LONDON GOSSIP.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8274, 21 September 1888, Page 3

LONDON GOSSIP.

As completely as if England wero a Republic, Royalty has bnen conspicuous by its absence ever since the tidings camo that Frederic 111. had joined the majority. The very Exbibitons had been left to the mundane element of tbo general public, on- 5 Olympia, with her Irish gathering, hnn not oven had n privato visit from the Prince of Wulpb, Fler GracioUß Majesty's major-domo. Indeed, it is whispered that his Royal Iliahness in on strike -that the expenses theso functions lead him into are more than he cr.n conveniently meet, and therefore that he drew the line at Ireland. It was a Haze speech — that dropped by (ho youngest and smartest of the Prino^'p cJftUf.htors, when with hf r pnrents on hrr wny to n doll, flut, and uninteresting stone-^aun;: : •• How much nicer it mnut have been to bavo been princesses in the days when there was nolhin? to open !'' Serioiply, no mun works harder for his living tbnn does tho Prince. Ho docs his own and bis august mamma's thare an well. The fietfr of tho new Duchess of Marlborough, Misß Lucy Price, married, Bajs an American coi respondent, a Mr Reushaw, of Baltimore. Ronehow is nn engineer, and three yor.rs ago ho worked on the Croton Aqueduct as a labourer at seven nnrt sixpence per day. It wdb the only employment open to him, and he put on a pair of blue overalls and took it. At tho end of v week he wns promoted to bo secretary to Engineer Craven, with a salary of £500 a yenr. In another week ho was again promoted, and put in charge of an importunt department, with increased salary. Now that ho is thu Irolher-in-lnw of a duke*, he oircilin^ly recalls this incident of his career. j Wednesday, July 25, was the nnniversary of tho bitthdny of Ller Royal Highness tho DuchefcH of Cambridge, who completed her ninety-first jear, eho having been horn July 25, 1797. The I'iince and Princtss Of Wnlep, with their daugliUrp, tho PrinceetcH Louise, Victoria, and Mouil, were enily visitors to ofter thoir congrutululioDs lo tho venerable Duchess. It is cfiifiully nr.ncunced in Berlin tbat, with the Empiror'n Function, tho widowed Emprees Victoria will henceforward henr tbe title of tho EmprcFß Queen Frederick. A Warj borough telegram Btntesihat the house of a policeman at Tjullybrittas, Quceu'fl Count)', Ireland , was wftiicipusly

I set on firo whilo the owner was engaged at the assizes. Tho wife and children had to take refuge in lodgings. At New York another individual has been nrreßted on the chirge of being concerned in the plot to destroy part o' the Chicago, Burlington, and Quiocy Railway with dynamite. Several o£ the m*n previously arrested have confessed their complicity in the affair. The biography of Mr Honry Wiri Beecher extends to over 700 puges. Tlse autobiographical part is in two sections Theee are concerned with tho most momentous situations of his life : his English round of speeches in 1863, an ( the Tilton complication. His account of tho latter covers some twenty- five pa-?es. It was written ia 1874. In about the same number of pages Mr Beecher's work us n prdacher is discussed. His methods of preparation and his pnlpit manner ate dest-ribed, and some attention is given, to his theology. The colonial demand for steel rails during the first half of the present yenr hus exhibited a considerable fallin T , oS compared n ith that for tbe fist six months of 1887 and 1886. The figures for 1888 we 34,892 tons nguinst 52,366 tons in 1887 and 40,591 tons in 1886.