"?ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2665, 12 April 1905, Page 66

"?ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

BESIDE A MARCH FIRE. > -

Ugh! the vist of March. — and snow! Also a bitterly bleak wind, which penetrates everything and everywhere even to the most genial of goodnature. Birds that have married in haste are not repenting at leisure evidently, for in the country they are singing in ecstacy over the bare marches and moors^ alt hough, wild! deluges have drenched tke. half-sown land. Song thrush and missel thrush, the robin, and hedge sparrow know that winter is over, however it may appear ; the wren and the tit and the plaintive curlews take part in the

bird clioru.s, am!) with every glint of sunshine l.uks ascend smgmp, joyously. Xot m the country only do the biirls sing Wherever theie is a tree or bush or shuib over tln-5 half of th." globe the biidsony is ceaseless from dawn to dark. A correspondent from the Riviera a we-ek or so back complained that the destruction of biicK tlieie had made a noticeable diminution in tli."ir song, but an answer was made that in Mentone, at anyrate, the Society tor th<=> Protection of Animals were m\I r iiig efforts tc preserve bird life. The correspondent from Meat one also points out th;>t the season has been an unusually cold one, and the voice of the thrush and the nightingale will soon be loud in that

land. The London sparrow, like the born and b: ed Londoner, is not daunted by spring winds. Maich, that comes in lik.? a lion, is piophesied all round to go out like a lamb. Anyhow, in the sparrow's case, it is the suivival of the fittest, and after getting through the smutty darkness of winter fogs and starving among the unemployed denizens (if the air daring hard frost and snow, lie is not to be dismayed by the roaring of the March lion. Softhearted April follows. Even now worms are astir arri getatable, and the insect world is on the move. - With a full stomach many things are bearable, and in his selfimportant, aggressive fashion the sparrow is twittering of what he intends to do during the coming season. Convalescents among the human species are being "moved on" to warmer climes, and there has be^n a good deal of illness during the winter season. Princess Victoria has. made a satisfactory recovery from appendicitis, and is now able to more about her apartments. Sir Henry Irving is ill, and still confired to bed, and has been compelled to give up his provincial tour. He caught a chill while travelling to Birmingham on a day of sleet and snow. The provinces ar.e, of couise, bitterly disappointed, and thousands will be debarred the pleasure of seeing the king of tragedy in his famous parts. Ther.-? is something almost tragic in itself about living on tour, with the Lyceum, which was the scene of triumphs and the home of his art. turned into a, music hall. But the demolition of old and the new London goes on, and much that made its history and its charm to travellers from afar has fallen beneath the pickaxe, and the new London grows apace. It is inevitable ; with the march of the world its heart must beat faster to meet the strain upon it : the old streets congested the traffic, the old buildings were not modern enough in their utility to answer to the demand made on them. ' But the suggestion of a "Paris in the Strand" Iras been rejected. Open caf.es, etc., with all the novelties of Continental cafe life, met the views of many who complain that London lacks these summer r.°sorts in its city, but there was another side of the question ; it would have been, in fact, a foreign invasion, an appropriation of London trade, and whatever the objections given for tfc/? abandonment of the suggestion, that objection would have remained. But whatever changes are in progress in the smoke-dried city, they are still British in their character, or British enough not to he glaringly foreign. The British workman is in no mood at the present to look on with kindly eye at the wholesale invasion of foreign labour, and I suppose Paris in the Strand would have been built chiefly by French artisans. It is assumed by some statistics that 95,000 European aliens settled in the country during last year. But that does not take into account the number who leave these shores. In any case there are whole districts in the East End as foreign to the English language- and rustoms as Italian and Russian can make them, and the protest is growing louder against London being made the dumping ground of alien failures. Dr Porrey's mission still continues, but as yet London is not converted to a man, although the meetings ar.e well attended. A whole-sheet advertisement offering the music of "The glory sons" for the aramaphone for the return of 5s repre.^nts Mr Alexander leading the singing at the Albert Hall. "I want," says Mr Alexander in his advertisement, "every home in England to ring with 'The glory sons.' I "wish it might be sung not only in the Albert Hall, and in churches and chapels, but in houses and shops, at work and at play. It is pood for all places, from the cradfe to the death-bed; and for all clasps, from the woman at the wash-tub to the society lady in her drawing room." Fortunately there is no chance of Mr Alexander's desire be--ing realised ; there is din enough in this Sfreat city as it is, and what would happen if the charwoman cleaning the steps, the housemaid lighting the fire, the nurse dressing the children, my lady at the piano, his Majesty's Ministers of State, the artnv and the police, 'bus drivers, and the office clerks were all singing instead of attending to their business; what would hap,)on in the course of 24 hours would be Be ll.im, not only for converted London itself, hvi madness for other persons in other p-irts of the world. But the mission has met with generous encouragement r.ot only from Nonconformist ministers, but also from prominent members of the Church of England. That brave old man, General Booth, has bidden farewell to his army in England, and has started on a mission tour to Palestine, Australia, and New Zealand, so it is possible you may see him, older by — is it 15 years? — than when he occupied the pulpit of the Rev. Dr Stuart (of beloved memory) in Dunedin, but dauntless and indefatigable as then. T)unedinites I will remember that gathering at Knox j Church, and the General's appeal for I "Darkest England," and the crowded congregations in the Garrison Hall, near the Times and Witness office. Much water has run under the bridge since then — under the old Leith bridge among others, — and men and women have gone away for ever, and others have come, and much has changed, but General Booth, with Ids shaggy "white hair and beard, has not slacked in energy. He is only older in the physical man,' with added honours, for he has been the guest of the King, and

thp acknowledged ruler of many thousands. He goes out once more to plead, perhaps, in happier countries for England's "submerged tenth."

Sitting by a March fire with the sleet beating against the window pane, much is understandable to me of "Darkest England " which 15 years ago, under the light of the Southern Cross, seemed exaggerated and sensational. There is no darkness depicted of this terrible East city that is not true, no brightness or charm or delight or honour of the West of this wonderful metropolis that has ever b~een overpainted. You can rule the world from here ; charm it, cheat it, cajole it, educate it, and a prince could die here of hunger in an attic unnoticed and alone, and his neighbours would not know whence he came. Bring your greatness here for renown, bring your talent for appreciation, and, if you will, come here to be obliterated. But, believe this, that a Londoner who has honour in his own country has earned it.

Fortunately, the Drawing Rooms are now held at night, and the bleak, long wait of the carriages laden with women in low-cut dresses a thing of the past, for on the days of the first and second Drawing Rooms the wind was, as a woman once expressed it to me, "Bleak, not to say hairy. ' ' Both Courts went off with great eclat. The first Court was a week before the second, and Princess Victoria Eugenic, of Battenberg, was one of the debutantes of the second Court, and although the Court was in mourning, the dresses were by no means sombre, gleaming white being pre-eminent. The Queen wore a glittering black jet robe with wonderful jewels; the Princess of Wales, black net over white, and a train of black and white satin and tulle. Modern Society says: — "There is some expectation that their Majesties will proceed to Germany for the wedding of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg in the autumn. The King will probably be in Austria about that time, and Queen Alexandra would in the ordinary course be in Denmark, so that there need be no great disturbance in their plans. The Prince of Wales will, in all likelihood, be on his way to India at the time, so that if King Edward decides to be represented at the wedding instead of attending in person, the Duke of Connaught will be asked to undertake this duty. There are naturally some difficulties in the way of such an arrangement, and for this reason his Majesty may resolve to discharge the complimentary duty himself. The young Duke of Coburg could hardly have done better for himself than by becoming "engaged to a niece of the German Empress, a daughter of her Majesty's sister, Duchess Caroline Matilda of SchleswigHolstein. The Kaiser is a keen matchmaker, and has interested himself considerably in the welfare and settlement in life of his Consort's relatives. By espousing a reigning Duke, whose minority has enabled his property to be well nursed, Princess Victoria Adelaide will give her younger sisters the right sort of lead, for one prosperous marriage in a family often leads to another. It is an advantage that the young couple are not so closely related as are most royal pairs. There is a cousinship, through their descent from the Duchess of Kent, but of a second degree, and with a remove, and rendered still more distant by the fact that the Princess descends from the first marriage of Qtieen Victoria's mother and Duke Charles Edward from the second. Duchess Caroline Matilda, mother of the Duke of Coburg's financee, descends from an unhappy Princess who bore the same name as herself, the daughter of "Frederick, Prince of Wales, and wife of King Christian VII of Denmark. Louisa, daughter of this "Queen of Tears," married a Duke of Augustenburg, and among her representatives at the present day are the German Empress and sisters, with their respective families, and Prince Christian, who married Princess Helena of England. Duchess Caroline Matilda gave her own name, and that of her unfortunate ancestress, to her youngest daughter, who is now about ten years of age. Our Good Queen Alexandra descends from the malevolent stepmother of Christian VII, who was mainly responsible for the break up of that weak-minded Kind's household. Time heals all things, and for many a year the once conflicting lines have been on the best of terms.