... LEAVMNGTOX, Wednesday Night. This week has seen the lock-out in the Eastern Counties, and, in fact, the whole nature of the controversy respecting the rights of the labourers enters upon a new phase. The determination of the farmers and their immediate backers has grown in intensity, whilst the courage of the men and their supporters has an almost startling air of assurance. The landholders of ...

... CORRESPONDEN CE. -0- TH IMPRISONuMENT OF SaerI. Sir,-I translate for the benefit of your readers, and without comment, the following letter from the venerable Aurelio Saffi, one of the arrested at Villa Rnfil, which I find in the Gazzetta di Milano:- Prison of Perugia, October 5th. Your dear letter has reached me this time without hin- drance, and the others sent with it have been forwarded ...

... The Editor cannot undertake to return Ma7nuscripts. CORRESP ONDEN CE. THE BIBLE IN THE NATIONAL SCHOOL. Sir,-I regret to trouble you with another letter, but I imagine that those of your readers who have followed the 'controversy between Mr. Maitland and myself will consider that some reply is due on my part to his last letter. . The difficulty I have, in dealing with my opponent, is that he ...

... FREE TRADE IN LAND. To the Devon Chamber of Agriculture, on Wednesday evening, the Duke of Somerset addressed some remarks on the foolishness of his political opponents in general, and on the Land Laws in particular. Not long ago, be said, a Cabinet Minister, Air Bright, appeared at Birmingham and spoke about land, and he took up his old cry about 'Free Trade in land.' He had been ...

... COMMENT S. On Friday, May 16, the question of local guarantees to Irish railways, whereby the ratepayers are compelled by Parliament to guarantee the construction of new lines, occupied both Houses. In the debate which arose in the Commons it was generally allowed that the pre- sent system is unsatisfactory; but as Sir Michael Beach thought that no great improvement could be effected without a ...

... CTJRRENT EVENTS. Abroad, the old year has ended, and the new year begun, in a thoroughly unsatisfactory fashion. If there are any lessons left in the central Christian festival, these have been entirely lost upon the Government which still keeps up the butchery of Parisian Communists. Nor is there anything complimentary which can be said of the obstinate self- respect displayed by Sefiors ...

... NOTES AND COMMENTS. I The trial of Count Arnim, which succeeds Mr. Glad- stone's Expostulation in European interest, began on Wed- nesday. When the Irishman in the old tale was asked whether he was guilty or not guilty, his answer was that he could not tell till he had heard the evidence. It may be as well to wait till the full evidence is made public before expressing an opinion on the guilt ...

... ?? C 0 M M E N T S. In the House of Lords on Friday, April 24th, the Duke of Argyll took the earliest opportunity permitted by the state of his health to tender some observations and some explanation with respect to the earlier stages of the Bengal Famine. Having first lifted the subject out of the domain of party politics, he went on to show, in a verv satisfactory manner, what reason the ...

... NOTES AND COMMENTS. President Grant has made what would be called in Europe a progress through several of the States, and has assisted at the unveiling of a monument to President Lincoln at Springfield, in Illinois. On this last occasion the President made the longest speech that is said to have ever been spoken by him : it might occupy, if printed in large type, a quarter of a column of an ...

... -0- NOTES AND COMMENTS. The speech delivered by Mr Goschen at Frome, on Tuesday, is distinctly the best party speech that has been delivered outside Parliament for some tirae. Mr Goschen is known to possess a large fund of sarcasm, and to dis- believe in the precept that political criticism should be mild. So he struck at the conduct of the Government last session, with a vigour which must ...

... COMMENTS. Mr Plimsoll's Merchant Shipping Bill was rejected on Wednesday by a majority of three, a fact to which Sir Charles Adderley's awkwardness gave all the significance of a damaging defeat. The Secretary to the Board of Trade was manifestly sore on the subject; so much so that he seemed only half in earnest when he gave Mr Plimsoll credit for humane intentions. The ridicule which he ...

... THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK. Habet! Air Gladstone has been hit very hard. He appealed to the country, and the country has answered him with a vengeance. it has by this time become tolerably certain that the Liberal majority of 68 will be almost, if not entirely, wiped out by the pending elec- tions; that if Mr Gladstone and his friends be not in an absolute minority, they will possess a numerical ...