NEWS OF THE WEEK. THE negotiations between the German Emperor and the Emperor of China have come to an end at once peaceful and satisfactory to the former potentate. China, to...

TOPICS OF TIHE DAY. THE SITUATION ON THE NILE. TN Egypt the New Year has brought developments of a somewhat serious chiaracter. News that the Khalifa wits contemplating an...

A R T. MIILLAIS AT THE ACADEMY. WHEN an exhibition is devoted to the pictures of one artist, it is impossible to resist the temptation of trying to form a general impression...

POETRY. NOCTURNE. 0.: E low note quivers on the air And dies, with a languorous pain, In a rippling rush of melody Like the fall of autumn rain That lightly stirs the russet...

THE PRESENT SITUATION OF ENGLAND. [TO THE EDITOR O THE "SPECTATOR."] Sii',-In a notice of an article of mine in the December number of the Nineteenth Century you say (December...

THE SENSE OF DIRECTION. I [TO Tni; E1,DIio OF THE "SP'ECfATOR.] SIR,-Having read the letter of your correspondent, Edward Tregear, in the Spectltor of January 1st on "The Sense...

THE SUGAR QUESTION. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'1 SIR,-In an article which appeared in the Spectator of January 1st on " Egypt and the Sugar Question," you affirm the...

A SWAN-STORY. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 Sir,-The following accident was described to me by a friend who beard it from the lips of the man who saw it. My friend's...

ANIMALS IN THE DARK. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIP,-In the Spectator of October 23rd, 1897, which I received yesterday, in an article on " Animals in the Dark," yoa...

THE NEW YEAR HONOURS. T HERE are two facts about the comments on the distribution of honours which appear to be permanent. One is that the public is never contented with the...

THE MAGAZINES. THE New Year's number of the Furtn;ghtly Review is nt especially good, but it contains interesting papers, the most valuable, doubtless, for those who can follow...

ENDYMION PORTER.* THERE is every reason why Endymion Porter sbouia survive the shocks of time and chance. The very name suggests immortality; and the squire of Mickleton had...

LORD SALISBURY IN CHINA. TJPON the whole, and with two marked reserves, we U think the line of action in China generally attributed to Lord Salisbury is a defensible one. The...

A NEW VIEW OF THE ODYSSEY.* IF our memory does not mislead us in these cricket-loving days, there was some years ago a young Oxford bowler who distinguished himself by getting...

MR. HAMERTON ON HAPPINESS.* THE previous work of Philip Gilbert Hamerton inclines the reader to expect a restful, and at the same time inspiring, converse with a keen and eager...

I ART BooKs.- -The Studio. Vol. XI. (Offices of the Studio, Henrietta Street.) - When turning over a volume of this kind one cannot help feeling the value of process...

Wellington: his Comrades and Contemporaries. Dv Major Arthur Griffiths. (George Allen. 12s. 6d. net.)-Major Grifliths calls this volume, we do not exactly know why, "The...

I A Primer of Wordsworth. With a CriLical Essay. By Laurie M1agnus, B.A. (Methuen and Co.)-The object of this volume is to make Wordsworth's Life and works "easy of access,"...

Vanity Fair Album. Twenty-ninth Series. (7 Essex Street, I Strand. 42s.)-Vanity Fair suffers from the usual complaint, a deficiency of adequate subjects, this year, perhaps,...

BOOKS. MR. STEPHEN PHILLIPS'S POEMS.* ONE: of the most noticeable things in the literary history of the past year has been the recognition won by Mr. Phillips's poetry. Verse...

THE CRIMINAL TRAMP. T HE question of the tramp is one of increasing and T urgent importance in rural England, and it has risen to the proportions of a great problem in some of...

CLUBS. THE change in the significance of the word " club " affords a curious commentary on the social evolution of the English race. A club used to mean exclusively a meeting...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOI. SLEEP AND DREAMS. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Srn.,-The letters on sleep and dreams in the Spe-"'atr remind me of a case in the experience of...

SYLVANUS; OR, THE PLEASURES OF THE ORNITHOLOGIST. S YLVANUS is one of those happy individuals who, C in the words of the prophet Baruch, "have their pastime with the fowls of...

I Henry Whitehead, 1825-1,E93. Dy the Rev. H. D. Riwnsloy. I (Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow.)-The natural comment of the reader on closing this book will be something to this...

THE ARCHBISHOPS AND THE ENGINEERS. W E cannot think the English Archbishops either unwise NV' or officious in intervening in the engineering dispute. They are the natural...

AMERICAN RAILROADS.* THE figures which the Manual gives us are imposingly large. To begin with, the total mileage of the railways in the United States (up to the close of...

THE LOSS OF THE FIRST-BORN. HE was his latest bride; the joy of his great heart as well as the flower of his goodly fl)ck. And as he swept proudly through the foaming sea, with...

THE ARMY QUESTION A PROOF of how greatly public opinion is still stirred A by the Army question is to be found in the fact that in its January number the Nineteenth Century...

CURRENT LITERAT URE. The most notable article in an exceptionally varied number of the North American Review is the first )f what promises to be a valuable series on the...

fTHE BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH AND HIS CLERGY. IT is well when an outsider takes up a subject to find at starting something about which no question can arise. In the dispute which...