LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13325, 3 November 1906, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

[FROM OUR OWN* COTtRKSI'ON'DEVI'.] I-'/-" London, September 22. Till: KI'NO AND QUEEN. Ken'G Edward has been enjoying the Doncaster races and visiting various personal friends resident in the North of England. Queen Alexandra is still in Denmark, enjoying the society of the Empress-Dowager of' Russia. The * latter lady did not land on arriving off Copenhagen in her yacht, but remained on board, whither her sister and others went to visit her. This started a rumour which greatly enraged the Dowa-ger-Empress, to the effect that she was a voluntary prisoner on board the yacht Pole Star through fear of assassination by anarchists. Such an imputation on her courage could not be endured, and so it was explained that the august lady was laid up with a sham attack of muscular rheumatism. Subsequently Her Majesty landed in due course. , ■_-. V few days ago an official announcement appeared to the effect that the Lrmcesa Royal would have to undergo a very Sligm and trivial operation in order to remove a trilling ailment, and would therefore I* obliged to spend a few days m seclusion until its effects wore off It has not .vet been disclosed what was the nature either of the ailment or of the opera .on. but it has been admitted .the latterproved to be of so severe a character, that some time must yet elapse before the Royal patient can be deemed entirely convalescent. ROYAL MOTOR ACCIDENT. The Duchess of Connaugh has had * disagreeable motor,. experience, She was uc in* driven through Hounslow—a south western suburb of London-"hen a small bov, who was hanging on to the back of a. 'cart, suddenly jumped in front of hei motor-car and was killed a most instantly \«, possible fault attached to anybody but the wretched urchin himself, but the Duchess showed the true Royal and womanlv spirit, doing everything possible for the relief of the little sufferer, and subsequently extending warm sympathy to the bereaved mother; for the boy "was the only son of his'mother, a widow." The case was a very sad one. but if boys will jump recklessly in front of locomotives or motors or even cabs going at full speed they and their parents can hardly be surprised if uncomfortable consequences ensue. A COLD SNAP. Did anvbody say that this country had -i "settled"*sort of climate? Perhaps not. It mav be a sort of dream-fancy of mine. But if he did I should be obliged to differ. When last I '"talked about the weather"— like the major-general's daughter in the '•Pirates of Penzance"—l had occasion to record the sultry fact that on four successive davs just* then expired the thermometer ill London bad stood at 93 to 95deg. in tne shade. Last Sunday, just one little fortnight later, the shade maximum was exactly 40 degrees lower, and the range between* the day temperature of the 2nd inst. and the night* temperatures of the<l6th was onlv 61 degrees! We are now in the throes of a "cold snap" which, although the summer will not end officially (1 mean almanackicallv) for another two days, we have already been experiencing more than a week of temperature quite as low as that of most days last winter. This is a wee bit trying, mil Id-promoting! THE SCOTTISH OATH. Lately there has been a strong agitation against* the farcical and filthy practice of forcing witnesses in law courts to "kiss •he Book"—i.e., the Bible—when taking an oath. In view of the insanitary condition of most of the law court Bibles there is a growing tendency to substitute the Scottish form, which prescribed that a witness shall stand with right hand upraised and shall say "with his own voice" (this detail is essential!): "I, swear. by Almighty God. and as I shall answer to God at the great Day of Judgment, that I will tell the truth,, the" whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Surely an infinitely more solemn and impressive* declaration than the profane nibble heard in our English—as distinguished from Scottish—law courts. ; .Many witnesses substitute affirmation. Anything is better than discrediting the administration of justice by the foul book-kissing folly. CLEAR AND LUCID THEOLOGY. People who honestly find difficulties with respect to theology and religious questions will no doubt be grateful to me for offering them a complete, exhaustive, and refreshingly simple presentation' of the whole matter.* I quote it from a, weekly paper. It is headed " A Bolt from the Blue." and— given in extenso —runs as follows: —"That an Eternal Principle co-existent of Essence, Intellect, and Purpose, pervades, the Universe (God), the prenatal endowment of all humanity for intuitioned response. By the Conscious to be the Religion of the (intuition as opposed to the Rootlessness of Rationalism, Centreless Atheism, and the Christology of the Gospels, supporting a priestly intervention between the soul and its 'over-soul.'" That is all. Is it not strangely clear and lucid? I do not see how any reasonable person could ask for more. As Josephine says in "H.M.s. Pinafore,*' the writer's "simple eloquence goes to hit heart !"

THE WATT CASE. That curious ease of Hugh Watt, exM.P., still exorcises the public mind iu some degree. People are still asking when Mr. Hugh Watt is to be liberated from gaol. The man in the street is quite unable to understand why an innocent person should be kept in prison till the end of the year, or why, on the other hand, a would-be murderer should have four-fifths of bin sentence knocked off. The Home Secretary's position is untenable,.says one journal.* For surely there is no .sense in merely reducing his"sentence if he be really guilty of a most heinous crime, for which, if guilty, lie received by no means an excessive sentence. He must be either guilty or not guilty. There cannot possibly be any intermediate position. 30,000 CANCER VICTIMS. Apparently the cancel- scourge is becoming more and more serious. A Paris correspondent asserts that every year 30.000 persons die of cancer in France, the number of victims in Paris alone being 4000. Instead of diminishing cases of cancer are increasing, and whereas formerly the age at which the victim was attacked by the frightful malady was usually after 40. nowadays young people of 25 and 30 are affected therewith, and, moreover, cuncer now attacks all the organs of the body, whereas formerly it was limited to two or three at the utmost. Such are the facts to which Dr. Borrell called the attention of the Academy of Medicine at the last meeting, and yet. in the face of such a terrible scourge yearly devastating the country, the French Government does absolutely nothing to encourage the search for a remedy for the evil. All that is done in this line is due to private enterprise. Dr. Borrell, in his communication to the Academy, developed a new theory as to the transmission of cancer, which, according to him, is in many cases communicated through our food. It appears that the cancer worm, if such it may he called, lays its eggs in refuse, which in the country districts lies often not far from the springs from which the water for drinking and gardening purposes is drawn. This water, mixed with food or drink, is contaminated, the cancer microbe introduced into the system lodges in certain corners of the body, and sets up a cancerous growth. THE METEOR AND THE ADMIRALTY JIUOY. Another illustration has just occurred of the extraordinary (sensitiveness of Germany to imaginary affronts on the part of Eng- ■ land. A German steamer called Meteor came right into Portsmouth Harbour and attempted to pick up an Admiralty buoy. This was ii gross and gratuitous piece of :impudence, as the captain and officers must certainly have known that such a proceeding was inadmissible. As has been pointed out,"an English vessel doing likewise at Kiel, for instance, would have encountered small civility ami had a short shrift. In the present case the Portsmouth authorities ; courteously intimated to the rude intruder that such"a breach of the rules could noto be allowed, and that she must find moorings elsewhere in the harbour. Now, however, the German Anglophobe papers have -■circulated- the story that the Meteor was ordered out of Portsmouth Harbour, and \ this falsehood is engaging the diplomatic, attention of both nations.