LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12955, 26 August 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

[from OUR own cohresfondext.] London, July 14. BIRTH OK A ROYAL I'KINCK.

The day before yesterday the principal item on the newspaper bills was " Birth of a Royal Prince"-a also you learned by cable. This means that the Prince and Princess of Wales have added a fifth boy to their family, so the dynastic succession ought surely now to be secure beyond all doubt, I hear that the father and mother would have been better pleased had little Princess Mary received a sister.. That young lady herwlf has placed her own views on record very distinctly. "I should like to have a sister.- she said, "but not if she was to be a Princess." She is a very nice little .girl and a pretty one too, but already lias a distinct, air of personal dignity, and she has manifestly learned that certain advantages attach to solitariness in the matter of Princessdom. NORWAY AND SWEDEN. A strenuous movement is on foot bavin-' for its object the conferring upon our Kin" and Queen the honour of being father and mother to a Queen-consort and father-in-law and mother-in-law respectively to.a Kill" regnant. The people of Norway, who have tonally resolved that innumerable teams of wild horses shall not drag them back into union with Sweden, have made up their mind if possible their future King shall be Prince Charles of Denmark, who, it will be remembered, married Princess Maud, the youngest daughter of our King and Queen. 1 understand Prince Charles himself would be very willing to accept the proffered throne, but that his wife has no inclination in that direction, greatly preferring a quiet and even private life. It is related of her that on. one occasion, being on a country visit to an intimate friend, she insisted oil remaining incognita, as " Miss Mills." There, was no harm in that; at'least there would have been none had it not unluckily happened that a young clergyman in the neighbourhood was captivated' by the charms of '' Miss Mills," fell desperately in lovo with her, made a fervid declaration of his passion, offered her his hand and heart and his vicarage— curacy, I forget which— of which of course " Miss Mills" was obliged to decline with thanks. The unfortunate parson was badly cut up and the Princess was a. good deal distressed to have unintentionally caused him pain. From that day I believe 'Miss Mills" mysteriously disappeared. "

MR. BALFOUR S NEW IIEDISXIUBtmON SCHEME.

Mr. Balfour must be, one would think, too shrewd a man to suppose that his redistribution scheme would please everybody, but he surely could not have been unprepared for the general dissatisfaction with which it is received on all sides. 1 have not the slightest intention of boring New Zealand' readers with the complex details of a huge scheme which can have no interest to them; but 1 may say in general terms that MttBalfom determined to essay a fresh and still more brilliant feat of intellectual dodginess. It may be presented concretely as an attempt to sit not merely on two, but two dozen stools simultaneously. Naturally from his view point the first thing to be done was to save as many of the smaller constituencies a's possible that were represented by Ministerialists. Ho he adopted, a minimum population of 18.500 as the qualification for a Parliamentary scat. Why that exact irregular figure was chosen does not clearly appear, but at least it has the advantage of saving several loyal Conservative seats of 20,000 or thereabout. Unluckily it leaves untouched such anomalies as constituencies still retaining populations ranging as, widely as from 20,000 to 100,000. Naturally this is one point sprung upon him by the enemy. Then again it would almost seem as if Mr. Balfour with all his long and intimate experiences of Hibernian feeliug has really imagined that the Irish Nationalists would bo placated by being deprived of only twenty-two members instead of a larger number of seats.being taken.from -them. It is almost needless to say that this ostensible concession has been received with shouts of the wildest and fiercest derision by the Nationalist party, some of whom have solemnly pledged themselves to resist so iniquitous a wrong until each of them shall have been forcibly carried out neck and crop, arms and legs by the police. Naturally every constituency whose continued existence is threatened by the measure fels dsperately outraged. So docs its present representative. But underlying or over-riding—put it which way you like— these local and interested .sentiments, the broad fact remains that hardly, anybody believes Mr. Balfour to be truly in earnest about the matter.

' LOUD nonKBTS ANII-THE ARMY. , Lord Roberts is following up his resolute effort to constitute Great Britain an "armed nation." At every possible opportunity he. presses.his proposal that rifle shooting and rudimentary military discipline should be among the' compulsory subjects of British education, and that rifle clubs should be fostered. Speaking in the House of Lords a few days ago. he held up an alarming picture of the present condition of the British Army, declaring that it was not one whit better prepared for war than it was at the tune when England drifted into the struggle with the Boers. He also laid ruthless hands on the Prime Minister's declaration that an. invasion of England was virtually outside the view of practical politics. _ In slwit, Lord Roberts has succeeded in making people verv uncomfortable, and the worst of it is that so far nobody has been aide to pick a hole in' his argument or to expose a weak link in his chain of demonstration. Meanwhile Mr. Arnold Forster, who seems to have achieved no more success than < id his predecessors, Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Brodrick. in .carrying out any satisfactory plan of army reform, still goes on his way, if not rejoicing, at any rate theorising. During his reign at the War Office several most important modifications have been made in the shape of various buttons, coat pockets, and trouser legs, and he may nd Llout;-agedatfl.epublicingi^fudewh,J persists in refusing to accept these .things lieu of any workable scheme by which the interests and safety of the Empire wn be defended if necessary on the stuck, n field." MOROCCO.

Apparently a modus vivcndi lias at 1««J bee. arrived ,it between 1-ranee " or ma „ v with the tacit consent J l^ll^ to a conference «» nlduc ,1"" ' „„ f -c,,,i Merest ol France, if P«j«y >>- •*s£ willing that it shall * 1"' Cl * ~ ~„. sic „ r 'l,* f .,„.»»■ -*»«„" iii,,,. straiiits ot-otneo, lias ~„,,,- formidably f l '^ s J Jlo oSbing as a needles, und h <'J fc made down on the part of I \ Ance -\ n .A in office it quite clear that bad ho "™A bwe been the demands pi l,m '7 , ~. He does resisted even at the cost ot ».. • not believe for a man*nt d. A extremity would have ventured, Uv «„d had heen after the entente with i-"o ftllAiiitoa„,u,c.d, because he decays J^J'^ply vanquish Germany at the , irM, ' terlv valueany 'land success ljjg u «« J s less. These are M. Uclwsw-s music. London niuic is inoribundfor this jcasoj. The Royal Opera » lanes day nights, and its mtqres stead V( duocd by day. Two novelties' have been the wont in these latte. days actaauinu ofourlxmdonnianagemeßiOnc lo," by Lo«ni, met witli wlyt j? „ wlliuh ally known as " un success d c*» but cannot be exactly reproduced in W«» m the real idea of which may Pf™%' essicm conveyed by the r C£ absurd "not bad." The latest hybrid title •'Madame Butterfly, B heme ;- work of Puccini, composer ot g d wjU achieved something "i 016 ,,, 11 .'", „othwithin all probability ho heard a„J» dikes , standing its'many !"I«%J ri JJ Italiansuch a.s the impewonat«QU by,^ u^ lcd « J. est of Italian tenors, ot »nt inclined t0 B. Pinkerton." -One »•» ™« u r clllT y feel ,orrv that Puccini did nat W of hjs on the ancient melodic JiJ with country than attempt.scrW wen Wagnerian as to produce a conj o keiT i u g." is hardly "fish. flesh, orgjod red Still, he must be redded as nr>

present-day Italian composers, even bearing m mind the creators of " Cavalleria Rusticana and " Pagliacci." Mischa Elman, the latest and greatest of the last two years' juvenile, prodigies, has given his final performance and departed. His latest tour do •force was an excellent interpretation of Beethoven's immortal "Kreutzer Sonata," with Adela Verne as pianist. He is a wonderful little chap undoubtedly, but it is genuinely to be hoped that the era of juvenile prodigies may now have a wholesome and lengthened interruption. A WELL-KNOWN CHARACTER. This week has deprived Fleet-street of oho of its best known personalities! The plump and pleasant little man who for twenty years past has officiated as the lineal successor of Tennyson's " plump headwaiter at the Cock," and who by those numerous members of the legal and journalistic professions ,vho daily at midday seek the '• refreshment at the Cock" -winch Dr Johnson recommended to Boswell war. familiarly known as " Charles," has passed to-his rest. lie was a particularly civil and obliging and intelligent little 'fellow, and hecseemed to have a specially: warm corner in his heart for New Zealand guests, Charles always seemed as if he. could not do enough for anyone who came from the Britain of the South. He never failed to point out to them the numerous curiosities and Johnsonian and other relics in which the place abound?, or to draw their attention to the' fact that on presentation of their cards and the appending of their signatures to the visitors' book they could obtain a copy of Tennyson's poem in which his predecessor is apostrophised. Many of those have been thus obtained and carried back to New Zealand, and a- number of signatures of more or less well-known New. Zealauders will be found in the old book by future guests, who, however, will miss the advantage of being attended to bv the " plump head-waiter at the Cock," who now rests from his labours. ,