ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9307, 9 March 1889, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.] There is no doubb the Emperor William is a strong and capable man, bub he has no manners, and he has no control of his temper. Nothing can be more ungracious than the official communique as to the inconvenience caused to the royal progress through the streets of Berlin by the people crowding too near his carriage, and his desire that such expressions of interest shall cease. If the Prince and Princess of Wales have undergone with perfect good-humour for the last twenfcy-five years the crowding and staring of a somewhat inquisitive loyalty such as he is never likely to undergo, he might surely tolerate what is an act of affection on the part of his people, which he may some day regret having destroyed by his churlishness and brutality. So there are to be no more Women of the Bedchamber. It is time, remarks a Sunday paper, that some of these ornamental follies of the royal household were abolished. The very titles of these ladies, who receive £300 a year each, are undignified absurdities. It is really better to be called a housemaid than a Woman of the Bedchamber. If any mummery is to be retained, it might as well go by a respectable name. Sir Henry Drummond Wolff figures in the latest list of alphabetical honours published on the first of this year. Already he could append to his name a round dozen of distinguished letters. Apropos of this, a good story is related. When last it was proposed to add to his collection of alphas betical distinctions, Sir Henry is reported to have remarked, " Kindly let them take as closely as possible the form of L.S.D." Mr. Gladstone, favoured by magnificent weather, went to Pompeii, where he was received by the Directors of ExcavationsProfessors Ruggiero and Sogliano— the guards, in their gala uniforms, being drawn up at the gate. Proceeding through the Museum and Forum, Mr. Gladstone visited the house of Fauns. After luncheon at Jupiter's Temple, an excavation was made of a house bearing the name of its owner, iEinilius Celer, a painter of inscriptions. Many interesting objects were brought to light, especially well-preserved amphoral vases, &c, Mr. Gladstone watching the proceedings with the greatest interest. It took an hour to make an excavation. Her Majesty Queen. Victoria has been for some time back anxious to pass a part of the spring in Pau, but being unable to secure proper accommodation there, she has taken the Villa Larochefoucald, at Biarritz, and two other houses for her suite. She will spend the month of March there. The Villa Larochefoucald at Biarritz, which has been taken for the Queen, stands about a mile and a-half from the sea, on the road to Bayonne. It has been taken from February 1, and Her Majesty will spend about five weeks at the Pyrenean wateringplace. Mr. Gladstone's article on O'Connell in the Nineteenth Century is pervaded throughout by a tone of excessive and indiscriminating eulogy, for he gives one the idea that if ever there has been a just man made perfect on earth it was the Liberator. Mr. Gladstone's estimate of O'Connell is extragavantly and preposterously high, for he rates him above Cavour, Rienzi, and Savonarola, while Kossuth and Mazzini "are small beside him." Ib is funny to read Mr. Gladstone's high-flown eulogies of this " great and good man," and to remember that the writer was always one of O'Connell's bitterest opponent's, and that he was a member of the Cabinet which imprisoned and prosecuted him. Ib is said by those who know that the Queen has invested large sums of money, and invested them judiciously, so that the present value of her purchases is largely in excess of what she paid for them. In most matters of this nature she is advised by Sir Henry Ponsonby, Sir A. White, her solicitor, and Lord Cross, the latter having advised the Queen on business matters very sagaciously for some years past. The now year has been so far rich in new words. Mr. Gladstone's "ethnagogue" will, no doubt, be given a place in a future number of the, " New English Dictionary." So, I suppose, will "sylviculture," about which another magazine writer ias much to say. The writer in the British Weekly who has interviewed Mr. George Meredith, and carried away an impression of that gentleman's "almost amphithean powers," is too late; for the dictionary has advanced beyond the "a's." I am sorry that it has, for I should have been glad to learn what" an amphithean power" is. To me the word sounds somewhat amphibolus. And what a pity ib is that writers should do "our rich English tongue" the injustice of rushing into Greek at so little provocation ! The greatest diamond yeb discovered, of 240 carats, is not " the finest and largest stone ever found at the Cape." That preeminence is the attribute of the rough diamond sent home in 1884, weighing 457 carats, free from fault or tinge. It was cut into a brilliant, named the "Imperial," of 180 carats, besides a fragment producing a brilliant of 19 carats, sold to the King of Portugal for £8000 or £9000. The three great brilliants of the world are the Imperial, the Regent, and the Koh-i----noor, weighing ISO, 135, and 105 carats. The Imperial has not been advertised; hence the frequent errors in the press giving precedence to the Regent; but its supremacy will come under public notice at the French Exhibition, where a place has been secured for it in the place d'honneur, main avenue.

Sir George Trevelyan, just before the close of bhe session, received from the author a copy of an essay embodying a study of "Lord Macaulay's English." Acknowledging the receipt of the work, Sir George wrote :—" Ib is extraordinary how the world, by its increasing demand for Macaulay's writings, shows its agreement with you, and how few of the critics unite in that opinion. It is the men of the world, from Mr. Gladstone down to the artisan, who form Macaulay's clientele; and there is to me an exquisite sense of enjoyment in comparing the announcements which, ever since I can remember, the beachers of cribicism have made about Macaulay losing his hold on the public wibh the ever-increasing sale of his works. Reading over your paper ab night, afber a somewhab rowdy debate, I had a great rush of regret at having abandoned literature, but bhat feeling comes seldom."

I hear from a friend in Egypt, writes the London correspondent of bhe Manchester Courier, thab Osmau Digna sent to General Gordon's nephew, who is serving with the Royal Engiueers ab Suakim, a message that, if he liked to see his uncle's tomb ab Khartoum, he would send him bhere and bring him back with safety; to which the young engineer replied thab he was very much obliged, but ab present bhey had too much work on their hands, and he could not geb away, but, as he (Gordon) had in his ledger certain rails which the Mahdists had taken away, he would be much obliged if he would sign the enclosed receipt vouchers, army service forms, &c, bo attach to his store ledger. This Osman did, and returned the papers duly signed ,ind sealed !

A rather amusing , story of taking his commander at his word by the officer of a merchant-steamer comes from Shanghai. In ■September a German steamer was at the wharf at that port loading for Hong Kong, when the second officer asked permission to go on shore on leave. This the commander refused to grant, and, to make sure that his subordinate did not take French leave, locked him in his cabin. When the vessel arrived off Woosung, some twelve miles from Shanghai, the captain liberated the officer, and, in a jocular manner, told him he could then, if he wished, go on shore. Much to the skipper's dismay, the officer ..-, promptly leaped overboard, and swam to the shore, which, being an expert and powerful swimmer, ho reached in safety. Availing himself of the first vehicle he came across .—a native wheelbarrow—the officer was trundled in his wet clothes to Shanghai, and went at once to the steamer's: agents, to whom he reported himself as■" on shore by leave of the captain." The oeoapado ] made him the b er a of tke housia too Medal Settlement), .;•