LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

[ntOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, March 24. ACCORDING to the almanac, last Monday was the first day of Spring. And on that day spring set in—with terrible severity! During tho whole of this week we have had intense cold, heavy snow, hard frost, and keen northerly wind. The " etheral mildness which the poet tells us about is conspicuous by its absence. The influenza which the doctor tells about is conspicuous by its presence. It is feared that the fruit crop will be ruined or nearly so through this rude " nipping in the bud" just when the foolish trees had been deluded by the previous mildness into a premaure putting forth of their blossoms. The farmers find that the wind needs much " tempering" to the young lambs now to be seen skipping in hundreds about the snowclad fields, and discovering to their chilly cost that although it may be all very well for the Psalmist to consider " snow like wool," this is not the experience of poor thinly-clad lambs.

And the sufferings of the still more in-adequately-clad class of human beings, usually known as " the poor," are most deplorable. To them cold is the dismallest and deadliest of afflictions. A decent-look-ing man was found in a dying state at Clerkenwell yesterday morning by a policeman. He had just strength enough left to whisper that ho had " dropped" through, being overcome by cold, hunger, and fatigue. He lad had nothing to eat for several days, lior had lie slept under a roof all that time. Ho had been walking about seeking work until exhaustion overtook him and he 'dropped." And lien he had told his tale he died. A post-mortem examination j.invijd tl'at his death was due to starvation and cold. Aid this occurred in London yesterday. At the same time numbers of "Society" people were engrossed in preparations for the " season," and in planning how they could best spend their surplus wealth so as to derive most enjoyment through tho outlay. Verily the contrasts of London aro strange and mysterious and saddening! As tho Queen is still at Nice having a "good time," with crowds of her family around her, she does not afford material for many observations. The entente cordiale now arrived at between England and Franco has been all in Her Majesty's favour, and she has inspired the usual enthusiasm among the Nicenos.

Lord Salisbury left yesterday for the Riviera—another token that times are quieterand will have audiences of the Sovereign. It is no secret that tho Queen is heartily thankful for the turn events have taken, and rejoices greatly that war, especially with France, should have been to all appearances entirely averted— may bo for years, it may be for ever." Her Majesty is known to have entertained the strongest repugnance to the duty which lias more than once seemed so imminent, of according her Royal sanction to a declaration of war. Indeed, it is probable that but for the Queen's inlluenco we should have attacked France directly Marchand's presence at Fashoda was discovered, when, owing to our superior preparedness and strength, we should infallibly have crumpled up Franco liko a Chinese lantern.

Another desperate struggle is being anticipated with the liveliest interest. In that campaign Australia will be our antagonist, and the battles will be fought with bat and ball. The three" test" matches between the chosen team and the " Rest of Australia" have been followed with the keenest attention, and the Australian visit of tho coming summer will bo the biggest thing of its kind yet seen, provided the Australians play anything liko up to their Australian form. The absence of several old favourites, including [Men, Graham, and Harry Trott, is much regretted, but the newcomers will have a hearty welcome. ( At the courteous invitation of the Great Central Railway authorities, I tried the new route to Lancashire for a Saturday to Monday visit. The travelling was remarkably comfortable. All the trains aro corridored and vi'stibuled throughout, and run very smoothly. It is a great convenience to be able to obtain refreshments en route— grilled chops and steaks—by any train, wliilo the lunches ami dinners in the regular diningcar trains are the best of the kind I have yet seen. Nothing wonderful in the way of speed is vet being done, five hours being allowed at present for tho London-Man-chester journey of 205 miles, but there are to bo great accelerations in July when tho new road will have " settled down." Tho Great Northern, which now runs its own trains to Manchester, has not running powers to the nearest Manchester Station, London Road, which was used by joint trains, so has to go to the Central Station, several miles more distant, besides a circuit round the city and consequent liability to delay being involved. This makes the distance about 208 miles, I believe, or longer than by the Great Central, and something like 20 miles longer than the Midland and the North Western routes.

A curious new departure in London journalism is pending. The Daily Telegraph lias announced its intention of bringing out ft special Sunday edition, on such a scale as to make it a very formidable rival to the numerous Sunday journals already on the market. This lias roused the Daily Mail which already claims to have distanced the D.F. in respect of the "largest circulation in tlio world." So yesterday tile Daily Mail came out with the announcement that " On the same day that the Sunday edition of the Daily Telegraph appears there will also be issued the Sunday edition of the Daily Mailon Sunday next if necessary"— but the curious feature is that each purchaser of the Sunday Daily Mail will receive two copies for his penny! That does seem a novelty. Apparently the purchaser cannot tender a halfpenny and get 0110 paper as on weekdays. He must pay his penny, but then ho gets two papers. Rather a funny idea 1 It is also stated that the Sunday Mail "will be published by an entirely new staff," and "will bo in no ways the result of seven days' work on the part of any man." That, at any rate, is well. A curiously romantic little case was dealt with yesterday nt the London County Sessions. A nice-looking young girl, named Clara Hanson, was indicted for stealing a watch, a purse, and two rings, valued at £7, from the cabinetmaker named John Lewis. He declared that the girl had come from Liverpool to London to live with him, and that one day while he was at work she suddenly vanished, taking with her the things alleged to be stolen. He informed the police, and they fetched her from Liverpool, She was charged and committed for trial. This seemed simple and straightforward enough Jill the girl gave her version, which she did in the witness-bos, with many tears, She unfolded a strikingly different situation. Thejnan, sho said, had told her "a lot of lies," which she was foolish enough to believe, and had persuaded her to oome with him to London, giving to her as presents the articles referred to in the charge. But when once ho got there his motive quickly appeared. He insisted upon her going into the streets to earn money for him by disreputable means, through trading on her good looks, and when she refused and said she would return to Liverpool, he threatened her with a revolver and swore he would ruin her life and moke her suffer. So she ran away in terror, taking the things he had given her. He had written to a friend in Liverpool asserting that he would win the case as he knew a lot of people, and she had not witnesses. "But God knows I am not guilty," she concluded, sobbing bitterly. Now came a complete transformation scene. Evidently both the judge and jury were convinced by the beauty and simple pathos of the fair _ Clara and her story, and were strongly influenced against the prosecutor, John Lewis, who is described as "a miser-able-looking" foreigner." So they instantly acquitted Clara, and the judge refused the prosecutor his costs. Next the jury clamoured to be allowed to pay, out of their own pocket, Clara's expenses back to Liverpool, and the judge consented on conditionsternly insisted upon—that he should pay his share. "I want to be in this, too, said the judge, Mr. M'Connel, Q.C., and he was; a sum of £112s lOd was subscribed. Then the Court ordered the jewellery to be restored to her and not given back to the prosecutor, Finally a letter was read in Court from a very respectable young man in Liverpool who had long been , a devoted admirer of the accused, declaring his conviction of her innocence and offering to marry her immediately on her arrival at Liverpool, and promising to "work for he as she deserved." So : the pretty Clara was taken care of for the night by the St. Giles Christian Mission,

and this morning was duly forwarded to Liverpool, where she will be met by the nice young man who will marry her. Could there have been a prettier or more romantic outcome to what at first seemed a sordid case of the most common petty larceny? "Sir Henry C-8.," as people have agreed to designate the new leader of the Opposition, even Sir Wilfred Lawson's " Campbellman" not satisfying public requirements as to brevity—has in some degree redeemed his fiasco over foreign affairs, by delivering a rdally excellent "fighting speech" at the National Liberal Club. He scored rather neatly by enumerating a list of what he deemed the Ministerial shortcomings and attributing them to " Legislative Influenza," a phrase which has "caught on." I fancy Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman is heard to best advantage when he has no antagonist sitting opposite and evidently " waiting for a spring. That condition does shake the nerves of some combatants. Just now the question which most deeply agitates the Radical Party is the choice of a suitable flower to be worn on " Gladstone Day," in commemoration of the "G.0.M." It is insisted that the flower must be white " the white flower of a blameless life," how that recalls a certain ex-Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives!—and the one first suggested was the lily-of-the-valley. But unluckily that promptly inspired some pestilent Tory poet with the following wicked epigram: —

Of course the Radical should wear The Lily-of-the-YaUey, Because it rhymes so neatly with Tlie sliilly of the shally. And of course that has killed the idea. The latest proposal is to adopt the daisy. But that really does seem quite too funny. So the storm of controversy on this momentous question still continues" to rage furiously. Another current controversy is that excited by the London Government Bill, which creates a number of new municipalities and abolishes the old and effete system of rule by vestry. One important thing it does is to re-establish the venerable and historic city of Westminster. This, however, gives umbrage to several strong parishes which would be absorbed— as St. Martin's-in-the-Fields—and there aro other debatable matters. But the Radicals see in the measure an insidious attack on the London County Council, which, by-thc-bye, was created by a Conservative administration, and they bitterly resent the letting alone ofthe other historic city comprised within greater London—that of London itself—which it is the earnest ambition of the Radicals to destroy as a separate and venerable entity. So the fight waxes fierce and free, The Government, however, will certainly carry tho second reading of the Bill, probably tonight, but there will be a long and tough ana complex struggle in committee. M those foul and unfounded charges made by the amateur "special" Bennett against Lord Kitchener and the AngloEgyptian Army of massacring the wounded Dervishes after the Battle of Omdurman, were promptly disposed of at the time. But the refutation has now received a most conclusive corroboration and endorsement. It is clearly shown by Lord Kitchener, Lord Cromer, and Sir Reginald Wingate that the Bennett " yarns" were scandalous libels ; that the Dervish wounded were treated with the utmost kindness and attention, and only those were killed who were caught in the act of attempting to murder our men in cold blood after the battle was over. A great and stupid fuss has been made about the destruction of the tomb and mortal remains of the rascally impostor and infamous murderer, the late Mahdi. To colour this act still more luridly, it was even alleged that the disjecta membra of the defiant Mahdi were shared among various officers as curiosities. On this head, Lord Kitchener has just written as follows: — "I was advised, after the taking of Omdurman, by Mahommedan officers that it would be better to have the body removed, as otherwise many of the more ignorant people of Kordofan would consider that the sanctity with which they surrounded the Mahdi prevented us from doing so. None of the Kadis, Ulemss, or inhabitants here consider the Mahdi to have been other than a heretic to the Mahommedan religion. Ho destroyed all tho mosques in the country, as well as the toiffi) of the descendant of the prophet at Khatmieh. He was denounced by their religious Sheik Sonoussi as acting against the religion. He treated all Mahommedans who did not accept the changes lie introduced into their religion as heretics to be killed. I feel sure that no Mahommedans in this country feel anything but satisfaction at the destruction of his power, together with all trace of his religion. The skill] of the Mahdi has now been buried at Wady Haifa." Upon which Lord Cromer—who had been specially appealed to by those who sought to make anti-Ministerial capital out of the affair — comments as follows: —" I have nothing to add to this statement, except to express my personal opinion that, under the very exceptional circumstances of the case, both the destruction of the Mahdi's tomb and the removal of his body elsewhere, were political necessities." There, I should imagine, the matter might and could and should and must end.

But if any further demonstration bo desired of the falsity of Mr. Bennett's charges, tako the following letter from Major Luigi Calderari, of the 40th Italian Infantry Regiment, who represented the Italian Army as Military Attache, on Lord Kitchener's staff: " I am very glad to have an opportunity to put in writing what I stated to you verbally in Milan as to the manner in which the Dervish prisoners at the battle of Omdurman were treated, and to deny in the most absolute way that any cruelty was practised toward the prisoners. I rode on to the field of battle in various directions, and everywhere I saw hundreds of wounded lying alive, notwithstanding that tho A up toEgyptian troops had already traversed the ground. I happened to be for a while at tho head of the troops in their advance, after the attack on the zareba had been repulsed, and then again I was able to convince myself that the wounded were not in any way molested. If an occasional wounded man was killed, it was only in legitimate defence, because, as is well known, it is a custom with these peoples to pretend to be dead and ''then to fire on the enemy as he passes, or, worse still, to ask for water and help, and then treacherously to kill those who are succouring them. I do not write these things in order to defend Lord Kitchener. He is so far above such accusations that merely to waste words in denying them would be an insult to him. I can only repeat that I am very happy that an opportunity presents itself for me to give a denial to statements which are untrue." Surely this, supporting as it does what the German Military Attacho Captain Yon Tiedemann, of the Royal Prussian General Staff had previously averred, ought to put a final quietus on the miserable libellers </f the Anglo-Egyptian Army, and make them hide their faces for very shame! A very unusual incident occurred at the close of the performance of "Woman and Wine," at the Princess' Theatre last night. An elderly clergyman, sitting in the stalls, rose and thanked the management for producing a play which, he said, was a powerful sermon, bringing home to the hearts of all present the degrading effects of sin. His remarks were greeted with great applause by tie crowded audience. It was stated that the speaker was the Vicar of a Northumberland parish. Evidently he was also a sensible and broad-minded man.

One word more about this extraordinary "cold snap." The current week of spring has been far more severe than any winter period since the Great Frost of 1895. Four people have died suddenly in London during the week from the direct effect of the low temperature in stopping the heart's action. The snowstorms in some parts of the country are the worst of the century. Snow lies six feet deep around Scarborough. Skating is in active progress on all the shallower and more shaded lakes and ponds in and around London. As I close my letter, the frost still continues. The effect on the public health is growing very grave. Influenza is spreading rapidly in an aggravated form. It has already caused 150 deaths in London this week, or double the worst deathrate during last year's epidemic. Hosts of ratable people are among the sufferers, and all the hospitals are crowded. There were no fewer than 15 deaths certified as from influenza in London yesterday I On Wednesday last the funeral of the late Lord Herschell took place, the service Vc.nig held in Westminster Abbey. It was noteworthy for some novel and impressive musical features, introduced by the organist, Sir Frederick Bridge, These included not only Beethoven's solemn and beautiful "Equali" played by four trombones, but also the introduction of a powerful band of brass and drums in addition to the splendid organ of the Abbey. The effect of the tremendous outburst. oi organ, brass and ■ drums, in "Luther's ■ Hymn"- ...was most thrilling and.