LONDON LETTER.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 6905, 10 November 1887, Page 5

LONDON LETTER.

[FROM OCR SPKCLAi CORRESPONDENT. ]

LONDON, September 23,

Parliament was prorogued ou the ltith, axjd everybody.is rejoiced. Humanitarians were becoming depressed, looking forward to the steady breakdown of brain and nerve in our representatives under the prolonged strain; while those who had no tender .regards forthoM.P"s as individuals were -growing sick of reading, of the wrangles at Westminster in each morninjr paper. The Queen's speech will, of course, have been in the possession of your readers six weeks before this letter readies j you, and they will have noted that.j although so much time and energy has' been given over to party lighting yet that a goodly quantity of useful legislation has been enacted, for example the Coal Mines Act, the Trademarks Acts a»d the Truck Act. The welcome announcement hasalso i been made by Mr W. H. Smith, that the Government will consider it their duty next session to propose to the House of Commons the adoption of rules "for the regulation of its proceedings, to put an end to the excessively late and protracted sitings which have exhausted the members and the officers of the House during the session now brought to a close." How necessary such rules are, may be judged by the fact that during the past session the sittings have averaged nine hours and .five minutes. As the prorogation ap.proached the strain on members became heavier and heavier, and during the first half of September there were six nights on which the adjournment took place after three in the morning, the mean average time of going home being 4.20 a.m.

In consequence of the prorogation, London is even emptier than when I last wrote. Everybody is away, either shootiniz or taking a last and somewhat chilly dip in the briny, or besporting themselves on the .Riviera, which district in the matter of visitors seems to have suffered less than was anticipated, by the earthquakes of the early part of the year. But though the Metropolis has beSn quiet enough, there has been an unusual number of sensational items in the daily papers. First there was the collision between the police and the Nationalistsat Michelsto wn, tnen came the dreadful fire in the theatre at Exeter, then the terrible railway accident at Doncaster, and lastly the wrecking of the Lillie Bridge Racing; Grounds by a mob infuriated at 1 being "sold' over a pedestrian affair. Abroad the Comte de Paris' manifesto to the "representatives of the Monarchical party in France " has created some excitement, though the sinallness of its practical value may be gauged by fhe fact that the,interest at first taken in it was in a few days eclipsed by a newspaper discussion on the character of the First Napoleon—a discussion' raised by the publication of M. Tainc's pamphlet on the subject. Then the Bulgarian question suddenly acquired new and acute symptoms by reason of an attack made by the Bulgaria, a paper brought out at Rustchuk, reflecting ou the character of the German Consul at that town. Germany immediately demanded from the Porte leave, to take three, ironclads into Bulgarian waters. This soon brought the young State to fts senses, and an ample apology having been made, with a promise that the paper should be suppressed, and the editor prosecuted, the incident closed. A more pleasant foreign incident has been the, enthusiastic reception of .the British fleet by the Austrians at Trieste. The annual return of the British army has just been issued. Counting the regular arm? with its reserves and the volunteers aud* auxiliary forces, and excluding the native army of India, our forces number 622,000 men." This is certainly not a despicable army, but, on the other hand, it is a fact that'neither in England or India could we place as-much as three army corps in the field altogether on anemer. gencv. In the regular army there arc aiO.OOO men, to which, must be, added a Firs.t-class Army Reserve, consisting entirely of men who have been trained as soldiers, of 47,000, and a Militia Reserve of more than 30,000. Besides this there is a Second class Army Reserve of upwards of 5000 men. So that our force of trained soldiers numbers at the present juncture 292,000. The Militia, less the Militia Reserve noted above, number 5)2,000, the Yeomanry 11,000, and the Volunteers 227,000. As to the localities in which our Regulars were serving on the Ist of last January, there were at Home 102,000, in India or on passage to and fro 7*1,000, in Egypt 9000, and in the colonies something short of 25,000. But when we come to look at the composition of the-above forces it is soon very evident that it is somewhat of a paper army. The Field Artillery is lamentably deficient, and incase of invasion enough could only be provided to equip a force of 70,000 men out of the 450,000 which ostensibly are available here to repel an invader. All this is very unsatisfactory, and the sooner things are put .on a sounder footing the better. This, however, will never happen if the Government of the day has nofc the pluck to ask from Parliament the necessary funds. The material of pur army is excellent, and the service is becoming more popular every day—this the report clearly demonstrates. But the best soldiers are useless without a proper quoti-of artillery. Still it would appear that nothing short of a national disaster will open the nation at large to the absolute necessity of keeping every branch, of the service well up to the mark. In my last letter I. drew attention to the chances of English trade in China as compared with the trade prospects of the French in that quarter. But since fche despatch of that letter a new factor in the problem has suddenly appeared, which bids fair to upset the most elaborate calculations, the said factor being an invasion of China by American capitalists. That the moment is singularly propitious for this attempt there can be nodoubt.for.it is very certain that the Chinese Imperial Treasury is much in want of hard cash, and, in fact, only last week a loan of over £500,000 had to be obtained from a French Syndicate for carrying on the Imperial household. Besides has not the Emperor's marriage had to be, postponed, owing to the impoverished condition of his exchequer? Count Mitkiewicz, a Russian by birth and a naturalised; American, is the leading character in the ; negotiations between China and the j American firm who have undertaken to . supply the needful. The latter are backed j up by some of the largest capitalists of. the I Republic, and their proposals are favored by the Marquis Tseng, and what is called the "Party of Progress." A correspondent to the Standard summarises thej scheme, and I quote a part of his letter as j stowing the extraordinary concessions ' that are proposed to be jrranted. Should tlie negotiations indeed be carried to com-1 pleticn there can be no doubt that English | trade influence in China will be scotched,' if not kilted. Bnt there is many a " slip 'twixt cup and lip," and possibly; the Chinese Government may in the event refuse to hand itself over so completely to American financiers. The quotation runs as follows:—! " A loan of two and a half million taels, or over half a million pounds, at 3 per cent., has already been advanced by the syndicate to the Imperial Board of Telegraphs ; the syndicate to supply all the materials, and to fix up a new long-distance telephone between the principal open ports. In addition to this, another loan of a ! million taels, or £200,000, has been advanced to the Viceroy for some purpose not made public, and for convenience called 'special purposes.' These are the £oncessiou3 so far definitely settled; but I these following, or tentative propositions, I and by far the most important, are—first, the establishment of .what is called in the negotiations a ' National and International! Amalgamated Bank, , under Imperial] charter, and supplied by American- J Chinese capital of the stupendous sum .mentioned, mostly, however, American money. This institution is to have peculiar and.exclusive rights, monopolies, and various other like considerations from the Imperial Government. It is agreed and 'covenanted that it will supply, manage, and control the entire finances of the 'imperial and Provincial Governments, collect and disburse the .entire Imperial Treasnry funds, provide the sinews of war for all such measures of Government as the building, construction and maintenance of forts, fleet;?, arsenals, navies, .guns, railways, telegraphs, canals, &c, throughout the empire. It will provide for the army, drainage, river improvements, and, to put It briefly, everything lor which the Government pf such a I country as China requires money. The 13Sank will have the exclusive right to coin 'all ..moneys and issue notes; and. itis intended, as a .preliminary step to these .astounding operations, tfcafc tltfs ipstitntion will , establish branches in every !'Chinese city of importance, as well as iv 1-$$. many ctfiea la the dfcfcer tmx cqnfcl-

ncnts with which China has diplomatic or conunercial relations. London, Paris, _\ew lork and Philadelphia are to be the enie£ • foreign centres." In short, its operations are to be endless." This is a programme with a vengeance ! The population of China has been reckoned by some km ? 10re tuau the population oilndia, wnilo others estimate it as twice as large. Hut whichever view may be taken as correct, the idea of "putting up and doiujr tor, as .the lodging-house keepers say— sucu a. mass of humanity is stupendous in iv its audacity. Lord Brassey has been pouring; out his . SOul to The 2'twu'S on tho subject of our Australian naval defences. It has always been the function of his Lordship to bo at ouce paiustakini? and incorrect, and hi* lucubration deniuiwtaiies that ho still is as ever he was. For instance, in notiiip oar naval force which would Iks available for the defence of Australia in the case of a war with llussia, he only takes into consideration our vessels ou tho Australian and Pacific stations, eiitirely ignoring our tieetin Chinese water.s. And yet surely the latter would play a grua.6 part in any naval war with tho giant of the North. Again, he passes over the proposals supposed to Lave" been ratified at the late Colonial Conference with regard to colonial defence, aud calls them "tentative." But surely it was agreed that a reserve squadron of five protected cruisers in Australian waters were to be provided by the Mother Country and partially paid for by the colonists. Lord Brassev is correct enough when he states that, Us matters stand, there is ample room for improvement, bub he has failed to grasp the whole bearinga of the case.

There appears at last to be soma chance that there will be shortly some result from I the Suez Canal neutralisation negotiations that have been going on for so long. After the rupeure of the Paris Conference in 18S5 affairs seemed to have fallen into hopeless confusion, but at last, owing to the conciliatory spirit displayed by M. Fleurens, light seems to be breaking, into the chaos. As originally it is proposed that the canal shall be placed under an international commission o£ supervision composed of all the ConsulsGeneral of the Powers. Tho President o£ this Comuiission is to be the oldest consul; any member may convene a meeting, but the Commission must meet at least once a year. The burning question of the zone-of neutralisation it is suggested may be best settled by a technical commission defining the limits in a manuei- best realising the' intentions of the Powers. Thdro then, would remain to be decided on the organisation anil employment of the armed force which is to be at the disposal of the Commission, and guarantee to protect the neutrality of the canal. A force of 2000 men is suggested, to be a neutral corps of an international character like the Commission, and like the canal itself. All this sounds well enough, but people have been so often disappointed respecting canal negotiations that they will refuse to believe that matters are en train for a settlement until they see the treaty down, in black and white. Turkey has yet to bo reckoned with, and the Turkish Ministers have just adopted a resolution protesting: against any arrangements which may be cone uded respecting the Suez Canal between England and France unless tha acquiescence of the Porte in such agreement has been previously obtained. The following letter from Mr J. B, Craebnell, late Superintendent of tha Emigration Office at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, to a contemporary, speaks for itself, and I make no apologytor introducing it: — " Duriog my travels in Canada and Australia, I have seen many persons laud from ocean steamers evidently feeling their lonely condition as strangers in a strange land. Conversing with members of tho Governments of South Australia, Victoria,, and New South Wales, they spoke of the desirability of letters of introduction beina given to suitable emigrants by some person iv this country, who should be in correspondence with those in the. colonies likely to aid with counsel or otherwise tho newly-arrived. It was stated this could not be done officially by tho representatives of the Colonial Governments in this country, as responsibility would thereby be incurred which was very undesirable; that it must be done by private arrangement and personal-effort. I was honored to. receive, from members o£ the Government unofficially the names of persons in the colonies likely to render the required, service, and felt it my-duty to wait upon, them, And received a promise thut it-the lotteni were given to those likely to make, good settlers they would render any assistance in their power on arrival of these persons iv the country. Having now. completed arrangements by which I can give letters to intending settlers proceeding to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Capetown,,or Natal, I ask the favour at the insertion of this letter in your columns. "Without taking the responsibility of persuading persons to emigrate, I am glad to render this service to any leaving our shores."'

The exhibition of the Queen's Jubilee presents has created even greater interest than was expected. ' Tho arrangements are excellent, and the large crowds that; i flock to St. Jaineß' Palace find their con- ! venience and comfort satisfactorily arranged for. To the bulk of the visitors indeed to; get into the Palace at all is alone worth a trip to these parts, but the presents are, of course, superb beyond precedent; indeed, to attempt any description in this letter would swell it into the bloated form of an auctioneer's catalogue, and your readers without doubb are fully posted up through other mediums in the principal features of the show. If, it is more blessed to give than to receive tiiere must be a large army of remarkably happy persons in various parts of the worlu. If, on the other hand, that axiom does not hold good, during a jubilee bee Majesty must be the most joyous individual in her dominions.