OUR ENGLISH LETTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 867, 12 October 1888, Page 30

OUR ENGLISH LETTER.

(EROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) STRANGE. AFFAIR IN MADRID. London, August 24. There is a singular tale told in the - papers, the particulars of which, so far as known, may be interesting if they do not come to your readers from other sources. At midnight on July 1 suspicions, of something wrong, on the second floor of a certain house in Madrid caused the police to force an entry, . when they were horrified to discover the half-burned body of a lady about 55 years of age lying on the floor. Examination of the portion of the corpse that was intact..showed that she had been fearfully stabbed, and that afterward the clothes had been saturated with petroleum and then fired. Nothing had been touched- or disturbed in the rooms, but the bloodstains, &c., had been carefully washed away. In the kitchen of the flat the servant girl was found lying ou the floor pretending to have been drugged; and swearing that she had heard nothing of any struggle or disturbance ; a bulldog, the only other occu pant of the room, was evidently labouring under the effects of a narcotic. On arrest and examination the woman utterly confounded- . the magistrate by telling a succession of wKstr-proved-to be undoubted falsehoods, but at first being believed, several-persons were arrested on suspicion. Ultimately, she retracted all her previous evidence, and solemnly averred that the murderer was none other than the old . lady’s -son, who first threatened her - with the fate of her mistress, but subsequently secured her silence by heavy bribes. ► But here comes in the mysterious part of the tale ; the son at the time of the murder was underr goinga sentence of three months’ imprisonment, and the very morning after the murder was informed by the authorities of his mother’s death, and though he showed no surprise, he gave orders for the funeral and masses, &e., according to the rites of the church. ; In consequence of the circumstantial evidence of their servant the Governor of the gaol was suspended, but both himself and the wa.rders all alike swore the prisoner ha I never, been outside the gaol since his incarceration. On this the Governor was released, but meanwhile the police have obtained evidence that the young mail had certainly been seen about the town on the night of the murder. On this it appears one of the forward and swore an information that it was quite a customary thing for prisoners to be let. out at night in plain clothes, and that the supposed murderer was actually away on . the night in question, returning to . the prison at 4 in the morning in a state of partial intoxication, and- that whilst - in; ~ this state he admitted to a fellow prisoner that he had killed his-mother. In consequence of these statements"there have been wholesale arrests, and the most extraordinary excitement .exists in the Spanish capital./ One very singular step . lias~ been taken by the press. Nearly every paper in Madrid has instructed counsel specially to attend and watch the case. What part the learned gentlemen will take in the trial beyolid acting as special reporters; for - the journals they represent is not veiy clear, but the step is quite a new departure in newspaper enterprise. ■ - THE MARRIAGE STATE. No sooner does Parliament disperse than some topic is started by the' Daily Telegraph to fill its columns, and at the same time to gratify its. readers by enabling them to see their opinions writ large in solid type. This time we are favoured with the views of these gentry on the interminable question whether marriage is or is not a mistake. The editor of the “ largest circulation ” rather unnecessarily drew attention to an article in the Westminster Review by Mrs Mona Caird, the sum and substance of which seems to be that in her opinion the ' narrow lane of matrimony must be widened,' and that when persons find they cannot live in harmony the bond should be loosened, and apparently a system of free love allowed to prevail. It seems incredible that amongst anything like a large class such a possibility can even be contemplated, and it is satisfactory to observe that the majority of the correspondents who day by day expound their views, are not prepared to go this length ; but it is very significant that a powerful minority are evidently inclined to side with the Reviewer. That the marriage rate, is declining is certain, but it is sufficient to point to the depression of the last five years for an explanation without trying to make out, as some would have it, that this decline i 3 due to an increasing number of unhappy marriages. It is interesting to observe that a very strong and general opinion is expressed, especially by female correspondents themselves, that the key to the soluticn of the difficulty lies with the women themselves. A wife, it is asserted, that lays herself out to win her husband by trying to understand him and. to comprehend her own failings, will in the end obtain her reward. Men are much more open to flattery and attention than is generally supposed, and usually yield to the voice of the . charmer, and where women do not possess the tact of management the defect is largely due to the foolish training,; qr lack of training, by the mother. One lady makes a very sensible remark, and one that should be well pondei-ed by every young woman, viz., that if before marriage a man is known to be addicted to some particular

1 1 ' J vice, and especially ivhen.thls vice is drunkenness, it is the most mistaken idea for the intending wife to suppose that marriage will prove the cure. The notion that love will gain the day isf„in.nine cases out of ten a hopeless there are probably few jfjcopl© ivlio have not seen scores of cases that confirm this opinion. The cruelty "oU some parents who hurry on matches of this kind is monstrous, and ought to be criminal in the eye of the law. If it could only be recognised as a canon of society that no man with a doubtful past—-no matter what his means or position—would haVe the slightest chance of matrimohy within his own circle, we should see an astonishing change in a few years’ time. However, taken broadly, I believe the prevailing opinion to be that those who make their bed must lie on it, and that any relaxing of the marriage,tie. would never be sanctioned by the electoral yoice of the people. One word as to the American view. A lady from the United States, who has spent two or three! winters in England and Europe, favours the public with her opinion that across' the Atlantic marriages are much happier than with us, though this, by the way, seems scarcely consistent with the fact that the law of divorce has been, presumably through the force of the public demand, made so easy in some States of the Union tliat the ceremony is a mere farce and has. no binding quality worth speaking of. However this may be, the writer’s prescription for happiness, and which is said to be so successful, is briefly this : Give up housekeeping and ’ live in a boardinghouse or hotel; let husband and wife be perfectly independent of all each others’ arrangements ; and, above all, lea the husband keep away from.borne'all day. Comfort, and happiJiess with a man in the house is an impossibility, according to'this excellent lady ; his business is to earn as much money as possible ; hers is to spend it. Convenient arrangement ! I venture to think the American idea of married life will never take root here ; but I will never believe but that this picture is a vile caricature. One would like, to hear what Mr James Russell Lowell, Walt Whitman, and truly representative Americans would have to say about 'it.

SOCIAL ROTES. Everything in the. way of news is so terribly dull that even the Pall Mall. Gazette, which could get a sensation out of a grindstone, is driven to .fill its pages with thrilling instalments of a Parisian mystery story, by Mrs Grant Allen, called “Dr Palliser’s Patient.,” Possibly it is owing to this stagnation .tliat a rumour is going the rounds to the effect that the Princess Christian, the Queen’s third daughter, better known formerly as the Princess Helena, lias joined,’ or. is on the eve of joining theßoman Catholic Church. The tale originated . in' an obscure. Irish paper, but soon got put about, and in explanation it is stated (by the Protestant journals) that her Royal Highness has been suffering for a long time from melancholia, and it is more than’half hinted she is not in a mental condition to know her own mind. The Standard, however, has been, authorised to state that there is “foundation”* for the report, and it is thought that Her Majesty has been exercising her regal and maternal authority, to preyent what some people would consider a scandal, though why Royalty should be debarred from the exercise of a conscience when it happens to possess that article, is not very clear. However it may be, we hope there is exaggeration somewhere. The Australian cricketers, if not scoring quite up to the mark—and they are. said to be getting a little stale —are doing excellently well pecuniarily. At the All England match at the Oval,, where th ® visitors were defeated by, one innings and 137 runs, the gate money, of which they take half, amounted to about L 1548 for three days. Out of about 30 matches the colonists gained 16 to date, and lost seven or eight, • the rest drawn. Since the date of the first of this series of visits there have 'been ten set matches against England, of which . two were drawn, two fell to the .Australians, and six are credited to England. W. G. Grace is still champion scorer, making recently againßt Yorkshire-148 and 153 in the same match. Twice before he has done the same thing in first-class - matches ; last year 101 and 103 not out against Kent; and as long ago as 1868,-130 and 102 not out, also against Kent. Surrey claims to be the champion county this year, as she has only been beaten twice by Yorkshire and Australia. , The second (return) match with the latter was. drawn in her favour, and there is a great desire to get up a third encounter, if it can be arranged before the visitors go back. It is difficult to take up any newspaper now that does not advertise, once a week at least, some new Brewery Company taking over aD old-established business and promising unlimited percentages to investors. Why this furore on the part of private owners to share their wealth with the general public is an open question —part possibly may be due to a lurkin# distrust of popular action as to all liquor-oroducirig establishments when local government becomes fully operative, and the present Act (enlarged in a future session) hands over to the County Councils powers of licensing and local option. At the same time it is to be remembered that a general desire . exists . amongst all traders to convert their private enterprises into companies, and the brewers are only falling in with e fashion of the day. The Guinness Company has just declared • 15 pe r net profit for division being L 790,930, and of this nearly L 230,000 was earned to re- ■

Serve and depreciation funds. The latest addition to the list of company brewers is the celebrated firm of Sir H. Meux and Co., who enter the field with a capital of and debentures of L6OO,OOC>. The average annual profits during the last seven years are stated to be L 112,000.. The extraordinary suicide of Dr Ridley, medical officer of the Irish gaol whore Mandeville and O’Brien were confined, afforded a great opportunity to the coroner’s jury to have a slap at the Government, and they passed a verdict amounting to a censure of the Prisons Board, intimating that the unfortunate doctor was driven to his death from a fear that disclosures would be made showing that he had departed from his official instructions, and treated the prisoners under liis charge With too much humanity and forbearance to please his masters. A general question about suicide has been started by some one who endeavours to show that in despotically governed countries felo de se is less frequent than in purely democratic lands. The Pall Mall Gazette, however, quotes statistics showing that in Paris the suicides are 402 per million, in St Potersburgh 20G, 170 in Berlin, and only 87 in London ; and according to a Russian paper suicide and insane cases have doubled during the last ten years. A story is quoted of a wretched child of 13 who quitted life, leaving behind a paper on which were the words “je legue moname a Rousseau, mon corps it la terre.” One is reminded by this of the testament of Dr Cross, the father of the poisoner of that name, “I leave my soul to the devil and my body to my hounds.” Democratic institutions and equality of soeial conditions certainly tend to greater happiness and a greater desire for life.

NEW TRADE ROUTE. Who would imagine that an unlimited field for business exists untapped in the dreary wastes of Siberia ? Yet Captain Wiggins, a hardy navigator from Newcastle of the Elizabethan type, declares this is the case, and claims to have proved by voyages made in small steamers for some years past that the entrances to the inland waterways of the Siberian mainland, especially the Obi and Yenisei Rivers, are open to navigation for three months out of the twelve, and that if only the Russian Government will grant facilities, and not harass trade by impossible restrictions, fortunes may be picked up like blackberries by those who have pluck and enterprise. The mineral wealth of this semi-Arctic region, especially in gold, is said to be enormous, but the quartz needs powerful crushing machinery, and this cannot be carried inland on account of difficulty and cost of transport. The only route according to the captain is by sea, and by the course he has discovered. When the country is thoroughly opened up the palmy days of California and Australia will be put in the shade, and a regular rush will be the order of the day. It is asserted that those who have worked the seams even in the roughest way have made amplefortunes. It seems strange that the Russians themselves have not known this before and acted upon it, and it seems scarcely likely now that, if all this be true, they will allow strangers to come in and rob them of their inheritance. The soil is during the short summer extraordinarily fertile, the natural heat of the earth being retained and accumulated during the long winter owing to the non-conducting layer of snow ; hence it is expected that wheat will be extensively cultivated for the European market. Sir R. Morier, the British Minister at St. Petersburg, has addressed a very important despatch to Lord Salisbury on the whole question of the Siberian trade, in which he pays Captain Wiggins the highest compliments. Sir Robert has obtained veiy important concessions from the Russian Government, which, though only temporary and tentative, may lead to very great results in the future.

PARNELL’S LATEST MOVE. It is a strange commentary on the angry contempt with which the accusations of The Times have been received by the Irish party, and their indifference, real or assumed, that the day before the Royal Commission Bill became an Act Mr Parnell’s solicitors (Messrs Lewis and Lewis, of Ely-place) lodged notice of an action for libel against The Times in tho Scotch courts, laying damages for a large sum, and it is stated that the intention of the plaintiffs is to proceed vigorously with the case, but at the same time to attend before the Royal Commissioners and give all the evidence that may be required. Even the friends of the Home Rule cause regard this step as singularly equivocal after the time that has elapsed since the publication of the alleged libels, and the repeated declarations of Mr Parnell that he wanted a special committee, and would not or could not place any confidence in a Judge and jury. How far there may be any truth in the rumour no one knows, but it is hinted that the origin of the so-called forgeries has been traced, that the missing link has been found, and that the owners of The Times have too late discovered that they have been duped, and are at their wits’ end in consequence. On the other hand it is whispered that the jealousy of a certain lady induced her to confide the incriminating document to the newspaper in question, and that her evidence will be forthcoming if necessary to support their genuineness. All these stories must be taken cum grano salis, but one thing is certain, that whether the Scotch action goes on or not, the three J udges composing the Commission have made preliminary steps and issued noti-

fication as to the time and place of trial, viz., the 17th of .September, at the New Courts. . ,

NAVAL NEWS.. The naval manoeuvres are at an end, and have taught us a most, excellent object-lesson, which, Unfortunately) Will result in an increased bnrderi for the ratepayers, since it is impossible to resist the conviction that the navy is by no' means strong enough for attack and much less for . defence. Moreover, the pseudo-capture of. Liverpool arid other ports has emphasised what has been entirely forgotten, viz., that though the international agreement forbids the bombardment of defenceless towns it does -not prevent the commander of the hostile fleet from levying, reasonable “supplies, or a reasonable money contribution in lieu of supplies,” and if these are not forthcoming,, the admiral may enforce his demands by powder and shot. The importance of this clause in the' treaty must not be overlooked, and it has a special interest of an unpleasant character for colonists. There is nothing to define what is meant by “ reasonable,” and a defenceless port would be entirely at the mercy of au arrogant conqueror. Probably a good fleet of torpedo boats would do a good deal to instigate his anger, for though it might not be possible to employ them so far as to keep a hostile fleet of ironclads entirely at bay, yet they might be employed, if the town was driven to extremities, in such a way- as to inflict most serious damage on the invaders. Amongst other things brought out by these naval operations was ’the fact that the torpedo flotilla ought to \be doubled, so that the boats and crews may work, so to speak, on a double shift, 6ne set resting and the others working. Had the blockade lasted a day or two longer- these vessels must have been temporarily withdrawn, as the day and night continuous watching was completely wearing cut both men and officers.