CURRENT GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 3

CURRENT GOSSIP.

Ist-^^dt^^^r^^-It is said that Queen Caroline of Saxony is suilermg from fatigue, caused by over-exer-tion in her kitchen. r It is reported in St. Petersburg that General Tehcrnaiefi; is to be app eill tfd Go-vernor-General of Turkestan. Mr. Sims, the oldest member of the En-disk Reform Club, died at the age of ninety-four Jie was an uncle of Mr. Goseheu. -Mr. Gladstone has consented, subject to the .state of public business, to preside on. one of the four days of the Eisteddfod at liciibigh in August next. At recent fashionable weddings in England a youthtul relative of the bride bears her tram, lie is fancifully dressed in the style of the old \ enetian of (Jharles I. period. The Queen is said to have manifested great s<"■licitude in the recent discussion respecting the safety of the theatres from lire, and has t-ik.-n .juite an active interest in the subject. -Mr. .Justin McCarthy, M.P., haS) j J t is stated declined to accept the leadership of tiio advanced section of the Irish party in. 1 ai liament during the imprisonment of Mr I'arnell. Usear Wilde asks £40 a night for his lectures. What does a man who dines on the perfume of a lily and wears cast-off garments mule by early English tailors want with £40 anyhow ; Mr. Samuel Lazar, formerly lessee of the Theatre Royal, Adelaide, has been removed to a private lunatic asylun at Cook's River. For some months he has shown signs of aberration of intellect. Tile advocates of marriage with a deceased wife's .sister have lost a powerful ally by the death of Mr. Nykcs Tlioruton, who spent little short of a million of money duriiu'his life towards tl.e furtherance of that end.° it is believed that in his budget this year Mr. Gladstone will renew his proposal for extinguishing £0U,000,000 of the National Debt by an immediate conversion of part o£ the long annuities which come to an end in. ISS.-). By command of the Queen, Sir H. Ponsonby has forwarded to Madame Roze Mapleson a gold bracelet, in remembrance of the pleasure her Majesty experienced on the occasion when Madame Mapleson sane at Osborne. Mr. Hriglit's speech at Birmingham on •Jnd January contained 7,'X\~> words, and was telegraphed to London in 45min., the telegraphic operators only taking 33uiin. longer to transmit the speech than the speaker took to deliver it. It is an oild circumstance, and one that attracted not a little humorous comment in the House during the Bradlaugb debate, that at the very moment—2s minutes to five — when Mr. iiradlaugh began his speech the House of Commons clock stopped. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales has sent, through Mr. R. F. Synge (of the Foreign Oliice), to King Kalakaua several photographs of herself and the Royal Princes as a contribution to a baziar to be held in Honolulu in aid of the building of the cahedral there. Mr. Kilsby Jones, a popular Welsh orator, has been giving a lecture on Self-made Men, in the course of which he referred to Stanley, the explorer, whose real name, be states, is John Rowlands. Stanley's mother is still living at Glasgoed, near St. Asaph, and Stanley is not only a Welshman, but a Welshspeaking Welshman. Tne Duke of Hamilton has announced his intention of .stripping his ancestral residence —Hamilton Palace—of its splendid contents, and of putting up its pictures, statutes, and decorative furuitur3 for sale. Hamilton Palace is one of the most colossal Mansions in the United Kingdom. The statues and painting which adorn it came from all parts of the world, and have in many cases a unique value. A pressman once had a wager -with some others that be would insert a paragraph iu the columns of an insignificant New Zealand paper that should go "all round the world." The bet was taken, and he inserted the following :—" It is well-known that Mdlle. de la Ramee, better known as ' Ouida,' is about to come out to New Zealand shortly for the purpose of being united in the holy bonds with a prominent Christcliurch settltr." He won the bet. Alexandra, Princess of Wales, met lately with what was nearly a serious accident. While playing with her children at a game of "snap-dragon" at Sandringham, she unwittingly overturned the vessel of burning spirit. Her dress caught fire, her eyebrows were singed, and one arm was injured. Brave lady that she is, she was the coolest of the group : while the flames of her sleeve were being extinguished she herself tore away the burning portion of her skirt.