NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7622, 27 April 1886, Page 6

NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

London, March 12. EXTRAORDINARY SCENE IN A LONDON THEATRE. The Italian opera season at Her Majesty's Theatre came to a premature and somewhat sensational close on Saturday night, March 6. The announcement that Gounod's "Faust" would be given had drawn a very large audience, which filled the cheaper parts of the house'to overflowing. The curtain fell on the Kermesse scene amid thunders of applauee. A very long paue- followed, whioh the gallery, suspecting at first nothing worse tban the usual dilatoriness of operatic scene-shifters, beguiled by singing " Wait till the clouds roll by," and other popular ditties humourously adapted to the situation. In the meantime many seats In the orohestra remained empty, and presently a voice was heard to say " I professori non sono pagati," which statement being interpreted to the effect that the band not: having been paid refused to play, and travelling from the first row of the stalls to all parts of the house, produced a perfect roar of indignation. Some of the leading artists remained at their posts, and Signor Mancheroni, the conductor, gave the sign to begin the prelude to the next act. But the public refused to be satisfied, and even after the curtain had risen indignant calls for " tha manager" and for "an explanation" continued to resound from pit and galleries. At length, however, the performance w»3 allowed to proceed. The curtain again fell araid rapturous applauee, aud again interminable " wait" ensued. The account given by the Timeoproceeds :— "By this time the audience had fairly lost ite temper, and the groans and angry cries waxed louder and louder. When the tumult was at the highest the stage manager stepped forward and declared that the scene-shifters, not having received their money, refused to work, and that therefore the performance would terminate with 'God Save the Queen.' But even this modest sop to the Cerberus of excited feeling was not vouchsafed. The curtain rose once more, and on the stage, drawn up in double file, were seen a number of supers and other employe's, female and male, partly in their ordinary dress auu partly in their theatrical costamea. Instead of intoning the National Anthenu, they made pitiful appeals to the audience for the pay of whioh they had been defrauded by the manager. Coins were thrown and scrambled for in wild confusion, no one making the slightest attempt to put an end to the disgraceful proceedings, which lasted for upwards of half an hour. After this the few persons regaining in the stalls began to leave the house, but they were met in tho passage by the occupants of the gallery clamouring for their entrauce-meney and for the manager, who, of course, wa<? nowhere to be found. Some rough horse-play now ensued in the lobby of the house ; carpets were pulled up, and one or two lamps broken, Fortunately, tho crowd, like moat English crowds, was good-humoured, having probably derived more amusement from the exciting incidents of the evening than the tineat performance of Gounod's masterpieco could have afforded. The mischief to Ufa and property that might have been done under different circumstances is incalculable, the theatre being at the absolute mercy of the excited audience from eleven at night till one in the morning, when the last stragglers dispersed. Whab munt have struck intelligent foreigners on and off the stage more than anything else was the happy-go-lucky state of indifference displayed by ' the authorities;' no policeman was anywhere to be seen, and this after tho recent experiences in Pall Mall and Mayfair. Artistically speaking, the riotous proceedings of Saturday will probably be remembered as the ignominious end of an institution for two centuries the most fashionable in England. Covent Garden is a circus; the sooner Her Majesty's Theatre is turned into a post otlice or any other respectable place of business the better." SIR CHARLES DILKE. The London correspondent of the Mancheater Courier writes:—"Tho Premier is still confined to his room, but Sir Charles Dilke has taken no further advantage of hie absence from Parliament. Last night the Daronet ran through the lobby once or twice, and even •. mt eo far as the library, but he got the cold shoulder everywhere, and he perhapa realises his position fully for the fi/et time. His friends urge upon him to go abroad aud write a book upon federation. Let the election come soon or lato, Chelaoa will not return him ; and as Mr. Gladstone still eyes him with great displeasure, he cannot be over-comfortable in Parliament. Kven those members who wrote to condole with him are not keen to give him welcome insight of the whole House." THE STATE OF IRELAND. The Dublin correspondent of tho Times writes on March 9 :—" The renewal of moonlighting, houghing and burning of cattle, aud other outrages in tho South, and the extension of such malicious practices to districts which have hitherto been regarded aa comparatively peaceable and orderly, as for example the county Louth, are very disquieting facts, aud cause much alarm among the claeses who are obnoxious to the National League. It is a coincidence not to be overlooked that this new outbreak of lawlessness in its worst forms haa almost immediately followed Mr. Gladstone's declaration that the Governm- \t were resolved not to adopt any repressive measures. It is also a significant circumstance that it has taken place after a very deliberate and emphatic repudiation of crime and outrage on the p.irt of the league. The question naturally arises, have the heads of tho league lost their coutrol over the farmers and their sous and labourers who commit such acts, and is the boasted organisation, after all, wanting in the powers to enforce its orders ? Or are there two policies adopted, one for show to the English public and the other for use ? Such savage outrages as have been reported from Limerick, the raids in Kerry, and the murder of Finlay, with all its revolting detailu, saem irreconcilable with either an honest desire to maintain sooiai order pending the promised settlement of the Irish question, and the resolute application of a strong hand to enforce discipline and obedience co the instructions of tho league, or with the unity of which so much is said." MURDER IN PARIS. A mysterious inurdor was committed in Paris on March 11, in the Rue de la Gaite. On the ground floor of No. 30 is a wholesale and retail wiue merchant's establishment, and the proprietor, M. Riollot, a rich man, lived alone in the upper part of tho house, vvith only one mau servant to attend on him. M. Riollet this morning opened the front door of his shop, and soon afterwards cries of " Murder ! help!" were heard. It is supposed that two or three men came inta the shop, ostensibly to make a purchase, aud that the wine merchant went down into tho cellar, whero he was followed by the murderers, who had previously closed the shop. At seven o'clock (the shop always being open at five) a neighbour knocked at the door, and getting no answer, the premises were entered by a ladder The servant was awakened, and then M. Riollet was found dead and covered with blood at the bottom of the cellar staire. He had evidently been stunned by a heavy blow on the head with a loaded stick, and then literally beaten to death with the same weap.ni, and terribly knocked about tho face with knuckledusters. Robbery was, it is supposed, the motive of the crime, as the till was emptied. It is believed that it contained a large sum of money.

FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY DISASTER. The Nice correspondent of the London Standard, telegraphing on March 11, eaye : —" A terrible railway accident occurred last evening, between Monte Oarlo and Roquebruue, which are distant only a few miles from each other, on the line between Nice and Genoa. The train leaving Nice at ten minutes to four p.m., and Monte Carlo nine minutes later, was run into 200 metres from the latter railway station by a supplementary excursion train, coming from Ventimiglia, at full speed. The trains should have passed each other Roquebrune station, where there is a siding for the purpose. The stationmaster at Roquebrune, however, unfortunasely allowed the excursion train to proceed without signalling the departure ; and the officials ou the platform, seeing the Nice train coming, signalled the driver, who put on the brake, bat was unable to reverse in time to prevent a collision. The driver, the stoker, and the guard jumped off at once. Owing to the existence of a curve where the line passes through a tunnel in the rock projecting into

I the sea, the driver of the Yentimiglia train was unaware of the danger he was in, and on account of the speed at which he was running his train suffered the most. The engines and carriages were entirely wrecked. The driver was killed instantaneously; the stoker was dangerously injured, and ten carriages were heaped together against the parapet of the line, while four carriages fell over the wall, a depth of forty metres, on to the rocky sea beach below. Of these one wa3 a luggage van, two were second-class carriages, and one a third class carriage, but they contained very few paosengers. _ An Italian named Ferrero was killed, and an Italian artiste aad her daughter were also killed. During the night about twenty-fivo passengers, who had sustained injuries more or lees severe, were rescued. Moat of them were oarried to the hotel at Monte Carlo, which had sent out omnibuses, that rendered good service. Belief parties were immediately despatched from Monaco, Nice, and Mentone, as soon as news of the disaster reached those places. The locomotive of the Nice train remained on tho rails nearly intact. Only a few of the carriages of this train were driven off the line. The complete list of the sufferers show that three persons were killed and twenty-four injured, all of whom were second and third class passengers. The collision is described aa producing a report like that of cannon. The two engines were jammed together, while the carriages were crushed into fragments, and form a heap of* ruins. The engine-driver and stoker of the Nice train saw the other train coming at full speed, and jumped off, just in time. The stoker of the Mentone train was killed on the spot, and the engine-driver was lying under the ruins of his engine, frightfully mangled. The killed include M. Ferrero, an Italian contractor, the stoker, Domergue, and tho engine-driver, Feraud. The injured include Madame Tesseyre and her daughter, Madame Beck, the tenant of the Alsatian tavern at Monaco, and the Prieur family from Pariß, consisting of the grandmother, aged 14, the father, the mother, and a child. Madame Prieur has had both legs amputated. Fortunately there were very few passengers in the four carriages whioh were dashed down into the sea. A little girl two yeare old was picked up with a simple scratch. An adult passenger who had a similar fall escaped with a broken arm. The latest report gives the number of the injured an 32. LORD HARTINGTON ON" THE POLITICAL SITUATION'. Speaking at a banquet given by the members of tbe Eighty Club, at the Westminster Palace Hotel (Lord Richard Grosvenor presiding), the M-quis of Hartiugton referred to his supposed invidious position with the present Government, but he believed that the majority of the Liberal party were actuated by a desire to adhere to the older lines of Liberal policy. The new Parliament would, before other important questions were mooted, have to deal with the difficulties of the government of Ireland, which, he admitted, were numerous. The Conservative party had mad« it impossible for any Government who succeeded them to doal at once with the Irish problem. They had preferred a few months' tenure of office to the enactment of repressive legislation, and had thereby greatly increased the difficulties of their successors. He thought that no one who had studied She declarations of Mr. Gladstone as to selfGovernment in Ireland, could be surprised at the tone of his present declaration. But he claimed that tho Liberal party were in no way pledged to tht> opinions) or declarations of Mr. Gladstone. The English people were uuited in the opinion that the establishment of an independent legislature for Ireland could not be entertained. Any proposals Mr. Gladstone might bring forward ought to receive the most favourable consideration, but in his (Lord Hartington's) opinion this question vvaa too important to be decided by the authority of any mau, however eminent, One difficulty seemed to be that no one know what the Irish demands were. It would be unjust to assume that anything would be done injurious to the unity of the Empire ; and he would not attempt to prejudge the policy, or to force the hand of the Government. Kather would he do everything possible to enable them to have a fair field for a policy of peace for Ireland, He would leave, with confidence, the issue to be decided by a people who were enlightened and patriotic enough to come to a just decision upon this vital question.