... SPECIAK NOTES. TgE year Eighteen Hundred and Eiglhty-eight, which Is iahered in to-day, has a trouble3ome and terrible ., 'a from its prdecessor. 'The old problem of exist- ence sceemis more complicated thati ever ; and the duties 1 Goverameflt, and peoples in the presence of poverty 5ad its costant attentdants, creme and death, are per- piecing and distressing in their unnatural antagonism ...

... I DMRD. G1ADSTONE NTEZVZIEWMD. Le etleil, the paper of EI. Edonard Hervy, pub- lishes the account of an interview at Paris with Mr. Gladstone, from which we take the ?? pas- sages - - Beinlg now in my seventy.ninth year, I would re- tire but for the Irish liberties for which I am fighting. I shall, perhaps, not see the end, but I shall have the consolation of knowing that 1 have done my whole ...

... TZZ BALZAN STATES. Many people (writes the Paris correspondent of the Times) dream of a confederation of the Balkan State3 which will offer resistance to annexation, and check the cupidity of the great Powers. It would, they suppose, put an end to the Eastern question by enabling the peninsula to defend itself, and to be strong enotugh to reject it threatening protection of every kind. ...

... nI%. CHA1EaRLAUIT INS CANTADA. Mr. Chamberlain was a guest oil Friday night at the annual dinner of the Toronto Board of Trade. In re- spondiniig to the toast of the Commnercial Interests of the Empire, Mr. Chamberlain said lie roeretted the course which certain journals had taken in referring to him as the representative of British exporters, and as having declared that the interests of ...

... THE WELSH LAUD LEAGUE. A manifesto of the first importance, both in a political and a social sense, has been issued in Wales this week, and has been received by the Welsh people with unbounded enthusiasm. It is the official declaration of a project that has been hatching for many months; its object being, practically, the establishment of a Land League, based, in its main lines. on the Land ...

... SUZM)AY LZMCTUa~23. (Fe rticisic ?? tihis 1jice slot late rthon Satsciday isrensigs7.1 Y11 -3ilburn Liberal Club, at 11.30 a.m., Mr. Pich, 31ecitals -at S.:As p.., Miusical Ps-g-aLUIme.-Mit-on Hail, llatsy -c-.s eunt, lielltieli-towss, at 7prm., lusical Selections at ?? i.n. MSr. (C. W. Foote, 'the Coolitg of Hell.- TotfclnI-sm Irselich3.0.1?., Elis~il.eth-.tirace, Seven Sis ers'. sno-d it 8 ...

... Dr.Thcomts E. Webb, Q.C., regius professor of civil lawv and public orator at Dublin University, has been appointed county court judge of Donegal, as successor to the late Judge Carson, who died suddenly. Alfred Simmn-ons, late general secretary of the Kent and Sussex Labourers' Union, paid the £533 which he was convicted by tile Maidstone magistrates of illegally withbolding, and also the ...

... OGun PREBENqT COlDITION. THE RESULT OF SOME NVESTIGATION* FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL, Statistics show that Nottingham, when cofnpa with other provincial cities, is fully as sanitary healthy; indeed, there is no reason why this &q not be so, for the pure water, fine surroundings 4 untainted air all combino to make this most sat factory state of affairs. During the past Scsl, however. there has b ...

... AU ACTITMId AtIlrD ymu - I . - Miss Annie Sunimnerville, the dac h lug p1' stecechr4 )lenion ot lhe Corsair.'' now. playing ait tte 1'i0,1, as brourlit suit lor divorcofrolu her ?? ?? 1 a i .ijtln inl.~ Iiass evening tihe 15pir0ic chie' sat ill Is r Iressilg-0oo01 plying a croclhet nectie ,jal telli± h !-o itory to a t repolrter. It wias in one of her c:.'-e-l )cricds of leisure during ...

... The Report of the Registrar-General, which has just been issued, shows a still further decline in the marriage rate, which now stands at 141, the lowest yet recorded since such returns were compiled. Twenty years ago seventeen persons were married but of every thousand of the population; ten years ago the rate was sixteen and a-half; now it is down to fourteen. The cynics of the clubs at once ...

... FIRES IN T4101 METROPOLIS. Down to yesterday PiO fires had occurred in the metropolis during the previous seven days (including 11 on Saturday), against 39 in the preceding week and 45 in the corresponiling period of 1886.. SuNDAY (12).-Part of aitailor's shop at 45,Whitechapel- road, was much damaged at 2.3 am.; and two minutes later the brigade received notice of a fire at a grocer's. 1, ...

... LABOUR AND WA-ES. The dispute in the Northampton boot and shoe trade has at last been settled, both sides having agreed that all reserved questions should be submitted to a court of appeal ?? of a representative of em- plo, era and employed, a third to be appointed by those two, the decision of the three to be absohltely final. The operatives, of whom about 1J .000 have been locked t, will ...