TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 42, 20 February 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

(FKOM OUR LONDON- CORRESPONDENT.)

London, New Year's Eve.

MR GL/IQSTONF. BEATS THE RECORD,

Mr, Gladstone, who is in robust health and looks quite ten years younger than Sir Uoorgo Grey, entered last Tuesday on his eighty-eighth year. The anniversary was celebrated with the customary rejoicings at Hawarden, and one need scarcely add ao'mo thousands of congratulations poured in from every quarter of the j;lobe. The 0.0.M. has now beaten the Prime Minister's record, having livfi to a greater age than any Premier of modern times. Lord Sidmouth (Mr Addington). and Earl Russell, lasted to 86, the Duke of Wellington reached 82, and Palmerston 81. Lord Beaconsfield died comparatively young ab 77. Despite sixty yoara of the most arduoua public life (1834-1894), including a ' baker's dozen 'as First Minister of the Crown, Mr Gladstone is still full of physical and intellectual activity. Wo read thab after going for their usual winter jaunt to Biarritz he and bis wifo meditate a tour on bhs Continent to certain treasure-houses of literature, whdVe some references he requires are to be looked up. The ' Daily News 'in the course of jubilations anenb Mr Gladstone's birthday points out thab he is nob by any means tho only notable English veteran; On the contrary, a great number of octogenarians, and some nonagenarians, can bo counted now in various spheres of activity. In the House of Lords, for instance, fehero is the Earl of Mansfield, who, ab bhe age of ninety, can claim to be the oldest peer of the realm. Lord Armstrong, founder of the greab firm sib Etswick, is still hale and hearty ab S6, though he is said to have been very weakly as ft child. The Duke of Northumberland i« 86. Lord Cranbrook, who, as Mr Gsbborne Hardy, ousted Mr| Gladstone, from his ssafc for Oxford University in 1863, and sonfc him ' unmuzzled 'to Lancashire, is 82. Lord Gwydyr is 86, Lord Btic'port, who hao been Lordin.Waiting bo the Queen, is 82, and Earl Fitzwillinm ia 81. Lord Esher, the Master of the Koils, who has been a judge for 28 years, is also 81. Some of these poers, however, are still young, beside Mr C. P. Villiers, the Father of the House of Commons, who is 94. Perhaps the next oldest member of the House of Commons is Sir John Mowbray, who is 81. Sir Isaac Holden who, like Mr Gladstone, retired from Parliamentary life ab the General Election, is 69 Sir George Grey, the 'Grand Old Man of New Zealnnd,' ia 84. Sir Thomas Acland, Mr Gladstone's contemporary at Oxford andlife-bngfriend, i-i 87 ;'Sir Henry Bessemer, the invontor of the steel raih that bear his name, is 83 ; Sir Jarnee Pageti the distinguished surgeon, ia

82 ; Mr Glaisher, the well-known meteorologist, ia 87 ; Dr. Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool, is 80 ; Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, ia 90, and Admiral Sir Henry Keppel. 87. Mr Gladstone's friend, Canon Carter, of Clewer, is a year older than Mr Gladstone, and equally vigorous ; bis powers of preaching bliow no falling off. Voltaire said that everybody wished to live long, and that nobody wished to be old. Somo of the. men named above have practically shown thab the thins may be dono. THE HOLIDAY AFTERMATH. To judge by tho number of caees of the ' drunk and disorderly ' kind settled at the variou3 police courts of the metropolis on Boxing Day and that cnauing, one must conclude thab either London is becoming eober or thab the guardians of the peace are learning to look more lotiiently on the failings of their fellow men at holiday times. Prom personal observation, I cannob say that I think there was any appreciable diminution in the tale of drunken men in the street during the i holiday jusb ended. Indeed, I don't think 11 over saw more obfuscated human beings ia the space of 12 hours than on Boxing Day. And on Christmas Day it was painfully evident to any one walking tbroagh tho London streets in any of the densely populated areas thab the fact that Sunday ■ houni are observed by the public houses did nob prevent wholesale drunker.ness. Yet the charge she6ta at the metropolitan police courts we.re very light for both days, lighter by far than they were last year. The aftermath of Chrlstm** Day was represented at Bow-Btrceb by thirty cases, ab North Lonuon by 16, at Worship-street by 35, ab Clerkenwell by 38 and a* Soubhwark by 49. At YVesb Ham tho polica had run in 52 persons, but ab Stratford the magistrate had only six cases to dispose of, whilst at Highgate two * drunks ' only wore dealt with. Neighbouring Haasp- , etead had a clear'; aheet. Oufc of about 300 cases disposed of on Boxing Day, , fuily 90 per cent, were simple drunks, and i the remainder wera for the mosfi part common assaults and petty thefts. In many cases tho magistrates were able to dismiss the evil doers with a caution, and in a very few instances were either imprisonment or remand deemed necessary. The aftermath of Boxing Day was, of course, heavier, bub still considering all things wonderfully light. The fact thab the day was wretchediy wet and cold had naturally an influence for bad. Thousands of working men who would have pafe ia the day ab the Crystal Palace or at one of the big loofcball matches were driven by the uoather into the 4 puba ' and stayed there (;i!i closing time. One of the Christmas charges ab Marl-borough-strees arising out of the effects of too much Bas3 or och6r liquor created a good deal of amusement. The prisoner, a young Swiss, was charged with impropriety towards a respectable West End householder's wife, bub the charge wo 3 nob upheld. Ib appears thab on Christmas morning Mr and Mrs Wilson returned from an overnighb function, refciriug to reafe at aboub four o'clock. They slept the sleep of the just till shortly after eight, when Mra Wilson awoke. As her eyes opened thoy lib upon a face upon the adjacent pillow which was nob thab of her husband, Dor of any person known to her. i For a momenb she judged herself to be the victim of an hallucination born : perhaps of much plum pudding and too 1 many minca pies. But hallucinations do not snore, and this particular intruder did. So with a shriek and shake Mrs Wilson wok 6 her hmband, who taking in the situation at a glance promply shot the interloper on to the floor and falling upon him punched out an explanation. This was not) ab all satisfactory to either busbar.d or wife, so dressing hastily the former bundled the intruded off to tho station. To the magistrate the Swiss explained that ha hadn't tho least nation aa to how he came to be in tTie homo of the Wilaoas. ' All that he knew was that he gob druuk at i the Rome Club, r;exb door, on Christmas ', Eve and came bo his senses to find himself being belaboured by Mr Wilson. The J magistrate took a lenient view of the foreigner's escapade and in view of the thrashing ho had already received let him go with a caution not to geb drunk again.

MR KHODH3.

Mr Cecil Rhodes' sarcastic reference to the 'unctuous rectitude of the British public 'iv hia speech at Cape Town drew forth a sharp rebuke from oven his own organ thero, and may cost him dear ab this side. So far from being hardly judged in England the ex-Premier of Cape Colony has again and again bsen given the benefit of eveiy doubt. Mr Chamberlain stood ud for him generously, the House of Commons reserved judgment, and he has only now to make out any fiorb of case for himself to escape tho consequences of his indiscretions (or worae) scot free. Tha inference Mr Rhodes' opponents draw from hia bitternoS3 is that he knows his caee to be a bad o?»e. I think also ho expected to redeem tho Jameson raid by his exploits in Rhodesia. Instead, however, of finding on arrival at Capetowu that the people viewed him as central hero of the campaign, he fouud he wa3 merely one of a group in which Sir Fredk. Carringcon, Mr Selous and others wero equal star*. Thia must have been a great disappointment, and would excuse much. The prognostications of the * knowalia' who foretold thab Dr. Jameson's officers who ware due for release on December 26bh would bo let out on Christmas Eva were not fulfilled, and bhe officers in question spent Christmas Day in gaol. They departed, however, aft 8 a.m. on Boxing Day, and ore now enjoying a good time in the bosoms of their families.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BROOKS,

Before finally dismis?ing Brooks, of Haleßworth, 'Labby' furnishes some farther facts—-four columns of them, in short —anonfi that; remarkable individual's genesis and adventures. With the latter I have already dealt fully, bub a word or two as tp the man's beginnings may be of interest. He is, as • Truth ' says, a human document of far more note than any of his books. Originally a Lancashire mill hand, Brooks was of far too pushful and self assertive a disposition to remain in that obacure position, and iv the fulness of time be became a Dissenting preacher and minister. He gob on so well in this line as to become pastor of a chapel in the West) End of London with an income of £300 a year. He then quarrelled with his congregation—conscientiously, it may huvo been, but in all human probability from the sheer force of his bumptiousness and vanity. Next be became a contributor to 'Truth,' distinguishing himself chiefly by gibbeting the failings of clergy and landlords. He wrote a fcruculenfe parnphleb under the suggestive pseudonym of 'Cassius' (who also ib will be remembered was suspected of 'ao itching palm ') denouncing Mr Balfour's Irish administration. I should think that no man ever was called so many names in the same space as Mr Balfour was called in this volume. Previously to this ' Cassius' had been to Midlothian as an agrarian agitator, and had obtained no less than £330 for his services in that capacity from a farmer named Russell. During his * Cassina' period Brooke also started a Mission Hall as a speculation of his own in South London, but it was not a! success, and his connection with iV landed him in the Bankruptcy Court. His liabilities were aboub £600, and his assets nil*—for his household furniture was protected from his creditors by a bill of pale. This wa y the low water mark of Brooke' career. Now mark how the tide turned. It was suddenly "borne in' upon Brooks (to uao one of his own conventional phrases) shortly after the time when ?, no emerged from the Bankruptcy Court that Radicalism was a. mislaks,

and thab a wise man would be bettor em* ployed in defending all existing institutions, more particularly the/ landlords, bha rights of property, the Acb of Union and the Established Church, than in attacking; them. He seems, like many others, to have found Liber&l-Unioniem a convenient stepping-stone, bufe, like the others, he did not rest upon it long, and with ft hop, skip, and a bound, ho was soon over on the other side. The results were mosb gratifying. Liberal-Unionism had only brought him £1S (the price of a pamphlet), bub Toryism; proved a gold mine, and I should Bay ha pretty well worked the mine out. H» began by appoaling to prominent Unioniatw (in the" capacity of a poor minister desirous of upholding the Constitution) for money to pay off his bill of Bale, and he quickly gob the auaounb required, with; aboub £80 to spare—£2l2 ab the first swoop. Doubblesß this coup revealed t<* him ab once the vast possibilities within, his reach. His furniture freed, hie liabilities discharged by bankruptcy and a balance of ready cash left in hand, he moved sbraigb.fr away to Halesworth, acd started in business as the man who had come to save society from Socialism. From this point the operations of Mr Brooks, which culminated in the famous £200 Government granfe, are familiar to you. Surprise ia expressed ia certain quarters that so many public «aea should have been so easily taken in. As a matter of facb, however, the victims were very carefully selected, nearly all being of the staunch old Tory school, to whom a Radical is pestilential beyond, words. Gentlemen like this readily (indeed eagerly) swallow any trash about political opponents. It ia a face Brooks of Halesworbh has even now good friends remaining who, despite all that came out in Court, persist in believing him the victim of a Radical conspiracy engineered by ' Labby ' to geb rid of an influential propagator of sound Tory doctrine. THE SIX BIGGEST WILLS IN 1896The liab of big wills proved in 1896 i* more interesting than edifying. At the top with personalty valued £L,932,2Q& stands a Booth—nob General Booth nor Mr Chas. Booth, author of the monumental work on tho London poor—bub Sir Chas. Booth, an eminent philanthropist! who (for the trifling consideration of a florin a bobble) provided the world with—gin. Yes, nearly two millions is feho legitimate profits yielded by countless ' goes' of * Booth's Unsweetened.' All the world knew the worthy distiller, nob personally perhaps, bub by his works and his trade mark. In tha slums yju may discover thousands of poor folk ignorant "of the anxiety felt: for their souls and their dwellings by General Booth and Mr Chas. Booth, bub ns'er a one incapable of appreciating • Booth's Old Tom.' It is the hot, atrong," sweet spirit of the lowly, and right royally do they consume ib. Two millions worth of quarterns of gin. Jusb think thereof. And you can geb a quartern for twopence. A quartern which boils in the chilly veins, comfort? the empty aching stomach, brightens the dreary outlook, Buggesta slight differences of opinion, and ends ia the seclusion a police cell grants, Ob, most beneficent of Booths ! Well may tha world (and the Chancellor of the Exchequer who takes £50,000 legacy duty) cry R.I.P. Second on the list I note another benefactor to Bacchus, Mr Shorbb, proprietor of several of the best known drinking bars in the metropolis. It was of hia Strand establishment that a lamented lion comique warbled a famous ditty rehearsing now he • Took her into Shortt's And stood her port by quarts.' These lavish libations on the parb of thasaid heroine and other thirsty souls did nob, however, yield Mr Sbortt a forfcnne equal to Sir Chas. Booth's. A paltry half million, indoed, was all he drew from 'wines froai the wood,' .. r .......... Mr Dor 6, the ladies' tailor of Bond-street, left £250,000. and Mr MacMillan, the; much respected publisher, £179,000. William Morris' poems and wall papers realised £55,000, and the sixth and lasti fortune oa my list) is Archbishop Benßon's £35,000. ELOPING WITH A PRINCESS. Tho elopement of the Princess Caraman Cnimay, a Belgian lady of great wealth, beauty and august lineage with a Hungarian gipsy musician named Rigo, has afforded Paris society a delicious morsel of full flavoured scandal. The affair eventuated come time ago, bufc, both Rico and tha Princess being married, the latter'a relatives kepb bbc story quiet till ib was seen if a divorce wa3 feasible. Apparently, the Pope and the Courts have both proved complaisant and the Princess now meditate! a legal union with her lover as soon aa formalities allow. The ' Standard's' Vienna correspondent! says thab tho Princeea spent Christmas Eva in the mud hut of her future parenbs-in-law in the suburb of Stuhlweissemburg. She has presented them wibh a pretty house and a field of several acres. On Friday gipsy bands serenaded her and her lover and refused payment, declaring that they did it out of respect for their comrade and his noble fiancee. The « Figaro' cays that Rigo resembles a barber's assisbanb with the disadvantage of having deep traces of ecoalipox on his countenance, and is a married man wiob two children. Soon, after ha came to Paris a Russian prince gave him the money to eefi up an orchestra of his own, and ib waß white he was leading this band in the Boulevard Restaurant thab the Princess took notice of him. No secret was made about the matter, and when Rigo's wifa began to object to his net coming home all reasonable hours, he said : ' You most go back to Hungary with your father, yont mother, and your brother, Go and live aft Parkesb with my parents. I will pay tha voyage and will send you 1,000 franca a month. Then when I have saved a tortuna through the generous giffcs of tha Princess, I will rejoin you and we will live quietly oa our income*' Mdme. Rigo agreed and departed, bufc returned later on to Paris, aa no 1,000 franc 3 a month were forthcoming. She broughb wibh her the mother of her faithless husband. The latter consented to receive his mother, and even introduced her bo the Princess, who invibed her to lunch, bub with his wife he would have nothing to do, and she finally lefb Paris broken-hearted. Meantime tha Tsigane used to perform every nighb ab the restaurant in his blue uniform. Tha Princess was always among the audience passing the evening and half the nigh* listening to her charmer's music and driving off with him ab the end of the concert. Finally the scandal became so outrageous that the proprietor of the restaurant told Rigo he must eibher give up his misbres3 or reaign. He resigned, and on her side the Princess abandoned her husband. This took place at the beginning of tho summer. One day a packet addreised to the Princess came to the hotel. She refused to take ib saying •1 am no longer a Princess. My name is Mdme. Rigo.'