OUR ILLUSTRATED LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 28, 12 July 1890, Page 10

OUR ILLUSTRATED LONDON LETTER.

PRINCE GEORGE OF WALES. Prince George of M ales will soon be in command of a smart little gun vessel, the Thrush, which is being prepared for him in Chatham Dockyard for service on the North American and West Indies station. The Thrush is 805 tons burthen, and of 1,200 horse-power, carrying six guns. The vessel has a dashing appearance, which well befits its commander. Prince George bids fair to become the most popular of our princes, with his love for the sea and his

frank geniality. He has all the appearance and manner of the ‘ sailor prince' he is and glories in being. In every respect he is the direct antithesis of his brother. Prince Albert 1 ictor, and though really a year younger would pass for ten years the elder, thanks to the sailor-like beard he has cultivated. He was ls>rn in 1865, and his seafaring experience dates from 1879 when, accompanied by his brother, he made a voyage round the world in the Bacchante.

INFLUENZA AND RUM. After all, the influenza has given us something to be thankful for. There ean be no other explanation for the enormous increase in Hie consumption of rum, and one can imagine Mr Goschen congratulating the faithful demons of rum and influenza, who have given the Government such a turn of good fortune. I had a dream on Friday night. Here it is :—I found myself sitting in the great front hall of a quaint rambling old mansion, in the eastern part of Kent. I looked around the walls, and thought I i ecognised the pictures. They were evidently those of former owners, and they bore a strong family likeness to the once famous race of Ingoldsby. In fact, I knew, by some occult means, that I was at Tappington Hall, the seat of the celebrated

Thomas Ingoldsby. Presently, without my knowing who, there flitted by me the ghosts—l knew they were ghosts by their shadowy inconsistency—of Nell Cooke, the Little Vulgar Boy, Lord Tomnoddy, the Abbot, and a host of familiar folk, and presently came Exciseman Gill, Blondie Jacke, Smuggler Bill, and a strange creature all in black, with a long tail, which he carried curled over his arm. These two were in close and eager conversation. The gentleman in black was making arrangements with Bill for the smuggled importation of a large quantity of Jamaica rum from Holland, which he promised Bill should be in great demand, for he would cause a peculiar disease to spread over England, which would necessitate its consumption. I remember he called it La Grippe. I noticed Gill was quietly listening to the conversation, though he pretended to be looking the other way. And, when it was over, he touched the gentleman of the sooty countenance on the other arm, and took him on one side. And suddenly I noticed that Exciseman Gill’s face had undergone a marvellous change. I heard him say something to the effect that he meant to have his grip on Bill before the night was over, and then just as I recognised his lineaments, I awoke. The voice was that of the Exciseman Gill; the face was the face of Mr Goschen ! !

Primrose Day has come and gone, though with some outcry both in Conservative and Liberal papers against the demolition of the roots of the primrose. Of course Lord Beaconsfield’s statue in Palace Yard was decorated. That stands to reason, for it will be a long while ere Beaconsfield is forgotten. The decorators began their work before daybreak, and literally smothered his counterfeit presentment with his apocryphally favourite flowers. The late Lord Beaconsfield stood unrivalled as a phrasemaker, and for all time to come probably we shall ring the changes on the famous ‘Peace with Honour,’ or prate of . ‘ sophisticated rhetoricians. ’ His power, too, of satire and . invective stands recorded in the stinging description of him by his chief colleague as a ‘ master of flouts, and gibes, and jeers,’ while even in his friendly correspondence this characteristic will occasionally intrude itself. A MILITARY EXHIBITION. A Military Exhibition is in progress in London, and one cannot but desire that it maybe eminently successful, designed, as it is, to provide funds for the bereaved of those who have served in the army. A gratifying feature of the preparations is the keen interest being taken in them by lH>th officers and soldiers in the service. A private told me the other day that some magnificent work will be exhibited, and that where he was stationed (at Woolwich, I think) he and many of his mates were devoting all their spare time to working for the exhibition, whilst the devotion of the officers there to the enterprise had roused in them a spirit of enthusiastic emulation, which made times very pleasant in the otherwise dull routine of life in quarters.