OUR ENGLISH LETTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 860, 24 August 1888, Page 11

OUR ENGLISH LETTER.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

COLONIAL NOTES,

London, July 14,

At a recent meeting of the Oriental Bank, the project of a cable between British Columbia and Australia was very warmly recommended, and the breakdown of the present communication via Java and Port Darwin emphasises the present demand. The breakdown is supposed to be due to volcanic action, but the fracture has been localised, and is now being repaired. The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, who own this line, are "themselves about to lay a third line from Java to Western Australia. The apparent failure of the Panama canal renders the proposed line of steamers from Vancouver’s Island to the Antipodes more probable than ever. M. de Lesseps is believed now to be reckoning on some assistance from the French Government; a financial collapse, which really seems probable, would be such a terrible blow to French credit that the aged engineer thinks his Government would hardly allow it to take place. On the other hand the Cabinet at Washington would almost certainly interfere if anything like State interference on the part of the French was to be attempted. The Monroe doctrine is in full force in the States, and the Americans are no more likely to allow the French Republic to interfere in Central America than they were to allow Napoleon 111. to establish an Empire in Mexico twenty years ago. I see that Mr George Dixon, M.P. for Birmingham, is about to visit New Zealand some time in September. He is a Liberal Unionist and a leading Reformer of the Birmingham school, a great authority on education, and one of the principal authors of the great Board School in the Midland metropolis. The British Australasian has ceased to have a separate existence, and will, I find, henceforward be associated with the Anglo - New Zealander. Writing of journalism, I see it is proposed to form a Journalists’ Institute, and a first meeting has been held to forward the movement. Many representatives of the leading papers have already enrolled themselves. It is satisfactory to know that ladies are admitted, and Mrs Crawford, the well-known Paris correspondent of the Daily News, has already joined. The report of the wool market is very encouraging. At the recent sales rates were firm under good competition. New Zealand “greasy” ranged from 6id to Is Oid, and “ scoured ” from to Is Bd. ~ As the stocks are light and the next sales do not take place till the 18th September, there is considerable interval for consumption, and there is every reason to suppose that the present sound position will be maintained.

Queensland was as successful as New Zealand in her recent application for a two and a half million 3£ per cent loan. Applications amounted to L 6,152,500, at prices from LIOO to L 94, or an average of L 94 2s 9d. The general public were large subscribers, somewhat to the exclusion of the financiers proper. I hear that the Commission on currency questions is now drafting its final report, and that it will have a strong, if not preponderant, bimetallic flavour.

COMMISSIONS. I am afraid it is a true bill that as a nation Englishmen are fast getting infected with that hateful spirit which demands a bribe in some shape or other before the slightest favour can be rendered, or. even the actual duties performed. This miserable failing, which finds expression in Russia especially, and it must be added in the United States also, is usually the mark of a rotten political condition, and should be prevalent only in such communities as the corrupt republics of Central and South America, or the unstable kingdoms of south-eastern Europe. How the cancer is spreading here amongst the middle class we have had evidence enough lately, to which I shall presently refer ; but in the lower ranks of life it is difficult to get anything done without a tip. You are scowled at if the railway porter can-ies your bag and sees to your luggage for the fair wage which he is paid for performing this very service ; the waiter at the dining room will hardly accept the penny that he was once delighted with ; the cabman will probably roundly abuse you if you pay him his strict and legal fare ; whilst if you live on a suburban line of omnibuses that are not too frequent, a douceur to the conductor will probably secure you an inside seat on a wet day that would otherwise be filled up, and though something was done some years ago at hotels to restrict the fees (and the same remark applies to theatres), you will not be a very welcome guest the next time you come if the cofi'ee-room waiter or the “boots” is not “remembered” when you leave. Probably all over the world this kind of system goes on in some degree, but it is getting insufferable here, and has extended so much to the middle class that a strong hand is needed to curb the licence that prevails. There are scarcely any extensive contracts ever carried out without attempts of corruption by the contractors’ agents, or the levying of blackmail on the part of those who have the direction of the works. Honest men are of course to be found, and many of them, but a shrewd observer has remarked that to get on a

man requires not talents, though these are useful, but a strong dash of unscrupulousness. Some years ago tho Government of India issued a memorandum to all the engineers in their employ forbidding them to accept commissions of any kind from contractors engaged on Government works. The document excited a great deal of gratuitous anger, and no doubt was felt as a slur by those who were conscious of integrity, but the department was well advised in the course it took. Similarly, of late Directors of gas companies have thought well to issue warnings to their employes, this particularly in consequence of the conduct of the manager of the Salford Gasworks—a man in receipt of a handsome salary, who, nevertheless, during the ten years he occupied his position managed to accumulate an astonishing amount of money ; and it being openly stated by a gentleman, who found himself unable to do business with him on honest terms, that he persistently levied blackmail in the shape of from Is to Is 6d a ton on every ton of coal delivered at the gasworks,' the manager was ill-advised enough to bring an action for libel, which he not only lost, bnt perjured himself at the trial as well, and this having been brought home to him, he has been sentenced to five years’ penal servitude. As I mentioned in a former letter, a commission is now inquiring into the working of the Metropolitan Board, and in one department (that dealing with the sale and management of surplus lands) an astonishing amount of corruption has been revealed. Commissions were paid right and left, and the most nefarious transactions have been laid bare. Sums of over LII,OOO each have been proved against two self-incriminated officials, and three have been summarily dismissed, •whilst one has been suspended. What more may yet be disclosed remains to be seen, and two at least of the actual members of the Board have by no means clean hands. It is high time these things are put a stop to, and the press publicity is one of the most powerful agents that can be employed for the purpose. If people cannot be made moral by Act of Parliament, they may, perhaps, be frightened into it by the terrors of the law, when those terrors take the form of penal servitude and hard labour. But, after all, what is needed is a higher, standard of public opinion. Men guilty of practices like these should be ostracised, instead of which they are too often looked up to as sharp men of business, whom to imitate is a virtue.

CAUSES CELEBRES. The lawyers are having a fine time of it. First we had a week of the public, time taken up with a desperate attempt on the part of Wood, the jockey, to reestablish his character against the aspersions of the Licensed Victuallers’Gazette, which journal gave mouth to the common reports that the plaintiff in the action was a systematic “puller” of horses when it suited the convenience either of himself or his employers. The whole business was really part and parcel of the row which took place some time ago between Lord Durham and Sir George Chetwynd, with the result, as may be remembered, that certain persons were warned off the course at Newmarket, by order of the Stewards of the Jockey Club. Corruption on the turf has long been prevalent; in fact, it is a mere truism to say this, and Wood gained no kudos by his assault on the Gazette. The jury expressed their own and everyone else’s opinion suf--ficiently by awarding him a farthing damages. It is asked solemnly enough, Is it possible to purify the turf? Well, nothirg is impossible, no doubt, but probably in the present condition of society this task is as near the): impossible as any that could well be undertaken. The Jockey Club may do something, no doubt, but unless the. effort is continued for years, and with unflinching severity, the present spasmodic attempts are, at best, waste of time. Scarcely was the Court cleared when, the trial that all have been waiting months to witness was called on, in order that Mr O’Donnell, ex-M.P. for Dungar); van, might rehabilitate his character from, the attack supposed to have been made against him in The Times in his character as a quondam leader of the Home Rule party under Parnell. Contrary to expectation, the issue -- narrowed itself to this, whether The Times in its famous pamphlet on “Parr, nellism and Crime ” did or did not actually include Mr O’Donnell in its category of criminals. The great news-, paper was in great force with a tremendous array ofcounsel, to wit, the present and ex-Attorney-Generals and supportingjuniors of eminence, whilst the plaintiff only appeared with one poor and almostunknown junior to plead his case. Notn. withstanding his openly expressed determination to go into the witness box when the time came for him to do so, Mr) O’Donnell, for some inscrutable real) son, hung back and contented himV, self with simply bringing forward! a few eminent men, who expressed their L belief that, though the plaintiff was hardly mentioned once by name in the articles > complained of, yet that inasmuch as he held a position as a recognised leader, he was by implication involved in the calumnies of the publication. The Judge (Lord Coleridge) animadverted very strongly on the vanity which prompted O’Donnell tqj pose in this attitude, and after the At-torney-General had opened his case in a lengthy speech, he stopped the case, and the jury, coinciding with the opinion of the Judge, returned a verdict for _ the defendants. As this carries costs, it, is believed that Mr O’Donnell will find

himself dropped' into an expense of about LIO,OOO, for The Times had brought over from Ireland a cloud of witnesses to prove their case, beside subpoenaing nearly every man of eminence who could throw light on the subject. Thus exit O’Donnell and enter Parnell, on whom every eye is now fixed, for the AttorneyGeneral, whether justly or unjustly, took advantage of his position nob only to read the famous letter facsimile by The Times, and issued broadcast to the world a year ago, but he produced half-a-dozen others beside, not only as bad as the one already published, but some even much worse. As by the collapse of the case in the ignominious manner described, no opportunity was allowed Mr Parnell to enter tho witness box, it became obviously necessary chat lie should take the earliest opportunity of making an explanation. This he did the next night in the House of Commons, and of his speech it is needless to say more than this —that it was manly and emphatic in a total denial of any acquaintance with the incriminating documents that were read in Court. Either the member for Cork is the most consummate actor or the most maligned person at the present moment in. the three kingdoms, and The Times has either performed as important a service to the country as the press at any time has rendered, or it stands proclaimed as the most imbecile and deluded of journals. Of course the question arises, Why does Mr Parnell not at once enter an action for damages against his accuser ? To this it may not unfairly be answered that a person,occupying his peculiar position must, during the progress of the recent agitatatipn in Ireland, have been mixed up and brought into contact with menwhose antecedents were in the highest' degree doubtful, or whose subsequent career revealed features and connections not at the time suspected, and under the ordeal of the tierce and merciless cross-examination to which the Irish leader would certainly be subjected,’ it-would be difficult to avoid making damaging admissions that would exercise a serious influence on the verdict, yet for all that Mr Parnell may be entirely innocent of even the least complicity with the “invincible” assassins who murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke on that memorable , Saturday in May of 1882. Of course the present contention of tha Nationalists is .that the letters', are forgeries, and the . Times unfortunately absolutely refuses to disclose the source from which the documents in question were obtained, on the ground, that , even now the life of the informer.would not be worth a day’s purchase. It need hardly be said that as-regards public opinion few persons are sufficiently clear-headed and impartial be so influenced by their political opinions as to render their judgment practically worthless; The worst letter of the series which the Attorney-General read in court is so jshort that' I may transcribe it as a specimen. It is. dated from Kilmainliam,Gaol, 19 th January, 1882, and run s'as follows : .—“ Dear E , —What are these fellows waiting, for, {■ -This, inaction is inex/plicable ; our best men are in prison, and nothing is:being done. Let there be an end to.this hesitancy. Prompt action is called for ; you undertook to make it hot for Forster.. Let us have some -evidence of your power to do so. My..-health is good. —Yours truly, C. S. Parnell.” Certainly it is strange if genuine, ■ that so incriminating an; epistle should have been penned and sent from a place where it .might liaye fallen. into .the hands of the authorities. There is something about it winch does not hear the, stamp of ! authenticity. Curiously enough, ..concurrently with these disclosures,, if such Jhey are, the life ©f Mr Forster-has been .issued. ,' :: Jt is from the pen of MrfWemyss Reid,, the late well-known and able editor of the Leeds Mercury. It contains the oft-told-tale of the Secretary’s extraordinary.preservationfrom assassination by a band of desperadoes who searched every carriage of the train in which he was erroneously supposed to ho leaving Ireland for the last time. It tells also of another escape he had when followed by a man bent on despatching him,'But who was r -‘deterred by the presence of Mr Forster's niece, a very .beautiful girl, with whom he,was at the time walking.

MR CECIL RHODES. , Who is Mr Cecil Rhodes, is a question ...that, has! been frequently asked lately, and as he is likely to bo heard of again, it may be well to state that he is a . gentle- . :man ofi about. 36 who .went. out from this country to the Cape a few years ago, leav - ing his father’s vicarage in Leicestershire 'to seek, his fortunes abroad. Possessed of a keen financial instinct he invested all Ilia - spare cash in De Beer’s Diamond Mine, then at a very'low ebb. - The undertaking proving, Very soon afterward a . great, success,"he became a very wealthy mail, and,_as a. large shareholder, undertook the .'ffifinagbm ent of the whole con'ce'rn.V Then ‘. he ' aspired, to politics, and he.became Treasurer-General in Sir Thos. Scanlan’s; Government, which .prevented hisi accompanying General Gordon to •Khartoum as private secretary, a loss he -ever bitterly regretted, for—though not a disciple of the celebrated hero as regards ali his views—lie had the most devoted 'attachment for his personal character. In his capacity as an ardent Home Ruler, but. Imperial Eederationist, lie lias lately been In communication with Mr Parnell, and has obtained from that, gentleman a written opinion that the exclusion of Irishmen from the Westminster Parliament was a. fatal error in Mr Gladstone’s Bill. .jWjtli hthis view Mr Cecil Rhodes has presentea Mr Parnell with a

cheque for LIO,OOO to aid the Irish cause, nd it is probable this will not be his only contribution. The new Pamellite. departure is much discussed, and it is thought by somo that it will draw certain of the Liberal Unionists back to the Glaclstonian fold, and render the prospects ot the next general election more favourable to the Home Rulers.

POSTSCRIPT. The Government has taken a step which, if it leads to anything, will end in momentous results. They propose, in view of the pressure of public opinion, to bring in a Bill appointing a Special Commission of Judges, or other qualified persons, with powers, to inquire into the charges brought against Mr Parnell and certain of liis followers by The Times during the last year, and more particularly at the recent trial of O’Donnell v. Walter. Power will be granted to call evidence, and to grant certificates to witnesses clearing them from the consequences of incriminating evidence that they may be induced to offer. Mr Parnell can hardly do other than accept the offer, and The Times, though preferring evidently the Coirts of law, assents on its part to the terms proposed.