LONDON.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2588, 24 October 1867, Page 5

LONDON.

'[from our own correspondent.] August 26, 1807. The London "season" is over— the session 'of Parliament is at an end— the great B«form 'Bill of 1867 has passed— John Bright's labor of love is accomplished— and the occupation of the Reform League is— gone. The session which has just closed was unusually protracted, and its work being done, every body feels a sense of relief. And if the general public experience a sensation of this kind. how much more must the chief actors in the great Parliamentary drama feel relieved, and ■at the same time, elated at the successful ■issue of their great political enterprise-— the bn\\mnt K (Mnouement of the cleverly contrived ""plot" by which the ultra-Tories of this great aristocratic country were hood-winked into the belief that the Conservativq^programme had always been " Household Suff'•rage." Undoubtedly the greatest triumph by any statesman of modern times, is that which has been accomplished by the able and versatile Chancellor o£ the Exchequer, who has performed a feat that would have baffled any other man in England. After this, well may he boast of the "*' Caucasian" blood that flows in his veins. •!• ventured to predict some two or three years back that the Reform Bill would eventually be carried by a Disraeli Cabinet. -Having studied his career closely, as well as? llis written works, for many years past, I felt that Mr Disraeli was at heart the most en--lightened statesman and Hie most really "advanced" reformer in the House of Commons — Mr Gladstone alone excopted ; and that he was the only man who ]3ossessed all those qualities of tact, temper, versatility, personal influence, and practical knowledge —-all combined — and all so especially requisite in a statesman who aspires to lead the House of Commons — to sway, control, '•convince, convert, the most enlightened deliberative Assembly in the whole world. This is what Mr Disraeli has done. He has passed a Reform Bill far beyond the expectations of even Mr Bright himself — upon the fcasis of household suffrage, with a £10 lodger franchise — all other "fancy" franchise proposed at the outset, having been lopped off, one by oue, iv Committee. The entire session was engrossed by the Reform Bill, and little else. Parliament had resolved upon passing a measure at all costs, and however credit is due to Mr Disraeli for the •marvellous abilities which he has exhibited in 1 conducting the Bill through the House — single-handed so to speak — for he derived but little active assistance in the way of talking from the leading members ot his own party — yet he could never have succeeded "without the co-operation of the Liberal party —of whom Gladstone, Bright, and John Stuart Mill are the foremost leaders. There is no doubt that much is owing to the forbearance, and I may add the patriotism of •this party. For had there been anything like factious opposition, such as Mr Gladstone's Bill met last year, the Derby Cabinet would hare been thrown out early in the session, and reform would still be left to "*' stop the way." Everybody is therefore heartily glad that the question, now pending for the last fifteen years, has at length found «, satisfactory solution, for the more discreet part of the community were getting sick and tired of the blatant nonsense to which the extreme section of the Reformers were constantly giving utterance in public and private ' — all tending to the establishment of a rampant democracy, when the very dregs of the j people should bear sway. True, it is no longer the fashion to hold up the Republican Institutions of America, asmodelsaDdpatterns for our adoption ; it is found that these institutions do not prevent bribery and corruption of the most flagrant character in every branch oJ the administration, until the very fountains of justice itself are poisoned, and that king mob in one form or another rules supreme. It is, I say, no longer the fashion openly to praise the Institutions t>f the great Trans-atlantic Republic — the war brought to light too many of the open running sores which fester in the body politic ; and then, there was introduced the aabit, the bad habit, of " paying taxes," just Hike this " old worn out monarchy" of ours. But although it is not the; fashion to belaud America any longer, there still is an extreme section of the Radical party in this country who secretly fosters a liking for Republican Institutions, and who would gladly see our House of Lords, if not royalty itself abolished in this country. This party is not at present strong, but it exists nevertheless in a certain embryonic form, and is becoming -developed by degrees. Doubtless when the millennium sets in, and when virtue, and honor, and truth, and purity, and intelligence, and wisdom become essential attributes of the hydra-headed Plebs, then it will *be time to give the theories broached by the party here indicated, a fair chance and no Savor. Everybody is now asking the question, and what next? What is to be the result of the Reform Bill — will the mob have it all their own way, or how? Considerable apprehensions are felt by a large section of the community, leat the flood tide of democracy should overflow its banks and inundate the toody politic, and swamp the constitution. But I think there need be little fear of this. Wealth, station, and willingness will still •exercise due weight in every constituency which will countervail any ultra- democratic tendencies. Still I think it highly probable that we shall have, to a limited extent, an incursion of inferior men — inferior in a social and intellectual point of view — into the House of Commons, as sometimes takes place, I understand, in some of the Colonial Legislatures ; but this will be all. The best men, in Social standing, intelligence and wealth, will Btill find their way into Parliament. We aJia.ll liave » few men of" tl»e " sfcaarxcli" econoxnical school, who will " go in" like the lato Joseph Hume for a reduction of the army and navy, and of the public expenditure generally ; but beyond this, I, for one, expect no striking results from the Reform Bill, about which there has been so much fclamour for the last fifteen years. One thing alone it has already accomplished — St has given a death blow to the exclusive Soryism. of the old school. I am sorry that I cannot report any decided improvement in the regions of trade and commerce. The black cloud that overspread tho great world of finance on that memorable "Black Friday" in May, 1866, still continues lo linger over the horizon of business. Money was never so plentiful as it is at the present moment in the city of London, and confidence waff never so scarce. Bufc although money is so plentiful, it is almost wholly unemployed. There are no openings for it. The rates of discount were never easier, ranging from one to two per cent ;

but this is for prime bills at short dates^and first-class securities; "common paper," or, in other words, inferior bills, find little favor. Financial houses (the few that remain after the crash of last year) and the Joint Stock Banks are doing but little business, so that "depositors" find it scarcely worth their while to put fchcii' money into such coueerns. For puvposes of investment, the British public are very shy of everything in the shape of foreign loans, There is nothing in that way now iv the market which is not at a fearful discount. The only exceptions to foreign loans of any kind are to be found in colonial securities, in which, to judge from the quotations, daily on the rise, the moneyed public seem at present to have complete confidence. But at the same time, I am not sure that it would be wise on the part of colonists— least of all ofsmall or provincial governments, to take advantage of the present easy temper of the market towards colonial borrowers — to the extent, I mean, of putting any large loans in the market, unless it could be proved that they were for undoubted remunerative purposes—such as building roads and railroads, and giving facilities for the development of commerce. But if this could be shown in a satisfactory manner, I do not think the public would object to invest iv such loans to a limited extent. Everything would have to be done " cautiously" on both sides. The British capitalist was never so careful about his securities as he is at the present moment. Foreign loans and " financial coueerns" absolutely stink in his nostrils, and as to speculation for home or domestic purposes, there is absolutely nothing of the kind going on or likely to be. Railway enterprise is at a complete standstill, and engineers and contractors who, a year or two back hud more on hand than they could accomplish have positively nothing to do. There has been a considerable na y — a most remarkable falling off in the quantity and value of our exports to all the Australian colonies— your own included — for I the last six or eight months, and the returns show that the decline iv some instances amounts to 30 or 10 per cent, or more, compared with the exports for the corresponding months of last year. But this we may hope is only temporary, owing to excessive imports ■ and over trading in former years. A most important judgment, which was delivered only a few days ago in the House of Lords in the matter of the financial concern of Overend, Gurney & Co. (Limited), which, as your readers will remember, was the first to " smash up" in the panic of '66, will exercise a very decided influence upon would-be shareholders and speculators, for the time to I come, and will make them very cautious how they apply for shares in any new undertaking. The question that came before the House of Lords on appeal from the judgment of Vice-Chancellor Malms, was this — Whether the shareholders in the Overend, Gurney Company (Limited) were entitled to relief from their liabilities, on the ground of fraud, in the original prospectus put forward, on the faith of which they had applied for shares in the new company. The House of Lords in a most elaborate judgment has decided against the shareholders, and has held that their names must remain on the list of " contributors" in the wiading-up of the concern. Heretofore it was supposed to be the law that if any person took shares in a company upon the faith of a prospectus, which fraudulently put forward auy mis- i statement of fact, the whole transaction became tainted, and the contract was ipso facto void.. But in the present case there was this peculiarity. Although it was fully i admitted by the House of Lords that the I Directors of the new Financial Company of Overend & Co. (founded on the ruins of the old Company) had concealed from the public the fact of their having taken over bad assets or liabilities to the extent of upwards of three millions sterling, yet that shareholders had they exercised due and proper vigilance and circumspection, might have ascertained the real state of the concerf for themselves ; and, therefore, as they had taken no steps up to the moment when the bubble burst, for having their names taken off the list of shareholders, it was then too late, and there was no remedy. In other words, this contract originally was not void, though voidabh, and the shareholders having taken no steps such as thej r might have taken, ! must now bear the conseqnences, and be liable for the debts of the Company to tho full extent of the difference between £15 paid up, and the value of the original £50 Blmre. This will be a " caution" to shareholders for the future. The Money Market Review and some other city papers and men are perfectly furious at the result of this decision, which they say is opposed to all reason and justice and law, and in flagrant opposition to previous and even recent judgments of the House of Lords. In fact, they even go to the extent of saying that the Law Lords have not only contradicted but even i "stultified"* themselves by this decision. But I don't look at it in the same light, and my opinion is that which is entertained and was anticipated by nine- tenths of the Bench and the B"ar. If every man who "puts his hand to paper" without proper consideration were afterwards to be relieved of his responsibility, on the plea that he had been " taken in," or entrapped into a bad bargain, though with his eyes open, there would be an end to negotiable instruments, and commercial transactions.

There has been a slightly improved feeling in trade generally, and especially in the wool trade, during the last few weeks. The market has taken a turn. Spinners and buyers have apparently been impressed with a conviction that prices had reached their lowest point, and accordingly several purchases have been made at slightly improved quotations. An upward tendency in prices gives a more cheerful aspect to business, and I have no doubt that the sales now on in London will show an improvement. The harvest bids fair to be very good. The crops are all above the average, aud if they can bo got in with line weather, farmers will havo every reason to be satisfied. Hay, roots, and cereals are alike good, and with an abundant yield like this, there is but little likelihood of our having to send money out of the country to purchase corn — money which never, or very seldom, finds its way back again in the course of trade — unlesa,perhaps from the United States. In England, when the harvest is good, everything goes well. Cheap bread is all in all to the million who live by wages— from hand to mouth.

A very uneasy feeling prevails at the present moment all over tho continent of Europe. There are symptoms which Heem to indicate that the war which threatened to break out this summer between Prussia and France has only been postponed to a more convenient opportunity, and it would surprise nobody to hear of a rupture at any moment between these two great rival powers. Some persons think thero will bo a winter campaign, while others think that fighting will not take pJaco before the spring. Should there be a war, it will be the interest of Prussia to take the initiative at tho oarlies: possible moment, for she is better prepare I than France. It is supposed that there ig a

complete understanding between Russia and Prussia, and that they would both be found on the same side in the event of any outbreak in Europe. Franco and Austria, on the other hand, would probably be found together. Neither of these two great powers is satisfied with the position which they at present occupy vis-a-vis of their formidable northern rivals. If an outbreak should occur, the inevitable " Eastern question" is sure to crop up once more, the Sultan will be threatened, and then England will have to come to the rescue as she did in '54 The Emperor Napoleon is, at the present moment, ou a visit at Saltzburg with the Emperor of 1 Austria, and it is supposed that they are concerting means together. There can now be but little doubt that the recent visit of the Sultan to Paris aud London had a certain amount of political significance. It is but J natural that he should draw near to his friends and allies at a moment when danger threatens. If anything can do so, this late rapprochement will have tended to prolong his tenure of office and to uphold his dynasty for a furthfir term of years. To come nearer home. Spain is in a chronic state of rebellion, and a fierce and active insurrection is proceeding in that unhappy country at the present moment. An uneasy feeling also prevails throughout Italy. The chief malady there seems to be a financial one — a low state of the vital system arising from overdepletion — too much " bleeding" where there is no blood — a bad state of " iinpocuniosity," consequent upon excessive soldiering. The Church lands are accordingly about to be put up to sale, and the proceeds will probably replenish the exhausted coffers of the Florentine Treasury for a certain limited time — at the cost of making the " Church" a bitter enemy of the new order of things and of the Governmeutof Victor Emmanuel, who "dares to lay his sacrilegious hands" upon property consecrated to monastic and conventual purposes. It is said that Garibaldi is meditating a " descent" upon Rome in the same way that he formerly invaded Sicily and Naples, " on his own hook," and that he is only prevented from taking active measures by the vigilance of Victor Emmanuel's Government. Cholera is, meanwhile, busily engaged all over Italy, more especially in the South, where it has made terriblo havoc, more especially in Naples and Sicily and the parts of Italy still more southerly. But Home and its vicinity haa also suffered terribly from this fearful scourge, which has carried off thousands of people in the course of a few days. Cholera, in fact, has produced quite a " panic" wherever it has appeared in Italy. It appears to be of a very violent type, carrying off half, it not threefourths of those whom it attacks, and striking terror into the unfortunate inhabitants of town and villages, who either flee from their homes in thousands as the malady approaches or remain utterly listless and apathetic (as if under the spell of a terrible fatalism) taking no steps of a sanitary or preventive character to mitigate the violence of the disease. Among the poorer classes in Italy, who, it need not bo said, are exceedingly ignorant and superstitious, despite all the efforts of th% church to enlighten them for the last eighteen hundred years. An idea prevails that the medical men are responsible for the cholera, and therefore they absolutely refuse, in many instances, to take any remedies in the way of medicine. In fact, there has been a regular raid upon the doctors, who in many cases have been obliged to " cut and run" for their lives. In some instances they have bolted from fear of the malady themselves. A cardinal and an ex-queen are among the late victims at Albano, near Rome, where the' cholera was very fierce. The French Zouaves, the papal brigade, now at Rome have done excellent service in attending to the dead and dying, when there was no one else at hand. The Italians generally seem to have a craven terror of death, and when a pestilence of this kind appears they become utterly helpless. The food as well as the habits of the lower classes are well calculated to generate diseases of the worst types. Too much fruit, and too little animal food begets a poor condition of blood, with a lack of vital energy. And when this state of things is supplemented by dirt, personal and domestic, want of drainage, ventilation, and pure water, you have all the conditions essential to the active development of cholera and fever. This was our experience in London when only the poorest and the dirtiest quarters of the town were attacked. Up to the present moment there has been no sign of the approach of cholera in England, and it may therefore be hoped that we shall escape a visit during the present season.

Everybody is now out of town. There are fewer persons going to the Paris Exhibition than might have been expected. And no wonder, seeing the thousands and tens of thousands of persons who were utterly ruined by the effects of the panic of last year — persons living in a certain degree of comfort and affiuence upon the proceeds of their capital, but now reduced to comparative indigence, if not utter poverty. People therefore cannot afford the expense of a trip to the Exhibition. We must all wait for better times.

The first volume of the life of tho late Prince Albert, brought out under the auspices of her Majesty the Queen, and of which a large portion, more especially the notes, is evidently the work of her own hand— has been very well received by the British press and the reading public. It is generally considered as highly interesting, and will, no doubt, have an extensive circulation, as well in the colonies as at home. Nothing could j have been better calculated to enhance, if possible, the well-established reputation of the deceased Prince, than the publication of 1 the present work, which gives the history of his oarly life from the cradle down to the j birth of the Princess Victoria. Nothing could be better calculated to show the strong mutual affection which existed between the Prince and the Queen, and the perfect happiness which they enjoyed, than this simple and unpretending narrative, in which the history of the courtship of the young couple is fully given, and in which those little episodes of erery-day domestic life, correspondence, and minuta incidents — all full of human interest— are given by the good Queen to her faithful subjects without reserve. Thero has been some slight tendency to sneer at the apparent naivete that could disclose to the public at large all those little secrets of the royal menage, which certainly were never intended for publication. But the good feeling and good sense of the nation has fully appreciated the motives which prompted our widowed Queen to give hor subjects in her own lifetime a full-length ahd characteristic portrait of the husband of her youth, of whom she was beroaved in the prime of manhood and in the fall vigor of his mature wisdom. The Queen evidently felt that her subjects did not know the Prince as she knew him — in all his tenderness and affection as a husband and a father — as a companion, guide, counsellor, statesman, and friend. Even now the public at large are still unaware how much they owe to hia ripe knowledge and vigorous understanding as the

Queen's private adviser — her never-failing privy-counsellor — always at hand to consult upon every emergency that might arise from day to day. Wisely and faithfully did ho perform the high duties which he iindertook ; and as hia portrait as a young man is presented to us in this first volume, he seems in every respect to have grown in Btature, and to have gained upon our sympathies — even those of us who are old enough to remember him in his early years, as the fair haired, blue-eyed, and handsome consort of our Queen. The remaining volumes will appear from time to time. They will be edited by a gentleman well known in literary circles for his skill and attainments— Mr Theodore Martin— the husband of a lady well known on the English stage, all over the world-— 4> Miss Helen Fawcett. The Queen has done weil in giving this picture of what appears to have been perfect domestic bliss and felicity. For her subjects can now all the more fully sympathise with and understand the great sorrow which has overtaken their Queen, and which has caused her to isolate herself from the world for the last six years, even at the risk of losing some portion of the affection of her subjects. This publication has already tended greatly to revive the old feelings of warm cordiality towards her Majesty, and nothing but her presence among her subjects is wanting to make those sentiments enthusiastic. The marvel is that ' Her Majesty, who is keenly alive to public I criticism, which she is said to deprecate as much as any one, when it hits home, does not take advantage of the generous and kinder disposition of her subjects, as well in J England as in Ireland, and come amongst them and show herself in public. We thought she would have clone so during the past season, but we were disappointed. Besides this, we all of us feel a littled piqued and jealous at the apparent favor and preference exhibited by her Majesty towards her Scotch subjects, with whom she mixes in the most free-and-easy and familiar way when she goes to Balmoral, where she spends some five or six months a year. Within*the last few days her Majesty has proceeded to her Northern " Highland home," and on her journey she showed herself in several places j on the route along the border to her Scottish J subjects, and Avas of course received in a most enthusiastic manner. Of course our Scotch friends are very worthy and excellent fellows, but then we feel tant soit pent, annoyed at their being supposed to possess more loyalty than ourselves. I have no ! doubt the present mail will take out a con- I signmont of the Prince's Biography, vol. i., and I venture to think that it will be read with the liveliest interest in every homestead in the colony.

A very extraordinary will case was lately tried in the Court of Probate. It was the will of a certain Mrs Ann Thway tes, a widow, who had been living in great affluence for many years in a fashionable neighborhood at the West End of London. At the time of her death her property amounted to £400,000, or close upon half a million sterling. This money was chiefly left to strangers, her residuary legatees being too brothers of tho well known family of Smith. One of these brothers, Dr Smith, was her medical man, but he also appears to have filled the office of her agent in money matters, besides homing the post of spiritual adviser and general factotum in things not pertaining to the flesh. The doctor's brother, Mr Smith, was a kind of steward, a chamberlain of her household. Now it appears this lady had had an illnesslow fever— marked by great nervous excitement, so far back as 1832, and that Dr Smith attended her on that occasion, and continued to do so from that time downwards, receiving a salary of some £2000 a year for his services. However from the period in question it would seem that this lady, though perfectly rational on the ordinary affairs of life, was the victim of an extraordinary hallucination, amounting to monomania, which held uninterrupted possession of her mind, or at least of one corner of it, down to the time of her death she thought that she was tho Holy Ghost. Dr Smith she looked upon as the Father, and some other person completed the Trinity. At times she would imagine that she was the Virgin Mary, and that she was about to give birth to tho Son., And she always seemed to be under the impression that she was " immortal — equal with God " — and that it was by her agency, that cholera and all other diseases were brought about or averted. Besides this, she had her drawingroom fitted up at a cost of £15,000— for the day of judgment — for she waa sternly impressed with the belief that the final judgment would be held by herself in this splendid apartment, while she sat on the throne wearing a tiara of diamonds which she had purchased for the occasion. Apart from these theological delusions, her mind ap peared to be perfectly rational — only that she conceived a most unaccountable antipathy and dislike to her relatives. Still, she was by no means one of those wild enthusiasts who go about preaching and trying to make converts to their visionary schemes." She preached no faith ; she held forth to the world no doctrines ; she sought no converts.. On the other hand, she never went to church ;' she had no intercourse with ministers of religion ; she took her meals regularly played whist after dinner and went early to bed. As to hor property, it wag " managed" for her by the brothers Smith, who seemed to live very comfortably under her eegis, and not to have lost anything by the confidential position which they held as the agents of her affaira material and spiritual. To what extent they profited by their facililios, it would be impertinent to inquire, but at any rate they were made the principal legatees, and the question raised by her next of kin was, was the testator of sound and disposing mind when she made this will. The Court, in a most elaborate judgment, held that she was not ; and therefore, tho will falls to the ground, the Smiths' go to the wall, and tho rightful heirs come in for the property — just as in a play or a novel. From this judgment it would appear that, no person laboring under " monomania" is of " sound and disposing mind" in the legal sense of that term, without the possession of which, no will, deed, or other instrument is -ralld in point of i law.

You are doubtless aware that there has been a strike in tho tailoring trade ever since Easter last, when eighty- eight of tho principal Wesfc End firms were " struck against" by their hands — numbering some three or, four thousand men. These all belonged to tho "Union," and the object of the strike was to obtain a reversion of their " timelog," which waa equivalent to an increase of wages. This the masters refused. The journeyman tailors held meetings, and appointed " pickets" to watch the doors of their late employers and observe the men who went in and out, and took homo work. These non-Union men were accordinglywatched and hunted to their homes, and abused and bullied, and brow-beaten, and sometimes assaulted by the irate-brothers of the goose on strike, until at length the leaders of the movement were indicted for conspiracy, and were last week tried in the Central

Criminal Court and convicted. However, having expressed great contrition, and seeing that the law was against yiem, they have resolved to put an end to the picketing system altogether, and the Judge accordingly allowed them, with one or two exceptions, to go at large in their own recognizances. This will be a useful warning to trades'unionists for the future.