LONDON CHAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10289, 21 February 1895, Page 3

LONDON CHAT.

(Fhom Ova Special Cokeespondent) London, January 4.

MORE STORMS,

If the Old Year 1894 " went out like a lion,'' as the saying is, assuredly the New Year, 1895, has not "coma in like a lamb." Far from it. When I closed my last letter there were urgent symptoms of the speedy approach of another great tempest. It has since come and gone. And I grieve to say that it left behind a very sad New Year for mauy a sorrowful home, where the lo*s of a beloved husband, or father, or brother, or son is lamented. For this latest storm was deplorably destructive on our pnriloua coast, and the maritime fatalities were far more numerous than in the hurricane of the previous Saturday, which »esmed to expend its chief energy inland.

So far this has been an exceptionally healthy winter. Influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia have been much losb fatal than usual in London. Even the cold "snap" which we hava had since Christmas does not seem yet to have had any very serious ill effects on the public health. A SPTOT OE A BBVIVAI,. Some people will deem it even better rews that there really do appear at least to be indications of improvement in trade and commerce generally. A revival of confidence has been the grand desideratum, and apparently this in at last setting in. There is much more freedom of operation in tha money market. Buyers will look at something else beside the most " giltedged " securities, which early in last year were the only saleable stock. New loans have been readily subscribed. You will remember that the Russian 15 million loan went off like wildfire both here and in France, being applied for seTeral times over in London, while in France it was actually subscribed more than BO times over, so that applicants for £100 got only £1 15s. This is, I believe, a " record" of its class. It has been suggested that there is much similarity between the situation now and in the " fifties," the revival which followed the great gold production of 1853 may in like manner follow the enormous auriferous yield af 1893-4. The gold production of 1893 was: the highest on record, and it is believed that that of 1894 has beaten it by more thsu 12 per cent. It is pointed out that the severe depression whicn preceded 1853, mainly, I believe, as a consequence of the railway panic of the late "forties," was succeeded by a period of allround rise in prices, with a general revival of trade and prosperity ; and the great gold discoveries of 1852-3 seanied to be the turning point. It is argued that there is every rsaaoa to anticipate a similar revival as the sequel to the enormous gold production of 1893-4. Henven aeud it! Certainly the English revenue returnß make for this view. Already there is a marked improvement, which promises to continue and increase. The amount of capital lying idle just now is tremendous, and if only this can be once more put in circulation the benefits to commerce and to the public generally will be proportionately vast. Aa to the accumulations of bullion in the Bank? of England, France, and Qermsny, they are almost incredible in their magnitude. The Bank of England holds 39 millions in gold, the Bank of Germany 40 millions, also 12 millions in silver; but the Bank of France holds the amazing sum of 82 millions in gold and 49 millions in silver ! Does not the mere mention of such sums make one's month water —or one's pocket gape ? But silver is becoming more and more a drug in the market—almost a " base metal." Some recent transactions in silver have been at the < rate of 2s 2|d per ounce. Its best price at present is 2s 3|d. Yet only a few years ago silver waa worth 53 an ounce. MADAME PATH. Her Majesty's invitation of Madame Adelina Patti to Windsor shortly before the departure for Osborne has caused a good deal of talk. Previously the Queen had ignored Patti'3 existence. She might be very pretty and charming and an incomparable singer, but she had left her lawful husband, the Marquis da Cam, and eloped with Mr Nioolini, the operatic tenor. So, though all other great singers had the honour of singing before tha Queen, this was denied to the " diva." But the charming Adelina has bided her time, and her time has come. She has visited the Queen and sung to her, has been thanked and presented with jewellery; and ohe is going to entertain the Duke and Duchess of York and, it is said, the Prince of Wales at her superb Welsh palace, the castle of Craig-y-Nos. It is said that the accounts received by the Queen of Patti's exquisite singing of " Elizabnth's Prayer," in Wagner'a " Tannhauser," excited her Majesty's interest and musical enthusiasm to such a degree that she could no longer resiat her desire to hear the greatest singer of the generation, and so she determined to forget that littie slip of the elopement and to give her royal self a treat; and I hear that the Queen's enjoyment of the Wagner "Prayer" was intense, her Majesty being affected even to tears by the incomparable pathos infused into its touching strains by the divine Adelina. By-the-bye, what a marvel of an evergreen Patti is ! Who would take her to be 50 ? But as for that, who would imagine that the even more adorable Princess of Wales had attained the half century ? Yet so it is. And both look, say 25 or 30 ! What is their secret ? ME GLADSTONE. That wondrous evergreen of the other sex, the "G.0.M.," is flourishing like a green bay tree. He celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday last Sunday, and made one of his most fervent and vigorous speeches. He had a very naaty fall a few days ago, catching his foot in a low open j drawer in his library at Hawardon and coming ! heavily on the floor. Hie forehead was cut, his shins were bruised, and his apectacles were ■smashed. Worst of all, his sight was for a

time totally lost! Yet ba " came up smiling," and in a few hours his eight returned, while a dsy's rest mn.de him once more "».s right as a trivet." Surely bis vitality is little short of miraculous, f should not be a bit surprised to to <ice him leading his party ouce more. If there is any shilly-shallying about the Armenian atrocities it would not astonish me to see him heading a crusade against the Government and turning them out. To him, it would really appuar, ".all things are possible." I say it with no irreverence. Ifcad his "Armenian" speech, and point, if you can, to a symptom of age or weakness in those stirring and masculine utterances I " Rumours," he said, "have, gone abroad of horrible and indescribable outrages in Armenia. I will not assume that these reports will be verified ; but should thoy be established, then it will stand as if written in letters of iron on the records of tho world th*t ft Government which could countenance and cover thn perpetration of these outrages is a disgrace to Mahomet, the prophet whom it professed to follow, and to civilisation at large, and is a curse to mankind."

THH NEW YKAE HONOURS,

Some of the " New Ye*r honours" are interesting "Sir George Newnes, Bart.," of "Tit Bits " fame, now M.P. and proprietor of several literary gold mines, is popularly described as having only a dozen years ago lnokod a second coin to rub against the one which he did possess. But he has made a rapid and vast fortune by successful journalism, and so he becomes a baronet, doubtless with a peerage in prospect should his party return to power in a year or two. That the president of the Royal College of Phyßiciaus (Dr Rusnell Reynolds) and the ex-president of the lioyal Collegß of Surgeons (Dr Erichsen) should be baroueted is quite according to traditional practice. So is the " K.C.M.G."-ing of the new Canadian Premier.

It is becoming also a rule to knight eminent railway managers. Sir James Alport (Midland), Sir George Findley (Norfch-Westera), Sir Myles Fentou (South-Westeru), Sir Henry Oakley (Great Northern) are cases in point, and now Mr Charles Scotter, gensral manager of the London and South-Western line, ia added to the list H« iB a very able and successful manager. Ten years ago he was appointed to his present post, having previously leen assistant msnuger to the Manchester, Sr%ffield, and Lincoln line. He succeeded, on the South Western, Mr Archibald Scott, and hence came the oddity of the "comparative" case following tin " positive," in names. But there seems little hope of the " superlative " succeeding him. However, Sir Charles Scotter himself seems a fair representative of the superlative bo far as managerial ability goes. The onceabused South-We»tern is now one of the best conducted lines in the Kingdom, in spite of the unparalleled awkwardoßßs of its London terminus at Waterloo Bridge. The extension of the line, ucder the Thames, is making steady progress, and at no very distant date the Southwestern will be able to send its trains right into the heart of the city, which will be a great boon to many a million of daily travellers, to whom the worry of Waterloo is a perpetual purgatory.

Sir Charles Scotter stood in need of some consolation, for fortune has dealt hardly with him of late. A few months ago he lost his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, and more reoently he has suffered from cataract, which compelled him to undergo a fortunately successful operation for its removal. He is a man quite in the prime of life.

RAILWAY NOTES.

The Southern-Western express services to and from Bournemouth on the one hand, and Exeter and Plymouth on the other, are remarkable for their excellence and speed. They put the slower services of the other southern lines— the Brighton, South-Eastern. and Chatham— utterly in the shade, and do very fast work over very steep gradients with extremely heavy loads.

Apropos of railway matters I may mention that the three great line» going from London to the North—the Great Northern, Midland, and North-Western—have suddenly become aw.ure that it has long been the practice of their ox-press-drivers to run on favourable parts of thtir lines at far higher speeds than are contemplated by the respective regulations. With the adoption of higher steam pressure (1601b to 1801b on tho square inch, as against MOlb 10 years ago) maximum speeds have greatly increased in the last 10 years, and it has been no uncommon thing for the formerly mythical speed of 80 miles an hour—or even a little more—to be run on moderate descending gradients for a few miles together when lost time had to be made up. There was, of course, not the slightest risk in this, on suitable lengths of the road— the speeds of 55 or GO sometimes done down the hilly and curved lines of Derbyshire and elsewhere being far less safe than 80 on the pertionn in question. But alarm has been taken by the directors less if any accident from some other cause should occur when a train was going at 80 miles an hour, the board should find the company censurable and juries should give heavy damages. So solemn meetings of the directors have been held and in each instance a "uiase" has been issued that any driver caught exceeding his prescribed speed will beaeverely punished by fine and disrating. Inspectors have been stationed at numerous points to watch the fast trains and to report any case of " excessive "speed. Hence the drivers are in deadly fear, and do not venture on any of those feats of velocity which have hitherto interested colonial visitors so greatly.

What makes the matter more absurd is that all the bother has arisen from an independent report published by a visitor to England, who was invited to make observations on the working of English expresses. His matter-of-fact reoord of his experiences seems to have come as a tremendous revelatiou to the railway authorities. Yet many of them, to my certain knowledge, were well aware of the speed run by their engines. To add to the absurdity of the thing, the working tables are so framed that in no case is a train timed at the rate of a mile a minute even between two non-stopping stations. But this, with an average rate of over 50 miles an hour, would necessitate going up hill, to keep time, at a speed which is simply impossible. Consequently, if a driver runs faster down hill than the fictitious rate allowed—which he must do if he would avoid being fined for arriving late—he can be " dropped upon" and penalised, and should any mishap occur during (but not because of) high speed, the company can point to their time books and plead: "At all events we do not permit such fast running." Thus the poor drivers would come in for all the trouble. It is utter humbug 1

MISCELLANEOUS,

Mr J. M. Barrie contributes to the current issue of the " Bookman " a poem of 17 stanzas, entitled "Scotland's Lament" for Kobert Louis Stevenson; and the same number contains "In Memoriam" notices of the dead novelist by Mr S. R. Crockett and lan Maclaren. Mr Barries last three stanzas run as follows :—

Now out the lights went stime by stime. The towns kept closer round the kirk; Now all the firths were smored in rime, East winds went wailing through the mirk. A star that shot across the night Struck fire on Pala'a mourning head, And left for aye a steadfast light, By which the mother guards her dead; "The lad was mine !" erect she stands, No more by vain regrets oppres3't; Once more her eyes are clear: her hands

Are proudly crossed upon her breast.

Opinion is still divided whether that most costly fad the Manchester Ship Canal will ultimately prove a great commercial success or a perpetual white elephant. At present probabilities seem to favour the latter alternative. So, too, it seems as if that huge expenditure on the Tower Bridge bascules was hardly warranted by the necessities of the oase. Only 17 vessels on an average pass through the bridge daily. Their passage costa something apiece! How much I wonder ?

I see that to the year's hospital Sunday fund the Church of England contributed four-fifths of tha whole sum—that is to say it gave more than £28,000—whereas all the other religious bodies together gave less than £8000.

That was a cad caoe of Lady Henry Grosvenor's death last week, just after the Teck wedding. It is now stated that her death was largely due to her persistent adoption of drastic means of redacing the stoutness with which she was threatened. The result was excessive loan of strength at the time when strength vras most needed. This effect is alleged against most of the popular remedies against ■ embonpoint —as our French neighbours so politely term it. They may reduce your fat but they sap your strength and vitality at the same time.

Mrs Aster's death is doo deplored. The wife of the American millionaire was much beloved in London for her kindheartedness, generosity, and utter freedom from " side " or " frills " or fuss. Sue was wholly unaffected, and, in fact, wan a most estimable and lovable woman besides being personally very charming. All her hnsband's millions are powerless to console him for his irreparable loss.