OUR LONDON LETTER.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7868, 20 May 1891, Page 6

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(FROM OUB CO-RESPOKD-NT). LABOR MOVEMENTS. LONDON, April 3. There can be no doubt that we have reached the conclusion of the docks troubles, for the present at any rate. The promised revolution has fizzled out into a letter tvarfare between the firebrand Wilson of the Seamen's Union and Captain Armitt of the Shipping Federation. Everything is proceeding quietly and Unionists and freemen are working side by side, with at least the appearance of amicable relations. An assault by two gentlemen with Scotch names upon a non-unionist " coaly " on the New Zealand Shipping Company's Mat-aura, was speedily visited with vengeance — two months' hard; and with the fear of this in their eyes the Union men will be careful to abstain from physical demonstrations in the future. The Conservative papers express great satisfaction and admiration at the manner in which the Queensland authorities are reported to have dealt with the Shearers' strike, and hint that a little effective control of the same sort in London would not be amiss. It is amusing to note that the "Daily Chronicle," which follows so obediently in the train of John Burns, boycotts Mr Champion's strong pronouncements in the " South Australian Advertiser." Mr Champion attacked Wilson and the rest of ,the leaders on this side, except Mann, but the "Chronicle" studiously ignores his remarks. This is not, however, being a newspaper. I should fancy from what I hear that Mr Champion will find things made pretty lively fpr him when he returns, for the Unionists have proved themselves a hot headed crew, and their recent failures will make them welcome a scapegoat. THE NEWFOUNDLAND DIFFICULTY. Sir Charles *Dilke in a " Speaker" article anmmons up courage to tell the Government they have done wrong in their treatment of the Newfoundland difficulty. Tliey should have nothing to do, says Sir Charles, with a modus vivendi. The Newfoundlanders have a real grievance, and the French should be told that Great Britain cannot allow the state of affairs to continue. The French must be bought off. Well, the French have refused to be bought off, and what is to be done ? The only alternative is a cession of territory, such as Sir J. Pope Hennessy advocates. Gambia, Or some such place, should be yielded in return for the surrender of the fishing rights of the French shore. Sir Julius Vogel has also a theory. The real difficulty, he says, is the French bounties, and he suggests that this would be "fiiet A>y paying an equivalent bounty to the .colonial fishermen. Lord Salisbury has not yet shown signs of acquiescing in this suggestion.

\ THE AGENTS-GENERAL PROTEST. In January the Agents-General waited on Michael Hicks-Beach to point out the disadvantages incurred by the clause in the Treaty of Commerce with Belgium in 1862 and with the German Zollverein in 1865, prohibiting British colonies from admitting to colonial markets the goods of Great Britain at a lower duty than the products of Belgium or Germany. Mr Howard Vincent referred to this sxibject in the House last week, but Sir Michael did not think it advisable to publish the.report of the Committee and the decisions arrived at-just yet. Mr Vincent repudiated the Idea. . that he was bringing forward fair trade within the empire, but pointed out that these treaties severely restricted British trade. The colonies themselves might conclude differential treaties with each but the Mother Country was . shut out; and this, he considered, was preposterous. He urged the Government to give the year's notice necessary before the termination of the treaties. Sir Michael, howeverj seemed to see in Mr Vincent's motion the germ ■■ of a revolution in trade matters, for he accused him of desiring to establish a preferential tariff between the Mother Country and the colonies against foreign countries. And he bade him go and convert the country to this i fairtrade scheme before ventilating it in Parliament. Besides, he added, the Treaties with Belgium and Germany secured great advantages to this country, by treating it as the "most favored nation." it is plain then, that;the Government does not intend to move in the direction of fairtrade, nor have the Canadian elections had any effect here. The stubborn policy of freetrade will be adhered to. . AN AUCKLAND LADY ON SINGLE WOMEN. 'Mies Jessie Weston, the authoress of •* Ko Meri," who is now in London, has an article in the current number of the *' National Review " which tho " Chronicle '? describes as "striking and original." . It proffers a scheme for utilising the surplus women of the Old Country; or, rather, it proffers two Bchemes. Yon pay your money and you take your choice. Miss . Weston'B first alternative is evidently taken from Dahomey, where the Bong is wily enough to arm a body-guard of Amazons. She sees no objection to train regiments of women to act in concert with men, and believes that, with a little training, they .will turn out heroines ready to do and 'dare; The idea is funny enough, but in these ' days of lady cricketers land " strong women" might be favorably entertained by the women themselves. We might begin with an experiment in volunteering. A lady rifle corps would sound well, and lady scouts might prove as useful as lady guides. But Miss Weston's other alternative is more serious— this is to send the surplus women to the colonies to try their hands at fanning. Says the "Chronicle," which devotes an article to the paper, <( We confess the idea is original and ingenious, and well worth consideration in an age where in the United Kingdom we have half-a-million marriageable women in excess of our marriageable men." Miss Weston suspects thatthisdisproportion isdueto theemigration of men, and thinks it only reasonable to send the women after them when they go to aeek their fortunes beyond the seas. "The supreme merit of Miss Weston's paper," ■ays the same enthusiastic writer, "is that ■he tackles the problem of the redundancy of women in the middle and upper middle for whom the colonies are not ~Hub for Xtie details of t/be scheme. Hq-w is 1 ' Hill "till it going to work * Simply this. "Married women, whose husbands are worthless or disabled, make the greatest mark as squatters, farmers, and in business generally; but that is no reason why single women ■hould not accomplish quite as much." Fruit farming and fruit preserving, for example, are 'industries capable of great development in Australia and New Zealand, and they are adapted to the use of women with brains. A woman, thinks Miss Weston, could make • decent living oat of a fruit farm of from f ten to forty acres in a temperate colony ; fapwards of 15,000 women do so now in Then there is chicken-raising, vegetable-farming, and honey-farming. &All these industries offer a capital field for ifinglish girls, with a little capital. And even without capital they can soon earn enough to makea small beginning, and having secured property, they could secure votes when they liked. Thus is opened a bright vista for the unmarried women of this effete country. THE ABDUCTION CASK The decision of the Court of Appeal, with Lord Esher at its head, has come as a surprise to those interested in the Jackson abduction case. With absolute certainty one might have predicted the comments of each individual paper on the subject. The " Star " and ite confreres congratulate themselves that another step has oeen taken to the emancipation of women, whereas the Tory organs ridicule the judgment, and are sure matters cannot be allowed to rest here. Mr Jackson, of Clitheroe and New Zealand, may .take credit to himself for having caused a revolution in conjugal law of no f"n*ll importance. " It is dear,? says the "Saturday Review,"'"that the judgment; strikes directly at the institution of marriage as it has hitherto been regarded." No one can doubt this, for consider what Lord Esher's judgment means. Mr Jackson .marries a wife, who presumably knows her own mind, as she is a mature lady of forty. Immediately after the marriage, for reasons which do not transpire, but fcfr -a mutual arrangement, he goes to New Zealand. When he returns she xpfosea to cohabit with him* and he

obtains an order for restitution of conjugal rights from the Courts. She still refuses, and he abduots her to his home and hearth. Then the Judges step in, and say he has no right to do this; it ia unlawful. It seems then that any woman may separate herself from her husband, and ignore any order for the restitution of conjugal rights. At present the husband may not take possession of her, and he has no legal means of enforcing the order of the Court. Since then woman is on an equality with man in the conjugal contract, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and the husband (it follows) may separate himself from tho wife, and refuse to cohabit without fear of the penalties of law. That is to say, two people sign a contract (for marriage is a civil contract), and it is open to either of them immediately afterwards to refuse to be bound by the contract; and what is more, the law will step in and prohibit the one party from insisting that the other shall fulfil his or her obligations. Is not this reducing marriage to a farce ? There are only two possible courses open to Parliament while Lord Esher's judgment is respected ; the one i 3 to pass a law enabling the husband or the wife to obtain conjugal rights by the assistance of certain sanctions; and the other is to go to the logical conclusion of the whole matter, and declare marriage to be a contract terminable at will on the part of either contracting parties. There is no third alternative. But meanwhile it is not certain that even in the Law Courts the matter will rest where it is, for Mr Jackson is resolved to carry his appeal to the House of Lords, and towards the necessary £1000 £200 have already been subscribed. The sympathy of the people at Clitheroe and Blackburn is all with Mr Jackson, and the Baldwins, who are regarded as at the bottom of the trouble, have had to be protected by the police. Mrs Jackson's effigy has been burnt, though the husband expressed himself as annoyed that his wife should be subjected to these popular indignities. ANGLO-COLONIAL JOTTINGS. Mr Henniker Heaton is staying at Cannes during the Easter recess, and will go thence to Berlin to interview the German Post-master-General concerning many important points in the Viennese Postal Conference of May. Dr. Courtney Nedwill, of Christchurch, arrived in the Doric from New Zealand, and is staying at St. George's Club. He has come armed with letters to the faculty, and the editor of the "Lancet" is to give him an introduction to Dr. Koch. Dr. Nedwill purposes going through the hospitals for three months. It may be interesting to New Zealanders to know that Mr W. E. Hanley, joint author with Robert Louis Stevenson of " Beau Austin," which Tree played some months back, and the editor of the " National Observer " have written a prologue, which is to be recited at the production of Messrs J. N. Barrio's and Marriott Watson's play "Richard Savage," on April 14th.

Mr Arthur Claydon, writing in the " Daily News," congratulates himself upon the sweeping victory for the democracy at the recent elections in New Zealand. He advises the British workman to "keep his eye on the political actions of the Antipodean workman during the next few years." According to the " Siberian Messenger," Miss Kate Marsden has arrived at Tobolsk, where, as elsewhere throughout her journey, her mission has created great interest. Whilst passing through Oofa Miss Marsden learnt from a high dignitary of the Greek Church, who had passed many years at the leprosy places, that the natives in those regions cured themselves by means of herbs, and that this terrible disease was not accounted incurable in Eastern Siberia.

Mr Kinloch Cooke, the editor of Sir Peter Scratchley's diaries, and now editor of the "English Illustrated," has been appointed to the "Observer," the four-penny Sunday journal. A wordy war is in progress over two books of Australian adventure, to wit, Mr J. F. Hogan's " Lost Explorer" and Mr Carlton Dawe's "Golden Lake." The "Academy" began it by pointing out that is both books an inland city, situated close to a lake and a volcanic , mountain, is reached, an English captive is rescued from the natives, and the travellers only escape from the fury of the latter by the timely aid of a volcanic eruption which overwhelms the enemy "en masse." The resemblance in construction and incidents is certainly extraordinary. Mr Hogan's book was published by Ward and Downey in September, and Mr Dawe's by Trischler in February. But the latter writes to say that his book was accepted in June last year, and was to have been published in the autumn j hence plagiarism is out of the question. The warfare seems as. a nice advertisement for both parties. Mr Hogan is busy on a new tale, to be called " The Convict King." In Mrs Patchett Martin's "Cooee," the best story is undoubtedly " Mrs Drummond of Quondong "by Mrs Henry Day. Neither Taenia's nor Mrs Praed's is up to the level of those ladies'powers. But "Mrs Drummond" is undoubtedly clever, and Mrs Martin's tale of a studio tragedy is grim and uncanny enough to please everybody. Messrs Amory Sullivan and Musgrove, who were passengers from Melbourne with Mr Toole as far as Colombo, are now in London, looking for pieces and people. The former is for the Theatre Royal, Melbourne ; the latter for that of Sydney. Miss Nellie Stuart is also now in London, staying at the Hotel Victoria. Mr Charles Warner has read many plays of late, and has at last accepted a three-act piece by Mrs Musgrove, authoress of " Our Flat."

Toole is expected in London in a week's time, he having stayed to act a few nights in Colombo.

In the approaching exhibition of Mr Mortimer Mempea' sketches in India, Kashmir, and Burmah, there will be some etchings done on ivory with a diamond point, which, a contemporary remarks, " will probably cause something little short of a revolution among the Society of PainterEtchers, not only on account of their originality, but also of their rare technical excellence and delicacy." The writer of the clever article on Sir Henry Parkes in the "National Observer" was not, as I was informed previously, Mr Charles Fairfield, but Mr Parsons, who is a young Australian, stepson of the late George Robertson, of Melbourne. Mr Parsons has been six years at Oxford, and is an extremely brilliant, political -writer. AJCr- SpofiEoxrtJx, t3ie "demon" feo-wlezr, wlxo pJ&yecl last season for Derbyshire, has takes a house in Broadhurat gardens, West Hampatead, and may be expected to play this year in first class matches in London, and he will be a great acquisition to the home county as soon as he is qualified—Le., after a year's residence in Middlesex.