The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2265, 15 January 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following , paragraphs aro extracted from the London society papers and other journals.] I have reason to believe that Parliament will meet on Tuesday, February 8. The Queen intends to attend the opening, but the announcement that there will bo a full State ceremony is fiction, us the arrangements are to be precisely tho same as when her Majesty opened Parliament last January. I understand that tho Prince of Wales intends to go to tho Mediterranean for six weeks.Jabout the middle of January. H.R. H. will stay for some time at Malta, and he will probably visit Naples, Palermo, and Athens. The Prince will use tin Royal yacht Osborne during this trip, joining her, most likely, at Marsoilles.

It is probable that one of the Court functions during the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee will be a Chapter of the Garter at Windsor Castle, over which her Majesty will preside, and it will bo followed by a State banquet to the Knights in St. George's Hall. The Knights of St. Patrick and of the Thistle will bo invited to the banquet, and also the GC.B.'s. The Princoss of Wales has received from a merchant in Africa a present of a bonnet made of sil-er leaves. It is in deference to the wishes of the Prince of Wales that Prince Albert Victor undergoes the course of garrison instruction at Aldershot. The Prince of Wales is very desirous that his son should be treated as far as possible as a woldier, and learn all he can during the time he is serving with the Army. It is a good training for him, and is in every way preferable to the comparatively idle life he might otherwise be leading. The Prince, from all accounts, is taking kindly to his work. The statement that the Duchess of Albany contemplates marrying again is probably correct. Why should she not marry again ? She has not by any means reached the prime of womauhood. Even the Queen, who is opposed to second marriages under ordinary circumstances, must recognise the fact that the young widow of Prince Leopold is not bound by any consideration to remain in her present condition. The future husband of the Duchess is Prince Fanir de Barriere, the owner of large estates in the South of Russia, and it is said knew and fell in love with the Princess of Waldeck-

Pyrmont long before the Duke of Albany appeared at YValdeok. The Prince has considerable influenced at the Russian Court; but the engagement, if it takes place, will not have the slightest political significance. Mr Willie K. Vanderbilt is reported to have laid out with a London dealer recently on a visit to America forty thousand pounds in the purchase of articles de virtu. Prince Alexander of Battenberg will pay a short visit to Paris early in December, after which he purposes giving the fortune he made in Bulgaria a chance at Monte Carlo. If Pasteur continues his system of inoculation, he will shortly want a graveyard to himself. Forty-one of those whom he has experimented oil are now beyond the reach of mad dogs. Mr Alderman Smith, M.P., died suddenly on Wednesday. Is it too much to hope that the Brighton Conservatives will seize the opportunity to emphasise the reality of the union of the Unionists, and return their neighbour, Mr Goschen? A Krupp cannon weighing 121 tons was embarked a few days ago at Antwerp for Spezzia. It is the largest cannon that has erer been made, either at Essen or anywhere else. Extensive orders have lately been executed in Krupp's works for the Italian Government. The leading Socialists are under immediate personal police supervision. Great efforts are to be made at the beginning of the year to re-open active trade communication with the Soudan. The outgoing Lord Mayor will receive a knighthood, and it is probable that Lord Salisbury will announce it at the banquet next Tuesday. Mr James Russell Lowell i«, I hear, about to marry for the third time. His marriage is with a lady allied to an English noble house. At Lincoln last week the Timberland estate was sold for £2, 150. It was stated in the saleroom that about twenty years ago a mortgage of £16,000 was obtained on this property. The receipts of the Gloucester Festival were £100 more than was originally estimated, so that after a call of £2 on each of the stewards there will be a small balance to carry forward. A beautiful and valuable altar-cross of bronze and oilver has just been placed on the altar of Ely Cathedral, as a memorial to Bishop Woodford. A recumbent figure of the lamented prelate is to be placed upon au altar-tomb in the chapel under which he is buried. The appointment of the Dean of Gloucester to the mastership of Trinity College will meet with general approval; and, oddly enough, Lord Salisbury has selected the same man who would have been chosen by Mr Gladstone. In array circles it is reported that the friends of Colonel Valentino Banter are again trying to persuade the Queen to return him to his old rank again. Her Majesty has, so far, been obdurate ; but surely Colonel Barker has paid tho full penalty of his offence. Ido not, however, quite (<ee why the Jubilee should be pleaded as a reason for the act of clemency. Mr J. L. Toole was intensely amused at the receipt of a request from two or three of the undergraduates of Edinburgh University asking him to allow himself to be put in nomination for the Lord Rectorship, i-i opposition to Lord Iddesleigh and Sir Lyon Playfair. The comedian characteristically replied that he would give the matter " serious consideration."

Madame Arnauld de L'Ariege, who was such a useful friend to Gambetta, ha s just purchased the Raphael, which was discovered at Lausanne by Professor Kicole for £8,000, and it is to be hung in the gallery of the Chateau du Crete*?. The picture cost Professor Nicole £8, and the dealer from when he bought it had given 32s for it. Canon Body is announced to preach at Crediton on the 7th inst., on behalf of the fund for providing a sick-nurse for the town. The popular missioner is a native of Devonshire, having been born in the Crediton district, and educated at Blundell's school, Tiverton. Bishop Temple, although not a contemporary, received his training on the same foundation. Lord Brabourne hits Mr Gladstone very hard in the current number of Black wood. Under ordinary circumstances the late Prime Minister would be more than a match for the late Mr Knatchbull Hugesse* in argument, but in regard to Irish hiatory Lord Brabourne has the inestimable advantage of having facts in his favour. In concluding his article, Lord Brabourne has a shot at Lord Rosebery, whose naive admission that the Irish proposals of the Liberal Government were brought forward before the country was ready for them has done more than the speeches of many avowed enemies to injure the reputation of Mr Gladstone.

The Americans are very indignant because some things are said about some of their society beauties who visit England. But here is an incident which an American journal relates as if it were quite an every-day sort of affair:—"The youug married beauty who filled her slipper with champagne at the White Sulphur Springs and gave it to a Baltimore gallant to drink ia president of Washington. She certainly is a very beautiful woman, and wear.s a very small slipper, and the Sir Walter Raleigh who drank the wine from the slipper is a growing attorney from Richmond. The lady said she was sorry she did it now, but it was at achampagno party, and they wore all excited with wine."

At a dinner in connection with the Wells Conservative Club last week, th

Rov. Canon Bernard was asked to respond to the toast of " The Bishop and clergy of the diocese." Canon Bernard very wisely took upon himself to construe the toast in the most liberal sense, and said he was pleased to respond for the ministers of other denominations—" for the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, and for the ministers of the Nonconformist community." He felt "that these various ministers were in their own lives exercising a wholesome and happy influence in varions ways, and working to purify and elevate the life of the people." This is a spirit that cannot be too warmly commended. The late Lord Ailesbury's estate in Wiltshire is one of the most beautiful in England. Savernake-house (sometimes called Tottenham park) lines in the midst of Savernake Forest, surrounded by the greatest woodland scenery in Great Britain. The forest is sixteen miles in circumference, and contains upwards of 4,000 acres. The trees are magnificent, and a story is often told of how a visitor asked one of the forest-keepers when one of the avenues was planted. " Planted!" was the answer, in a tone in which amazement uas blended with indignation ; "them trees never was planted; they are as old as the world." The ferns are of extraordinary eize, and the breed of deer is one of the best in the country. The late marquess freely opened the forest to the public, and during eight months in the year thousands of visitors roamed freely about it, enjoying its beauties. He dearly loved Savernake, and by his express directions his coffin was constructed with timber from the far-famed King Oak, which, till within the last few years was the grandest tree in the forest.