MADAME LOTTI WILMOT.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 28, 26 March 1881, Page 293

MADAME LOTTI WILMOT.

With this number of The Observer we present «a portrait of Madame Lotti Wilmot, whose advent amongst ns is causing considerable •curiosity and comment. As a general thing, lady platform speakers are not looked upon with favor, as their appearance in the character of reformers is a departure from all past custom, which has relegated to the lords of creation alone the privilege of enacting the rule of public teachers. But lady orators are an outcome of theage I we live in, and are destined, there can be little r ■doubt, to play an important part in the future f settlement and adjustment of our political .and r social anomalies. Whether the questions Mdme. 1 Wilmot has chosen to discuss are lit ones for t platform debate or not, we leave our readers to t ■decide ; but we must all bear in mind that it is not by pharisaically shutting her eyes to the ] evils and abuses of the age that we can provide c a remedy for them. The following brief sketch of f Madame Wilmot s somewhat chequered career, f which has already appeared in print, will doubt- -\ less be read with interest by all classes : — c "Madame Lotti Wilmot was born of French parents in London in 1849. Imbued with a i passion for public life and independence, she l°.ft her home and appeared upon the stage in •. ISO 4, and married three weeks after a wealthygentleman from Bombay. She retired from i public life, but became restless and impatient for adventure. Having travelled over the Continent, she was busily engaged _in the ] hospitals during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-2. She became a widow with i one child in 1874. She then speculated in i theatrical management, and leased London ] theatres, and afterwards travelled with a large company through the provinces of England. She left for the Colonies in 1877, Lringing with her several valuable manuscripts of French dramas, of which she possesses the sole right of performing in English. In 187S she became a temperance and inspirational lecturess, and worked through New South Wales with great siiccess, no other person having obtained the signing of so many pledges. She visited the prisons and hospitals. She lectured on all she observed, never sparing or shirking the exposure of tyranny or the abuse of power, making many friends and many enemies in consequence. Madame Wilmot went to Victoria in July, IS7S, where she was incapacitated and kept her bed three months from congestion of the lungs and overwork. She afterwards lectured in Melbourne 52 Sundays, at the Opera House, the Apollo Hall, and the Academy of Music, causing a sensation by treating upon popular subjects — "The Social Evil,' " Crime," " Chinese (Question," She afterwards took expriest Chiniquy in hand, and was rewarded in Melbourne by the attendance of the clergy of all denominations, and crowded, excited audiences. Madame was educated in the Protestant faith, but during the last few years she has been entirely unsectarian — believing that religion is your life, and Heaven will be for those who do their duty here below, and keep the Ten Commandments." During the year just closed, Madame Wilmot achieved considerable fame and notoriety through the skill she displayed in conducting her own case against the leading counsel in New South Wales, in an action for libel against the Sydney Town, and Country Journal, in which she ■claimed damages to the extent of £2000. She not only succeeded in making the cross-examining •counsel, Mr. Waud, feel uncomfortable and foolish at times, but was successful in obtaining a verdict for £150. During the same year she defended herself personally in a sectarian persecution in Newcastle, N.S.W., for lecturing on Sundays in the Theatre. She, however, succeeded in convincino- the Bench that her mission in these days Was " a mercy necessity, and charity, as supplying Avholesoine intellectual recreation as °a counteracting influence to the "public house or church." The case being dismissed, her friends gave her a bumper house on the following evening in recognition of her efforts. In September last Lotti Wilmot paid her first visit to Dunedin, where she encountered more than usual opposition, not only from the orthodox portion of the community, but from members of the Freethought Association, who, having failed to make arrangements for Madame Wilmot to ;appear under their auspices, decided to exhibit ■open hostility to her teachings. In order to do this effectually, opposition Sunday lectures were resorted to with some success, which resulted in Madame Wilmot securing both theatres at great expense. Madame wilmot arrived in Auckland on Monday last, and will -commence her lecturing season during the • coming week.

— Lord Beaconsfield is understood to be in high spirits in regard to the " situation " at home. His -conviction is that the majority at the last election was obtained entirely by Mr. Gladstone's eloquence, and by the successes of the first day creating an enthusiasm that carried everything before it. The country, he thinks, is awakening to the dangers of a House of Commons of so Eadical a complexion as the present one and it would not surprise anyone were he to provoke an : appeal to the constituencies by throwing out some Bill in the Honse of Lords, for it must not be forgotten that : although the Eoyal veto has fallen into disquietude, the veto of the Conservative party may still be exercised iwhenevor it pleases him.