OUR LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1270, 13 April 1878, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[WRITTEN TOR THE GLOBE.] London, February 28. The most remarkable event of this month bus been a determined, though fortunately unsuccessful, attempt to murder one of our principal Judges, Sir George Jessel, Master of the Rolls, an able equity lawyer, and tl*o Jew who was ever raised to th?. Beach in this country. His assail&ufc Has a Rev. Mr Dodwell, a who suffered some considerable aisappointment by not succeeding in litigation, Ho is undoubtedly insane, possessed With a mania to sheet some enp Ua held ijfeiieffi tj( h jtoi tfef

failure of his law suits —he sallied forth a few mornings ago armed with a pistol, and first made his way to the Office of the Rolls Court, where he demanded to see the principal clerk. Fortunately the official had not arrived, and Mr Dodwell went away without making any remark. Thence he proceeded to the Bolls Court and awaited the arrival of the Judge, who, he knew, would preside there. Sir George came up in a cab, and as he passed across the pavement to his chamber Mr Dodwell fired at him. It is not yet ascertained whether the weapon was loaded, but the learned Judge’s ear was grazed by something. Although the strictest search has been made, no bullet has been found. The would-be murderer made no attempt to escape, and on being taken into custody admitted to the policeman that his intent was to murder his victim. He was promptly conveyed before a Magistrate who, after a very brief examination, had sent him for trial at the Old Bailey, regarding his own statements to the police as the most cogent evidence of his murderous design. Of course his trial will only bo formal, and he will be detained as a lunatic. During the past month the Hew Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency has held its annual meeting at the London offices in Queen Victoria street, when a very flourishing state of affairs was reported. During the year 1877 the company made more than £50,000 profit, and was enabled not only to pay the dividend of 10 per cent, and a bonus of 5 per cent., but also to add £12,000 to its reserve fund, which now amounts to £120,000. The directors reported to the value of the wool imported from the colony had been more uniform during 1877 than in preceding years, and the quantity showed an increase, although the production had been lessened in some districts in consequence of unfavorable seasons. Mr Mundella, M.P., who presided at the meeting, said the progress of the concern had been rapid and sound in all respects, and he was sure the shareholders had more reason to be satisfied with their position than at any previous period of the history of the company. I'he dividend having been declared with thankfulness, the shareholders afterwards unanimously resolved to increase the capital of the company by the issue 40,0 CD additional shares of £25 each at a nominal premium. Following the above meeting came that of the shareholders of the Australian Agricultural Company, which was not quite so pleasant, for the chairman {Mr E. Hamilton) had to announce a falling off of the profits to about 25 per cent., though he exonerated the directors from any blame on that account, their losses having been occasioned, he alleged, by droughts of great severity and long continuance. He looked forward, however, to more favorable times, and besought the shareholders to show every confidence in their investment rather than exhibit any distrust. There was a short discussion on the state of affairs, but the shareholders in the main did not dissent from the directors’ view of the position and accepted the payment of an interim dividend of £1 7s 6d per share. As I anticipated in my last letter they have been having a merry time of it in the Divorce Court since they began to try the defended

causes. The first one of any note was the suit brought by Sir Charles Goring, a baronet, who lives in a lovely part of Sussex, against Eliza, his second wife, who is the daughter of a clergyman well known in the "West End of London. He is nearly fifty years of age. His first experience of married life was a very short one, but to bis second spouse he has been married more than twenty years. Divorce with him, I may remark, seems to be hereditary, for his father was separated from his first wife injthe old days when matrimony could only be severed by Act of Parliament. The son, however, was not so fortunate as his father. His witnesses were about the meanest set of people that were ever called in a case, aud Lady Goring, as well as the gentleman who was implicated with her, gave a flat

denial to all the charges made against them, tiir Charles not only lost Ms case, but had the additional mortification of being ordered to pay the costs of the co-respondent’s successful defence.

Immediately afterwards another baronet appeared before the Court as petitioner, and ins case had a very different result. In this case Sir Charles Tempest, a man who is only yet in middle life, dad also been married twice. His first wife, to whom he was united but a very short time, was burned to death, and after living for many years in seclusion as a widower he espoused a very young lady who was daughter of a military man. About three years afterwards she eloped with a Mr Hungerford, whose acquaintance they had made, and on inquiry being made one of the family solicitors tound the guilty pair living together at one of the best hotels in Paris. Of course after this there was ho possibility of offering any defence, and Lady Harriette very speedily found herself a divorced woman. In the first instance Sir Charles Tempest claimed £2S,CCO damages from the co-respondent, but on obtaining his divorce without any trouble he said nothing about this demand, and six months hence he will be free to make a third trial of matrimonial fortune if ha desire to do so. Since the foregoing case was tried there have been several military divorce suits possessing no remarkable features, except that, they show that “ the way we live now 11 is a. very fast one in some classes of society. In., one of the latest cases the wife of an. Admiral, appeared as petitioner, but he showed that, the suit arose more from the, lady’s temper than from any peccadilloes os his own, so that the respective counsel were glad to accept the suggestion thrown out from the Bench that the case shqvld be arranged between the parties. fn my last letter I mentioned that a i petition for divorce had been presented by | the -Karl of Aylesford against his wile with, the Marquis of Blandford as the co-respon-dent. The cause has not yet been tried, and, is not likely to go before a jury for some weeks to come, for this week quite a new; complexion has been put on matter by councel applying to the Court for leave to. the Queen's Proctor intervene in the suiton the ground t had the noble petitioner, hasbeen guilty of the same crime with which he charges the Countess. This leave is alwaysgranted as a matter of course. It may provs . that there is nothing substantial in the suggestion, but the noble Earl will be brought to book on information which some one must have given against him. Madame Rachel has been “at it again.” So.m<? of my readers may recollect that this i woman, whose real name is Rachel Leversos*. was convicted some years ago of defrauding a Mrs Borrodaile of a large sum of money,, and. was sentenced to five years [penal servitude, after one of the most interesting appeals ever remembered in a criminal case.. She is the woman who pretended to make other women. “ beautiful for ever,” though she is far from, being a handsome creature herself. Since her release from the hulks she has been carrying, on “ the same ofd game,” but in a quiet way,, living \n a modest style in a fashionable quarter, and styling herself “Arabian Perthmer to the Queen.” Now another victim, has come forward to prosecute her. This is Mrs Cecilia Maria Pearce, not a brainless passee old widow like Mrs Borrodaile was, but a very pretty woman, of Italian origin, twenty*, four years of age, and the wife of an stock broker. ,Of course Mrs Pearce, waa . ignorant of the fact that the dealer in per* turnery had been convicted of a& atrocious swindle. She began by buying washes for the complexion at two guineas a bottle, the mixture being principally a deleterious solution of lead. This product an eruption on Mrs Pearce’s face, and Mr Pearce, noticing the change in his wife's “ endearing young charmu,” put some questions to her which partly revealed her foolishness. She had entrusted the cosmetic preparer with some of her jewellery ha pledge of a debt fgr , fifty pounds, and Madame Rachel deposited thw articles with one of her “ uncles ” as security for an advance, and, when the trick was discovered, dared her dupe to maki an exposure This challenge the Italian signora accepted and hence Madame Rachel’s latest Mm •iwgiftf it* eke wpw n wmty fif

one of our prisons awaiting her second appearance before a jury. Cleopatra’s Needle has reached this country at last, and now lies moored in its shell boatopposite the Houses of Parliament, where it has proved an immense attraction, and, as you can only get to it by taking a rowing boat from Westminster Bridge, has given immense gains to the “jolly young watermen,” who practise a little trick that would have been scorned by the hero of Dibdin’s song in offering to take passengers for sixpence each, but demanding, and generally obtaining, a shilling before allowing them to land. Indeed, on some days the crowd to see this historical monolith has been so great that the river police have been called on to regulate the flow of visitors. Now that we have got it wo really scarcely know where to put it. We thought of erecting it in one of the squares that face the House of Commons, but a railway runs under there, and the company wanted from the Government a perpetual guarantee against the Needle smashing in their tunnel and stopping their traffic. We are considering now whether it will be safe to erect it on one of the flights of gigantic steps that ornament the front of the Victoria Embankment. But “ the unkindest cut of all ” is the doubt that is only too plainly expressed by the “ Builder ” whether the stone will last in this country. It is now somewhat harder than wrought iron, but the chemists think it will prove friable when submitted to the action of the corrosive gases that pervade the atmosphere of London, particularly in the -winter time. We have again amongst us for a short time a man who is endeavoring by renewed acts of gallantry to efface the memory of one misdeed—l mean ex-Oolonel Valentine Baker, who, some of my readers may remember, was convicted of an assault on a young lady in a railway carriage, and was subsequently cashiered. For some time past he has been with the Turkish army, and only last month rendered the Ottoman cause a most signal service in bringing its retreating army through a perilous passage over the snow-covered mountains of Thrace. When the armistice was signed he obtained leave of absence, and is now quartered in comfortable chambers in Pall Mall. We have imported a good many nasty things from abroad, but hitherto we have been spared from that truly Parisian luxury—horseflesh. I have met men who have eaten it at dinners in)London as a curiosity, and the same evening they were loud in its praises, and declared that it was undistinguishable from the most excellent beef. But they never alluded to it afterwards, and that brings a suspicion of what they suffered after their evening pipe was smoked. Now, some Frenchmen intend to open shops in London for the sale of such flesh os they can induce to grow on horses that are past work. Innocent people ! They wrote to the Lord Mayor asking for permission to open these establishments, and referring at length to the progress their ideas were making in Paris. His Lordship replied that no permission from him was needed to open such shops, and adding—not to |be outdone even by the French in polite—that he wished the experiment a fair trial and such success as it might deserve. But I think he has lured these victims to an unhappy fate. Probably these people will start one or two boucheries, as they term them, and then some very minor official will walk in ’and prosecute them for selling what is not fit for human food. A summons before the magistrates will follow, and then Messieurs Crapand Freres will return to Paris not unjustly denouncing perp.de Albion. I regard the London School Board as the sretttfst of social nuisances. It has not only burdened the ratepayers of the metropolis ■with the heaviest of modern taxes, but its meddlesome Paul Pry offieiousness is fast renderin'* it quite intolerable. Its last piece of spasmodic energy has been to prosecute the managers of theatres for employing children in the pantomimes. Only a few weeks ago, while I was walking down the Haymarket one -afternoon, a very little couple, evidently brother and sister, stopped in front of me, and looking up to me, it seemed from about my Inee, asked me, in the language of cockney -children, “Where is HerMajesty’sTheayter?” They were evidently candidates for engagement in the ballet, aud I pointed out to them which was the temple of happiness and fortune to them—fortune to them being represented by the being able to earn several shillings weekly for a short period. But the School Board discovered that this would not teach them geometry or cookery or some other “ fad ” of those who control the education of •our youth, and accordingly a prosecution was -ffrwfr, instituted against Mr Robertson, the manager of the Aquarium Theatre. One of the children who was not sent to school represented at that place, a Colorado beetle, and the Board were glad to have caught him. In another case Mr Hengler, the proprietor of the best circus in London (and also of several minor establishments in the country), was prosecuted on several summonses, to which he pleaded guilty on the advice of his solicitor, -and was let off with the payments a nominal jine. What I was most surprised at was the magistrate agreeing with the School Board in thinking that children ought not to be employed on the stage. They might do much ■worse off it, even if they have received the last invented diploma —“ a certificate of proficiency” m the three R’s. A young man, named Charles Smith who had been in custody seventeen times for stealing dogs, an occupal ion followed by a good many men in Londc who make a living out <tf the rewards offered fey the owners of the missing animals, has come to signal grief on the eighteenth occasion of his coming within the grip of the polloe. The magistrate sent him for trial, and at the Middlesex Sessions he had the misforl.une to be prosecuted by Mr .Montagu Williams, one of our most vivacious barristers, who, in stating the case to the jury, convulsed the Court by the utal of a story concerning the way in which he had himself been victimised about a dog. He now had his xevenge, and considerably added to Mr Smith’s knowledge of the English law, which it seems makes it one offence to steal a dog and another and a greater one to steal his collar. This eighteenth dog had a collar, and so when Mr Williams found out whit an old offender he had to deal with he proceeded accordingly. Me secured a conviction for stealing the dog, for which, and no matter how many previous aentences may have been passed on the prisoner, the law only allows a maximum punishment of eighteen imprisonment. Next he caused Mr Smith to be given in charge to the same jury on an indictment for stealing the collar. They could not be so silly as to acquit him of that charge, and so, a second verdict of guilty being recorded, Assistant Judge was able to send Mr Smith fo penal servitude for five years, and he did 90. Such is law !