'] SIR,—The sympathetic interest which you have shown in the endeavour of the inhabitants of Godalming and neighbour- hood to prevent the...

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POETRY.

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1906-1907. Ho! heave her darkly, heave her free ; Let all the weed-bound cables go : The night is baying out at sea White-fanged beyond the heaving flow. Then let her ground...

PRAYER-BOOK REVISION.

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[To TEE EDITOR OP TEN "SPICTATOIL"] trust that the letter of Mr. Cremer, Vicar of Eccles, in your issue of December 22nd, will attract attention. Whether the compilers of the...

SOLICITORS' ACCOUNTS.

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[TO TOR EDITOR OF sesorirea.*1 SIR,—Following the example of the Times, you have in your leading article in last week's Spectator made an attack on solicitors founded on a...

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MU S IC.

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MUSIC AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. EDUCATION is unhappily at the moment a subject so sugges- tive of inflamed and fruitless controversy that it is pleasant to call attention to...

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BOOKS.

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WESTMINSTER ABBEY.* Pp; affection that Westminster Abbey inspires in the hearts of Englishmen is responsible year by year for a large number qf books which deal more or le se...

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MR. FREDERIC HARRISON'S "MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS."*

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Mn. FREDERIC HARRISON'S "Memories," properly SO called, are only too brief. There is a paper of some eighteen pages reprinted from the New York Forum (October, 1890), and a...

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THE WAR IN LA VENDEE.

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Tun manufacture of memoirs illustrative of the French Revolution and the First Empire has been carried to such unblushing lengths that any fresh " find " in those fields must...

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THE FAIR HILLS OF IRELAND.* THE title of Mr. Gwynn's

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new book—taken from a lyric of Red Donough Macnamara—may well mislead the unwary as to its contents. The reader, knowing the author's other writings, may expeot a book of...

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NOVELS.

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THE SENTIMENTALISTS.* WHEN it is said that Father Benson's new novel deals with the regeneration of a man with an irregular past, who at a critical stage of his career...

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Andrew Goodfellow: a Tale of 1805. By Helen H. Watson.

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(Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—The mere dry fact that this is a story of the town of Plymouth Dock in the year 1805 will reveal to the reader the stirring possibilities of the book....

C URRENT LITER IT UR E.

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GENERAL PITT-RIYERS'S ESSAYS. The Evolution of Culture, and other Essays. By Lieutenant- General A. Pitt-Rivers. (Clarendon Press. 7s. 6d. net.)—This volume contains six...

The Trait Together: an Episode. By H. H. Bashford. (W.

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Heine- mann. 6s.)—Mr. Bashford, who is known to readers of the Spectator as the author of some delightful verses, has written a striking and original, if somewhat incoherent...

Maids of Honour. By A. J. Green-Armytage. (W. Blackwood and

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Sons. 10s. 6d. net.)—This somewhat eccentric title has been given to a volume containing "twelve descriptive sketches of single women who have distinguished themselves" in...

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The Literary Year Book (G. Routledge and Sons, 5s. net)

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con- tains a "Directory of Authors," extending to two hundred and eighty pages, and containing, to make a rough guess, about two thousand five hundred names (it would be...

The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland. By J. G.

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Millais. .Vol. III. (Longmans and Co. .E6 6s.)—This is the concluding volume of a great work. We gave an appreciation of the first volume when it appeared (Spectator, November...

Round France in a Motor. By C. Neville. (Simpkin, Marshall,

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and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—" I have no hairbreadth escapes to relate," says our author. The hairbreadth escapes rather concern the people outside the motor. His only victim was a...

Gloucester in National History. By F. A. Hyett. (John Bellows,

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Gloucester; and Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 4s. net.)—"If Gloucester had been included in the 'Historic Towns Series,' it would not have been written," says Mr. Hyett of his...

Winged Words. (John Lane. 7s. 6d. net.)—The anonymous author puts

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together , some sixty essays of varying length, and, we may add, of varying merit. Some of them we could very well do without altogether (pp. 106-124). In others there are...

In the series of "The Children's Heroes" (T. C. and

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E. C. Jack, is. 6d. net) we have The Story of Robert Bruce, by Jeanie Lang. The balance is very fairly held between Englishman and Scot. King Edward's claim to be a wise and...

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

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[Under this howling w. notice such Books of ths toes% as have not been reserved for review in otlisr forme.] • The Ancient Crosses and Holy Wells of Lancashire. By Henry Taylor....

The M.P. Atlas (W. and A. K. Johnston, 25s. net)

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is, to quote the title-page, "a collection of maps showing the commercial and political interests of the British Isles and Empire throughout the world." It gives maps of the...

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The Post Office London Directory (Kelly's Directories, 40s.) forms, with

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"The County Suburban Directory," a massive volume of between four and five thousand pages, conveniently divided into sections and furnished with an excellent map. If it grows...