NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 170, 22 December 1874, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

OUR LONDON LETTEB. (From, the Press;)' London, October 30,-1874. My last letter contained a hurried allusion to the terrible gunpowder explosion on the Regent's Canal, which took place on the very day the New Zealand mail departed. Of course I was only able to give you, with certain grains of allowance, the gist of the reports that appeared in the afternoon newspaper?, or that I received from people who had visited the scene of the catastrophe; but I need hardly have been so guarded in my report jto you, as those rumors which I looked upon at the time as exaggeration were in reality far from conveying an adequate idea of the extent of the calamity. I visited the locality the following morning, and found it looking very much like what certain quarters of Paris did during the Commune after a shelling. House after house, terrace after terrace, street after street, presented the same melancholy appearance of dilapidation. The total estimate of the damage done, as submitted to the Relief Committee appointed to distribute the public subscriptions raised for the sufferers, amounts to over £30,000. It was unlike any other form of accident in that it was impossible to fix the responsibility of compensation on any individual or company; The insurance companies and the Canal company alike repudiated all liability, and in this predicament an. appeal was made to the public which produced a prompt and generous jesponse. I must say this of England, that with all her faults a public appeal for the unfortunate is never made in vain on her shores. John Bull, fond of money as he is, is ever ready to put his hand in his pocket in aid of suffering humanity. It is an ill wind that blows no good, and the good borne on this particular ill wind haß been wafted in the direction of the glaziers in the neighborhood of Regent's Park. On the very day of the explosion these fortunate tradesmen were | hard at work driving a "roaring trade, and I

was much amused the following day at the gentle ecstacies one or two newspapers went into over these very simple and natural acts of glaziery, finding in them materials for drawing a parallel between the indomitable Briton of Regent's Park and the energetic citizen of Chicago. Far be it from me to deny that your true Briton possesses both energy and pluck; but I fail to see in the act of having your windows put in after they have been blown out any striking proof of either quality. Chinamen, who are regarded as the most apathetic of the human race, I have seen doing quite an much; and as to the native of Japan, I can testify from frequent personal observation, that his energy and promptitude in rebuilding his house after a fire is not to be surpassed in Chicago or Regent's Park. The Coroner's enquiry was lengthy and exhaustive, and the gross carelessness in the carriage of gunpowder through the metropolis it brought to light has caused many a worthy citizen to shiver in his shoes. One good arising out of the evil will be the more stringent enforcement of the Explosive Articles Act, which had gradually become a dead letter, and the terrible explosion at Regent's Park may have saved us from some fearful catastrophe, compared with which it would be a flea-bite. The verdict of the jury contained a sharp reproof for the Canal Company for their carelessness and negligence. It was elicited in examination that it was a frequent occurrence for this company to put large quantities of gunpowder on board their barges, and send them away without acquainting the men on board with the nature of their cargo. How we have enjoyed for so long a time immunity from accident is simply marvellous. Saturday before last was a day of some note in the metropolis, and known as " Hospital Saturday," a day on which, after eight months' organization, a simultaneous appeal was to be made to the working classes in aid of the metropolitan hospitals and dispensaries. We have already had Hospital Sundays, on which occasions the wealthier classes came forward with tolerable liberality; but it was thought that Saturday would be a better day for an appeal to the working man. The methods of soliciting his charity were numerous and novel. Amongst others, boys dressed in a conspicuous uniform with bannerets inscribed " Remember Hospital Saturday," and collecting boxes, paraded the thoroughfares, while ladies presided at collecting tables in the open streets. There were to have been two hundred of these tables, but at the last moment, the hearts of many who had promised failed them, and only about twenty-five ladies were found sufficiently courageous to face the very trying ordeal of sitting in the open street from about nine o'clock in the morning to five at night, the centre of observation to a goodhumoured but rather personal London crowd. Some of these brave ladies were very successful, ?he contributions to one box amounting to £36, and to another to £33. Copper predominated, but as may be expected, the opportunity was too tempting to the omnipresent practical joker to be lost, and many of the boxes on being opened were found to contain numerous buttons of sorts, old railway tickets, and lollypops. Though the smallest contributions were invited, these were not thankfully received I believe.. I am glad, however, to say that the ladies were ,not treated with rudeness, as many of their friends had predicted, and when, at the conclusion of her arduous day's duty, each fair collector departed in a cab with the box on the front seat and the table on the roof, she was treated to three hearty cheers by the crowd. There were also performances at the theatres in aid of the fund, and at one of them two of the prettiest; ladies of the company perambulated the entire house with collecting-boxes. The ■ total amount received from all sources so far as at present known amounts to £4500. It is impossible as yet to know the whole result of the collection, but I am inclined to think ' it' will not be quite the success anticipated. In thfrfiTst place Hospital Saturday has been a misnomer, seeing that subscription concerts, theatrical performances, have been going oh on all days of the week ; and, in ■" the second, the working man, from the time 'eight months ago when he was solely iden- :: tiled with the movement, has been gradually sliding down to a very obscure part; while < sundry noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies addieted to speechifying, have risen to very prominent positions as public benefactors. i I have spoken to several working men on the subject, and this seems to be the prevailing idea on their minds. October is, of all months in the year, the most stirring at Newmarket, the capital of the racing world, and this October has provided, .perhaps, some of the most sensational races on record. Newmarket Heath is essentially the stronghold of the turf. People go there for racing's sake alone; not, as at ... Epsom, or Ascot, or Goodwood, for the usual diverting accessories of a race meeting. Everyone is on business bent. There are no great crowds here, and the generality of the spectators are mounted. You are nowhere on foot at Newmarket, as the races are run on different courses, and a canter of a mile or half a mile is necessary between each event. Never was the glorious uncertainty of racing more fully exemplified than in this yeai's Cesarewitch. Mornicgton, the first favourite, who started at the Short odds of 5 to 1, and whose jockey wore a new jacket in honour of the anticipated victory, limped in a miserable cripple five minutes after the judge had sent up the number of the winner, Aventuriere, against whom 1000 to 30 could have been obtained over and over again the night before. Not quite so popular a race, perhaps, as the Cesarewitch, but quite as important, is the Middle Park Plate. It is regarded by owners and breeders with very great interest, as affording a fair criterion of the ensuing ! year's Derby, and is, in fact, known at Newmarket' as "the two-year-old Derby." It was founded nine years ago by the late Mr Blenkiron for two-year-olds, and in addition to a sweepstakes of 30 sovs, the Jockey Club give £SOO to be run for. The extraordinary feature of this year's Middle Park Plate is that the winner, Plebeian, is not in next year's Derby. He was not the best horse in . the race, however, as Galopin, who carried \- 71bs more, finished within a neck of him. Racing is certainly not on the decline in . v ; ';T&agland. No less than forty-two horses '• came to the post for the Cambridgeshire. Only once before has there been a larger field, and then only by one. The stakes : were worth winning, amounting to no less ■ than £2480, and the prize fell to a French horse, Peut-etre, a name which sadly taxed our racing countrymen's French pronunciation until they Anglicised it into " Potato."

These victories of French horses are row unpleasantly frequent. Peut-etre won easily in ft canter by two lengths, and has beaten

the very cream of our long distance runners, while Boiard and Aurore, both French horses, won respectively the Gold Oup at Ascot this year and the Great Eastern Handicap. I don't know that French victories are grudged very much on this side of the Channel ; but still it is a fact, which people cannot help alludiug to, that while in England the best prizes are open to horses of all nations, in France our horses are debarred from any race of note except the Grand Prix. And when on one occasion we did carry that off, it was mooted that English-bred horses should be prevented for the future from taking part in it. The reason of the superior staying powers of French race horses must be this—ln France nearly all the races are run over courses of a mile and more, while in this country -an exactly opposite policy is pursued, our races being principally five and six furlong cuts. Thus, in our few long distance races, the French horses have a great advantage over ours. It is said that Admiral Rous is pressing on the French Jockey Club the desirability of a little more reciprocity of feeling in regard to open races. Our racing men are rather sore on the subject of Peut-etre's victory. Being a " dark horse," recently imported from France, nothing was known of his capabilities, and consequently the weight Admiral Rous, our handicapper, put on him was absurdly small. This has led to a notice from one of the members of the Jockey Club that at the next meeting he will move —" That no horse be allowed to enter for any handicap run in Great Britain unless it has been trained for at least three months before the date of entry in Great Britain."

The hunting season is now commencing, and the sporting papers estimate that about 230 packs of hounds will soon be in the field throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland. Assuredly a vast amount of British energy, pluck, and money is expended in persecuting poor Reynard. Mr Anthony Trollope calculated six years ago, that *' one million two hundred thousand is the number of times that a man and horse go out together during the year in pursuit of a fox." If there is anything in the doctrine of the transmutation of souls, and I revisit the earth in a vulpine forx, I sincerely hope that my lot will be cast in pleasanter places than the coverts of the United Kingdom. I cannot dismiss the subject of sport from my letter without a few words on the death of John Lilly white, which took place a few days ago. So thoroughly identified is the name of Lillywhite with cricket, that it is a household word amongst cricketers, and even to those Englishmen, and there are few such, who have never fielded a ball or wielded a bat, the name has a familiar ring. It was not, however, John Lillywhite, who has just died, but his father, William, " the nonpareil bowler," and the original Lillywhite of cricket, who made the reputation for the name which the son has not only held untarnished, but also added lustre to it, in a cricketing sense. The career of John Lillywhite is briefly this : Under his father's tuition he commenced cricket, as an infant almost, for at fourteen years of age he held an engagement as a professional in Gloucestershire. Two years later he went in the same capacity to Bromley in Kent, and from that year to 1850, he held several important engagements with different noblemen and clubs. In 1850 he made his first appearance in a match of importance at Lord's, and iu 1852, at twenty-four years of age, he was chosen to play for England against Kent, scoring on the occasion twenty-one, against the best bowler of the day. In the same year he accepted an engagement as cricket tutor at Rugby school, which he held with wonderful popularity for six years. In 1859 he was one of the twelve cricketers who first went to America. About 1861 he went into business as a cricketiug outfitter, which he carried on until his death.

A rumor from ludia reached us a fortnight ago that Nana Sahib had been captured. The very name is enough to make the blood of an Englishman course quicker through his veins, and the whole country has been eagerly awaiting the confirmation of the news. The different telegrams, however, that have followed the first report have rather tended in the opposite direction. Many English officero, who knew the Nana at Cawnpore, where, before the mutiny, he dispensed lavish hospitality to the English community, and was as well known there as the Lord Mayor is here, have failed to identify this man, and there is every reason to fear that we have been again duped, and that ths great drama of retribution enacted by our troops still remains incomplete. It is now seventeen years ago Bince those atrocious acts which have made the name of Nana Sahib for ever hateful to civilised ears were committed ; but at the mere mention of the miscreant the bitter recollections spring up almost as vividly as when the first news from Cawnpore sent a thrill of horror through England. The subject has lived again in every one's mouth for the last fortnight, and in the smoking-rooms of the military clubs, where Nana Sahib's doings are better known, I fear the language has been rather strong; It is now, however, the general opinion in these strongholds of military gossip that we have not got the right man. Let us hope they are wrong. Livingstone's will has been proved. No life was ever harder than his ; but it was not for himself he worked. The total value of his personal estate and effects in England and Scotland was sworn under £ISOO. His description in the official documents is given as the Rev David Livingstone, LL.D., D.0.L., African Traveller.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies has received a telegram from Sir Hercules Robinson, dated Sydney, October 25th, announcing that he has accepted the unconditional cession of the Fiji Islands, and has established in them a Provisional Government. He has imposed taxes on a tariff based upon that of New South Wales; and ha* formed a code of civil and criminal law pro tern. King Thakombau has had his favorite war club elaborately ornamented with silver emblems of peace, and sent it to the Queen with a dutiful message, confiding the interests of his people to her Majesty's generosity and justice. The Duchess of Edinburgh has presented the nation with a Prince, whom some regard in a glow of loyalty, others in six thousand a year out of the taxpayers' pockets. The Empress of Russia, accompanied by the Otsarewitch, came over for the interesting event, and still remains in this country. The Tichborne ghost is not yet laid, and never will be, apparently, as long as Dr Kenealy and Mr Guildford Onslow continue to haunt these busy scenes. Both gentlemen are indefatigable in keeping the mud stirred up. There is no change or excitement in New Zealand stock, and the different loans all stand above par,