LONDON LETTER.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4281, 19 April 1879, Page 3

LONDON LETTER.

fraaXH! CQKKJSPONDENT OF THB GLOBB.] LoTnaOF, February 27. Wβ lave commenced the season of Lent a&r circumstances that might fairly induce ipeitential frame of mind in even the oust jraperoos and worldly-minded. We sre still e&rk-g all the horrors of an almost Arctic votes. I understand that on your tide of fes globe you an endurirjg a rammei that ia rapticnally hot, and we are warned that we my expect the tame kind of weather here, ktiraitSl remain in aa attitude of mere ex. ftdaxxj, for the prophets tell as that what Htm fome through in the shape of cold i» aofeing to what is in store for us. I spoke of ta Arctic winter, and I did not enggsnt*, far during the three months *&& tbH, tod to-morrow we hare hardly enr tea toj taoshine. They hare at Green* *ai Ohmmtory, where, by the way, it is foalf compared to what we get in tka Mfioa from St. Paul's to Charing Cross, *a iagesioH* tmtraaient which regieters the ifflsmlef ftaalune, yet it has had almost aalHcg to do tinea last October, and in mapy *wb has only been at wort for a couple of tes»» Thick means that in London itself we in* fitter had a ray of sunlight. Then the 'Sale country was horror-striken a few assinp tisee by the news of the frightful &Mt« wbieh hid befallen our troops in the &1b WBBby, and which has thrown the Ameer ted! tie Afghan campaign completely * S» dade. 1% a nothing ehort of mar- \ rtioijf & lore for the army exists ffl tiii ewffiby. Hot only was the Gorem»e* mir««BT for its instant to stud out a strorg force for ti» defence of onr South African colonies ■*•&M t© BTecge the deaths of those who j*Mb«a swept away, but every departing ■W| ;pt solnten has been cheered to the *3»fey the crowds who haie gathered wbere of the reinforcements could be "■"SeL Twice indeed the crowd hare been ***»!$ went, but they hare filled the ®"*J» the chance of seeing the soldiers *-|»asg them a hearty farewell cheer, for Ketchways he is called by who is regarded with •"Steetteorn and derision. I wrote another distinguished serred in New Zealand during the Zr a passed away at an advanced to Sir Thomas Simeon Pratt, erred in the British army for eonl?***Jv- Jtore than half a century, baring §*?•» na&aiy career in Hollaed in 181*. I $ wZLrrf ** **id to bare been an officer IntSrpk experience. He obtained his glr*? , ' ™ serrices in your colony. jfefcZ"?**** l * of commercial interest hare during this month. At the y»**w tannal meetine of the share,^«..fta Sew Zealand Loan and Mer--7 Company it was reported that Jjlir* there was a satufactory increase capital for which «afe and deoontinued to be found in the oioni t , 1 New Zealand. It s^"?™* 6 dnriag Uie past year the conjJE?** o frasE, and other colonial «> w» evsipany bad be«n much v & n< T r {oT & c firet position amongst importers *(xde. It was agreed to com- **&.«" " Bd P»"deat ftaod, and * fifteen per cent diridend, although 1 thought that a larger * «»lSl!f P** ll them - shareholders Agricnltnral Company b*T© aod were congratulated inUjest which people m feel in anything reiating to luaatio aejlmn* and the asaw has been again du•t £r"*«njf the trial of an action whioh ilB *«»a, who was insane ni. is

still not altogether in hia right mind, brought agaiost the keepers of the institution in which he was for some time detuned. I should tell you that, in a recent session of Parliament, a special committee was appointed to inquire into the subject of the lunacy laws. They examined a number of witnesses, many of whom had been inmates of asylums at some period of their lires. Of course they made what were called "remarkable reyelations," bnt it was shown that, if these statements were sot wholly baseless, they were greatly exaggerated, and the real facts completely hidden on the complaining aide. So it was proved again, in this most recent case, in which the plaintiff, Mr Edward Wesley Nunn, who ia a magistrate for the county of Wexford and possessed of a considerable amount of landed property, sued the defendant, Dr. Fleming, the physician in charge of a private asylum at Fulham, for damages for an assault. His case was that, as long ago a* March, 1874, he escaped from the asylum, but was found by the gardener and wh«sn ( as a punishment for learing the house, he was seized by four or .fife men, etripped, and plunged into a bath, hi* head being repeatedly forced under tbe water. He admitted that about this time he was so insane that he swallowed his gold shirt studt, in the belief that they would core a pain in his stomach. His story about the bath scene was a marrellons one, but, as truth is stranger than fiction, it was excelled by an incident that was related by hie wife, who was called* as one of the witnesses for the defence. She stated that before he wae pat in the Fulham Asylum he was so mad that she was adrued to hare a keeper for him, but, not liking to do so, she need to sit all night on the mat at bis bedroom door and watch him, bat one night/ when it was very cold, she fell asleep. Her husband took advantage of this opportunity to jump from the bedroom window into the street. AH the clothing he had on was a white day shirt and a pair of socks, yet in this scanty attire he walked about the street* until be met two policemen. He told them where he lived, and they took him home, awakening hi* wife by their loud ringing of the street door bell. Long before the list of witnesses for the defence had been exhausted, the Lord Chief Baron who tried . the case suggested that it ought stopped, but in order more to please his erratic client than to satisfy his calm self, Mr Serjeant Parry fought it out to the end with the result that was foreseen two days befo c it arrived —viz., a verdict for the defendant. Of course inch a deeuion has aronsrd tbe ejmpathiee of that large olaee who, though not out of their minds, are still "cracked" on some particular matter. In my last letter I gave some of the life of Charles Peace, a most daring man, who after an utaparaTed career of seduction, \ burglary, and murder, has at length oonw to an end on the gallows. It is so extr&ordiaary a case that I think it worth a few more remarks. The murder for which he was convicted was that of Mr Dyson, a civil engineer who lived at Sheffield. Peace went one night to tbe house where the Dyson's lived, waited at the back until he (aw Mrs Djson, who screamed at the sight of hi* pistol. This scream brought oat Mr Dyson, who was shot dead on the spot. The murderer escaped, and the widow after the funeral went to the United State?, whence she returned to give evidence. This done she has returned to America, and by this time is in her new home again. At the trial Pease, who, throughout his imprisonment, had behaved in a yerj extraordinary manner, was defecdei by an able counsel, bnt his efforts to exoulpite his olient were in vain. He sought to damage Mrs Djson's reputation by showing that she had been in the habit of gadding about to fairs and public houses with Peace, and that she had arranged to meet V™ on the night when her husband was shot, but the jury seem to have disregarded this idea, and believed in the woman, who uncompelled had oroestd the Atlantic in the middle of winter to avenge her husband's death. Counsel also tried to make out that the firing of the fatal shot was an accidental matter during a strugg'e, but there was not Ling to support euch an hypothesis. He was condemned to death, and on Tuesday morning he was bung in Armley Gaol, n< ar Leeds. There is nothing heroic nowadays about an execution. The old Newgate calendar style of being hung in public was done away with years sgo, bet still reporters who could " do the descriptive" were allowed to be present at executions witkin the gaols.' Quite recently all the prisons in .England have become the property of the Government, and it is now Tery difficult, if not almost impossible, for a strange , to gain admission. Indeed quite recently a Government inspector had quite a qnairel with a turnkey who did not mow him. On this occasion, however, the rule was so far relaxed as to permit the presence r>f four reporters, two of whom Peace knew well by sight, as they have regularly attended all the courts in which he ha* been brought ttp. When he came into the prison yard ho walked up to c ecaffold, and when the ropti had been fixed round his neck, he made a epeech to these reporters, which they have printed in the newspapers. Within half an hour before he wrote a note to his wife, to whom he has sent a copy of a funeral card, whick he wiehed to be distributed. Having thus disposed of one criminal I will now proceed to write the last few lines which I shall have to send yon concerning a group of malefactors whose misdeeds have I occupied paragraphs in several former letters, .vis;.: the directors and manager of the City of Glasgow Bank. Shortly after the despatch of mj last letter they were all found guilty_ of the only charge* which the prosecution allowed to remain against them, viz , the preparation and issue of false balanoe- eheef c. It having been proved that Mr Lewis Pott :r, the director, and Mr Eobert Stronach, the manager, had taken the most active and direct part m this fraud, tfcey were sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. The other three directors, Messrs. Tajlor, Stewart, and Wright, who had only been parties t j tbe fraud which had been conoocted by the others, escaped with a lighter punishment, viz., eight months. In all theee eases the Judges took into consideration the fact that the prisoners had been in custody for four months. You may he surprised, ac moat people at home were, at what at first sight appears to be a very inadequate punishment for a great offence, but >h'« is a piece of good luck to the prisoners. To the public generally it seemed that the prisoners were guilty of robbing the shareholders and creditors of the bank of between five and six millions of money, but owing to the strict proof whioh the law required the Lord Advocate was, obliged to abandon, one after another, all the more serious charges, so that the highest punishment which could be awarded for the mil' demeanour that remained was two years' imprisonment. Yet the actual eentence which was pronounced produced something very like a howl of indignation from those who were quite rilling to consign the ex-directors to a long period of penal servitude. However their punishment is severe enough, however long it may be. Picture five men who as many months ago were in the full enjoyment of apparent prosperity being now in a prison picking oakum, or making mats, and then say whether justice has not overtaken them. Such is the fate of tie bank directors. Ihey have been having a merry time of it in the Divorce Court this month. Amongst the petitioners wse Mrs Spiers, the wife of the head of the firm of Spiers and Pond, who came from Australia some years ago, and set themselves up in business in London as refreshment contractors on a large scale, a bunness in which they have succeeded with great profit to themselves and still greater satisfaction to the public. Although they now employ some hundreds of young women in their bars, and during the time they have been in business many thousands must have gone into and left their employ, there has never been the slightest whisper of tcaadal concerning anyone of their numerous establishments. So it was with considerable surprise that the public learned last week that Mr and Mrs Spiers were " not happy in their domeatic relations"—which I believe." the polite way of saying that a man and hi« wife have quarrelled about the misconduct of the former. Mr Felix William Bpiers married his wife, Antoinette Emilie, at the Cathedral of St. Francis in Melbourne, in August, 1855. They remaiEed in Australia for several yeart, and both th«re and in this country, down to 1874, they lived on very affectionate terms, and have one son who is now of man's estate. Suddenly Mr Spiers confessed to his wife th»t he had formed an immoral acquaintance with » French woman isained Delapre, but bis wife forgave him on the condition, which he fulfilled, that he would send the woman back to France. However, within two years she wrote to him, and then returned to England, and of late has been living with him at an hotel in Norwood. Except for this matter Mrs Spierj had DOthing to complain of, and therefore an absolute drroroe was not obtainahle, nor did either of th* parties «cc« to

c»iire it, for a divorce decree could only pub the French woman in a superior position, so, as Mr Spiers did not deny what was only too patent, the Court made as order for a judicial separation. The Earl of Deeart has again had to parade his woea before an unadmiring public. In a recent letter I mentioned that he had petitioned for and obtained a divorce from bis wife, who had gone from bad to- worse £and beginning with extravagance had ended in guilt, ibis young Irish nobleman w&s the heir to a large estate, but his predecessors had so mortgaged and encumbered the property that it left him only about fifteen hundred a year to meet all hu expenses. Soon after her marriage Lady Deaart launched out into the usual, round of expenditure, or perhaps I should rather say credit, with milliners and modiste*, and her first lump of debt was paid ; by her husband and her fa*her. It was then arranged that she should be allowed two hundred and fifty pounds per annum for her personal expenses. Bat what could a lady of title do with less than five pounds a week for di ess ? O! course even a povertystricken countess could obtain credit from West-end tradesmen, who when the divorce came sued the husband for what she owed them. They lost their cases, and I am glad of it, for the unprincipled way in whioh such tradesmen gave credit has had much to do with the depression from which London trade is new suffering. But I am sorry for Lord Deiart, whose £1500 a year would keep a single man comfortably in Ireland, but will not support a married couple in the midst of tbe elite of London faebion. But it is not only on account of what is past that the Divorce Court is interesting. If all be true that I hear, or even if only part of it ia true, Sir James Hannan, the President of that Court is about to have a lively j lime of it. L%djr Goo3h has him to try her petitdoi for a divorce from Sir Francis, her husband, who, you will recollect, recently exposed her little deception about a baby. But there is a much better known woman coming before him as petitioner. I allude to Mrs Weldon, the wife of a gentleman holding a high position in the Civil Service. Some years ago, when M. Gounod, the compoeer of the worldfamous opera of "Faust," came to England to give concerts, she was his chief vocalist, and it was at her house in Taviet-ick equare that hie chorus singers were trai ied. binco then a portion of her house has been turned into an orphan asylum, while her husband has had to seek refuge elsewhere. She hae now filed a petition against him. Hβ has refrained from taking any proceedings against her, except that some {time ago he procured her admission into a lunatic asylum, from whioh she escaped, and sinoe then, when she has been lecturing on the injustice of the law of lunacy, she has been writing agiinat him and his friend, and behaving, to say the least, in a very provoking manner. One of her ideas is that her husb rod wants to get rid of her in order that he may marry a daughter of Sir Henry de Bathe, a young lady who is now only twenty years of age, while Mr Weldon must be nearly the age of her father. A weekly newspaper having espoused her cause, was incautious enough to publish a violent letter from her on this subject. This, of courae, Sir Henry could not submit to, for it contained serioua imputations against himself as well as his daughter. He has therefore commenced proceedings against the newspaper, so that between the prosecution and the divorce suit, we are likely to have the whole history "of Mrs Weldon unravelled, and a very interesting one I think it will prove to be. "Can you wonder when trade is so bad ?" is the refrain of a popular song which hae been addressed to the audiences at all the theatres which produced a pantomime laet Christmas. Mr Chatterton, the lessee of Drury Lane Theatre, a house which many in New Zealand must know well and remember as the most prosperous "house" in London, has had to appeal to his employes in the same words. Trade has been bad, and for a long time past, and this fact, ceupled with the equally patent one that the competition by tbe neighboring theatre in Covent Garden has tbis winter been severer than ever, has told on the Drury lane exchequer. The consequence was that early in this preient month, and long before the ordinary run of the pantomime should have ceased, Mr Chatterton was obliged to call a meeting on the stage, and ask those in his employ to accept much smaller ealarei than he lai agreed to pay them for the season. Half a loaf is proverbially admitted to be better than no bread, and most of those employed in the theatre had, at that particular time, when there was no chance of employment at otV.er houses, no other option than to accept the manager's terms. Bub Mr Clown stood out, and bo did Mr and tho Misses Yokes, a very clever family, who have helped to keep up the fortunes of old Drury for saveral years. They jdeclined to take less than their full pay, and as the performance could not go on without them, Mr Chatterton at once posted a bill outside to pay that the theatre was closed till further notice. Next week he presented a petition to the Court of Bankruptcy, and he has failed for a stiff sum. He is the author of a saying that to a London manager Shakespeare meant bankruptcy ; but he has shown that sensation plays can bring about the same result, while, at tbe bottom of the came shed, at the Lyceum Theatre, Mr Henry Irving 13 not only filling the house with enthusiastic admirers of his marvellous impersonation of Hamlet, but actually turning away large numbers almost every night.