FROM A LONDON LOUNGER.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1036, 2 April 1869, Page 3

FROM A LONDON LOUNGER.

I tfEin this must be but a hurried letter. Only this morning the authorities at the post-oiiice announced that they will make up no mails for, the Panama route, as there will be no steamer at Panama to take them on. I have therefore only just time to catch the Marseilles mail. We are all in sad anxiety about New Zealand. To-morrow morning, when this letter will have gone, we expect to hear some news. At present we have heard, from extraots taken from Australian and New Zealand, papers, of the massacre at Poverty Bay, and also of the defeat of Colonel Whitmore's trodps.^ By a telegram received at the Colonial Office we have also been pleased to learn that the natives have suffered two severe defeats since then. : but we hunger for particulars, and many of us who have dear ones fighting for the colony will be happier when we know for certain that the authentic list of killed and wounded does not affect us. The principal members of the wellknown firm of Overend and Gurney, the bankers, who, when the bank was in a " shaky" condition, turned it into a limited liability concern, and then shut their doors when thousands had been ruined besides themselves, have been put on their trial at the Mansion House for fraud ; the fraud consisting of the issue of the limited liability prospectus placing matters in the most favorable light, whereas the firm was in reality hopelessly involved. These great city giants, looked up to as paragons of honesty and virtue— guardians, as it were, of that grand commercial morality of which city merchants and princes boast so much-r-have taken their places in the dock of a police-court and been tried for what is called conspiracy by the law, and by people not so mealy-mouthed — swindling. They will have to appear in another dock, for they have all been committed to take their trial at the Queen's Bench. The affair has naturally created an extraordinary amount of interest. The impeachment of a city magnate is almost as plucky an act as the impeachment of a monarch.. Marvellous, indeed, has been the washing of dirty linen in this case. A Mr. Edwards has opened our eyes to the commercial integrity of the business men of this period. He was called by the prosecution, and a most extraordinary tale he certainly did unfold. It seems that this worthy gentleman, who held the position of official assignee in the Court of Bankruptcy, was employed by Overend and Gurney to favor that firm with the private information which came across him as an assignee. For this job he received £5000 a year, merely for work done out of office hours. But Mr. Edwards was not even faithful to his liberal masters at the bank. When anyone wanted a loan Mr. Edwards appears to have negotiated it, and was actually paid such douwws as a steam yacht, value £2000, an income of £500 a year, and a stray thousand pounds or so every now and then, for betraying the bankers to those in search of money for their paper. In course of time this Mr. Edwards hopelessly involved the firm, and he continued to draw his salary because having overhauled the books of the firm, " Friend Edwards," as the Quaker partner called him, could have compelled Overend and Grurney to put up their shutters in twenty-four hours. Still, for all this, Overend, Grurney and Co. are in the dock, and Mr. Edwards, though hissed and hooted by the crowd whenever he appears, has got off scot free with an enormous balance at his bankers. The idea of prosecuting directors has become quite infectious. Two more batches of directors of rotten limited liability companies are at this moment on their trial. I think we have seen the last of the good ship Limited Liability. She has foundered, and I do not think that anyone will dive after her. The Government is commencing to cut down the Estimates for the coming year } but their plans for economy seem to be based on rather a cheese-paring system. The Government guns have commenced to blaze away at the Civil Service clerks, who are being dismissed in shoals, and the clerks who are left are not to be allowed so many quill pens. Indeed, an ingenious economist has suggested the appointment of a pen-cutter, to go round the various departments of the State to cut and trim the pens of the clerks. lam not quoting a scene from a popular farce, I assure you. The substance of this pen-cutting scheme is embodied in a beautifully-worded circular which has been issued from the Stationery Office. Oh, red tape I red tape ! I have to record the death of a charming little actress, Miss Nelly Moore, with whose name many of your readers may be familiar. She was very young and very clever. The poor girl had suffered ever since Christmas with typhoid fever, and death at last relieved her from sufferings of indescribable agony. She died calling piteously for her mother, who had been I summoned from America, whither she had gone with her second daughter Louise. The mother arrived in two days after poor Nellie's death. Nelly Moore made her first appearance at St. James's, about eight years ago, and has since played with great distinction at the Haymarket and Queen's Theatres. While on theatrical subjects, I may say that this morning the Lord Chamberlain issued a circular to the managers of all the London theatres, conveying a warning apropos of the present fashion of indecent costumes in ballets, burlesques, and pantomimes. Young ladies on. the stage certainly do contrive to put on as little as possible, and.it is quite true that many modest women have been shocked by the laxity in this respect which is now permitted. We have followed too closely in the footsteps of the French, whose indecency of dress has been followed by immorality of dialogue. I cannot say yet how the Lord Chamberlain's warning will be received, or whether it will have the effect of lengthening stage dresses. One thing is quite certain : the Lord Chamberlain has it in his power to close any theatre which takes upon itself to pay no attention to his preliminary advice. The threatres were never so full, or doing such a good business as now. Pantomimes and burlesques are still in good swing, and Mr. Robertson has followed up his successes by writing another excellent play, called "Home," for the Haymarket, and a comedy called " School" for the Prince of Wales Theatre. However, it has been discovered that both these plays are based on suggestions made by French arid German authors ; and Mr. Robertson is at present being somewhat roughly handled for not having announced his plays as adaptations. The good men of Manchester are determined to try the ballot. It was tried the other day in order to decide, in case the Conservative member is turned out on petition, who should succeed him. The choice fell on Mr. Ernest Jones, the well known Chartist, who was once in prison for the part he took in the Chartist riots, but has for the last few years been a steady, working barrister on the Northern Circuit. Within a. few days of this amateur ballot system, Mr. Ernest Jones died in Manchester, of inflammation of the lungs. The election petitions are now being tried all over the country. The plan of trying them locally, and not in London,

has succeeded admirably. Two members out of three tried have already been unseated—namely, the members. for Norwich and Bradford. To-day judgment wasjgiven in the Phillips v. Eyre case. Mr. Phillips is a negro brought over by the Jamaica Prosecution Society, -to prosecute Governor , Eyre. This last — and I trust really final— -attack against Mr. Eyre has failed, for judgment has l?een entered for Mr. Eyre. CIABENCE CaPULET. February 29, 1869.