FROM JULY 4th TO DECEMBER 26th, 1908, INCLUSIVE. TOPIC'S OF THE DAY. A DVERTISEMENTS and Lotteries ... 396 -La Africa, South, the Federation of... ... 531 Agriculture and the...

opposed the grant of £16,000 for M. Fallieres's visit to Russia. M. Valliant, who was their spokesman, used language of the utmost violence in speaking of the Czar. M. Brisson,...

discourse,in the Chamber on the Congo. The territories of that State censtituted, he declared, "a source of wealth which surpasses the imagination." M. Schollaert went on to...

a debate on the Report stage of the Bill to repeal the law which forbids tobacco-growing in Scotland. The Bill had passed the Standing Committee without amendment. Sir F....

W E have dealt elsewhere with the Persian crisis, and will only say here that the latest telegrams state that the Shah is for the present pursuing his policy with apparent...

a good deal of the pessimism prevailing about the state of India just now is both unworthy and unnecessary. No doubt individual members of the Civil Service are exposed to a...

cussing the Income-tax Bill. One of the clauses in the measure at which the Chamber " shied " was, the proposal to force business people to show their books in declaring their...

features. The editor of the Hind Swarajya, a Bombay paper, has been sentenced to two years' and one year's imprisonment for publishing two seditious articles, the sentences to...

case.

is intended to reverse the effect of a recent deciiion of the courts, and to establish the right of the Press to attend the meetings of every local authority. An important...

the week in galloping through the Committee stage of the Old- Age Pensions Bill. We are no friends of dilatory discussion, but we are bound to say that we never remember a worse...

that the risk inherent in the course we recommend is too great. The Government's reply to the House of Lords, it is urged, would be an instant Dissolution, and an appeal to the...

by day anything so unsatisfactory as these truncated debates, but we should like to record our approval of Mr. Balfour's protest against setting up the Excise officer to...

and speeches of other advocates of the Bill, a curiously illogical argument used to defend some of the patent injustices caused by exclusions under the Bill,—injustices to which...

and will, we presume, immediately be sent to the Peers. We most earnestly trust that the Lords will do their duty by the Bill, and not be afraid of dealing with it on its...

Anderson on the danger of a rapid growth of low-class drinking-clubs under the licensing legislation of the Govern- ment. At Scotland Yard Sir Robert Anderson had to decide year...

on Tuesday, when a. depntation was chosen to go to the House of Commons and see the Prime Minister. At the House the members of the deputation were informed that Mr. Asquith...

been reached in the matter of the denominational Training Colleges. It provides that half of the places may be reserved for the denomination and half thrown open ; and that...

Bill was issued on Thursday, and is, we are glad to say, favourable to the principles of the Bill. The Bill as it stood would have made eight changes in time necessary during...

Friday week to establish the Association of Subscribers to Charities. A letter was read from Mr. Burns earnestly sup- porting the objects of the meeting. Lord Lichfield made out...

was issued on Tuesday. After a long inquiry, which took particular notice of some notorious cases, the Commie- sioners have come to the conclusion that the discipline of the...

a letter in the Daily Mail of Thursday appealing for funds to entertain the numerous foreign visitors who are coming to take part in the Olympic Games. The Council have so far...

PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT AND OUR INDIAN EMPIRE. T HE full - dress debate upon Indian affairs which took place in the House of Lords on Tuesday cannot be described as...

• T HE first thought which comes into the mind on .1 reading the daily reports of the political chaos in Persia is a profound thankfulness for the existence of the Anglo-Russian...

I N spite of all the publicity under which proceedings in the House of Commons are conducted, it is to be feared that the general public never sufficiently realises the serious...

I N spite of epigrammatic contradictions, the production of figures is one of the most useful functions that Governments can perform. More and more, in all countries, they find...

W E publish to-day in our correspondence columns as letter—by Mr. Herbert Batty—which makes a very interesting and, we believe, useful suggestion. After noting the rapacity of...

T HE tercentenary of the year of Milton's birth, which is being celebrated at Cambridge by an Exhibition of portraits and manuscripts, to be followed later by a perform- ance of...

T HE best advice is generally the oldest. And the oldest things in the world are always the simplest. It follows that good advice is always simple. Can any one doubt that ? Did...

I T is a rather curious thing that Stevenson, in the "Child's Garden of Verses," has hardly a dozen lines about children at the seaside. The air and the sunlight of the sands,...

OLD-AGE PENSIONS AND THE LORDS. pro TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:] SIB,-Sir William Chance's letter in your last issue on the subject of old-age pensions is a most opportune...

LTO TEl EDITOR OF TEl "8rscrxroa.1 SIR,—A large number of letters have been received in reply to my letter which appeared in various London and provincial newspapers a few days...

[To THE EDITOR OF TUB "SPROTATOR.1 SIR,—Replying to your note to Mr. Hart-Davis's letter in your issue of June 20th as to the progress of this Society since 1884, and as to the...

SIR,—Your correspondent " Sigma " (Spectator, June 27th) refers me to the case of a Friendly Society giving old- age pensions, which is, I think, the Stoke and Melford Union...

L." (Spectator, June 27th) confirms my point. He reminds us that Mr. Chamberlain, after being the sole begetter of the scheme, abjured the principle of contributory pensions. I...

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SricorATog."] Sia,—From several cases recently reported, it appears that County Court Judges regard 60 per cent, as a not unreason- able rate of interest...

in your last issue that the Pan-Anglican Congress has not proposed to throw open the doors of the Church of England to Nonconformists by admitting them to her Service of Holy...

[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:1 should like your correspondent (Spectator, June 27th) to know that in one Anglican archdeaconry—and I doubt not in many mere—the principle...

to be admitted to Holy Communion without having "renewed the solemn vow made in their name at their Baptism," what security have the clergy that "they acknowledge themselves...

[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—You will, I know, acquit me of any intention to complain of your reviewer's fair, and even kindly, review of my book, "The National...

SELLING TRADE. [To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your article of June 6th entitled "Publishers, Book- sellers, and the Law" is evidently based upon misinformation as to...

LTO THE EDITOR or TER " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,--Arollr able article on "The Baghdad Railway" in last week's Spectator scarcely touched upon the political aide of the question,...

LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." J SIR,—I do not often write to newspapers, but the subject on which I address you is exceptional, and the Spectator an exceptional channel in...

[To TRH EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR,—The letter you very kindly inserted last year on the subject of the Women's Holiday Fund bore such good fruit that I venture to plead...

1.7 . 0 THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR.”) SIR,— Latin words from the" Constitutions" of Ignatius of Loyola, quoted in the Spectator, June 20th, 1908. Perin& ac cadaver....

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In view of the revival of the excellent movement for what is now called "proportional representation," I should like to make two...

(To THE EDITOR OF TUE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—The comments of the Protectionist Press upon the official statements of the Board of Trade as to the comparative position of the...

SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Will you allow me to suggest to the bird-lovers among your readers that during the summer season they should make a practice of periodically visiting their...

LTO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—A reply to one of the comments upon Lord Avebury's Bill made by your correspondent Whanghee " in last week's Spectator will perhaps...

THE MIDDLE MARCHES. (" Posuit fines tuos pacem." — Psalm xlvii.) No Warden keeps the marches From Tyneclale to the Tweed ; Broad winds the road to Scotland Beside the streams...

LO THE EDITOR 07 THE "SneerAroa."] have received several generous contributions towards a Spectator Tent* at Risley (August 8th-17th) for our primary boys' camp from your...

or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked "Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the mode of...

LORD MORLEY'S LATEST ESSAYS.* THESE latest miscellanies of the writer and statesman who may be considered our foremost living critic are, in the words of the prefatory note,...

THE doctor's is the most human of professions. It treats human beings morally as well as physically, and one might even say that it is a spiritual agency too. It receives as...

us so little from his store nowadays that we are thankful for small mercies. The dramatic poem of four scenes which is his latest gift is only a small mercy, but it is stamped...

intervals have been issued six parts of this memorable work. Now with the last instalment come the general and special introductions, and directions for binding the whole in...

THE series of "The Story of the Nations" was commenced in 1885 by a volume which bore the title of Borne, and carried on the story as far as the "End of the Republic." The last...

Mn. VICKERS is not one of the fraternity of historical "white- washers." His book is as admirable for its impartiality as it is for the thoroughness and the intelligence of its...

IT is recorded that many centuries ago the. Icelander Gunnbiorn, driven westward in a gale, sighted the strange land he called White-Shirt from its snowfields, which Eric the...

THE places of honour in the new Nineteenth Century.— the beginning and the end—are given to two articles on the: international position of Britain. Mr. Ellis Barker, who writes...

BURIED ALIVE.* THE author of this very entertaining work is not the Arnold Bennett who writes of The Grim Smile of the Five Towns, but rather the Arnold Bennett who delighted...

[Under this heading we votice such Books of the week as have not been reserrood for review in other forms.] Pleasure and Problem in South Africa. By Cecil Harmsworth, M.P. (John...

Co. 6s.)—The story in its earlier part is a little, in fact more than a little, hard to understand ; any one who struggles on will be repaid.—The Shadow of a Vendetta. By...

Nicol, D.D. (W. Blackwood and Sons. 7s. ed. net.)—" The first line of defence [of the credibility of the Gospel history]," writes Professor Nicol in his preface, "it seems to...

Marston, and Co. 6s.)—Though this is a story of common life, no one can complain that it is wanting in the romance which the title seems to suggest. That Joyce, aged sixteen,...

of short stories Mr. Landon exhibits a talent for depicting things grim and terrifying. It is not too much to say that there is not one of these stories which does not leave the...

Press. 2s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Madan rightly calls this a "brief account." The brevity is absolutely austere. The six chapters of the "Short History" occupy twenty-one pages ; the...

6s. net.)—" The different gem stones are here considered," says the author, "in a mineralogical sequence." This is a plan which is certainly scientific, though it produces an...

Is.) —In this "Dialogue between a Suffragette and a Mere Man" the ultimo& ratio, the superior physical fore* of mere man, is put forward in a forcible way. The "dialogue" is...

Richards. 2s. 6d. net.)—" The average British reader," says Mr. Scott," still associates Finland in his mind with Lapland and the Arctic Ocean Finland is Arctic only in the...

J. 'Thackeray. (S.P.C.K. 35. 6d.)—We could not have a better illustration of the advantage of presenting history by means of biography than is to be found in this volume. Mr....

With Introduction by Eugene Stock. (S. W. Partridge and Co.)— John Newton died on December 21st, 1807, after holding for twenty-eight years the rectory of St. Mary Woolnoth. In...

Russell Lowell Jones, M.A. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 5s. net.)—Mr. Audrow Carnegie offered five prizes for essays on this subject, and to that now published was adjudged the...

J. James. 35. exl. net.)—We accept ex animo the aphorism which Miss Braithwaite has taken for the title of her book. Most people eat too much, and eat things which they would be...