ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8812, 27 February 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.]

The Countess of Lytton and Barer*? members of her family returned to town from Knebworth immediately after the funeral of the late Earl of Lytton. They are now residing at Lady Ampthill's house, in Stratford Place. A volume of poetry, which his lordship had just) completed, will be published almost immediately.

The materials for a romance by Zola are to be found in the career of an undertakes named Michob, now awaiting his trial in Paris for assassination. His mother bequeathed him £3200, which he rapidly dissipated. Then he became successively a clerk, canvasser, and clown in a strolling company. Meanwhile he had found a mistress, by whom he had four children. 11l next occurred to him to turn banker, and he made the acquaintance of a young girl living as servant with ti rich old man. He, dying, bequeathed £8000 to the girl, whom Michot immediately married. He then started a loan office, purchased a share in a newspaper, embarked some of hia capital in glass works, and speedily ran through the whole of his money. He nexb turned undertaker, professed to conduct cheap interments, ana, whenever he could, he gave the dead pauper funerals. Finally he took up with the trade of an assassin.

A competition of cyclists, organised by one of the morning papers in Paris, has taken place in tho environs of thab city. One of its principal objects was to ascer* tain how far such a method of locomotion could be utilised for military purposes in time of war ; but the conclusions arrived at are that for scouting and reconnoitring there is nothing to equal a good soldier, mounted on a good horse, and well armed.

The fourth volume of the Talleyrand* Memoirs, just published in Paris, brings into especial prominence the important part played in the politics of France by Madame Adelaide, sister of Louis Philippe. Much of the diplomatist's correspondence from London was addressed to her. Sha was her brother's egeria. She mad<j and unmade Ministries, and was at all times the King's privy councillor, "When she disappears," said Talleyrand, " The King will lose one of the best bubtresses of his throne," and so ib proved. She died in 1847. Next year her brothec was a crownless fugitive ; and the Orleans dynasty perished through his own inepbl< tude.

A Chicago reporter, by the way, gives U8 this account from Sir Edwin's own lips of his intentions and belief. It appears that at Bangkok, in Siam, there is a Bud* dhist temple occupied by Brahmin votaries. " I am going," says Sir Edwin, " to effect the return of the holy temple to the Buddhists, and I am going to do it without friction or violence. It will bo an evonb in the religions history of the world similar to Saladin giving up the Sepulchre of the Lord without a struggle. I cannot tell you fully how lam going to do this. I have secured the needed civic authority, and, in fact, all that is wanted to effect the return to its own seat and home of a great worldreligion is the concluding ecclesiastical negotiations which are already practically assured."

Ladies emerge with flying colours from the ordeal of the Bachelor of Arts examinations for honours in connection with the University of London. In the first class for classics five ladies have succeeded and only one gentleman. In the first class foi French the names of three ladies and one gentleman are given, and in the same clasa for German exactly the same proportion. Miss Lucy Baker, Bachelor of Science, takes first place in the examination in the Art, Theory, and History of Teaching. Four other ladies also passed through this ordeal, but only one gentleman.

Carlyle's opinion of Ireland, as recorded by Sir Gavan Duffy (who is passing tho winter at Mice), is exceedingly neat and characteristic. "It is not repeal from England, but repeal from the devil, that will save Ireland. . . . Great Britain is married to Ireland by tho ground plan of this world —a thick skinned labouring man to a drunken, ill tongued wife."

"Ib was a touching fact," writes Mrs. Fen wick Miller in the Illustrated London News, " that the late Duke of Devonshire remained a widower for fifty years—from the early age of thirty-two—in consequence of his fond affection for the beautiful wife that he 80 early lost; and that he always carried about with him, in a despatch-box under his own eyo, as people carry their most valued treasures, all the letters that) he had received from her in his youth. Those letters were ats length stolon at a railway station, the thieves doubtless believing that they were securing valuable booty ; but the treasure was like the good name of Shakespere's lines: it did not enrich the robber, though it left the loser poor indeed. A like revelation of a husband's tender and abiding love was given by a similar incident in the life of the late Lord Houghton. His pocket-book was stolen ab a railway station, and the losb which he most deplored was that of the only portrait that he possessed of his wife as she was in her youth. So we see that the sorrows of the heart fall equally, or perhaps thu most heavily, on those who are freed by rank and wealth from occupation with more material hopes and cares."

In the course of an article in the National Review, dealing with domestic decorationS| Lady Colin Campbell gives a sarcastic " recipe," with the view of ridiculing the modern craze for aesthetic drawing-rooms. Take five large scroens, as many sofas, and a like number of palms; surround each palm and sofa with a screen so as to cub oil as much as possible all communication with the outer world represented by the rest of the room ; drape the screen with as many pieces of " Liberty ' silk as they can conveniently carry and tie up the pots of each palm, and in some cases its stem as well, with "Liberty" scarves pin as many unseemly and repellent insects in the folds of the draperies as you can ; hang a tambourine from one end of the palm leaves, and sprinkle photographs wherever possible, also hand-mirrors on every small table, and then " serve up" and await results. Mr. Gorichen was (the Daily Telegraph says) the other night conjjponted with a novel and startling argument against his £1 note proposal. At a dinner-party the Chancellor of the Exchequer was introduced to a well-known financier of the city, who is an active member of a large banking firm, and asked him his opinion respecting the £1 note scheme, to which Mr. Goschen is just now, even in the holiday season, devoting a great deal of thought. " On, it will never do," replied the city man. " Nobody in our set likes it. Personally I think it is a mistake altogether." " Why?" asked Mr. Goschen eagerly, expecting to find some argument adduced which hia ingenuity would bo able to demolish, and thus convert a foe into a friend. " Well, you see," answered the financier, " you can toss with a sovereign, but you can'b with a £1 note." Mr. Goschen looked ab the gentleman reproachfully. Tho Queen is so favourably impressed with the picturesque turbans worn by her own Mussulman attendants that she has requested Lord Lansdowno to restore tho old-fashioned Oriental head-dress whenever practicable. In accordance with this intimation, the hideous caps of the "Viceroy's bodyguard have been replaced by gorgeous turbans of red, dark blue, and gold. Prince George of Wales continues to gain strength, but ib is to be hoped that care will be taken to guard him from -running any risks through the north-east l winds for which Sandringham is rather unpleasantly famous. I understands (writes " Miranda" in the Lady's Pictorial) that there is good foundation for the report that His Royal Highness is going to leave the Navy for the Army, and that ib iB more than probable that he will settle down in London in another twelve months or so. By the way, it is a rather curious coincidence that the name of one of the Prince's nurses should have been identical with that of ono of the richest heiresses of the kingdom, who is also a great favourite fib Marlloorough. House.