31 MARCH 1888

Page 1

For the year 1888-89, Mr. Goschen estimated as follows :-

The Spectator

EXPENDITURE. REVENUE (if Taxes unchanged). Interest on Debt 227,861,000 Customs 219,800,000 Army 16,700,000 Excise 25,560,000 Ordnance Factories 30,090 Stamps.. 12,740,000...

But a great draft on this balance will at once

The Spectator

be made by the new provisions for local taxation. A third of the Probate- duty is to be devoted to the local taxation in the first year (subsequently it will be one-half), and...

* * The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in

The Spectator

any case.

Mr. Goschen delivered his Budget speech on Monday night, nearly

The Spectator

a week before the expiration of the financial year, so that for the last week his account of the expenditure and revenue was only estimated. He apologised for a statement of...

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.

The Spectator

With the "SrzcxAmoR" of Saturday, May 5th, will be issued, gratis, a SPECIAL LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, the outside pages of which will be devoted to Advertisements. Advertisements...

The appeal of the French Government against General Bou- langer

The Spectator

has been successful. The five Generals forming the ccmseil d'enquete into the charges against him, have found him guilty of insubordination, and sentenced him to retire upon his...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

The Spectator

- L121TREMELY grave events have occurreitin France this I week. On Sunday, an election to the Chamber came off in Marseilles, and it was found that while M. Herve, the spokesman...

Page 2

Mr. Balfour remarked on Mr. O'Brien's declaration that he is

The Spectator

willing to black Lord Spencer's boots, that Mr. O'Brien always seems to be anxious to blacken something ; a few years ago it was Lord Spencer's character, and now it is Lord...

The best proof yet received of the increasing order in

The Spectator

Ireland, is that the two men accused of murdering J. Fitzmaurice, near Listowel, in Kerry, have been convicted and sentenced to death. Fitzmaurice, it will be remembered, had...

The proposal which Mr. Goschen makes as to the Local

The Spectator

Budget is to hand over (after the first year) one-half of the Probate-duty to the Local Councils, and to assign to them old licences (chiefly publicans' licences) amounting to...

Mr. Balfour made a very vigorous speech at Stalybridge this

The Spectator

day week,—the kind of speech which gives us the im- pression that the old sturdy race of statesmen who ignore sentiment where the present generation is wont to pay a very...

The election for the Gower Division of Glamorganshire resulted on

The Spectator

Wednesday in the success of the Gladstonian can- didate by an enormously reduced majority. In 1885, Mr. Yeo (the late Member) was elected by 5,560 votes, against only 2,103...

The Conference of the South African Colonies and the Orange

The Spectator

Free State, which concluded its business on February 18th, resolved that the first step towards Federation must be a South African Union upon the basis of internal Free- trade....

The principle on which each county's share of the Probate-

The Spectator

duty will be determined, will be by estimating the proportion between the indoor pauperism of the county and the indoor pauperism of the whole country, and handing over the...

Page 3

The Court of Cassation has quashed the sentence pro- nounced

The Spectator

upon M. Wilson for selling decorations. The Judges find that the facts are fully proved, and that M. Wilson had consciously engaged in a disreputable traffic ; but they also...

The Americans have at length pushed their dislike of Asiatic

The Spectator

emigrants to its logical extreme. Under a Treaty already signed by the Government of Pekin, and about to be sanc- tioned. by the United States Senate, they prohibit the entrance...

It is apparently etiquette in Berlin to announce every morning

The Spectator

that, though the Emperor did not sleep well, his general health is decidedly improving. Nevertheless, on March 21st his Majesty signed a decree which virtually makes his son a...

Mr. Curzon's scheme, as represented in the National Review, for

The Spectator

the reform of the House of Lords, is certainly open to the criticism of the Times that it would in all probability empty the House of Lords of the ablest Peers, and add them to...

The situation in Bucharest is evidently growing strained. The elections

The Spectator

ended in a great victory for M. Bratiaxio ; but the Opposition, who are Russian in sympathy, have been irri- tated almost to the point of insurrection. On Sunday a great meeting...

We may judge of the chances of resistance to Mr.

The Spectator

Goschen'a Conversion scheme by what has already occurred in the case of the New Threes. The amount of that Debt is £166,000,000, and the stock held by the dissentients is....

The sudden melting of the unusual falls of snow is

The Spectator

pro- ducing great disasters in Germany. The Elbe, the Rhine, the Vistula, and the Warthe, on which Posen stands, have all overflowed their banks, and are sweeping through the...

Bank Rate, 2 per cent.

The Spectator

Consols were on Thursday. 101f to 1011.

Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Spectator

THE BUDGET. M R. GOSCHEN has achieved in his great Conversion scheme that which will make his name famous as one of the boldest, and in all probability as one of the most...

Page 5

THE GENTRY AND VFW, COlTNTY BILL. T HE details of the

The Spectator

Local Government Bill weary the oldest Parliamentary hands, but the Bill itself is of exceeding interest. It illustrates to perfection the English method of doing things. A...

Page 6

THE OMENS IN FRANCE.

The Spectator

VRANCE is always interesting, but she has seldom been more interesting than at the present moment, when we seem to be witnessing the slow development of a revolution in the...

THE GENERAL SITUATION AT EASTER. T HE enormous diminution of the

The Spectator

G-ladstonian majority in the election for the Gower Division of Glamorgan- shire has probably been made too much of by the Unionist critics, so far as they have treated it as...

Page 7

LORD SALISBURY AND 111.E. TITHE QUESTION.

The Spectator

TT is with the greatest possible regret we learn that the measures for dealing with the Tithe Question which have been reintroduced into the House of Lords by Lord Salisbury,...

Page 9

AN ALTERNATIVE PENSION SCHEME.

The Spectator

I F Mr. Goschen, when he has converted the Debt, and provided funds for county government, and made all sovereigns of full weight, and introduced one-pound notes, feels in want...

Page 10

THE THEOLOGY OF "ROBERT ELSMERE."

The Spectator

I T is not very easy to summarise with any precision what it is which Mrs. Humphry Ward has intended to convey in her very interesting novel, "Robert Elsmere," as the sum and...

THE LIXNAW MURDER.

The Spectator

C ONVICTIONS for agrarian murder are rare enough in Ireland to make the Lixnaw case, which was tried at the Wicklow Assizes on the first three days of this week, one of real...

Page 12

THE MAINTENANCE OF GIRLS.

The Spectator

P RETTY nearly everything has now been done for women with property. They can hold it, they can inherit it, and they can bequeath it, if they like, as independently as • men. If...

Page 13

[To THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR:]

The Spectator

SIE,-I recognise heartily the excellent intention in the latter part of your article headed "The Welcome to Mr. Chamberlain," and I hope you will allow me to help you in your...

THE CLERICAL ADDRESS.

The Spectator

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sut,—I abstained from commenting on the main point in the letter addressed to you by the Vicar of Greenwich, under the conviction that some...

THE WINE-TAX.

The Spectator

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin.,—When the general admiration at tlis stroke of financial genius has subsided, Cassandras will have a good time. Better, therefore, to...

Page 14

THE DECLINE OF THE TROUT.

The Spectator

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have just read the article in the Spectator of March 17th on " Trout-Fishing,"—I am almost ashamed to think with what gusto. To turn...

"OH, THE WILD CHARGE HE MADE r FRAGMENTS OF A

The Spectator

CONVERSATION IN A COUNTRY HOUSE. COMMUNICATED BY MR. THOMAS EAVES. [" Three parts, and in many ways the most interesting parts politically, of the conversation have been left...

POETRY.

The Spectator

PEACE. " Wu° knows how often he offendeth ?" When Conscience's white light burns dim In doubt of Right, that word descendeth Alone, from Him. We cannot tell ; we see but...

Page 15

BOOKS.

The Spectator

GEORGE SAND.* A VERY charming study of George Sand, by M. Caro, of the French Academy, has lately been translated into, on the whole, excellent English by M. Gustave Masson,...

Page 16

MR. HARE'S "PARIS," AND "DAYS NEAR PARIS."* A very modest

The Spectator

preface to a book of great merit is apt to render the reader doubly anxious to do full justice to such a work. It is when people have best realised how difficult is the task...

Page 17

CLEMENT AND ORIGEN.* ONE sometimes wonders what the Rev. John

The Spectator

Bampton, who, some hundred and forty years ago, furnished the means for a perpetual polemic, which was "to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and confute all heretics...

Page 18

RECENT NOVELS.* Whose Wife Shall She Be? is thoroughly good

The Spectator

in ever so many of the ways in which a novel can be good ; and yet we hesitate to speak of it as a thoroughly good novel. If the foregoing sentence sounds wilfully paradoxical,...

Page 20

THE FIGHTING VERES.*

The Spectator

Jr was a happy idea to write an account of two such excellent examples as Francis and Horace, of the men whom Carlyle, in his Cro m well, called "the fighting Veres." They...

Page 21

THE MAKERS OF VENICE.* THE author tells us in her

The Spectator

introduction, and we can readily believe it, that The Makers of Venice was a more difficult book to write than its forerunner, The Makers of Florence. The story of Florence is,...

Page 22

Though we cannot altogether agree with the principles which have

The Spectator

guided Mr. Alfred M. Williams in making his selection, his Poets and Poetry of Ireland (J. R. Osgood and Co., Boston, U.S.A.) is none the less a very interesting collection. All...

CURRENT LITERA_TITRE.

The Spectator

By Virtue of his Office. By Rowland Grey. (Kogan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—" Rowland Grey" has not repeated the success of " Linden- blumen " and "Sunny Switzerland." Her new...

Roundabout to Moscow. By John Bell Bonton. (D. Appleton, New

The Spectator

York.)—Mr. Bouton recommends his readers to drop "any heavy pack of fine old English prejudices" that they may be carrying about with them. Change " English " to "anti-English,"...

Handbook of the Convocations. By James Wayland Joyce, M.A. (Rivingtona.)—Mr.

The Spectator

Joyce's book is mainly historical, though he lets us see pretty clearly what are his views upon one great question of the day. He is very emphatic in affirming that the laity...

Page 23

tinctly silly. But one finds that this is done of

The Spectator

set purpose. The silliness is to suit and symbolise the kind of life which the story portrays. Go to Florida and live on an orange-plantation, and this is the kind of thing into...

City Girl : a Realistic Story. By John Law. (Vizstelly

The Spectator

and Co.)—We are like many readers, we fancy, in feeling a shudder of apprehension when we see a story described by its author as "realistic." It is pretty sure to be a picture...

Between the Recuperative Bodily Power of Man in a Rude

The Spectator

and in a Highly Civilised State. (Harrison and Sons.) It was suggested by Professor Horsley's lecture on "The Operation of Trephining during the Neolithic Period in Europe," and...

We have received the eighteenth volume of the Proceedings of

The Spectator

the Royal Colonial Institute. (Sampson Low and Co.)—The State : the Rudiments of New Zealand Sociology. By James H. Pope. (G. Didabury, Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z.)—Mr....

NSIV EDITIONS AND REPRINTS.—The Chair of Peter. By John Nicholas

The Spectator

Murphy. (Burns and Oates.)—Count Murphy completes this third edition of his book, "with events and statistics brought down to the present time," and has, it cannot be doubted, a...

noteworthy passages from his life in the said University together

The Spectator

with a particular relation of his voyage to Nombre de Dios under that renowned Navigator, the late Sir Francis Drake." Mr. Corbett has made an interesting tale out of his...