HOME GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1723, 11 July 1874, Page 2

HOME GOSSIP.

(from our own correspondent).

London, May 6,

Never did the most stupendous array of Christmas bills strike;more dismay to the heart of paterfamilias than the Arch- , bishop of Canterbury's little bill lias struck to various members; lay and ecclesiastical, of mother church. That 'bishops should, at length, be driven into au effort for obtaining power to deal with contumacious clergymen without the enormous risk to which they arc now liable, no one could wonder at, but- unfortunately the Primate's little bill does not define what practices in church services are legal or ill egal—in other word s, whether a clergyman is justifiable in his disregard of his bishop or not;' so that if the mea-sure-should pass, it would be simply "pull Bishop, pull priest, " and Church herself nowhere. The state of Church affairs at present is scandalous enough, Heaven knows, but in that case we should have in each diocese the ritualistic bishop condemning his Evangelical clergy in pains and penalties, and, vice versa, the Evangelical bishop condemning his " High " priests. • .Nevertheless we hope it will pass. All rational people hope so. This omission can be amended, and then the sooner the business is settled the better. Great, as you may suppose, however, is the anguish and tribulation of ecclesiastical ladies. The humiliation threatening " sweet Father this, " or " dear Father 'tother, " has spread mourning and woe among the " sisters " who have been embroidering capes, and receiving benedictions from these hoiy men. After all—take the bill at the worst —it would only be, as regards these votaries, an exchange of masters. Every parish priest is now a popo in his owndominion; then every bishop would be. They should " kiss whatever he gave them to kiss, " but it would not be a much more unpleasant performance than in the case of the priest.

The black boy who accompanied poor Dr. Livingstone so faithfully inhis pilgrimages, and came' home in charge o' his master's dead body was "interviewed " by her Majesty the other day at Windsor. Mr. E. Hutchinson, .secretary to the Church Missionary Society, accompanied him to the Castle, to which they were conveyed in one of the royal carriages after leaving the station at Windsor. Tha Queen has expressed so much interest in Jacob Wainwright—this is the lad's name —that there is no doubt his future advancement in life will be well cared for, provided he does not forfeit the royal favour by any misconduct. Even those least addicted to sieging more loudly than necessary the praises of royalty must admit that fickleness or forgetfulness, are of all failings the farthest removed from her Majesty's character. An interest excited never cools in her mind, without very sufficient reasons ; an intention expressed, or even inferred, is never afterwards neglected. If her late husband went to his grave as " Albert the good," his wife lives as " Victoria tho true."

We have just been having a week of shai'p east wind after ten days or so of weather so hot that it put the London reason forward nearly, two months at least. Milliners were making up gauzes and cambrics into costumes and hsad gear as fast as they could work, and tailors could not get summer coatings fast enough out of the manufacturers' hands ; now we are all in furs and pilot cloths again. Living in a " genteel " suburb there was a good deal of amusement in seeing the haste and hurry made in getting out and putting up the muslin and lace window draperies; and watching the disconcerted looks of matrons and spinsters afterwards, when the smoke wreaths from the chimneys told that the fires had to be lighted, with their inevitable consequences of smoke and blacks. Even an east wind blow's somebody good, however, and the " private views" visitors to the lioyal Academy, as well as the public on the opening day, were no doubt very glad to escape the chance of suffocation. At the Mansion House ball, too, it is likely no one regretted the absence of the midsummer weather with which April had favoured us. Now that this ball is over, and the Academy opened, and the Exhibition alive-^-it is scarcely more—and everybody who is anybody suited in a carnage, oca groom, or a waiting maid, or a milliner, or whatever may have been the most prominent want towards the perfect enjoyment of this season, we have nothing to do but to expect the Czar: but " a horror of great darkness " has seized upon some of us; a disappointment looming largely and drearily. We have already had the Pasha, and the Sultan, and the Shah, and, without disrespect be it spoken, the .Czar ; even the Czar is a sort of a down come after these less come-at-able potentates; but when we have had the Czar, who then? Are we to go back to a dreary round of mere everyday European sovereigns P The Czar in virtue of his dominions may be considered as much Eastern as Western, but when we have done him where are we to look for another real, downright, novelty for our " show bizness ? "

" Oh dear, what ahall becorno of us ? Oh, dear, what; shall we do ? *" Wo «hall die of blue devils if some of us Can't find out something that's new." We shall be singing to our " brave Eigmarol.w/' -and our "bold Kigmarcesi" iurt ,y>-'!". with very little chance, it is (o. bc;"fcart.'d. of any of them hitting on such a happy idea as the' useful friend of the; Count of Tholouse. We have China

and Japan remaining certainly, if wp send out our .invitations in time/otherwise wo are in a bad way. Almost everyone who likes fair play has been gratified by the preferment o"f Dr. Hay man to the crown living of Aldingham, in Lancashire, worth nearly, it is said, a thousand a year. Indeed, it may be said that; the public dissatisfaction at the treatment this gentleman had had from the Governors of Eugby School was so great, that, had he not been compensated in some way, a change in the management, generally, of our public "schools would hxxe been too loudly called for to allow of the call being neglected. It may be said* to be sure, that the compensation of Dr. Hayman thus indirectly in no way alters the position which allows the masters of those schools to be treited as he was treated, but we don't accustom ourselves to look at matters in this strictly logical manner, and so much the better for our own comfort. It's very bad to have such a spot within our social, political, or legal institutions as that we must certainly mess ourselves in it some day or other, but until somebody does get into a mess, wo leave it linlooked to, and even then if the somebody can be got to rights again, we put if off to a more convenient season. Just now we are having from one. end of England to the other a cry of mad dogs* and although in this 1 case not somebody,-but a great many somebodies have got themselves : into'f cry undesirable messes,-nothing-has yet been done to prevent the streets being crowded by dogs, with and without owners. Seriously, there has been lately a perfect outbreak of hydrophobia, both in London and the provinces. There is often a great deal of exaggeration in circumstances of this sort. The actual occurrence of one fact gives rise to rumours of hundreds; or the one fact itself being but a trifle is magnified into a monster : but our hospital authorities here are able to verify the reports. The number of persons who have been bitten, and the number of thoss whohave been attacked by unmistakeable hydrophobia is well authenticated, and yet—nothing has been done :" nothing by authority. One policeman did, at the risk of his life, pursue, close in on, and kill a dog which had bitten several children, and was rushing at every one it met, and something, I believe, not much most likely, is to be done for him —for the policeman I mean ; but in meantime the dogs are allowed to be in the streets, to the chance of other exciting chases which, may not end as successfully for the pursuers.