LONDON GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVL, Issue 166, 13 July 1895, Page 4 (Supplement)

LONDON GOSSIP.

(FROM OUR; SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

Lon don, May 24,

■."vV,'/a-: -Wilde Tkial. < The second Wilde brial is drawing bo a close aa I write, and a strong impression -' -prevails that the accused will be acquitted. • The present judge is .even more favourable ■ to Oscar than hia predecessor, ruling oub the evidence of all accomplices and (to the - dismay of the Crown) including Edward ; Shelley amortgab bhe labter. Wilde, who looks dreadfully ill, has been sbaying with his mother, Lady Wilde. He saw his wife for half an hour on Saturday and she / forgave him. He has bold everyone that if convicted he means to take poison, and the story goes that bhe smelling salts he pretends to use in Courb contain a deadly ~potion. .Tbab, of course, ia nonsense. '"One cannob suppose the authorities will _~ba|£uibe' such fools as to neglect a lev/ obvious precautions. A Brawl in Bond-street. * "A 'free and eoay scrap' is by no means an uncommon sigbb in the neighbourhood r"of Piccadilly about the hour of Benjamin '•■ Binns' walks abroad. On Tuesday afternoon, however, this aristocratic quarter -was greatly excited by the spectacle of a more or less noble marquis indulging in a V * turh-up' with his more or loss ijoble son. V The fracas arose in this way. Tho Marquis A of Queen-berry was strolling up Piccadilly when- he meb Lord Douglas pf Hawick. ' The pair have been on very bad berms for ...many years,'arid the o=car W"!de business ■**' has strained the relations between them to . V snapping point. The moment they mob, - some choice language was thrown out by 'both, a crowd instanbly gathered, and the ■ Marquis took the opporiuniby to public'y -t disown hia eon. As tho crowd thickened the '..Marquis commenced a speech which he in''iterplated wibh scorntui gestures at Lord ' -C- Douglas", who suddenly made some remark .which completely desbroyed the smali rem- ' f nanb of Queenaberry's self-conbrol. Stepi -; ping up to hia son, the Marquis planted a ■ hob left-hander on Lord Douglas's nasal * organ. Hawick counb6red ineffectually, and Fa furious scrummage ensued. A consbabie 'interrupted and separated the combatants, - bub; in spite of his gcud-natnred advice. '• they had another bri.f round a fow yarJa I" further on. Again P.C. 32 infcervoned, bub

; the belligerents retired to Bend-street, and ,< there commenced round three and last. ?.■ P. C. 32 then adopted stronger measures, ":■■■■■■.: and with the assistance of other members A- of the force, arrested the Marquis'and his ' son, and carted both oG; to Vino-street— •"•Lord Douglas woaring a black ev/e, a«id the '.Marquis a very flushed visage/ and a most \ F disreputable hat. Naxb day the pair were ■:• placed.in the dock uod charged with dia--0 orderly conduct. Mr Hanyiay, the raagisly trate, bound them over yo keep the peace ; for six months under pain of forfeiting I - £500 apiece. When tho Marqui3 lefcthe ; ■ Court he received -/quite an. ovation, 0 i but Lord Qouglas was/made the object of a F. very unpleasant demonstration. But for 1 ■ the police at hand ihe young man would s * probably have ■ received personal damages F-. greater than thopa inflicted upon him by f his irate sire. Iw Court, P. C. 32 said that F ihe heard the M&rqiiia express his willing- • ness to fighb'his son for; £10,000 whenever .-.; t- '?and wherever/the young man liked. Tho :■•; r old man was/smart with the gloves in his • 'palmy days;-and can still use hiß .fi-ts F with force/nd precision; which fact Lord ■■:*!■ Douglas discovered on Tuesday. I ' 'Let lawa4nd learning, art and commerce die, But give'us still our old nobdlity!' '■■'/■■•.Sir Rogers. Last. .The confession of .that obese impostor the . Claimant that hia is indeod Arthur Ortpn, .FFma^es excellenb newspaper 'jpopy,' , bat 0 from any other point of -view is; peirfecbly valueless. The. man taikes affidavits as cheerfully * and indi&erei-fcly as average ' /individuals take a glass Of sherry.' In the / pasb: few years this *x - convicb haa F posed as ' Sir Roger,' as /Sir' Roger's baa- ['. tard brother, aa Lady Tichborne's natural . eon, and. finally a. O'rton. He wove beautiful stories to acco unb for each of . .',/' these: assumptions, announcing every "':'-'.-'.---_ime.''.V';tbab;..-''he had I ab last made , ■■'■'', up, * bia mipd to f tell the truth, '. j_be.vwi-ole truth,' and /nothing bub the .:"".'■'i'truth." The worthy fellow's labesb spasm of X' veracity, seems to have / been stimulated by < / proposals from the enterprising editor of a '/, penny.weekly, who may be safely lefb to fill Flip any awkward nook a and crannies in the / I narrative. The opening chapter reads like ■ -very ancient history, in facb I should say '■;.:'"'_'the Ciaimanb (now, by ehe way, no longer ' the claimant) ; has / been refreshing hia with Sir t/ohn Colerjdge's state.F Imenb aneub'Arthvir Orton's conversion ') •■ ; into Thomas Castro,. •,' The temporary lipasm of interest which > , this "burlesque /confession of a truth proved by/ law has created, re- •? minds us of the rush there was to 1 1 get a glimpse of Sir Roger during the last days of the trial,' The crush of barristers, etc., was then/so greab in Westminster ; Hall that'a strong barrier bad to be put up, ./and behind ib/a dense crowd rocked and swayed, fightifJg for front rows and hoarsely v ' ... cheering the fab impostor as he waddled to • and from hi« brougham. The courts at • Westminster'are now pulled down, bub ii'-f anyone who/ examines the Btone floor jusb •where the old entrance used to be, can see 'holes drill/ad into the flags to supporb the .. , barriers. ./In another thirty years thoy may •~-v all be forgotten, and centuries hence, if the ii. old building should still stand, antiquarians i■'"/ may be puzzled to accounb for them. Ib is ■)■ etrange/ihat this Wapping butcher should I , have left his Indelible mark in the banquet-; '_~'.;, ing ball of William Rafuß. r ;,'F The Mashing of Majoribanks. • •, Tbe mosb sensational theatrical breach of :\0", promise case,which a virtuous public have {F been privileged to en joys since Miss ForbesOP'aai mulcted Lord Garmoyle (as he was ,y. ? then) ot £10,000 damages, will be heard— \r- uiless a compromise' is arrived at—very Shortly. The plaintiff is Miss * Birdie' lutherlahd (in common life Annie Watkins), j /one of the band of sweeb girl choristers who ' /are 'things of beaintyand joys for ever' on "' Fthe Gaiety stage. .Birdie's charms somei/ time ago 'mashed' the susceptible heart of .*. the Hon. Dudley Majoribanks, son of the / '~. late Liberal whip and presenb Lord Tweed- | moubb. The lad.waa nob then of agft, •0 but a thoroughly upright, honourable ■P young fellow., The idea of suggesting a I Gaiety marriage, which consists in nvany cases in a suburban villa and a private brougham, to his Birdie did nob occur to him ; nor is there the slightest ground for supposing thab such- a- proposition would not have been.' ■"" treatod with scorn and indignation by Miss Sutherland. He - proposed in due - form, and in ~ order bhab there should be no mistake about 7- it, Miss Sutherland's friends slipped notices of the engagement into the ' society! 'journals. Lord Tweedmouth promptly contradicted the .announcement and took f his lovesick offspring in hand. There are two ways of operating on an unsuitable F amour. One is to oppose it, which increases the victims' paßsion and makes them .ji obstinate. The other is to render them -0i conscious of their own folly by seemingly /giving way. The latter was the mode ' Lord Cairns adopted .with Lord Garmoyle and Mies ForteßCue. The young F lady went to stop with her fiancee's familyin Scotland.^ They were very grim, very : t-seripua, very religious people. Lady Cairpis Ps: bdred M iss Fortescue :(a brigh b, clever srivl) :,.' to extinction, and out'.;pf pure mischief ,the revelled in shocking the old Scotchwoman. Garmoyle was devoted to his '%' mother, and from thatmoment he wr^djs/.enchanted. So. too, had he but known it, *>'■ was Miss Fortescue. He jilted ber, bub J- bad he delayed a week longer, she would -(.-.(■ .■- ■ ■ - ■'...'.; '■■/. ■oy -P---V P7pp::pMp77oloOP: oy/iy

have thrown him over. 'Twas Mr W. S. Gilberb'insisbed on- Miss Forbescue suing Garmoyle fpr breach of promise. He pointed oub her character would suffer if she. didn't, and he was unquestionably; righb" The mode Lord Tweedmouth adopted to bring Hon. Dudley Majoribanks to reason has not transpired, but apparently it was entirely successful.F-.Miss' 'Birdie' institutes proceedings for breach on the same high grounds as Misa Fortescue did, and leb ua hope she may achieve an equally cohspicuoua advertisement. Damages ore claimed bub the amounb left to bhe jury. ■.■ "" Jabez Balfoue. Mr Jabez Kalfoar has been committed to take his trial ab bhe June sessions of bhe Cenfcr.il Criminal Courb, when ib Boems probable! he may give bhe Crown a good deal of trouble to secure a conviction. His acnbe comprehension of the enormously involved details of the Liberator business was apparenb during the police proceedings at Bow-Bbreeb, and bhe manner in which he prompted his ferreb-like looking counsel (Mr John O'Connor, M.P.), whom he addressed as * John,' excibed the lawyer's admiration. He was ready, and yet full of tact. The 'Rsalm' notes that one resulb of the Balfour scandals will probably be the extinction of bhe name of I * Jabez,' which, till recently, was enorI moa sly popular amongsb Nonconformists in the "north of England. Nob one intanb ia -so christened now for bwenty who gob bhe name before. Anobher reporter commenting on Balfour's coolness and urbanity in the dock, as well aa on the I shrewdness with which he manages to score every possible point, giyes an instance of the former. The other day a gentleman seated near the dock reading an evening paper, waa startlod to find a fat hand on his'shoulder, • Excuse me, my dear sir.' blandly whispered the prisoner, ' but hew many haa Grace made ? Itmust be a mosb inberesbing match.' Tha reader soughb out the intelligence, and replied, and when Jabez heard thab I the ch?.mpion had jusb completed hia hundredbh cenbury, he murmured aoftly, 'Good old W.G.'*. , Lord Connemaea Again. ; Society is wondering whether 'bwaß thvyugh a blunder Lord Connemara was permitted to accompany his new wife to Court lasb week, and bo make his bow in person. Such an incidenb as a divorced man presenting himself ab one of bhese functibna has never before been known, and Lord Connemara'a caae, you will remember, waa a particularly bad one. Nob eontenb with trying to bounce his wife oub of her resolve to expose him, he basely accused, her of misdemeanour wibh her medical man, Dr- Briggs. The ebory of how bhe latber risked ; his career bo face bbc charge (which was wibhdrawn in court),and suffered in conaequonce at the hands of bho military aubhoribies, has been told ogam and again in bhe B mse of Commons. Lord Connemara possesses a most fascinating personaliby, and has always been a, greab favourite wibh the Royal Family, moro especially* the Duke of Cambridge. Tho latter, there can, I fear, be small doubt, used his influence to pull hia friend out of the Divorce Court, and was furious with Briggs for baulking him. I cannot, however, credib that Her Majesty meana to overlook Lord Connemara'a offence against society. 4 The Red Duke.' The firsb bime I ever saw bhe late Duke of Hamilton was in bhe year 1868, when as a lad of 15 I was reading with "a'tutor in Scotland and we sponb bbc summer ab Lamlasb, on bhe isle of Arran, nob many ■ miles from His Grace's . picturesquelyoituated castle of Brodick. The Island of Arran belonged in ioto to the Duke, and his photographs were in every shop window. Wb saw him, too, when with a rollicking party of kindred spirits, including the Duke of Newcastle and Mr Chaplin, ho cams* toßrodiclr for .bbc- grouse-ehootingi: The premier peer of Scotland was bhen jusb 23, and one of the .'handsomest, men of his time, a veritable young Appllo, To my boyish imagination, he seemed the ideal reckless hero of romance, capable of any mad escapade or deed of daring. The island teemed with stories of his extravagance, his losses on bhe burf and hia worship of a divinity of, the fooblights. Two or* three more such years aa had followed his coming of age and the head ot the Douglases would, withoub doubb, be 'stone- broke. 'Thab was bhe opinion of bhe solemn Calvinist islanders, who shook their heads over the prodigal and predicted bia eternal damnation, though they were devoted to him and would have one. and all followed him to the gates of hell had he but lifted up his little finger. As a matter of fact, the Duke of Hamilbon did (one learnt years afterwards) sow perhaps bhe thumb' crop of wild oats of the renowned Hastings era. He entered the turf arena in 1866, wheniheplungingMarquißwasathisaenibh, and his achievements in the bettiug ring goon rivalled those of that nobleman. He had nob, however, the gifts of Lord Hastings, who—as I have often told you—was one of the best judges of a handicap ever known, and took moro out of the ring than tbe ring ever took oub of /bim. Cards and dice were really his ruin.... But bhe Duke of Hamilbon had in hi_ salat days no understanding of tho turf, /and lost pots of money at every meeting h/i abtended. One of his early efforts ab watering was a bet of 180,000 bo 6,000 which, in a fib of temper, he laid Capbain MachelA againsb Hermib for bhe Derby. As bhe horse bhen stood ab aboub 15 bo 1 for the race in question, there did nob seem any /valid reason why His Grace should bender double bhe odds againsb him. Mutual frieinds consequently intervened, and the hob was scrabched. Laber, after Hermib ;,venb bo pieces and gob knocked oub, the Duke loudly lamented the £6,000, * which'—he remarked on comparing day—.* would just have squared my book nicely!.' .Even ris things were, . his prejudice againsb Hermib cosb him dear jusb aa Sir John/ Astley's did. 'Twas said, indeed, after the race, the two palest men on bhe/courae were ' the Mate ' and the •Red ,Duke.' Bobh men had all bub Tosb fortunes over ib juab aa Lord" Hastings actually losb one. The besb horse the Duke of Hamilbon bvfjr owned was Wild Oabs, who wibh good luck would have swepb the board in 1869. He was backed for .he Derby as though defeat. were out of the question. John Corlebb recalls bis sensational career as follows :— Wild Oabs was bred by Lord Dorchester, and was one of the mosb highly-bried bwo-year-olds Matthew Dawson ever had. Sbepheneon made & huge book for him on bhe Derby, and the late Duke of Newcastle, who waa associated with Hia Grace, played the high boby game of laying againsb everybhing else, and backing bim wibh bhe money. To bhe conßbernabion of all concerned, bhe debut of bhe horse in the Middle fark Plate was moat inglorious. Matb Dawson, ib waa even said, wenb home and wenb to bed,where tbe two Dukes found him. He insisted that no mistake had been made, and thab if he could nob beab Leonie at 121b he would nob brain anobher horse. Tho.Duke of Newcastle poob-poohed this, as Leonie was a three-year-old who had just carried Ssb 71b into second place for the Great Eastern Handicap, which was then a great race. The horse was baken oub the following morning by the Duke of Newcastle, and when Wild Oabs did all thab was asked of him and won, the Duke rode straighb off bo Heabh Houbo bo apologise to Matt Dawson for any doubts thab he mighb have expresßed. There was, indeed, no misbake, ne was quickly seen, when in bhe Prendergaab Wild Oats beat Morna, who had won the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, lowering the colours of Great Belladrum by half a score lengths. In hie nexb essay be ran a dead heat with Pero Gomez, after the longest and most punishing contest we ever saw between two bwo-year-olde, one seeming bo carry bhe obher ab thefiDisb.

In the spring of the following year, when the Duke of Hamilton landed from a yachbing crhiae ab Marsailles on his way bo Newmarkeb ,to see bhe Two Thousand run for, he received, a telegram ifrom;bhe Duke of Newcastle saying bhab bbc horse's legs had ! given way. Wild Oabs never ran again. One fine morning aboub bhis time the Duke discovered he was ruined. He had spenb every farthing he could raise or mortgage.and sold himself body and soul to the notorious Padwick. Twas then the late Sir J. T. Mackenzie came to bhe rescue with bhe great discovery ■ which seb bhe Duke on hia legs again. He found a fabal flaw in bhe entail of the Hamilton properties, so thab inßbead of being a tenanb for life merely, the Duke, became absolute owner. In shorb, he was again a very wealthy man. People expected His_ Grace would spend bhe second fortune like tho firsb, bub ha did nothing of the sort. The famous Hamilbon house collection of pictures were dispersed to satisfy Padwick'a claims, and then His Grace, as bhe French say, ranged himself and settled down bo decenb commonplace. The Duke always kept a fair string of horse* in training, bub he Mb off betting, and in the eighties when he won the One Thousand and Oaks with Miss Jummy and the Leger with Oftsian.be landed bub moderate stakes. I last saw bho premier peer of Scotland ab Newmarkeb a year or bwo ago. He had grown burly and gouby, bhe golden curls of three-and-twenty had turned a dull red.and tho pink and white .complexion grown a weather-tanned brown. Bub bhe merry blue eyes, the cheery laugh and the buoyant manner, were noticeable aa of old. , a John Corletb,-. referring to the Hamilton House sale which raised a great cackle at tbo time, says, 'There was a debt of half a million on bhe estate when the Duke came into it, and which had been increased bo nearly a million, and there was nearly a million's worth of treasures locked up at Hamilton Palace.thab no one ever saw. Why, bherefore, pay aboub £30,000 per annum for keeping tilings from which libtle pleasure was derivod ? To the horror of the exquisites the sale took place ; people'went mad in buying, and the estate was freed from debt. Gradually things thab had been sold came back into the markeb, and he boughb bhem, in many casas, for less than half of whab they had fetched ab the sale. Ib is well known thab he mighb have had a million sterling for the Island of Arran had he cared bo see bhe grand beau by of bhab island desbroyed by builders. For some time pasb there has nob been a more popular name in the peerage than his. Ho had not a selfish thoughb in him, and he waa worbhy of hia high posibion as chief of the House of Douglaß and premier peer of Scotland.' The new Duke of Hamilbon, Mr A. Douglas-Hamilbon, is a son of a younger son of the eleventh Duke, and quibe unknown. The Bamboozling of Au Sin. John Chinaman seems an unwelcome guest all bhe world over. In cerbain lands which shall be nameless, he is habed because of his habibs, which are mainly unclean, bub which include industry and thrift. In India, however, John seldom toils.for he has found a much easier method of amassing wealth. Bub ehe authorities do nob approve his mebhod, and conseqnenbly whenever a Chinaman pitches hie tenb in bho Empire,the police authorities of the particular locale selected have a fresh burden thrown on them. Quite, recently an expatriated subject of the Brother of the Sun settled in the Burra Bazaar. Ah Sin had no visible means of subsistence, but he grew fab and prosperous looking, so bhe local police inspector knew that he ran a gaming table. The inspector therefore often drooped in upon Ah Sin, but only to find John entertaining a ' piecy flew Sens to din'l partly.' And the mosb unceremonious investigations on suq'h occasions failed to provide Mr Inspector wibh sufficient evidence to. justify Ah .Bin's arrest, lb became clear bo the officer that Ah Sin had established a chain of telegraphists twixb bazaar and police station, and he puzzled his brains for a mfjans of circumventing tho wily celestial. Finally he decided upon a funeral, allotting bo himself tbe role of corpse, and to four native policemen from a far-distant station the duty of boarera. The melancholy cortege duly wended its way via bho Burra Bazaar unnoticed by Ah Sin's employees, bub bhe momenb Ah Sin's door waa reached bhe corpso threw off its white covering sheet, jumped from the cbarpoy and shot up Ah Sin's stairway, closely followed •by the bearers. In result bhe inspector became Mr Superintendent and Ah Sin is recruibing in bhe Adamans. Concerning Taxation. • M. Ribob, bhe French Minister of Finance, has an uncomfortably large deficit in the national exchequer to fill up by some meana or obher, and is casting aboub for fresh subjects bo tax. He has decided bo impose a duby on servants and on certain other luxuries, but is still unable to make both ends meet. The Paris 'Figaro ' jeers at the untortunato minister, and makes mock of his efforts to find new sources of revenue in an amusing imaginary interview between M. Ribob and his secrebary. The Finance Minisber reproaches his working partner for nob being sufficiently diligent in finding new subjects for taxation, and adds severely that the Office is expected bo invenb ab leasb ono new imposb per diem. Thab morning, however, M. Ribob bas quite a rush of brilliant ideas. Ib occurs bo him bhab since masters are baxed for keeping domestic servants, ib is but jusb that servants should be mulcted for having masters. The idea is forthwith adopted. Nexb, M. Ribob comes bo bhe:-" conclusion bhat- ib is a positive anacbronism bhat bhe followers of gentle Isaac should be allowed to disporb themeelves wibhoub being baxed at all, and straightway a duty is imposed on rods ahd lines. Finally, ib is discovered bhab for three hundred years the peasants have consumed their Sunday dinner duty free. ' Clap a tax on to the " pot an' fen,"' cries M. Ribob, ' and that will serve for one day's work.' The skib is amusing—bhe more so because an elemenb of truth underlies ib. France is positively-groaning under bhe load of taxation, national and municipal, and whilsb bhe national expenditure increases steadily with every succeeding year there is no corresponding increase in the national revenue arising from the people's industry. Whatever 'development of resources' has taken place durinc the paßt few years has been i more than balanced by the extremely low prices obtained for goods exported. In America, also,- they have a ' taxation pother,' bub ib has arisen from very differenb causes. A Bill imposing a tax of two per cenb. on incomes over 4,000 dollars was passed in August lasb, without the approval ot the President, and mainly by the efforts of the Democratic party, the Republicans mostly abstaining from voting. Now a majoriby bf bhe judges of the Supreme Courb of the United States has pronounced this Income Tax unconstitutional, and thia decision makes ib impossible to impose an income tax in the States withoub all bhe labour and time involved in passing an amendment to the Constitution. The tax was estimated bo produce 30,000,000 dollars ■a year, and tho Finance Minister will have to recoup this loss by other impositions. The millionaires have escaped (for a time at all evenbs) ab the.expense of the people generally. No wonder that one of the Opposition judges was moved to exclaim bhab bbc rejection of bhe Bill was 'a wicked assault on bhe righbs of bhe people.'