... NOTES AND CO-MI ENTS. '-The Treaty of Berlin is moving towards its fulfilment, but there are difficulties in the way such as must be expected from time to time to occur. It would be alike easy and natural to interpret these words in an ironical sense; but, unfortunately, the influential newspaper from which they are quoted is neither given to irony, nor to humour, nor to much wit of any sort. ...

... -0- NOTES AND COMMENTS. The last of the series of great Congresses at Paris, for which the Exhibition is chiefly responsible, was opened on Thurs- day. This was the Peace Congress, and, judging from the character of the speakers, and the number of societies which it represents, it may perhaps be regarded as the most important of the kind yet convened. To the common criticism, that Peace ...

... The Standard of Monday, in its Constantinople coilrspondence, tells a capital story about a recent judgment of the Lords of the . Privy Council in England, on an appeal to them from a decision of the Consulate at Constantinople upon a case. In this case it was frequently deposed that certain goods had been delivered to Haidar Pasha. Haidar Pasha the English judges decided to be some ...

... Reuter has excelled himself this week, and has made us all laugh over an erratum which is really a work of genius. On the 2nd inst. a telegram was received from Brisbane, contain- ing the somewhat mysterious announcement ' Governor of Queensland, twvins,.first son. An ordinary mortal would have suspected an error; but the decipherer of this telegram, evidently no ordinary mortal, but one ...

... THlE LEPROSY OF JOURNALISM. I.- SOCIETY PAPERS. The over civilisation of the latter half of the nineteenth century has produced a number of unhealthy and mischievous phenomena, as did the over civilisation of Rome'sixteen hundred years ago. The vices scathed by Juvenal and the loathsome habits described by Petronius were the noxious vapours thrown off by a huge accumulation of wealth, power ...

... TIE QUEEN'S MESSENGER. As the date of the Senatorial elections draws nearer, it is, becoming daily more evident that their result will be decidedly Republican, but not Radical. The position of M. Dufaure's Ministry is decidedly strengthened, and those who expected that M. Gambetta would take his place after the 5th of January are no longer sanguine. Nor is M. Dufaure thinking of exchanging the ...

... TIlE Q UEMES MESSENGER. We have good authority for stating that a few days ago M. de Giers conveyed to Lord Augustus Loftus a comn- munication from the Czar, in which His Majesty expressed his intention of-occupying Merve. It is also rumoured-but we cannot believe it possible-that a secret agreement has been concluded on the subject between the English and Russian Governments. On the subject ...

... VARIlORUM NOTES. For my own part, said the Paris correspondent of The Tbaes on Wednesday, seeing that I have had the good fortune to hear M. Gambetta expressing himself on the Treaty of Berlia with the sound sense of a statesman and the natural power of his eloquence, I should be neglecting a duty if I did not reproduce as faithfully as possible what he said to me on this subject. Having ...

... CORRESPONDENCE THE CLERGY ANI THE BIBLE. Sir,-In your article on ' Lord Shaftesbury-and the Book of Genesis, you urge that, impossible as it -may be to maintain his lordship's view.as to the meaning of the early chapters of Genesis, -since their literal exegesis 'is incompatible with -ascer- tained scientific facts, nevertheless his doctrines of the abso- lute verbal inspiration of -every ...

... THE WEIRDERMAN ELECTRIC LIGHT. Mr. Werderman's object is not only to divide the electric light, but to diminish its intensity, so that it may be applied to ordinary household uses. He hopes, when his arrange- ments are perfected and in thorough working order, to make it capable of subdivision into lights varying in power from forty to 300 candles. In the experiment we witnessed some days ago, ...

... We have received the following letter:- 240, Rue du Faulbourg, St. Honor6, Paris, Sept. 23rd, 1878.-Sir: Your contemptuous notice of nay ' Songs of BWranger,' lately published by the Blackwoods, has greatly amused me. Though 'scarcely ex. hilarating,' it is droll enough. The late John Forster, when he' edited The Examiner, did not hold the same opinion. Side by side with your reviewer of to ...

... VARIORVUM NOTES. The resolve of the Government not to have a Dissolution this year is understood to be in great measure due to the representa- tions of supporters of the Government in the North of England. The losses in trade, and the disturbance to manufactures by the strikes, have naturally borne with especial force on the northern counties and boroughs, and the landlords, manufacturers and ...