... THE sometimes healthy but generally disagreeable practice of fasting. comes to us from the East; and in the present day the Moslems, when they keep fast during the Bairacm, take no food until sunset. Then,. it is true, they recompense themselves for their previous abstinence; but in this respect they do no more than a good number of excellent Christians, who even on the days when they are ...

... FIRST EDITION, 2.30 p.m. (PL'EC[AL TELECRAM.) ,1,SE iT,, Friday.- Tbe new Army Bill prepared by the Imperial Govern- rreri t is to be submitted to the German Parliament in its next session. As the Corsec vativcs are in a majority, the passage of the bill is considered assured vithout material mcdifications. The new bill again, like the last law passed, f :es the strength of the army for a ...

... The fall of newly erected buildings in London is now becoming so common an occurrence that it attracts but little attention beyond the neighbourhood in which it happens, unless several lives are lost. Yester- day one of these accidents took place in the Seven Sisters-road, Finsbury Park; and although no lives seem to have been lost, the result might have been serious enough. The story is ...

... AlL DE FREYCINET'S POLICY. TViL appearance Of M. DE FREYCINET'S statement has not Tremoved the veil which rests on M. DE FREYCINET'S intentions. I-le might have said a great deal more, but he could hardly have sai les. he ish with which the statement opens is not one that is likely to be realized. The sincere uinadareet of the different fractions of the Republican majority may be as ...

... RUSSIA AND EUROPE. The Satr/day Reviewc considers that the warlike designs in Europe which have lately been attributed to Russia are improbable to a degree at which they almost beco me incredible. A Russian general could scarcely hope to win a skirmish or a combat against the armies which would be encountered beyond the frontier. It is certain that at the end of the war the aggressor would not ...

... MILITARY TRANSPORT AND SUPPLY. 7'o AWe EDITOR Of the PALL MALL GAZETTE. SiR,-Few questions connected with our army organization demand dckzer attention than the system of military transport. Were our previous military history a blank, the events of the past two years should be sufficient to prove our inability to understand or to cope with the varied require- ments of armies campaigning in ...

... I TEE SOUtTHWARK ELECTION. The Times says there is no possibility of mistaking the significance of the election [in Southwark. The return of a Conservative candi- date for one of the most Radical constituencies in the kingdom, not only at the head of the poll, but by a majority over the votes recorded for both his Liberal competitors taken together, is a heavy blow for the Opposition. The ...

... TIIE complete subjection of the Liberal to the Radical element in ' new majority is a fact so patent on the face of affairs that no sore look about for proofs of it than for evidences of the ?? Everything that we see around us attests it, and the work of inquiry is limited to the mere selection of those hbrrreiva which happen to illustrate it in the most telling and enrratrc way. Foremost ...

... AlN INSPIRED HISTORY OF THE LATE WAR.-Hi. Wa resume to-day the version of the events of the late war which the friends of the Grand Duke Nicholas wish to pass current in Western Europe. Two questions have already been dealt with. The third question which the vindicator of the Grand Duke attempts to answer in La Vouvelie ,7z ue is why the crossing of the Danube was effected with such facility. ...

... THE DINING A GE. No attempt has ever been made to estimate the number of dinner-parties which take place every night at this time of the year in London. The only question is whether we should place it among the hundreds or the thousands. Always a dining people, the English have in the present day developed their favourite form of social intercourse into such dimensions that we are justified in ...

... -IW O -- 7 -tuad otw d, I NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN. The Daidy News correspondent at Cabul telegraphs that the 67th Foot and the 5 Sikhs have marched to reinforce Jugdulluck, taking the place of the ceal ?? cclumnr, which is about to start on a punitive expedition Abdar Rai-,loan has stopped all commerce with Turkestan until a forced loan has been raised. The people are said to be greatly ...

... NE WS FROM TEHERAN. TtnRRAN, Dec. i6, I879, PRITISH conquests in Afghanistan are as pleasing to Persia as Russian conquests in Turkestan. A dream of many here is: the Turkomans dis- persed, all Turkestan under Russian rule, Afghanistan kept in order by England, and Merv and Herat Persian property. The Russian retreat to the shores of the Caspian a short time ago and the lately reported ...