NOTES FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4440, 21 August 1901, Page 2

NOTES FROM LONDON.

("Age” Correspondent.) LONDON, July 5. London loves a Koyai pageant, and intends mat me partial eclipse oi tlie pre-i-eut summer season (owing to tJie deuilx ui v,'ucen \ icfona; shun ue more man componsated lor at tne coronation next June. Various preparations axe going on to make Unit mouth socially tlie mosi ijriliiiint in tlie history of the city. As to tne coronation ceremony itself, u high court official status that it will be on a "tar greater scale” than anytumg that has been seen before in England, Already, thougu the route of Hie process.on from -Buckingham Palace has uoc yet been nxt-d, large sums are being off'crecl provisionally by intending spectators lor the use of windows and balconies. The owners of the buildings, however, decline all bids at present, preferring to wait til) the time of the pageant draws nearer. A number of West End people who hap. pentd to have largo houses and small incomes (a rather common conjunction on file fringe of "Belgravia) are offering to take parties of rich Americans in as tenants or ‘-paying guests" during tho sun.) mor. As all the hotels will be crowded, many Americans and others from abroad will no doubt, be glad to pay from XSOO to £3OOO for comfortable quarters in private town mansion?. The King is said to have expressed a desire that exceptional privileges should bo given to colonists who may come to attend the coronation and the succeeding Koyai festivities. It is generally believed that the Coronation day will be 21th Juno.

The King lias follower! up his reduction of the excessive number of the Royal chaplains by ordering discontinuance of the services hitherto hold in the chujicl of Kensington Palace. But the most interesting recent change of this kind idlects the Gorman Royal ('lmpel, where the King and Queen have during many years regularly attended morning service when in town. It is to be converted into a ‘•Marlborough House Chapel,” and used entirely in future for Anglican services, a fact which Church of England people welcome with much satisfaction. Among the High Church nariy, it appears, it has been a grievance that a Gorman chaplain, whoso orders the English church does not recognise, formed part of the Royal establishment. The chapel was founded about, 200 years ago “to mccl the devotional requirements and linguistic differences of various members of the Royal House.” The Lutheran services were begun in the time of Queen Anne, but it was George I. who really gave thorn a permanent status, his knowledge of Kpolish not sufficing to enable him comfort, nhlv to follow 1 he.services of the Church of England. That, the German chapel should have so long survived its original function is a typical example of the to. needy of old Royal institutions in this country.

Tbfi 'House r>f Lords has rejected by n. majority of 42 a Bill introduced hy the Borl of .Aberdeen (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from January lo July. 1880. and Governor-General of Canada. 1833-PBl, proposing that women should bo eligible to serve as councillors or “aldermen” in the London borough councils, -which recenllv took over the work of the old city vestries. Scarcely a. shred of argument was need by the opponents of the measure. Substantially, they contented themselves wiib saying that it would involve-an “experimerst” which ilioy personally did not iiko. So it was thrown out summarily. There lias been* a groat coin mr.{ ion amongst theatre managers this week as the result of a peremptory order issued by the Lord Chamberlain stooping the production of a play colled "Secrets of the Harem,” at the instance of the Turkish Ambassador, who had made a complaint •against it through the Foreign Office. There is nothing whatever offensive in the piece from the moral point of "iew. It was licensed by the censor in 1830. ar t has been presented at frequent inter cals in provincial theatres ever since. But the censor lias nraetically autocratic power, and can withdraw his sanction as readily as he gives it. without notice or explanation. He could, and doubtless would with equal promptitude, withdraw nil _anthontv for fuH-her performances of '"The Mikado,'’ “The Geisha.” “Galled Bac% and “The Bed Lamp” if ambassadorial objections were taken to them. The license of “Secrets of (ho Harem” has been cancelled for “political reasons.” No explanation is vouchsafe! beyond this. Apparently the .Turkish Ambassador was offended by references in tbe piece to the Armenian atrocities. The theatre managers are very angry. Why. they demand, should the stage not have the same liberty of expression as the newspapers with regard to foreign Governments and personages? . It is'an old question. It has been asked numberless times since the days when H. Fielding attempted to nse the theatre as a means of exposing Parliamentary corruption, and was gagged by Walpole, who could not govern without corruption. To all arguments and protests an official deaf ear was turned then, and it is the same now. The Rev F. Phillips ("Athol Forbes”). Church of England vicar, novelist and dramatist, and Mrs Brown Potter, the actress, have been associated in many columns of newspaper gossip this week. Like the Rev Wilson Carlile, founder of the Church "Army, who makes the services in his London church attractive to working men by means of a gramophone, a magic lantern, a choir of concertina pla’-ing young Indies, and other novelties, Mr Phillips is an unconventional parson. • “I regard the stage,” he says, “ns a powerful moral factor in this country, and I have a lurking suspicion that as a power for good it runs the pulpit very close, if it does not beat it.” Just now he is varying his clerical work by writing a play for 'Airs Potter, and a week or so ago she agreed to enliven the services at his church at Gorleston, Norfolk, with a series of recitations. The scene when she appear, cd there on Sunday evening last is described as having been like the first night at a theatre. The worshippers scrambled into the church under the control of po. lieemcn. In five minutes the last inch of space in the building was occupied, and hundreds had to he turned away from the doors. At the close of evensong Mrs Potter, with much dramatic vigour .enhanced hy organ and choral accompaniment, recited Pope's ode of "The Hying Christian to His Soul.” and afterwards “The Queen’s Last Ride.” The congregation listenedwith close and apparently reverent attention. “You. say the Bishop may object.” said Mrs Potter to a newspaper interviewer. "But why? There is nothing new under the .snu. and tbe dramatic element in the church has never really ceased. After all, the priests were the first actors. The early Christian drama actually had its source in » the liturgy of the church.” When tbe Paris to Berlin motor race.

which has excited Europe within the last few days, was still in prospect, it seemed an innocent and interesting enterprise. Now, after the event, tho public on both sides of the Channel are exclaiming, with a feeling akin to disgust, -‘Enough, enough;” and demanding that no such competition shall ever ho permitted outside a race track again. Eight persons were killed, mostly children, and there wore seviv-u collisions and minor accidents in the wild scurry between the two capitals. And all for what ? To confer n more or less fictitious value on the work of two or throe manufacturers who competed with specially built cars, capable of a sliced at which no sane private individual over desires to travel by road, and which no public authority should pernr The net time made by the winner. S Fournier, beat the fastest express train run between Paris _and Berlin by two hours, and the car which lie used is slated to he north ■-f.'tOOO. But who wants to pay anything like -£3OOO for a motor vehicle, "r to dash along tlie highways at a pac- beyond what is safe for a motor!.,t . for the ordinary public traffic on the ,iads? In, a war emergency, perhaps—hut that ii quite another matter.