Illustrated London Letter.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 22 April 1893, Page 12

Illustrated London Letter.

(FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

London, February 18.

English Pilgrims in Home.

The pilgrimage of English and Irish Roman Catholics to Rome, in celebration of the episcopal jubilee of Pope Leo XIII., as a striking incidont in this prosaic nineteenth century. Thoro was quite a busy Bcene ab Holborn Viaducb Station when th e pilgrims deparbed, and one of the priests present is said to have regretted thab they hadn't a brass band. In the Holy City the chief interest of the pilgrims had centred round the Vatican and St. Pater's. The latter, though the largest and best known of Roman churches, is nob the metropolitan of the ciby, thab dignity belonging to St. John Lateran. St. Peter's was commenced by Pope Julius 11. in 1506, bub it took fchree centuries to bring it to ibs present state. Raphael and Michael Angolo were among the artists engaged in its design and embellishment, and the latter superintended the erection from his own designs; of the dome. The central nave is one of; its grandest feabures, and though the ■ solidity and size of the pillars which sup- j porb tend to dwarf its proportions in the eyes of the sbranger, it is the largest in the world. Over the high altar is a bronze canopy 87 feeb high, the wreathed columns of which are rich beyond description. Indeed, the only criticism ever passed upon the entire pile has been that its wealth of decoration is too bewildering. Mendelssohn wrote thab he 'could never realise thab it is the work of man. You strive to distinguish bhe ceiling as litble as the canopy of heaven. You lose your way in Sb. Peter's; you take a walk in it and ramble bill you are quite tired.' The pre sent Pope, Cardinal Pecci, 13 the son of Count Ludovico Pecci, an old soldier of Napoleon I. He has seen the world as Papal Nuncio ab Brussels, and bbc church as Bishop of Perugia, a town which he atill loves more than Rome. He live 3 a simple lifs of devoub study and (statesmanlike care for the interests of the wide-reaching organization which owns his sway. His encyclicals on labour questions have marked him oub as one of the mosb democratic of the successors of Sb. Peter. Bis private savings are enoi-mous, invested in various countries, and scrupulously used for the advancement of the Propaganda. John Leech's House. It was in No. 6, the Terrace, Kensington, thab John Leech, the caricaturist, spent the last four or five years of his life. He had formerly lived in Brunswick Square, and here his biographer, Mr Kitton, describes him as ' tall, strong, bub delicately made, graceful, long-limbed, with a grave handsome face, a sensitive gentle mouth —bub a mouth that could b«j " seb ''—deep penetrating eyes, an open, high and broad forehead.' He relates, too, that Leech first saw his wife, then Miss Mary Ann Eaton, walk ing in the street, and following her home, noted the number of the house, looked oub the name, obtained an introduction, and married the lady. Leech's first sketch appeared in ' Punch 'in 1841, his last on the day of his funeral 23 years afterwards. His

hOHBe ia Kensington is an old-fashioned one, with a forecourt, and it is now about to be demolished. During his residence 4here, he suffered a eood deal, bub the end came bo suddenly—from spasm of the heart —that a children's party was taking place there ab the moment of his death. He was 47. Changes in thk Commons. Seldom has a newly-elected House of Commons witnessed so many changes as those returned last August. In the autumn there was a crop of bye elections, and now with the new year a shoal of similar events is upon us. Sir Arthur Hayter, the defeated of bo many contests, has at laet been sue-

coßsful, having defeated Mr Ritchie at Waisail. Another new member is Mr Rawson Shaw, who has won in a three-cornered fight a b Halifax. He cornea of a Liberal etock, for his father was tho late member for the borough, and his mother was a daughter^ the late Mr W. Rawson, a Mancheater man, who waa treasurer of the Anti-

Corn Law League. Mr Rawson Shaw, who i 3 33, took a B.A. degree at Cambridge, and was for a time private secretary to Mr James Stuart, M.P. While the House gains Mr Sbaw, ib loses an interesting personality by the deabh of Mr L. J. Jenniuga, M.P. Although an Englishman, he became editor of the " New York Times,' and fought a determined campaign against the corrupting of ' Bos 3' Tweed and his gang. He was in this country reader to the publishing house of Murray, and one of the foreign correspondents of the ' New York Herald.' For a time he was the editor of the ill-fated London edition, which Mr Gordon Bennett with so much swaggar launched on this fortunate city, but even Mr Jenninga'a abilities could nob prevent the inevitable collapse of

thab enterprise. Mr Jennings was ab one time a supporter of Lord Randolph Churchill, especially in his demand for reform in the spending departments, bub when thab dramatic resignation took placo Mr Jennings denounced his old leader in pretty plain language. He published an edition of the 'Croker Papers,": and, as the Premier, who knows everything, did not forget to mention on Satura 'Study of Mr Gladstone.' The Premier said pressure of other occupations had pre- ; vented him from reading the book, bub he believed the author ' convicted him of every kind of inconsistency.' Mr Jennings knew something of Indian questions, having travelled there as special correspondent for the ' Times' before he wont to its namesake in New York. The Panama Defendants. While few in London are prepared to join the great Blowitz in strong protest against the severe sentences on the Panama Canal defendants, there i 9 some surprise thab M. Ferdinand do Lesseps should have been so heavily punished. Of them nil, he is of course "the best known in England through his Suez Canal. Whilo a French attache he gained the friendship of Mahommed Said by teaching him to ride, and when his friend became Viceroy of Egypt he lost no time in securing his support. Said did not livo to see the canal completed in 1869, when honours were showered on the lucky Frenchman. He was presented with the freedom of the City of London and appointed Knight Grand Commander ot' the Order of the Star of India. It is worth notice that the capital of the Suez Canal Company was originally £8,000,000, and thab its total cost was nearly

£l9 000 000. M. Chas. do Lesseps, who was' biafather'e right hand man and the Vice-President of the Panama Canal Company, took a leading part in the provincial meetings at which the prospects of the unmaking were puffed. It was at these meetings thab curiously opportune telerams would be handed up to the chairmaa containing aome intelligence, true or untrue to give investors confidence. Al. Eiffel he designer and buildor of the Eiffel Tower, has loSg been one of the, lead ing French engineers, and is accused of receiving 33 million franc ß for machinery Sen* was never delivered MManus heard his father's sentence. A Watkby Exhibition-. a water *ow»«>?s™> %%. ,„,»'.>«

swimming dress, bub felt pretty certain that he was dead. When ib further appears that the Earl's Court Captain Boyton is to give a preliminary advertisement of his show by walking on the Thames with his whole company from Chelsea to London ■Bridge, the resemblance is still more curious, and evidence of identity will be awaited with interest. However this may bo thore is no doubt aa to the smartness of Captain Paul Boyton. He was formerly in. the New Jersey Coastguard, butcame to Eng-

land with an indiarubberswimming dress, or rather floating dress. Ib was hollow, and the wearer could inflate it, and then lying on bho water propel himself by a paddle. He carried a fairly complete equipment, including a bag with ten days' provisions, a long knifo in case of sharks, a sail which he could hoist, a flag, a lantern, etc. In bhis dress he flo&tod from Westminster to Greenwich, and aFterwards from Dover to Calais. Much public interest was taken in bhe performance, and bho Captain afterwards exhibited hia dress at fobesin various parts of fcho country. A feature of the forthcoming show will bo ft Bort of water switchback, visitors having tho opportunity of descending seine realistic rapiaß from a height of 60 feet,

Chelsea has a magnificently housed free library, and the memory of one of its greatest residents has just been honoured by the unveiling there of a busb of Thomas Carlyle. The buat, which ia life-size, has been executed by Signor Raggi, who has based bis work upon the Embankment statue of Carlyle by the late Sir Edward Boehru. Iti is cut from a block ot white Carrara marble, without a blemish in the marbling, and ia a striking likeness of Carlyle. Beneath it are three bookn, cub in veined marble, with the titles of * Sartor Rosarue,' ' Past and Present,' and 'French Revolution,' the whole resting upon a pedestal of alabaster. The heighb of all ia about eight feet. At the opening coremony, Mr W. E. Leoky, the historian, and Mr Leonard Courtney, M.P., were among the company, and the Rector of Chelsea (tho Rev, Gerald Blunt) related some interesting reminiscences of the dead sage. The Rev. Gerald Blunt, into whose possession Carlyle'o horse eventually came, is of opinion that the horse helped in the writing of tho life of Frederick the Great. CarJyle used to rido out to think over the eternal book which so terribly tortured him. The horse had his own way, and frequently people would see him grazing at the side of the road with a striking figure sitting all unconscious on his back thinking about Frederick the Great. This was a habib which destroyed the horse's moral fibre. When the unbusinesslike beasb was at lasb given to the Vicar of Chelsea, it had been so spoiled by its treatment that it was quite unsuited to any useful work.