OUR LONDON FLANEUR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5092, 28 August 1884, Page 3

OUR LONDON FLANEUR.

-♦ (Prom the " Star's" London Correspondent.)

SOCIAL, THEATRICAL, AN.D LITERARY GOSSIP. I. London, July 17. After nearly a decade of cold wet Junes and uncertain Julys, the Bplendid summer we are at present enjoying iB indeed a treat. Day after day the sun blazes out of a cloudless sky; and now the Henley Regatta week has passed without the customary deluge — a meteorological phenomenon — which, as a Sunday paper portentiously observes, "finds no parallel in the memory of the oldest inhabitant." Londoners from the highest to the lowest, are revelling in the long "spell" of fine weather. To the rich it offers opportunities for all sorts of novel entertainments, such as open-air balls, picnics by night, and alfresco concerts. To the poor it means cheap fruit, bathing in the Serpentine, and pleasant evenings, listening to the people's bands in the parks. In another fortnight the annual "tociety" exodus will commence, but till then the season promises to be at its gayest. The Prince and Princess of Wales have re-commenced going out, and the greatest balls of the year are fixed to take place between now and " glorious Goodwood." THE LORD ST LEONARDS CASE. Do you remember my mentioning the case of Lord St Leonards, who was convicted at the Central Criminal Court several weeks ago for indecently assaulting a servant girl ? Sentence was deferred in order to allow his lordship's solicitor to prepare certain affidavits in mitigation of punishment, the unfortunate peer meanwhile remaining in gaol. Well, last Saturday Lord St Leonards was brought up before the Recorder, and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment from the date of his conviction. This of course meant releasing him there and then, as he had already been that length of time in the House of Detention. Compared with the case of Valentine Baks-r, who got twelve months for much tL^jsame offence, this sounds like a miscarriage of justice, but it was not. Lord St Leonards is now as bankrupt in reputation as he is in pocket. Moreover, he has been punished for an offence which he never committei. I believe this because I know men of his calibre seldom, if ever, lie about such matters to their intimate friends, and Lord St Leonards swore to an old chum that he was innocent. "You may believe it or not, Charlie," he. said ; "but the whole thing was a trap into which, being 'squiffy/ I foolishly fell. The girl only wanted to extort a little monoy, but her master owed me a grudge' for flirting with his soi disant wife, and egged on the girl to make assertions which, when a police information was laid, she daren't withdraw for fear of being charged with perjury. It should be a warning to you fellows never to stay in a room or a railway carriage with a strange woman." A WOMEN'S RIGHTS LEADER. A SHRILL STORM. During the past fortnight London has been enjoying a subdued giggle at the expense of Miss Henrietta MiiSer, one of the van-leaders of the "Women's Rights" movement. I know, or either I knew Miss Miiller slightly, about six years ago. She was then an ascetic maiden, neither very young nor very beautiful, but extremely energetic and blessed with an amazingly fluent tongue. Miss Miiller was at that time running for a seat at the London School Board, which she eventually obtained, and had she confined her energies solely to matters educational, all would have been well. Unfortunately, the advocates of women's franchise aroused her dormant ambitions, and persuaded her to do all sorts of absurd things for the " cause." The other day when the Female Franchise Bill again fell through, Miss Miiller (who is an independent householder in her own right) publicly announced her intention of henceforth refusing to pay the Queen's taxes. " If," she said, " I have no share in making the laws, or have no voice in the Government of the country, I refuse to obey the one, or support the other.'/ Various legal processes supervened, the minions of the law eventually entering Miss Miiller's drawing-room and carrying off certain articles of furniture under her very noise. This raid into the privacy of a mature maiden's boudoir was watched by the lady herself and a bevy of friends, who celebrated the occasion by making severe speeches about " tyrant man " and the cause. Unfortunately, Miss Midler was not allowed to be a martyr after all. The next day this female Hampden, who with dauntless breast defied, the Queen's taxes, found that without her knowledge her furniture had been brought back, and again filled up and decorated her boudoir. «' Surely," says G. A. Sala, gossiping about the matter in his own characteristic style, " this is a lame and impotent conclusion to a heroic scene, so stirring in its incidents and powerful in its attractions that half ; the dramatists of London might havo ' hurried to the spot, as some did, to catch ideas from the situation. Miss Miiller stood upon her desolated hearth, her household gods shattered around her. The vile

hands of the minions of male despotism were laid upon the pretty accessories of a lady's boudoir. Thon arose, not only from MiBS Miiller, but from a faithful band of feminine auxiliaries — summoned in haste tj resist the foe — a shrill storm of objurgation. The broker himself, though pale, was collected ; but the broker's man, less hardened, visibly winced under the shower of satire, and it is said that when well out of sight he broke down and wept. No such scenes have occurred in English history since Hampden died in the field, and Sidney on the scaffold. Yet now avo are robbed of the romance. Imagination peeped in and pictured the heroic lady sitting on the bare floor, deprived by masculine brutality of all the comforts and ornaments of a home ; but 'friends' have intervened, and, without her knowledge, have bought back her ' things. ' Friends ? An enemy must have done it. Some monstei-3 in human form calling themselves men, jealous of Miss Miiller's present fame and coming glory, have interposed to tako from her the crown of martyrdom. They have boiled the peas in her shoes j and now her rooms are as bright, and she herself is as cosy as before. Will men never cease to interfere with woman's rights ? Why was not Miss Miiller allowed to become the virgin proto-mai'tyr of taxed womanhood ? " A Divorce Court scandal, in which tb ee noble families (with "names familiav-to our ears as household words ") are said to be implicated, promises to be the sensation of the coming autumn. Great efforts have been made to keep the affair of the papers, so far with success, but all must come out ere long.