LONDON CHAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10306, 13 March 1895, Page 3

LONDON CHAT.

(From Otm Special Coeubtondent,)

Lonbok January 26,

THE CaiSIS IN FRASCE.

O£ nupreme importance sitting the oveufcs of the past fortnight must bo deemed the midden resignation of the Frenea President, M. Casimir-Perier. That old tirror of Franco, and above all of Paris, ths "Red Spector," has never yet been finally laidco rest. Ib waß never more nearly dominant once more than at one time last week. The resignation oE C&simir-Perier was a complete abandonment of the position to the advtucing hordes of anarchy and revolution. It was an awoluto surrender— a frank, if somewhat cowardly, confession that Socialism &ud suarciy had triumphed to the extent »f occupying the Tirßt line of defence. No wonder that thi yelling array of anarchy was exultant! Tin Bole iv.ci- that saved Paris from instant revoiition with all its old dread conoomitaut3 of bloodshed and destruction modernly accentiated by dynamite was tha suddenness and unexpectedness of tho step. Had oven one siigle day's notice ba«n given all Paris would ha\n been in a bhsce of revolution beforo now, aid honors unspeakable would have been penetrated wholesale. This may seem exaggeration, but it is not. Ttio Anarchists openly loast of whut they would have dono had thej only enjoyed the chance. And, indeed, they have already given abundant proofs that they can and will be a3 good as their wod if the opportunity bo once accorded thsm. Look at the innumerable dynamite oitr&ges of the pasb few years—at the fiery horors of tho Commuue. Yo?, Prance has cecontlj escaped a grave peril—indeed, the world at .arge has had a happy escape, for with amrchy once triumphant in Paris, none can ay what might have followed. But that ths Anarchists would hive made a deapsrata andsnprenio effort to realise their long dreams of. debauch of gore and destruction is morally cirtain. How far H. Civsimir-terrac's refignatioi was due to its ostensible cause —the hopeltsenes of expecting adequate support on tho part cf the French Parliament—and how far to ap>rehen6ions of the personal violence, which hanbeen so often threatened, it is hard to say. 'Jhat it is a. desertion of his post in the hour of d;nger nobody attempts to dispute. I suspect i never struck him that it might bts rogarded n t&is light. If wha; appeared the most likely sequel of bis retiement —the election of SI. Henri Briason as his successor —had become an aceompliihed fact the matter might still have been verr seriou», us M. Brisson is tho main hope of the Socialists. But through the wisdom of the two candidates representing the more otsble side in politics who combined their forces, me retiring, end so giving the needful absolute majority to M. Felix Faure, a fresh peril ha! been averted, and the French Republic ones miro proceeds on its curiously tentative and experimental course.

MH CECIL EHODES. In Ingland the moss interesting political event cf tho fortnight has been tho public appearance in London of Hr Cecil Khodes— now, lfco Sir George Grey—one of to Majestys Right Honourable Privy Councillors. At the Meeting of the British South Africa Compsu? last Friday Hr Rhodes was the central fgura. The knowledge that ha would be preseit and speak was sufficient to bring together i tremendous crush of psople. Everybody who could trump up the remotest approach to a plausible excuse for claiming ndmittanca to the company's meeting put in an appearance and squeezed in ro long as a square inch of 3>ace remained. The staircases of the Cannon street Hotel, where tho meeting was held, were thronged with people waiting in the hope »f gettirg a good seat. Even tha mantelpieces were packsd from end to end. The Duke of Fife, who presided, Slid: "Mr Rhodes, if ho has not made a nation, las been foremost among the men of tbs century who have betn the makers of Greater Britain," a remark which elicited grf at cheering. Mr Cecil Rhodes in his speech took occasion to condemn Protection, to advocate the retention of the bicameral system of legislation, and, naturally, to ridicule the " Little England " party. He pointed out that through the company England had acquired a iertiTo and valuable territory as large as all Central Europe, and this not only without any hardship to the natives, but, on the contrary, to their immense advantage and benefit. Mr Rhodes seems to have understood the art of mating fortunes a3 well as empires, for I hear frou a South African merchant now in London thai Mr Ehodes's worldly possessions represent full? f our millions sterling. Not bad! A man can live on that!

ENGLISH POLITICS eoltinue supremely uninteresting. The usual preparations are being mads for tho coming Kission and Lord Kosebery has announced that 1 tee Welsh Church Disestnblii-hment Bill is to Jave precedence among Ministerial measures. But nobody regards this session in any other light than no a prelude to dissolution and general aleetion. It ia said that Mr B&lfour on the one band and Mr Labouchere on the other will force the Government hand and compel the early presentation cf that much-talked-of resolution which is to proclaim the omnipotences of the House of Commons and tho impotence of the Lords. On the other hand many prominent Ministerialists are anxions that the process which they call " filling up the cup " should be Allowed full swing auj3 that the poor Peers should be accorded abundance of rope in order that they may the more effectually perform the self-strangulation anticipated by their Radical foes. Meanwhile the doomed Lords do not seem crushed with dread.

Another severe blow has been dealt to the Kosebery Government by the result of the Evesham election. Tremendous efforts were pub forth by the Liberals to win this Beat from the Conservatives on the death of Sir E. Lechmere. The weather and the floods fought for the Liberals, as did the fact that they had a popular locil man aa candidate. At the last Evesham election they had succeeded in reducing their minority by ons-half. Tuis time they hoped to sweep it away entirely, and replace it with a small majority. What happened instead w»3 this: Whereas in 1892 the Liberal candidate, Mr Impsy, was defeated by only 580, on the present occasion the same gentleman was beaten by the crushing majority of 1175, in the heaviest p^ll on record, by the Conservative candidate, Colonel Long. This enormous increase in the Conservative majority, coming just after the wresticg of the Forfar and Briggs seats from the Liberals, is regarded eren in Radical circles as "the writißg on the wall"—the fiat of doom.

Sir William Harcourt, who last Tuesday broke his long silence and addressed bis conBtituents at Derby, endeavoured, naturally, to put a good face on the situation, as also did Rtr Asquitb, speaking at Hull. But it mnst be confessed that the " don't cares " sonnded painfally hollow and forced. It seems taken for granted now, even more generally than before, that a general election cannot long be delayed and that the Conservatives, or at any rate the Unionists, must come in with a substantial majority. The Paris Tomp3 so entirely assumes this as certain th&t it even goes so far as to predict that the new Cabinet will be "the strongest which has existed since Pitt made way for Addington." But; it is never safe to prophesy!

A CASE OF CfiUELTT. Gentle womankind is to the fore once again. Kiss Roscfcta Coulson is a charming young lady who feeepfl a girls' school in Wales. A niece aged nine was one of her pupils, and in this capacity received some earnest and ingenious chastisements. At firat ehe was only B6aten with a cane until the cans went to pieces, but that was too ordinary and incomplete a method to suit the fair Rosett&'s refined notions. So the erring child was first half-starved and then, while ravenou3 with hunger, was brought into the dining roam to eea tha other children eat, thsso being supplied on those occasions by Miss Coulson's special orders with particularly nice and tempting puddings in order to tantalise the ppor hungry little sinner the more exquisitely. At last the child was t&kea to live at the house cf a miner, j who was specially ordered and paid to ] whip her severely every night before he went to bed, to rouse her again in the middle of the night for another whipping, and to give her yet a third whipping in the morning before he wen! to work; also, she was to have nothing to eat but bread, oatmeal, end salt. Fortunately ths man was kindhearted, and pretended to accede to these orderß so that ho might rescue tha unhappy child, whom he took care of, and ultimately handed over to the Society for the Prevention Gf Cruelty to Children. Miss Coulson was prosecuted, and convicted, but was let off by the fool of a magistrate with the utterly inadequate penalty of a £10 fine. A dote of the "cat" would have been the most appropriate medicine for such a wretch, but of courße that would have been too sensible a course to be legal.

DEATH OF LORD B. CHUECHILL. Lord Bandolph Churchill has passed away a last, lifter many delusive rallies and passing flickers of the life that was once so strong in him. He passed away very peacefully at the end, and now &U the multitude of those who are so cheaply " wise after the event" are laboriously explaining why it was that Lord Randolph Churchill failed to attain absolute gro&tness. That his career was brilliant, remarkable, unique, picturesque, meteoric, all agree; but they also agree that ho was not quite—though very nearly—great. The turning point in his career seems to have been his rash and impotnous resignation when, aa Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was outvoted by his colleagues in Cabinet on a Budget question. The rapidity of his riae to such a height had been phenomenal; but it had been largely due to the dread engendered by his extraordinary power of inveotivo, Dot to nay vituperation, and by his equally remarkable fearlessness and audacity of utterance. Ha had grown to believe his presence in the Ministry indispensable. His colleagues fead «cown to regard it as an infliction, and bo,

when he resigned, in the hopa of thus forcing obedience to his demands, his colleagues said, "Go in peace, and Go.l bless yon," nnd Mr Goschen succeeded him. Kroni that day his era of power was }>ast. He had giv.su his measure; ho had "phot his holt." He was no lmmer a forcn to bo reckoned with, although hs still romaiaed a brilliant and prominent ligure in Bnglish politics. But general pwnlyis \\sh \onx been creeping upon him, and his latest speeches in the House of Commons saddened nil who honrd them by th«i lamentable decadence they exhibited. Still the end has corns much mote rapidly than anyono anticipated even a mouth ago.

DEATHS FROJt TIGHT-f.ACISO. Two most extraordinary C T.fC3 havo occurred (luring the last Law days impressing very forcibly the dangers of the excessive tight-lacing which is so widely indulged in by many modern girls, in the insane craving for thfi possession of it, i.-aisfc too slender to bo Beautiful or artistic. In one ca'O s, woman, after experiencing strange and inexplicable nyinptoms, experienced a s-.vont fall through giddiness, and died in hospital. On post viortcm examination, ib was ;ucCTtaiue<l that her symptoms hid been due to the curious condition of her liver, which was "divided into two nearly equal parts, united hy a thin mass of liver subttance," this condition beinc: medically stated to be " due to tight-lasiug." In the other caso n servant girl went to a dentist to have a tooth out. She " took gas," and the gas took her, for she never rallied, but fianu expired. Aud then an autopsy revealed the fact that she h»d been in the habit of coinprcsaing her waist into live inches less than its normal aud natural circumference. Consequence, her heart was displaced nnd distorted and disorganised. And she died. The "left iiide of the heart was greatly contracted and the right much distorted." So said the doctor who performed the post mortem on the unfortunate girl. SOCIETY SCANDAL Prince Alexander of Teck has left to join his re-jiment in India. Ho was nob expected to go so s.non and jurfc beforo tho London season, which ho thoroughly enjoys, but it is whispered that, as usual, there wan " a lady in the case," ao undesirable love affair being hinted at by club gossips. It is said that tho young lady holds a good position iv society, although circumstances rendered an alliance unsuitable, and so it was thought well for Alexander to try change of air. If one may believe the lateab Continental gossip, that pretty drrr.seuse who was said to have fascinated tho Czar and to have comraittad suicide on his marriage is not dead after all, but is dancing away as merrily as ever in Peris. She is reported to have said to an inquisitive interviewer a few days ago : " I shall live bravely, and would not lose my ebsrnal roul for anybody on earth. Besides, tho face of tho Empress is ons after my heart, and I am sure she woald rather know that I dance her husband out of my mind than have a corpse between herself and out Nicholas!" GOSSIP. Twenty-five years ago a girl was born at Konnington Palace Gardens. Her father was the Nawab Sir Ahmad Ali, and her mother w?s a well-born English lady. When eight years old she was baptised at Hawarden, Lord Lawrence being her godfather. She is now the Begum Ahmadee by birta and Mn Bennett by marriage. She is also one of tha most beautiful and gifted women of the day. Her ! personal attracticas are moat rerasrkablo, and ;no are her musical gifts. She learned piano- | forto and harp under the most eminent teachers, | who in each case asserted that she was capable | of attaining the highest arti-itic rank and success as pianist or harpist respectively. And Tosti says the samo of her vocal capabilities. Ha proclaims her a potential Patti, and the Queen, who ia a good judge, agrees with him. So we may see and hear a new. and marvellous star in tho iirmameut ere long. By the way, did I tell you that her Majesty has confessed to being the well-known and popular song-writer "Dolores"? It is so, at snyrate. The Queen compossd and published quite' a large number of songs under that pseudonym, which she chose as apprspriate to her deep and permanent sadness. Most English singers are familiar with " The Brook," the setting by " Dolores " of Charles Kingsley's poem " Clear and cool," but few imagined that the pretty music vras the prenuiise composition of her Most Gracious Majssty Queen Victoria. Yet such is the case.