OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2577, 1 August 1895, Page 4

OUR LONDON LETTER.

From Our Special Correspondent, tr,. , •> , . . Loupe#, Juae.)s.> • tn th<>! intervals.-between,,his ijiveiiuve Sipasms -Jlir /Be^iteß : has been, booming ; *Vevr, ;■ Vuulton and lamb amongst SS6 tig hotelkeepers in London and the Midlands, and with pleasing success. The produce of the' Colony is largely vised (the lamb especially) in several of tho biggocb London and provincial caravansaries-... un the authority of told m tkhV ( ’•' jfigures tt.'tJvOidMlv.b’f'ni' cf the House of (f Co&mi'n s anSivgto'Clu, ( id'vi Honoyman remains in England till her daughter’s education is complete. Mr and Mrs Hay and their daughter return to New Zealand by the, Messageries boat in October next, ' f Mrs Yates, of lids bedll. bilking to ft New Bealan4 o *rfOsbond?dt oi toe Pmt Molt dofcelte Mayoralty, and the interv|eiv str'cngiy Id the ability, Modesty Wd g&od taste of the j .first wdy Miiyor. Of the troublesome Vonuclllor she speaks thus gently : —“ The person who disturbed my meetings had been a thorn in the flesh of all other holders of my office and know no more of,,.the way in municipal affairs thill 'Wdr Mfe” Asked if she,drained hW •JMt df office ai . suceeso, M'r% i&MWSWtt .tMe v-“ The j fetehi f6r feet^ffiyes,~ took ofe,ce,besides a.debt,of toirn.bad 'a current jdejs pi, .pqtfceen • I And . I npt bjMjf Wid mole of bur^ojirr^tdi^lnlit'tJb,:^bdb.paid .£2OO into tbpb'inlniijliijid in reduction of our main delft.. .. I consider, the ; result was due; ; to practical economy and management, j The roads during my year of office were : better kept than they had ever been before. ■ Since I left office they have run themselves into debt again, to the extent of .£300.” Her failure to enlist thd iwupathy of the bnrgessps a fiffie Mrs : Tate* tyJthli&K 1-osulted from her ; dqtewniMt'CE not td Canvass. “ I never,” I felti?. eiidi" canvassed a single voter t but I . prefer not to speak of tho means adopted by my opponent who supplanted mo.” I trust, the nameless ones feel sufficiently ashamed of themselves now.

ILLNESS OP CAPTAIN ABHBV. The latest accounts with regard to daptain Ashby are not, I reg Set. to, Iftjh Vel'Jr encouraging* Though, lOAlhihgly | potter and able to Ute pis paralysed arm and leg a little, Attd 'Stilt across rpohi. .the invalid sererhS Sb. low spjms s , alia JUS in h felV Mmvl entirely lost the buoyant, cheery manner all his friends know so well. The doctors have, . with: the idea of preventing worry, forbidden’ the captain to discuss business, &0., but I really_think; bothers him more Knowing about things would* I ,am glad to hear Mrs Ashby &S £6ft t* dArfie Hoble-41 pl\^ r .'qjptam Jias ,confaShi!h.\%, hifq jjow r « aU y requires '&iinponp I tfilepn.pp apitl, * t . ■ . ■ i The . coht.etqplajied, visit of Gaptam and Mrs, , Ashby to No'S- Zealand has bean abandoied .for.. the, present.. Indeed, .it Seems doubtful whether our old friend will ever again be in a condition to undertake such' a long, journey. Next week Captain and Mrs Ashby go on a visit to their ' son; the Eev J. Crorabio, at Oxford; and we all earnestly hope the little Sliahgo may de itim good; r ... ~ , §jR GEORGE Sp.Ef;, , v/ i3sr;'(jedrgd Grey thtlltHed trf PA Sathrd’Ay last AltS, spending some teii ildys #M;Mr.E.,B, l Maifcpn,M-K at Overb’Arjh near to, have renewed *he':ireaei»Ple P(3itipmn.’s .vitality, I.Wndh' Wi4i-P^^°A t ?dyj tlie. ifeohltepiS*| wiwQh i j/notod... iu. hi.m h „-short lime ago, had entirely; ,dj a “ appeared. Sir Gqorge, was,, as (Over, quite uncertain,.; as< ;.to„;o lijs,,, futiu-G ,-movements j with, regard tq his ill ‘at present, and he will npt' make any arrangement until that, cloud has passed over or broken., I ventured to remind Sir George of .his, constituency, and drew his attention to the fact that certain colonial journals were attacking. him for his prolonged absonce. The G.O.M. made light of these personal attacks, and seemed to think that the newspapers making .them , must be .rqtber .hayd,, Ujl, f<s. ,dtipy.' I notiqed ho;!q,id ¥p^!: r bp6'a.k the.stato-.

ment ; ihado, s.qripen tinib' ; -ago regarding his.lgEontiori to rpsign. But so “close” is the old Parliamentary hand in affairs of this sort that he may have already sent out Ills resignation. He loves to mystify inquisitive people, and X. have never yet succeeded in malting him forget my connection with the Sir George, by the way, told mo a rather interesting story, concerning himself, jMartin’s Bank and the old apple woman of Change Alley, which willbearrepetition. It seemsthatin years long gone by, when Lombard street was quite a fashionable place to live in, and Sir George had but newly acquired the gentle art of reading,,he used to spend a considerable portion of the year in the rooms above Martin’s Bank; Whenever his elders wanted to be rid of him for a space they relegated, him, to a. little room which looked oht Upon Change Alley, and commanded a full view of the good things Upon the bid Uppld-WbiUan’s fruit stall. In the room there Were book shelves, ahd the little library included volumes of Coot’s.; ; voyages, Sampler's voyages, and sundry : Other works dealing with the wonders of the Southern Seas. Sir; George stumbled through these tomes,'and then,/,hie imagination fired by the strange things therein nientienOd and 'thei sight of the foreign fruits oh the stall in the: alloy, would dream of the day when he would own an orchard of his bwn.iritne far-off lands of which ho had read. It was the, hours spent in the little room overlooking Change Alley Which shaped little Gerirge Grey’s destiny,'- They mapped out -a career fpr him, and. 1 ho followed up the visions ' of his. youthful' day dreams . .till they became realities.' Eighty years have’ passed ./since then, 1 : Lombard' street is no longer a fashionable quarter, but Martin’s Bank.,-'stall ./flourishes, .and though Change Alley has been somewhat altered,, it, still boasts a fruit stall, kept hy the son; of the,old.woman of Sir George’s infancy, and the little room, overlooking ip remains intact. On his recent visit to Overbury Sir George spoke of the many happy, if solitary, hours he had-spent in the room, and asked if the library still existed. No one even remembered that Martin’s Bank possessed such books as those Sir George mentioned, and evidently believed that the oldimau’s memory was playing him a trick. But Sir George was confident, and finally persuaded one of the junior partners to pay a visit to thechamber.-,- They found it full of old banking records, musty and time - stained, but, searching in the far corner of the room, suddenly, came upon the! book-shelves which Sir George had remembered as being there in his youth. In them were, the very, hooka little George Grey had so often, fingered.. . Brought to light and the dust of years removed the volumes were discovered to be in a good state of preservation. There was nothing in them to denote whose, they wore, and Sir George forbore to put in a discoverer's, claim. So the books have been removed to Overbury, but I fancy that if Sir George ever returns to New.. Zealand he will take those long lost volumes with him. -t.-i

selwtn: memoeial: 1 1 The - chapel' at Selwyn ! College, Cambridge,’which has cost .i'lo,ooo, raised on-' ,lirely amongst'Tfiends and admirers of the “Great Bishop, .ofNew .Zealand,” is now complete, and, will lie opened with ecclesiastical ceremonies next October, Mr Gladstone has just presented the sacred building with a hell destined Ictus hope to call many generations.of Undergraduates to morning prayer. The G. O. M. was ! at Eton with the. late Bishop Selwyn, and when.he chobses to"“reminisce” has many tales to tell of theprelate’sphysioaland intellectual promise. . " ‘ ■ j The present Bishop, I regret to say, con--tinues sadly crippled, otherwise he might have felt it his duty to shoulder'the responsibilities of r Adelaide Bishopric. I forgeirwhether I told you that he. was one of the seven princes of the Church who took part in Dr Harmer’s consecration, but even on this occasion he could not dispense with crutches. OSCAE WILDE’S HEALTH. A very pretty story. ;to the effect that when Oscar Wilde was transferred to the, penal prison at Pentonvilleand his hyacinthine locks were shorn he wont mad and ■ had become practically imbecile is authoritatively denied. —Those- who know the mail best are; however, afraid of something of this sort happening. On the other hand, it is, just possible he may courageously keep up and resolve to recover a position and a good name, as Valentine •Baker did. The man Ims such unique talents—almost genius—that an attempt ■’of the kind would be far from hopeless. Besides it should appeal to hispoetic side. “The Atonement of Oscar Wilde" has already quite a familiar sound. ' VICE-CHANCELLOE BACON-Vice-Chancellor Bacon, . who died the other day at the ago of nearly one hundred, was a remarkable character, and -till heretired nine years ago held a unique position on the judicial Bench. Ho was . then well into the eighties and decidedly deaf, yet’so acutej so caustic/so vigorous in his and so felicitous in his language that no bno even suggested he should give up work,till he voluntarily^.abandoned, it, It was a legend at the'Courts that his lunch consisted. of bread and milk and strong Tobacco, and that his memory was such a marvellous one that nobody had - ever:; seen him, take a note- One fine .pld-crustedr-d*' chestnut ” about him was to the .7,'effect that on the: hearing of an appeal' from one of his judgments the Lords Justices sent for his notes, which proved to consist of a sheet of paper decorated with a caricature of the appellant. Underneath was written, “ This man is a liar." ' ~ ~ ~ The writer of some interesting personal

reminiscences of. Sir James Ibicon in tho St, James’s Gazette, says iw, . ;i ..• Tho VicerChoncellor. bad: his lie .hated, a foals-, ho .hated, a, boro, and perllapoidboVo aii he bated .barristers with ■■ moystackes. “I cannot you, ihe-said \ to ono of tho tribe whose upper lip boro the j accursed thing ; “and do why I , cannot hear you ?” " No, my lord, ; hesitat- , ingly replied the t learned gentlomanjii feel- •; dug suw» that tho Vice*Ch ifo apologise fot his hut hot ,U Mo h-pdldV- *W ic'dmn in bob to t!±k raug through tho Couit, "It is because, sir, you wear nn obstacle—--1 an, impediment —before your mouth, Tho old "man bad a, Vary ptetl/ wit | and itmust be confessed that new mid theft bn used it without d slfidt tegdrd foftlid feelings of those who appdi-ed before bnii. It Ms iWI often tlidt lie spoke. Unkindly, b.Ut-ltbteheM’, dhp ifdSbibility JlgdtAUl, did Age,. Jet. ji- momenHlUJ jfjuhg be rdio. Was rc illht aiiu pointed that it WUs hot easily forgotten by, the friends or enemies of the victim. On one occasion he was being addressed by a very deaf member of the Bar, to whom all the Judge’s questions or observations, wore quite inaudible. instructing tho deaf Waft eUdWAvbured ijiaijters 'tnA Jwdge’f , words jhlo lps gS* iA.a .strident. yoyce , which I coula.,.hq heard, in tpe corridors, add tpat thq Bpghph pt ( wep not ipmrqved.ip;,thq,proohssiHis lordship was mucb Irritetbaht hiiaring his .obaervathills repeated Ain t!iis ,woy,. and, lin the hope oL rendering, the .services of ..tho iinterpreter unnecessary;he -addressed the advocate with tho;.full strength of ) -his lungs ; - but , though i this : strength was i considerable, the ' discordant -yei! -of i the solicitor continued to follow every observation, and the proceedings began to .assume the coiftjJloJpftb ft’ shouting lietwbon tho , Bench and tlw"'“w-o!i. J ’ /At" last tho patiench of lie Bench gave way r .' “ Who is conducting this case?" said the Vice-Chancellor in plaintive tones—“the wentleman whom I cannot hear or the gcntlonmn wbo cannot hear mo t” To inake clenr to the nmi-lcgnl reader the wit, of the dosoription, ■' tba gentleman whom I cannot hear, 1 os applied

.to the shouting solicitor; ana may be pail- - for btpiaitlihg that in thd aUpei-ictt oolifts solicitors HrtvO lid fight of rtUdiOlioO —Or, 1/ USb, U’.G plmt-oO 111 COlilululi usS; “cahiiolb'e.board'.” ,_. ~ •., ~, Onjahojihgr ilrovoked it. A certain member of the Junior Bar, a very learned conveyancer whose work, lay chiefly in his own chambers, and who, like most of his mystic brotherhood, was far more at ease in those chambers than in Court, was- arguing a case, ani one. of- thd .ddddrildjltd isl„ « Ml .dlljlaha uj? ; jtq,,,,th,o ‘ judge;,,.who ' } fo|tau., vpiy .jdqliheri.tefy., ®j>,.reja ■ The i learned .poqiweiifSpmg. how he was i employed; Opoiied it WlilapOfad conversation ivifli a man beside him. Tho Vico- ■ Chancellor road as much of the document as ■ he thought material, and, looking up, invited counsel to proceed. Unfortunately I he did not observe this and continued his conversation. But not for long, for the Judge, elevating his voice to its hightest > pitch, delivered himself as follows Go ■ Oil; Mr S ! I'oU can talk td that gentlei „maii ahj ; dayßiifc you do riot often get an ’dpriortUliity of tdikiflg to me: ’ )There w’as one niember Of the Inflor Bar hrathisiiig bdfoto the Vice-Chancellor for i : wlio«'llff,MA eupndsed .tO- hayo no great i likin'*, tills g'eritlohian’l Oetvices were not; • mdcli lit deuiadd f 1 for tliddgH; His" ability i Utid itdpwlodge of lilw wete urldotlbtsdj ha ; -/yds ant to.lodk at d.caso ffoid ad.lmphacti- ■ cable standpoint ana riqp .ijd nlakp the most i of ita bostboints.; It "wag commonly said ■ Mbiipi,tdiat,,,he.ba i d ,a .t.vyisfc ,iri, his inmd; i /when this gentleman was. about, GO some- ■ one, remarked', to tlu) Judgo, that, he was i clpvor. “'S'es/’.safa thd .dld man’slowly i. .'and. judicially,-is . a - very Clover young ' njap ”; v and aftor a pause he added, “If ho swallowed a nail lie would vomit a screw.”

LA DIVA. ■ Madame' Adelina' Patti, despite all her virtuous resolutions .not,to “lag superfluous ” on the lyric stage; is like most of her kind, unable to bring herself to retire, ijfpr can certain folks’see why she should Ho <3O wliilst impresarios like Druriolarius dan; ,bo found willing, to give her 13500 a. night. ,/ Apart, however, from financial ’ considerations, which Patti is wealthy enough to ignore, it seems a sad pity that the onoo unequalled Queen of Song should willingly contrast her wornout voice with Melba’s superb, .organ, now at its best, they are to’ sing together next week, in- “Don Giovanni,” Patti of course playing Zerliua to Edouard do Eeske’a Don and the Ottavio of Alvarez. THE £IOOO REWARD FOR ORTON. Apropos Of the Orton confessions now proceeding from week to week in a Sunday paper, it is interesting to recall that the Idtd • Qovdi'ildf Of jSW Zeakrida cousin, Mr Guildford Onslow, was the) chief supporter of the claimant in the days, of, his fame, and squandered a. goodly fortune in Tiohborne bonds; After the incarceration of the “ unfortunate nobleman ”. (as some idiot 'of the period felicitously dbristeuod him) in Dartmoor, Mr Onslow and the Sir EogOf's dfedtlldus friends, who Were still fairly numerous, offered JMOO for the discovery arid production of Arthrtr (Jrtou. Very sdori after it was put about the mail had been found in several places; a speoirilly circumstantial story 1 ooifliug from New Zealand; In this Connection X saw, last w'eek an autograph letter frontJohn Bright; written in July, 1970, to a friend, which I obtained leatOto copy. Ho remarked : “ Mori may; ’rely upon it that -Arthur l Orton will riotuoome from New Zealand. During the trial and since £looo' was offered for him, and nobody could produce him. 1 It was a .large bribe, and: I only wonder it hasn’t /brought over a score of- Ortons. Tho real Arthur Orton, is in Dartmoor, and nobody, ,1 sUspect, knows- this better than some of •'.those who are pretending to-exploit.him, from New Zealand. - I have' before'me now theihandwriting of thoj real Roger Tiohborne,,qf the real. Arthur Orton and of the convict) and'this alone; is sufficient-to com' yinoe any man of common-sense and obaervation'what is the truth in!the case.” :

" ‘ THE WAY TO :WALK UPSTAIRS. A terrible panic-monger. is the latterday medicine man-—the r more so .that he is usually-afflicted with the grievous'disease known as ccteocfkcs s dHbendi, and. loves to see "himself in print.'/ His desire, of course, is to, impress the public,, and to advertise, himself m a manner , which is not disappoved ■of (in black ■ and white) by the.jR.C.F; -and S. ■ To do- this he is continually l discovering new dangers to humanity; snob as, 1 for' instance; that-the-constant rise of steel /peris conduces 'to chronic aphtisia,'or'that too frequent indulgence in semolina pudding tends to produce—well, any disease you like so long asit has an awe-inspiring'appellation containing riot less than four six-syllabled words.' Also, he ‘ is for ever telling ns that we : don’t yawn scientifically and that our sneezes are not performed in a manner consistent with the principles of hygiene, or that our method of getting in and oat of bed is opposed to tho principle upon which pur liver acts.' The latest, and not. the least, amusing of our. literary medicine-man’s pronouncements is that we don’t: ; walk . upstairs scientifically. Asthe 1 result - of' .exhaustive observations he /has . coma /to the" Conclusion that the''great majority take' off from .the ball of the foot. This, of /course,’ is entirely - wrong . inasmuch as it throws undue strain on the muscles of the legs and feet. .•■‘What we should do is to/ place the 1 whole foot—heel and ball—squarely down on the step and so allow each muscle to do its duty in a proper manner. By attention-'.. to/these / concise ./instrnotioris 1 anyone may learn with practice ~ to. mount upstairs scientifically, but "I - defy anyone to attain to gracefulness by tho new method.

A COURT OP CRIMINAL APPEAL. The idea; that-, there? should- be- soma tribunal to which a- person convicted and sentenced at the ordinary Criminal Courts could appeal has.gained a very firm hold upon the public mind in the Old Country. A Bill is oven now before Parliament, the object of which is the creation of a Court of Criminal Appeal, It is,.-however, not! likely thati such a i measure i will become law, for Her Majesty’s Judges are unanimous in opposition thereto. Their opinion, as .-oioed by Mr Justice Grantham..at..the. .Kent. .Assizes, is that, the formation of such a Court is wholly unnecessary and would be productive of'much harm. Appeals of the most trivial character would, they aver, be taken before the new tribunal, and the rehearing of such oases would involve enormous cost and waste of time. -Mr Grantham referred to the fact that the Home Secretary was petitioned to amend sentences at tho rate of about-4000 per annum, but only interfered with about 10 per cent. of . the decisions. He regarded, this mode of appeal as.far preferable to the one the Bill sought to establish, and. opined that such a great , change in the law of the (and as the Bill would bring about would render the trials in the ordinary Criminal Courts much less careful and solemn. ; ' The objections'to a Criminal Court Of Appeal are doubtless very, strong; but so are the arguments in favour of a. Revising Court. Mr Grantham'provided one himself by giving a man convicted of obtaining three pounds of . meat under false: pretences the- ferocious; sentence. of. three years’imprisonment.- ■ ‘