31 AUGUST 1867

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Two very important railways have been opened this week. One,

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over Mont Cenis, on a plan devised by Mr. Fell, an American, completes the railway communication between France and Italy. The journey from Paris to Turin can now be made in...

- One of the most frightful, if not the most

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frightful, murder of our time was committed at Alton, in Hampshire, on Saturday. If the statements as yet published are correct, it would appear that a man named Baker, a...

The great difficulty of the expedition will probably be water.

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Dr. Beke says there is none, and even if that is an exaggeration, mountain water in the tropics is always bad. If the Government will send out a few thousand gallons of some...

The week has been full of the most contradictory rumours

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from Spain. The Government of Madrid continually affirms that the insurgents have dispersed, but it is to be noted that it now admits them to be numerous. At first, no...

A very important message was received through the Atlantis Telegraph

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Cable on Thursday. General Grant, the acting Secre- tary of State for War, refused to carry out the order for the re-. moval of General Sheridan, and Mr. Johnson was obliged as...

AU the journals of Europe are commenting freely upon the

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Salzburg interview, with a general result which we have attempted to analyze elsewhere. But we wish to mention here that the Danish Minister at War a few days ago made a speech...

Napoleon has returned to Fra,nce from Salzburg, and has made

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two speeches, one at Arras, and the other at Lille. At Arras he told the Mayor, " You are right to have confidence in the future. It is only weak Governments who seek in foreign...

NEWS OP THE WEEK.

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T HE preparations for an invasion of Abyssinia have begim in earnest. Sir Robert Napier, the Commander-in-Chief in Bom- bay, has been selected for the command, with Sir Charles...

We publish a letter from Victoria which we recommend to

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the attention of our readers. The writer is a very genuine Liberal and very free from prejudice, but the account he gives of the local legislature is certainly disheartening. In...

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The result of the Oxford Local Examinations of this year

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has been singularly satisfactory. The " centres " have now been increased from eleven to twenty, and the number of candidates from 896 to 1,365, while the improvement in the...

We regret to record the death on Sunday last of

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Professor Faraday, one of the greatest of English chemists and electricians, a worthy pupil of Sir Humphrey Davy. He was the son of a smith, and in early life was apprenticed to...

The Liberal journals in America assert that the Democratic party

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in the West intend to make repudiation the " first plank in their platform." In less exaggerated language, they intend to propose that every portion of the American debt should...

Lord Granville made a noteworthy speech at Manchester on scientific

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education. He was distributing the Oxford local exami- nation certificates, and took occasion to show the difference between the tone of Oxford and Manchester. Mediaeval Oxford...

A correspondent of the Times draws a horrible picture of

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the labourer's lot in Queensland. A labouring man never gets more that 20s. a week and free lodging, and sometimes only the 20s., mutton is 2d. a pound, maize is 2s. a bushel,...

We publish elsewhere the most detailed account, trae or false,

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which has yet reached England of the proceedings of "Jacob the Zonave," who cures, or professes to cure, diseases by the will. We may, however, notice here that Marshal Forey...

Terrorism, it seems, is not yet extinct in Sheffield. The

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chairman of the Filemakers' Association there has received a letter threatening him almost in plain terms with . murder if he does not prevent his associates from taking too...

The Commission on Ritualism has presented its first report, which

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is devoted to the question of vestments alone. It will be remembered that the Commission is full of High Churchmen, so full that the Record considered the selection...

We are happy to perceive that the London General Omnibus

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Company have for this half-year earned no profit. They are, unfortunately, rich enough to declare a dividend out of their reserves, but still they have not earned a profit. If...

Mr. John Orwell Phillips, Secretary to the Chartered Gas Com-

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pany, and advocate-general for gas-makers, denies that the stokers are oppressed men. He says the men get 34s. 6d. a week—which nobody ever denied ; that though the nominal...

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It is quite right to punish tradesmen who use dishonest

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scales, And quite expedient to pay informers for telling of them ; but it is possible, at the same time, to make justice seem a little oppres- sive. No less than 106 parsons...

The new Master and Servant Act came into operation on

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Tues- day se'nnight. Under its provisions neither.master nor man can, except in case of aggravated misconduct or premeditated injury, punish breach of contract by criminal...

The Hon. F. W. C. Villiers, Northamptonshire landlord, has just

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expelled Mr. Job Smeeton, a tenant, from his farm. Mr. Smeeton and his father had paid rent for sixty years, and his only -offence was refusing to make a church-rate, or to pay...

Tha South-Eastern Railway is about to try a little experiment

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on the pockets of the public. It seems that gentlemen, even Members of Parliament, as the chairman says, with a sort of holy horror, ride second-class between Charing Cross and...

Mr. Charles Barry has, we think, fairly cleared his father's

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name from the imputations fastened on it by Mr. Welby Pugin, and which at first appeared so plausible. He produces a letter from Mr. Pugin himself, distinctly defining his own...

We are happy to welcome Mr. Graves, the Member for

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Liverpool, among the advocates for the purchase of the Telegraph system by the State. In a speech to his constituents on Wednesday, he said the Companies could not be expected...

We recently commented on Dr.laoikester's startling utterance concerning the state

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of the atmosphere in the Underground Rail- way. Soon as the evening shades prevail, the Globe takes up the wondrous tale, and has published daring the week a series of...

The closing prices of the leading Foreign Securities yesterday and

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on Friday week are subjoined :— Mexican Spanish Passives .. Do. Certificates .. Turkish 6 per Cents., 1413 1862 United States 5.20's • • •• • • •• ••...

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Friday, Aug. 23. Friday, Aug. 30. Great Eastern.. ••• • 4 • 01 291 .. SCI1 Great Northern ••• 401 1161 .. 115 x. d. Great Western.. 451 .. 451...

Considerable inactivity has prevailed in the market for all National

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Securities during the week, and prices generally have had a drooping tendency. On Monday, Consols, both for money and the account, left off at 941, ; yesterday they closed at...

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month of April, and, having thus attained his object of

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keep- Redistribution is perhaps the most important part of Irish ing things quiet, he declared in the end of June, at the instance Reform, as it will certainly present the most...

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.60ME DANGERS OF THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

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rpnERE is one mistake possible in conducting this Abys- sinian expedition, which we sincerely hope will not be made, and that is sparing money after the wasteful Indian...

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WHAT NAPOLEON MEANS BY " PEACE." T HE speeches the Emperor

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has this week delivered at Arras and Lille, or which the Moniteur says he delivered there, will not greatly tend to reassure the public mind. Like the telegrams from Salzburg,...

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THE INDIAN I' UHLOITGH GRTT1VANCE.

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W E want English politicians, particularly politicians who, so to speak, stand on the threshold of the Cabinet, to remember an incident of the last few months. In August, 1866,...

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THE FIRST REPORT ON RITUALISM.

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T HE first Report of the Commission on Ritualism is just what might have been expected from the composition of that body. A group of prelates, peers, and rich laymen, of...

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THE JURY GRIEVANCE.

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A PPOINTED too late in the course of last Session to finish its inquiry and make a report, the Select Committee on Special and Common Juries has presented the House with some...

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A NEGRO POLITICAL LEADER.

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THE New York Times of 16th August contains a most remark- ' able description of a man who is, we imagine, the first, if not the only political leader yet developed by the...

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SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

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W E have more than once laboured under the disadvantage of not agreeing with the Bishop of Oxford. It is therefore with all the more pleasure that we find ourselves able to echo...

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THE ZOITAVE JACOB.

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DARLS has been ringing for the last fortnight with stories about 1 a non-commissioned officer of Zouaves named Jacob—presum- ably a Jew—who, it seems, claims the power of...

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T HERE have been great changes in the proprietorship of lands

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in this Province, particularly in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. At the time of Domesday Survey the abbot and convent of Abing- don held thirty-one manors in the former county,...

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POLITICS IN VICTORIA.

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[ FROM A CORRESPONDENT. ] - For years past there has been a prevalent belief that rank jobbery and corruption infested our governing system, and from time to time circumstances...

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B OOKS.

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ULTRAMONTANE SYS FOR 1867.* TEE practice of publishing a volume of essays, by various writers, as a manifesto of this or that political or theological school, has now grown...

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THOMAS DRUMMOND.*

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IGNORANT people, such as the writer of these lines, would ask, in taking up in a bookseller's shop the bulky Memoir of Thomas Drummond, " Who was Thomas Drummond ?" The volume...

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ALPINE TRAVELLING.*

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Moummiar climbing has found many detractors in recent years, who have set their face against it more or less on the ground of its leading to frequent sacrifices of life, and...

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LONGFELLOW'S DANTE.* Iv is with regret and some misgiving that

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we pass an unfavourable judgment on a work of such laborious fidelity as this version of Dante by a poet of such popular reputation as Longfellow. But in spite of the...

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Bidden Fire. A Novel. 3 vols. (Tinsley.)—Although we do not

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quite catch the meaning of this title, we think that the novel calls for a few favourable words. We do not mean to say that it is a work of any great power, or that it is...

Seventy - Five Brooke Street. By Percy Fitzgerald, M.A. 2 vols. (Tinsley.)—Mr.

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Fitzgerald is so fond of the heroine of Bella Donna and Jenny Ben that he follows her to the end of her career. The three novels, he says in his preface, " make up one story,...

The Public Debt of the United States. By J. S.

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Gibbons. (Low, Son,. and Marston.)—The magnitude of his subject fully impresses Mr. Gibbons, and the tables in which he indulges are marshalled in such heavy and compact order...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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A Chip of the Old Block. A Novel. By George Gretton. 2 vols. (Chapman and Hall.)—This is what we owe to Mr. Whalley. This woeful rubbish is the necessary antidote to Murphy...

_Kentish Lyrics : Sacred Rural, and Miscellaneous. By Benjamin Gough.

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(Honlston and Wright.)—This volume ought to be weeded, for the majority of the poems in it fall below the level attained by the few, and these few could be judged more...