... P0,4 MR. WILLIAM FETTEs DOUGLAS, ?? Principal Curator ot the National- Gallery, has been appointed President of the Royal Scottish Academy in the place of the late Sir Daniel Macnee. THE CROWN PRINCE OF GERMANY can boast of 65,536 ancestors, according to a genealogical tree of the House of Prussia which has been compiled for the Berlin Heraldic Exhibition. MADAME SARAH BERNHARDT has been ...

... M . ?? - M ?, 11 ?? I -? -. I.I.-M WMV 14om-E., 52 , POLITICAL AFFAIRS.-The Parliamentary dinners, customary on the eve of the Session, were given on Monday by the Premier and Earl Granville as Ministerial leaders ; and by the Marquis of Salisbury and Sir Stafford Northcote as leaders of the Opposition. On the same day the Irish party held a meeting, at which Mr. Parnell was appointed as ...

... SLAV AND TEUTON. -General Skobeleff has once more startled Europe by one of those intemperate speeches for which, in times of peace, he is becoming as famed as for his headlong cavalry charges, which have done so much to establish his military renown. Only a few weeks since he virulently attacked Austria for her anti- Slavonic policy, and now, in reply to an address from some Servian students ...

... . B wl IQLIAM E N n E , ?? . THE fleshy figure of Mr. Bradlaugh has through another week dominated the House of Commons, and the affairs of the Memiber for Northampton have occupied the attention of Parliament, largely to the exclusion of the affairs of the nation. Since the passing of the resolution prohibiting him from taking his seat, Mr. Bradlaugh has enjoyed many of the substantial ...

... 7::il-Z?11?1 RI STIME THE TuRF.-News is very scarce in all departments of our sports and pastimes, and had it not been for the publication of the Acceptances for the principal spring handicaps on Wednesday last, our Turf paragraph might as well have been absent from this column. The acceptances in question are very satisfactory, in most instances far exceeding that proportion to the entries ...

... I. CZRB Y BURIED in lime avenues in the county of Northamptonshire lice Kirby, the seat of Sir Christopher Hatton, Chancellor and favourite of Queen Elizabeth. It is the property of the Earl of Winbchilsea and Nottingham. It was built for the Staffords, and completed for Lord Keeper Hatton by John Thorpe (the arms of the Staffords are still visible). The inner court was wrought into its ...

... I ?? . ELECTION NEWS.-The Liberals have sustained another defeat at Taunton, Lord Kilcoursie being bowled over by Mr. S. D. Allsopp to the tune of 1,144 to 917. The nomination for Meath took place on Wednesday, the candidates being Michael Davitt, who is now in Portland Prison, and Mr. Patrick Egan, but the name of the latter was withdrawn, and the High Sheriff declared Mr. Davitt duly elected ...

... SKETCHES ON THIE PARIS BOURSE THE extraordinary mania for spectlati-,s which has prevailed amongst all classes in France during the past few years has ended, as has been foreseen, in a terrible crash. The Frenchman is essentially a speculative being, gambling suits his temperament, and he is prone to screw and pinch in his household matters in order to raise a little capital to play upon the ...

... I -u XJ-- I k-ic.1c . FRANCE.-Le Grand Alinist,?re a vzcu, and, after only three months' existence, the long-expected Gambetta Cabinet has given place to a Ministry of a very familiar type. Desirous to ascertain the true strength of his majority in the Chamber, M. Gambetta put it at once to a severe test ; but not even his influence could nduce the Deputies to accept the obnoxious Scrutin de ...

... SINCE Sir W. Thompson published in Tire Timecs his glowing account of the box of electricity which had reached him at Glasgow, and had afterwards given up the electricity with which it had been charged many hours before at Paris-the public have become familiar with the term storage of electricity. It would be interesting to know what the average non-scientific reader understands by this so- ...

... DIrFERENCES in the habits and characters of townsmen and country-dwellers are apparent to the most careless observer. A very little familiarity with clogs enatbles the lover of the canine race to discover a similar difference of traits between town and country dogs. The cynics are said to have derived their name a canine nionait/rda/4 from their canine propensity to criticise men's lives and ...

... ?? -. ?? I , z: N - kl, BOTHs CONVOCATIONS have now b2e.s prorogued, that of Canterbury until the 9th and that of York until the 16th of March. Mr. Green's imprisaniment occupied a good deal of attention in both assemblies. The Bishops of the Southern Provinces (those of Lichfield and St. Asaph's dissenting) considered that, having regard to the serious legal and constitudional difficulties ...