HOME GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1683, 26 May 1874, Page 2

HOME GOSSIP.

(PBOM OUB OWN COBEBSPONDENT.)

London, March ilih 1874

In the midsfc of a snow storm tvo are preparing for one of those out door demonstrations which, we Britons will persist ia having despite of common sense and experience. From Paddington to Clarence House our new Duchess is to bo taken in state for the delight of the mob the day after to-morrow, in a north-west wind, over snow covered streets, unless^ the weather changes before, then as suddenly as if has changed since the day. before yesterday, when we were—to all our sensations—quite in the middle v of spring. Yet our Grand Duchess of course is used to this state of things ; but fancy how much the reverse of loyal or' joyful must be the feelings of the Household troops, and the Metropolitan Police, in contemplating the- prospect before them ; and don't the royal footmen ,look blue while thinking df their scarlet liveries. Those who admire the Poet Laureate's congratulatory verses—which we do not—may congratulate themselves that they were written before this came upon us, else he might have found his hymeneal song as difficult as; poor Hood; found the Ode Eto Spring. Never did the climate which we all rail at play us a more treacherous trick. Yet Britons will be. equal to the occasion! It may be questioned whether tea out of those preparing to turn out to give our itussian bride a welcome will be turned from their purpose even by this most unwelcome .weather. Since last writing the great Tichborne Claimant has been transmogrified into Arthur Orton picking' oakum almost as quickly as the clown in a pantomime' is changed from a sea- serpent into a goose, or the.columbine from a humming top into a butterfly; until we find ib hard to believe that for nearly seven years this miserable felon, known by some one two or more numerals, marched to his work in the morning, and his cell at.night, was, a name among us a most engrossing subject of conversation, of argument, of interest, of excitement; that his great case was actually the paramount business for two different years in our history; that men engaged in it sunk under the weight of their works ; that voyages were made half round the world on account of it,; that it was a commercial speculation in which, people ventured money and ruined themselves ; that all mariner of subjects and all sorts of individuals got themselves mixed up with it; that it had not only its'; legal but its political, its social, its 2'eligious, its educational aspect; that it divided all England into two parties as distinct as those of liberal and conservative ; that it took possession of the public prints to the exclusion of every other subject; and actually obliged precautions to bo taken against the. danger of a popular tumult. Last, not least, the masses of documents accumulated during its progress have required not blue bags but wagons for their removal from the offices of the courts of "Westminister. .

'' A copy of the comment of the Board of: Trade-on the nineteen replies from the; 'chairmen of various railway companies to the circular addressed to them by the: Board last November, has been sent to the various newspapers. It is needless to gay that the chairmen's replies have; failed to" make the cage, good on behalf of the companies; .and_. the number and nature of the accidents we have had since will not improve it. Mr. Malcolm, the t assistant secretary to the Board, writes ;that "the= public will hardly disagree with the late Government in the view that safety for i life and limb has not been sufficiently socured ;'' : which seems probable .when the public considers' that the list for the last six months contains 120 passengers killed and 964 injured^ of whom 48 were killed and 854 injured fro:a causes admittedly 1 beyond their own control. In the face of this of course the mismanagement, which merely causes passengers inconvenience, difficulty, and delay, appears too trivial to speak of; yet we have aa important junction near London where such mismanagement has been brought to a perfection which would be scarcely credited in a less civilized country. At this junction there is but one booking office, and passengei"3 changing trains have to get down a flight of steps, rush or blunder through underground passages, up another flight, get their tickets—if they have lit on the right one—then down again, rush or blunder again, either back or further on, up again, and find-—rthe train gone ! Do you believe it? It is the state of things going on during the wh ;le of the working hours at Clapham Junction; with the occasional variation of the train which you were told must change from' the junction not stopping there at all, but carrying you on in exactly the contrary direction to which you wanted to go. The " Worshipful Company of Turners" have presented Sir Samuel Baker with the freedom and livery of said Worshipful Company, in acknowledgement of the services rendered to the 1 commercial community by his African explorations. Ivory being the chief inland article of commerce in Africa, the compliment appears appropriate: but the 'f Worshipful Company " can hardly'have, considered-themselves complimented in 1 leturn by the statement which Sir Samiiel ! found himself compelled to make as to I the manner in which the ivory trade has hitherto been carried on. " There is no such thing," says he, "as legitimate trade in Central, Africa, and the ivory which arrives hore •is not bought, but is the result of the kidnapping of women and children to be changed sas slaves for the ivory. You may therefore understand that there'is no,tusk which comas from the ]N Ti!e district which may rot show ! blood from end to end." The Worship(ful company, it is to be hoped, will lay

the words to heart, and not allow these " blood-stained tusks lo soil their livery any longer. •

Punch has again lost its editor. Mr ' Shirley Brooks has died afc the coinpara. I lively early ajro of 59; and is to be sueceeder) by Mr Tom Taylor. He was very favorably known by his contributions ' to Punch, particularly the articles entitled ; Parliamentary Summaries, before he be. came the editor three years ago on the' death of Mark lemon; but his novels : and plays added little or nothing to his ': reputation as a writer. He y? &s f or . ', mcrly a reporter on the . Morning Chronicle, and assisted Mr Henry ' Mayhew in ■collecting materials for the - series of articles which appeared in that paper, and wore published in a collected form under the title of " London^ Labour and tbe London Poor," in 1851. W There has been for some time a quarrel going on here, of which no one knows,the exact cause, which ought never to have begun, and which all rational people desire, but don't quite expect—quarrels ' being Lard things to finish up—to see ended. King's College Hospital has been for some years indebted to the sisterhood of St. John's House for its staff of nurses. All Iho authorities connected with the hospital speak with unqualified approval of , the services of the sisters; and the sisters on the other hand acknowledge their obligations to the hospital as a training school of nursing: nevertheless, the Committee of Management of the hospital has ' come to loggerheads with the Council of St. John's House, and has given notice to- the Council that the existing agreement for nursing must terminate at the end of six months from the Ist February. The Governors of the Hospital with the Duke of Cambridge at their head are ODly anxious for peace and reconciliation, and the comfort and welfare of the patients, nevertheless the " difference " continues, and, as one of our papers says, is about as hopeful of settlement as a lawsuit,: it might have added, as a law- - suit between relations, every one being aware how hopeful they are. Must we really be forced upon the conviction that all committees, are only obstructions. This present Committee has nothing to say at all to the purpose, except that it wants to have " a nursing staff entirely under its own control;" while the public, or those who speak for the public, very naturally ask "if the nursing be," as the Committee admits, "all that can be desired, why interfere with it P" and " that portion of the public which goes deeper into the subjects than the majority also ask whether it is not under the control of the surgeons and physicians that the , nurses should properly be, rather than under that of the Committee. It seems likely that the biographer of " Jinks' baby " may have something to tell us of the experience of Hospital patients while Committees and Councils are squabbling for the control of their nursing.