LONDON GOSSIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 2846, 15 June 1896, Page 4

LONDON GOSSIP.

From Our Own Correspondent. . London, April 25. Primrose Day is but, u shadow of its former self and in a very few years now will be as completely a thing of the pastas Lord Boaconsficld’s policy or hia novels. What tawdry impossibilities many of tho latter are to bo sure! I picked up “ Endymiou” (a first edition in 3 vols. for 9d) the other day. This was the work for which, it I remember aright, Longmans’ paid the then ex-Promier a record number of thousands of pounds sterling. George Eliot, Wilkie Collins and other groat masters of the time had their diminished heads blighted by Lord Baaoonsfield’a more magnificent achievement. Everybody read “ Endymion,” everybody talked about it and many sober reviewers absolutely' praisedthe book. Nowadays neither it nor “ Lothair ” are asked for at the big libraries half a dozen times a year. It seems indeed extremely' doubtful whether even "Couingsby ” will be read in another ton years. 1 THE BUDGET. Tho House of Commons expected a Budget speech of extra good quality from Sir Michael Hicks-Beaoh and it was not disappointed. The Chancellor of tho Exchequer is tho reverse of a “ pushful ” politician. He never tries to get into the foreground, but when duty requires him to be there he is quite equal to the situation. On Thursday night his performance was o-enerally voted excellent. He didn't mix up his notes, or lose his glasses, or clutch at himself convulsively like Mr Qosohen used to do. Nor did he propound, without apparent reason, conundrums to himself. He never once said “I ask myself why.” His touch was lighter than Mr Gladstone’s and more felicitous than Sir William Harcourt’s. No doubt the agreeable nature of the Budget he had to unfold was largely responsible for this. It was a tale of unexampled financial prosperity. Seldom has there been such a twelvemonth. In every item the anticipations of the estimates had been outshone by the surplus of realisation. People had drunk more, and smoked more, and presumably' made more. And this delightful state of things commenced when ? Why, last summer, when the Rosebery Government departed and the. present administration took office. Mr Goscbon would have certainly allowed the delighted House to infer that the prosperity was the corollary of the change of Government. But the present Chancellor is too jannook for that. “These variations,” said he, “have nothing to do with Governments.” The real cause was the raining boom. To it unquestionably must be put down the fact that extra champagne to the extent of twelve hundred thousand bottles had been drunk in 1895-96. The consumption of tobacco had also increased enormously. Boys, women, and alas ! even girls now indulge extravagantly in tho insidious and too often pernicious cigarette. When Sir Michael wont on to say that no loss value than a million sterling was thrown into the gutter annually in cigar and cigarette ends, honourable members opened their eyes. Turning to the great breakfast-table question, the Chancellor informed the House that ocooa is driving out coffee, and Indian tea the China leaf. Neither of these developments need surprise us. Average Indian tea is not only bettor than China but extensively advertised, and cheap cocoa can be got pure, whereas cheap coffee is invariably scandalously adulterated. Stamps, like champagne, had Sir Michael went on benefited by tho gold gambling which had been such a feature of the year. Boer bad been buoyant and the brewers had had a gsod year and could not want anything out of the surplus. The death duties had exceeded even the wildest expectations j but then the Exchequer had reaped a harvest out of the cold weather of February last year, and the Chancellor was raking in the duties almost before the memorial marbles had left the statuaries) workshops. Then came the usual solemn note of warning about the annual increase of expenditure, which apparently will soon be too great to strain oven for the elasticity of the revenue. There is the Navy, that old man of the sea who sits upon the neck of all Chancellors of the Exchequer. If we are not careful, the time will come when we shall have either to increase taxation or to stop paying off tho National Debt. And lastly. Sir Michael, having built up all hia figures, and shown a surplus of 311,708,000, proceeded to demolish it by modifications of the estate duties, reductions in the land tax, and a big “chunk" to agricultural rating and the end of it all was a surplus of 31308,000 for contingencies. A SECRET SOCIETY. Secret societies are so utterly out of date and contrary to the spirit of the age that the discovery of one in active existence at Cambridge, and numbering, it is said, upwards of a thousand members, has given many good people a severe shock. The headquarters of this clique—called, I 1 understand, the Companions of St. John —is Pembroke College, Cambridge. It came into being ton years ago, and the chief promoter is the Rev Ernest John HerizSmith, described by the Spectator as an “eager athlete, a good musician, aad a devotee of young men.” Somehow I dislike that character, though the objects of Mr Heriz-Smith and his Companions are said to he purely religious, self-denying and philanthropic. Unquestionably they mean real business. Quo gathers that much from the absolute'silence with which members boar the 1 attacks made on the Society without attempting to defend it. Such information as hild leaked out comes of course from disloyal seoedors. Upon facts thus acquired tho Spectator bases two charges. First, that the Society encourages confession as the High Church encourages it, and next that it requires its novices to practise for either two months, or as long a time as is needed for the novice to procure by his own efforts another novice—a somewhat humiliating sort of obedience to his immediate introducer, who is probably very young and may be decidedly a goose. “We are told for instance (says your contemporary) that a novice that is called out of a religious meeting of which his immediate sponsor does not approve, and who refuses to come, may be punished next day by "being tied to tho leg of his own table, and that he would be bound under the sqleiqn promise he has given t'ci endure that humiliating penance without resistance. We argue from tfiat that the founders of the Society wishpd to test the earnestness of its members by trying whether they could bear a little humiliation without resistance, even if the humiliation seemed arbitrary and ridiculous. There may be something to be said for such a rule;—there have been plenty of religious societies that have encouraged their members to endure small indignities and shames for the very purpose of testing and exercising their own fortitude and sincerity—but of course in a secret society no defence can be made without breaking the fundamental principle of the association." Personally I must say I can’t imagine what the undergrad, can be like who would confess serious; lapses from grace to another lad and allow himself by way of penance to suffer ridiculous and humiliating punishment. Certainly one does know a type of , anaemic, halfstarved Anglican curate one could associate with such ideas. But the athletic Cambridge undergrad, won’t fit the part at all. The use of a secret society of tho character of the Companions of St. John is of coarse that it enables persons of extreme and unpopular religious views to carry them out without criticism qr controversy. Whether the University ought or ought ‘not to permit the existence in its midst of such cliques is now being hotly argued. To make Mr Heriz-Smith and his Companions martyrs by turningthem out of the ’Varsity would be perhaps even more mischievous than to ignore them. The best plan, in my opinion, would be to keep a sharp eye on the Fellow of Pembroke and warn all unsuspecting undergrads, who seemed likely to he meshed in the toils. MAJOR-GENERAL CARRINGTON. The new commander of the British forces in Matabelelaud, Major-General Sir Fredk. Carrington, is a relative of the late Governor of 'New South Wajes and Lord Chamberlain and a soldier with rrlhalr dxperienbe in p South African warfare. The Major is now likely to get close quarters with' the Matabele and to strike another and perhaps a final blow at the remnant of the once powerful Zulu race with which his military career is identified. This time he goes to South Africa with greater chances of being wanted for serious work than was the case in 1894. He was then ordered to the Cape to take command of the imperial foroqSj Go-onoratihg ■'yitJi Pf Jamesons army, and he had no tune' to pack' even a single trim]?. He (aught the mail by a lucky chance, and went out with nothing but the suit in which he stood and a new cavalry saddle. When, however, he reached the Cape he found that the Jameson force and tho Bechnanaland Police had swept the country and were in possession of Bulawayo. Sir Frederick was baulked of his expected seryige,p,n<l returned to England to be appointed to command the infantry, brigade at Gibraltar. It is possible, of course, that this ’experience may be repeated, for by the'time he reaches the scene of the rebellion the valiant defenders of Buluwayo and Earl Grey, Sir Richard Martin (of whose arrival we may hear at any moment) and - IrCcci] Ehodes,’ may between them hayq brought about them such a change in the face of affairs that Sir Frederick will find he has nothing to do. Sir Frederick Carrington can, however, scarcely add to his reputation should it fall to his lot to crash the Matabele rebels, for hia renown as a master of South African native warfare is as high as it can be. He is now in hia fifty-second year. Bom in Gloucestershire, the sdn of a magistrate of the county, he was educated at Cheltenham and entered the army in 1864. Eleven years afterwards he was in South Afrjca when the rising in the Jdaimond fields gave him his opportunity. He then

organised and commanded the mounted infantry which took so conspicuous a part in the expedition. Henceforward we find him in every native war during tho past twenty years. “ Carrington’s Horse” was at the annexation of the Transvaal, in tho wav in the Trauskoi territories, in tho operations against-Sekukini in tho Bochuanalaud expedition under Sir Charles Warren, and in the operations against tho Basutos. In one of these last fights ho was severely wounded. Being in almost constant employment, promotion came rapidly to him. In 1878 hebocame Major, and in 1879 was given the brevet of LieutenantColonel and made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. In 1884 he reached tho substantive rank of Colonel, and became Major-General in 1894. He was made a K.C.M.G. in ISS7. He is an ideal leader of irregular horse, and possesses one qualification which is highly appreciated in certain quarters in South Africa—that of being a bachelor. DEATH OF LORD BATH. Lord Bath, who died at Venice on Sunday, was the head of tho deservedly respected noble family of Thynnes and himself a Bayard sans peur et sans reproche in all relations of life. In manner Ins Lordship was reserved to the verge of hauteur and exceedingly shy. He hated the glare of publicity and kept out of it as far as duty permitted. Bat his influence was considerable and, when ho chose to exert it, far-reaching. The Times, in a sympathetic obituary notice, says;— Though Lord Bath took a keen interest in political questions he had too much independence of judgment and too much conscientiousness to adapt himself to the requirements of party politics. This became apparent during tho crisis of the Eastern question which culminated in tho Russo-Turkisb war of 1877-78. Though a staunch Conservative in Home affairs, ho could not profess to approve of tho PhiloTurkish policy of Lord Boaoonsfleld, and sympathised rather with the views and scruples of Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon. After the war he made a tour with Dr Sand with in the Balkan Peninsula and published some of his impressions in an interesting little volume on Bulgaria, in which he showed a reasonable sympathy with moderate Bulgarian aspirations. From that time he followed with the koon,est interest the developments of tho Eastern question and constantly sought to obtain fuller information on the subject by reading books, pamphlets and nawspapers, and by conversations and correspondence with the most competent authorities. In this he was aided by a marvellously retentive memory, which enabled him to cite at a moment’s notice not only tho facts which he had learned but also the authorities from whom he had obtained them. Tho expression of his views, however, was confined to a small oirolo of friends, and ho seemed to avoid all reference to his book on Bulgaria as if it had been a youthful indiscretion.