BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 895, 15 August 1910, Page 8

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LONDON SUMMARY. ■;'." A BUST WEEK. \ _/■- London, July 2. Day''by. day London seems to become fuller and,more busy. Conceits,' operas, now plays, now picture-shows, and fresh happenings of every kind crowd on.ono another thick and 'fast.■■:•■,-'.The-' Army Pageant at Fnlham runs a race witn the Military Tournament at Olympia. •The Anglo-Japanese Exhibition, at the White City is fairly well supported, although when I was there a few evenings ago there did not seem-'tobo anything lileo the tremendous crowds that made .Shepherd's Bush so vivid a ccntro of 'life': two-years' ago. The lights of .the stage'rallied their forces at'their merry annual • party at the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday-in aid-of theatrical charities, and if Nature was not quite .so kind' as it might have been in the" matter of fino :weather, everything possiblo was done to mako those present forget the ! unfavourable skies. 'The"great Rose Show is due next week. ' My daily paper advertises about; fourteen-different- picture.exhibitions now'open. The Crystal Palace has. found a fresh attraction in the flying of Mr. Graham-White, that is once a week drawing many thousands there. Unfortunately for the multitudo- of open-air festivals that are now on, there has been much rain, during tho past week.

I'.. :'" SECRETS WELL KEPT. The secrets of the Veto Conference hav» .been well kept. .No_hint.of.what is.passing found the table'at Downing' Street is allowed to'pass to the world. The eigne Cabinet Ministers are not to be., drawn into' promature disclosures, and their privnte secretaries aro equally discreet; so that no one knows how the negotiations arc going, and though there is an impression that the high-contracting parties are getting on very- weir together, there is '.nothing' specific to substantiate 1 this Opinion.. Probably it is based on the unmistakable public sentiment, in favour. of maintaining tho.', present suspension of 'party/hostilities . its'.-long ■'■as possible. .'After the subject, of controversy in the early spring'the.''Truce of. God" idea is distinctly; popular, especially; as tho holiday season begins to draw nigh. Among the general public there is no .desire- to renew the political turmoil, and a general election this : year .yould be regarded as a'gratuitous, disturbance of business just as;it.'has begun.to revive.' However, it is •not likely to occur until.after the Coronation, at the earliest, and-perhaps not in 1911 at all. People who were betting after tho last election, that;the Government /would ■be out in' throe months aro now sometimes ,'" inclined to think Hhat' they may. after'all stay in. three years, ,

• ••■;•'. RESENTFUL RADICALS. But the assumed smooth progress of the Veto negotiations; does not please everybody. There is a group of advanced be-low-the-gangway Radicals who are full,of resentment .over the replies,. or rather: the reticences of the Prime Minister, aiid; who are. inclined to • raise the cry of Nous sommes trahis. .. This.; group ■ - has been holding meetings in the House of .Commons Committee. Rooms, and is anxiv ous to impress upon the Prime Minister that he must take into account; the views of the rank and file of his party in his negotiations with, the Opposition leaders. There'is.ovcn a .'proposal.'to iirge Mr. Asquith.to call, a full meeting of-the .party to consider./tho situation, but the Premier has no intention'of .doing anything of the land.- He insists that ho must have, a free hand in' the conference, and goes no' further than promising that an official intimation—very' brief ■ and, abso-. lutely uninforinihg—is. sent to tho press; Though' this discontented . group is not. ■very numerous,' some influence, aiid is led by. no less a personage, than Sir Charles Dilke. . It probably musters some .fifteen or twenty members, who would bo qUite prepared to vote/against the Gov-, eminent, if their demari'ds"'are ; refused, And it might receive souio' support from other advanced Liberals and from many of the Labour members. . .-.'

: .'■:>. ANGRY. LABOUR MEMBER. ■:/ •■'. With-' these members"' of the,' -Extreme Left no. reform of the. House, N of Lorus would be ,at'all popular, for-they would regard it as.a mere attempt to strengthen,' and stereotype' the privileged / SecondChamber. 'Mr. Ramsay. Macdonald,- per : haps the ablest of the. Labour M.P.'s, is very angry with the Government's new peers,:whom he/describes, as/'awful warnings" of what would'happen with a "reformed" .Ho.use of Lords;., "If, I am'.going to have,att aristocrat/', says Mr. Macdonald, ■."I want a geniiihe 'aristocrat, and not merely a plutocrat." He does' not care .to h'avemen;"who have bought, their way into the.Upper Chabiberby liberally subscribing to the party funds.". How far this is truo/of .Mr;. Asquith's batch of new' peers.nobody except tho party Whipß could'say.for, certain.. But;they are.all very rich men. ,".'

'HOUSES GO ..A : BEGGING. The slump-in West End house property .continues.. ■ All , the, agents, tlieir bo'oks fullof- mansions .in, Belgravia, Mayfair, and, South. Kensington, which the 'owners or lessees are aiixious to lot, and which nobody seems anxious :to take. The situation is particularly -unfavourable with respect: to the larger'.houses, those great - corner palaces in the fashionable squares . which, were ■once the - favourite abodes.of. the territorial nobility and-the magnates of .finance. '.Now they go begging, and'are to be'had at Tents which .would ■. have, seemed absurdly low a'few years' ago: ,' And in some of tho,streets and terraces with ..a slightly lower, social prestige, but still eminently respectable', there are whole" rolls'of houses to be had at any reasonable figure." Jlauy reasons are assigned, for this, falling-off.. One is tho sen-ant. difficulty.. The, large house means 'a large staff of servants, a heavy wages bill, and endless, trouble in housekeeping, which the modern society woman does not like at all. ' She. has far 'too many interests and to be"absorbed in a perpetual domesticity during the London season. . '. HOSPITAL-EHATJDS.'': A. very unusual case ■came before a London police court a ', few . days . ago, when a man was gammoned'for obtaining medical treatment, from a London hospital by false pretences. The "man, it was said, had for the past three years, gone from hospital to hospital pretending to be ill, while there , was | nothing',',whatever tho, matter With him,, and..', had,: so feigned symptoms ai; to deceive' the doctors. The magistrate declined to convict, and so the guilt or otherwise of the man in this case, is not open to discussion. But all who know anything of work in our h'os-' pitals to-day are aware, that there are a few men who are such clever actors that they constantly obtain admission to hospitals by simulating diseases, and succeed, in remaining for weeks before they are found out. i These men.like the warmth •and the careful treatment and tho good food of the hospital wards. The doctors often enough suspect them, but do not care to risk neglecting real illness on the mere suspicion of the man being an ini. poster. '■..''" ; HISTORIC SPOTS. The greatest charm of London to many of us' is tho. historic memories that gather around most of the old streets, and even necessary improvements' are regarded half reluctantly when they involve, as they nearly always do, tho destruction of many historic buildings.' Year by year, for one reason or another, old landmarks disappear. Wo are threatened now with the destruction of Garrick's villa, the line old bouso at Hampton, in which the great Shakespearean actor- lived for ovor thirty years. The place, which is a stone mansion in the Italian style, was sold recently for .£10,«00 ,aud it is feared that it may be cleared away to mako room for the activities of the modern builder. Somo theatrical organisations are seeing if anything can be done to savo it. Crosby Hall, whoso removal from the heart of the city at tho end nf 1907 aroused, snch general concern, has been rebuilt in Chelsea, and the restored premises, which were open to the public recently, roveal all the beauties of the old hall even better than on the original site. The building was demolished in tho most careful fashion. Every., part that i^W

bo transferred was numbered in order that it might be replaced on the new site in exactly the .right position. MOUSTACHES IN THE ARMY. Some of the ,cavalry subalterns at Aldershot arc smitten in a tender place by- the enforcement of the order that all officers must wear n moustache. The regulation on the subject is explicit, and dates from Queen Victoria. It reads as follows:— The hair of tho head will bo kept short. The chin and under lip will bo, shaved but not the' . upper lip. Whiskers, if worn, will be of moderate length. . . ■ •» ,Tho fad /for shaving the upper lip is a specialty of cavalry subalterns, who wish to distinguish themselves,from their comrades of other branches of the Service. Field-Marshal Lord Grcnfell had to issue an'order calling attention to tho regulation when he was in command in Ireland. . ' ■ ■ The regulation aims entirely at maintaining a smart apoearance, and dates from shortly after "tho Crimean' War, when Queen Victoria objected tojier soldiers wearing beards. In tho Navy the rule Ms that. an officer must bo either clean shaven or wear a "full set." Recently in i Aldershot an order was issued that the men of the York and Lancaster Regiment should not wax their moustaches. .. SUICIDE-THROUGH BEES. After being severely stung by'bees, Captain Hugo Frank Henry, who 'served with ono of the Now Zealand contingents in the Boer War, has committed suicide near his homo at Bath. ; Bee-keeping was Captain Henry's hobby, and he rented a garden for his beehives. As . a .result of stings inflicted recently his'head and faco. became much swollen, and his housekeeper found him dead in a summer-house, with part, of his head blown away and a revolver by his side. "Despite the ;fact that the poisonous action of a bee',s'stig has been extensive-_ :ly studied," writes a'medical'correspond dent, "our knowledge of the true physiological effect is practically nil. Undoubtedly a strong irritant poisoh/is formed in the tissues'at the; site" of the sting, and, like many rfthor poisons which, have a beneficihl effect in moderate doses, this poison might easily induce serious temporary brain derangement in excessive doses. '.-..'-.■.•

"Animals have been known to. go mad when attacked by bees or wasps. It is generally believed that this madness is not entirely due i to • tho pain caused by the skiii punctures: ,It is" npt, therefore, impossible that in this case tho combination o£ extreme, pain, terror, and the irritant poison resulting from tho stings niay have been enough to bring about acute suicidal mania." , "" • V