N EW Years'- day passed in France without the explosion which, since 1859, has always been more or less anticipated. The Emperor, as usual, received the diplomatic body, but he...

TILE SPECTATOR" is published every Saturday Morning, in time for despatch by the Early Trains, and copies of that Journal may be had the same Afternoon through Booksellers in...

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO. T HE year has been one of those which try the fortitude of nations, a year of strained exertion without its com- pensating fruit, of guffering...

T IIE defeat of Fredericksburg will hereafter interest only the politician. As a battle it was but the old, old story, ovce which Englishmen have so often groaned—an. American...

be statesmen as well as clergymen, when they can ; but it is unwise of them to appear ostentatiously in a capacity which belongs to neither their spiritual nor their political...

paper of the kind which once made the reputation of quarterlies, but which we now so seldom see. It is an ex- haustive account of the English "Customs Inspectorate," now finally...

who seemed to think that the sting was There is the basis for the new policy soon to bring the taken out of danger if only it were swathed round with whole empire within the...

of poetry. Putting together our information from many quarters (such as "Gibbon's Autobiographies," "Gray's Letters," and "Swift's Life "), we should be inclined to say that...

T HE Greeks, if would seem, are by no means displeased at the refusal of Don Fernando to accept the vacant throne. He is a Catholic and a German, and they are almost equally...

T HERE are, perhaps, no other scientific interests so absorbing as those which open glimpses to us of the possible conditions of life in the other worlds which man can never...

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] December 30, 1862. "I, the undersigned, Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Paris, whom I had the honour to accompany on that mission of peace...

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] New York, December 16, 1862. MACCHIAVELLI somewhere says that the men who rule in public affairs in times of peace are inevitably thrown out of...

To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." SIR,—You asked me to notice in the Spectatorthe new translation of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, which Mr. Trtibner has put...

Grey in the silver dawn, Of the frost-bound winter's day, The Church of Our Lady of Arcachon Looks out toward the bay. Silent and cold she stands, With her white face to the...

NEWTON — Died, on the 4th December, at St. Croix, Danish West Indies, Anna Louisa, the wife of Francis Bodes Newton, Esq., aged 29.

in the Precinct of the Savoy, Strand, In the County of Middlesex, at No. 18 Exeter street, Strand, and Published by him at the "SPECTATOR" Office, No.1 Wellington street,...

TO *pertator No. 1801.] FOR TILE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1863. { UNSTAMPSD, STAMPED THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF EUROPE. Tax union of all the royal families of Europe...

ACCORDING to the Bookseller, the leading organ of the publish- ing trade of Great Britain, the press of this country brought forth during the last twelve months, from the...

DR. LEMPRIERE'S MEXICO.* No two works can be at once more like and mole unlike each other than Dr. Lemptiere's "American Crisis," and his newly published "Mexico." As a...

Jr would be a great injustice to this book to call it a pendant to Sir E. B. Lytton's "Strange Story ;" for while the philosophy of that tale of marvel is false and pedantic...

Mn. HAMERTON has in these volumes made a very interesting contribution to the somewhat slender stock of artist literature. The narration of his adventures in search of the...

THE plain-spoken title of Mr. Baldwin's book has great attrac- tions for us. Amid the temptations to choose a name whick might dazzle vulgar eyes, such as "Life among Lions," or...

Turner.)— Although Dr. Kenealy does not give us any intimation of the fact, we are mistaken if this volume is more than a revised and enlarged edition of a work which appeared...

Church Questions. By Joseph Parker, D.D. (Snow.)—This is another of the abundant crop of Nonconformist publications which have been called forth by the re-occurrence of the...

(Bradbury and Evans.)—This is the concluding volume of Mr. Knight's useful history. It covers the period from the peace with the Unitee States in 1815, to the final extinction...

We gather from an advertisement appended to this volume that it is the work of Mr. Robert Rockliff, of Liverpool, who published some time ago a translation from Yriarte's...

of the visitors to the International Exhibition will doubtless remember some I very beautiful specimens of table decoration, composed of fruit and , flowers, exhibited by...

Vaughan, D.D., Vicar of Doncaster, 457c. (Macmillan.)—Dr. Vaughan's rare ex- cellence as a preacher is so universally acknowledged that it is not necessary for us to do more...

Pudding Book." (Bentley.)—This is a collection of recipes for dessert dishes, preceded by a rather lengthy preface, of which the author is, we have no doubt, not a little proud....

volumes. (Bentley.)—Mr. Jessop is, as he takes good care to inform us, a Cambridge man, who went to Australia for some reason which is not immediately apparent, at a time which...

of instructions on the house cultivation of ornamental plants. At the close of his preface the author waxes suddenly poetical, wishing that his readers' "way may be as thickly...

(Hard- ecicke.)—Thehuthoress of this volume appears to be a lady who, having succeeded in obtaining a personal interview with that most persecuted of men, Garibaldi, has thought...

in heroic verse, the object of which it is not easy precisely to define. It is about mesmerism ; and it begins with a violent attack on a professor of that science ; but we...

(Jo.)—This very handsome book, which appears in all the glory of bevelled boards, toned and glazed paper, and artistic illustrations, contains a complete account, topographical,...