LONDON.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 51, 29 July 1874, Page 3

LONDON.

(From a correspondent of the Press.) June 2, 1871. The Emperor of all the Russias —as it appears the great man likes to bo called and not the Czar—has come and gone amidst the usual flourish of trumpets. His visit was a short one. He was merely an eight days’ wonder amongst us all, but into those eight days we managed to compress a good deal of cheering, speechifying, banqueting, and sightseeing; and to say a great many amiable and pretty things all round. The following is the order in which he took his doses:—State banquet at Windsor Castle, visit to the Houses of Parliament, entry into the city and entertainment at the Guildhall, review at Aldershot, state ball at Buckingham Palace, visit to Woolwich Arsenal and review of artillery, banquet and grand reception at the Foreign Office, festival at the Crystal Palace, and state concert at the Albert Hall. Not a bad week’s work, even for an Emperor! As his visit was supposed to be strictly private, it is not easy for any one but a Lord Chamberlain, or the lessee of Cremorne Gardens, or some one accustomed to spectacular arrangements, to imagine what a public one would have been like. To a potentate visiting this country a festival at the Crystal Palace is inevitable: in fact the “ Palace” has come to play quite a national part in the honors we accord to our high and mighty visitors. It is the common ground on which the people and the potentate meet to have a look at each other; and there his Imperial Majesty doubtless saw more of England than in the gilded saloons of Buckingham Palace or the Guildhall. Such knowledge of us as he was able to pick up in eight days seems to have been satisfactory, for he has announced his intention of paying us another and a longer visit shortly. Numerous reports concerning the object of his visit have been afloat. Some say its main end was the adjustment of certain questions of precedence concerning the Duchess of Edinburgh. It was well known that her Imperial Highness had felt much aggrieved at the Princess Beatrice taking precedence of her at our Court ; and, whether it was an objector not, the settlement of this knotty point has been one of the results of the Czar’s visit. In future the Duchess of Edinburgh is to be styled Her Imperial Royal Highness the Grand Duchess Marie, and will take rank next to the Princess of Wales. It is also

stated that the Czar proposed that our Indian possessions should be formed into a separate Empire, with the Duke of Edinburgh as Emperor. This must be taken cum gram ftulis. The most sensible view to lake of the Imperial visit is the simplest one, that the Czar wanted to see his daughter in her new homo, and did so. There arc some sorry spectacled politicians, however, whose vision* do not extend beyond their noses, who sec in it the advent of a millennium of peace. They forget the Emperor Nicholas’ stay with us some years before the Crimean war, or the King of Prussia’s friendly visit to the French capital only a very few years before he entered it again with fire and sword. Assuredly if Royal visits were to be accepted as guarantees of peace, we ought to live in a state of profound security, for Crowned heads seem to have quite a rage for dropping in on each other. The Crown Prince and

. rincess of Germany spend July in the Isle of Wight; and the Queen goes over to Berlin in August. Prince Arthur has been created Duke of Connaught, under which title he is henceforward to be known. It was a sentimental grievance with the Irish that, while both Scotland and Wales—the latter pre-emi-nently so—furnished the names for two Royal titles, Ireland, as usual, was left out in the cold. This grievance has now melted away, as it is to be hoped other and more substantial ones will vanish. The Duke of Connaught is about to pay a visit to Ireland, and it is generally believed that he will be eventually appointed her Viceroy or Regent. This would be a very popular move with the Irish. I recollect when he visited Ireland with the Prince and Princess of Wales a few years ago, the people at once “spotted” him as their favorite. Wherever the royal parly went there were loud cries for “Pat” one of H.U.H.’s names is Patrick—and the laughing genial way in which he responded to the familiar title took the impressionable Irish nature by storm.

Parliament mot yesterday after its Whitsuntide holidays. Its labors so far have been easy, and the results attained, if far short of the rosy promises made during the general elections, arc still fairly satisfactory. The Chancellor of the Exchequer s budget was popular; the Licensing Bill in its amended form has been shorn of its most vexatious and unfair clauses ; the Education Act has been modified where it pressed boo hardly on lowly homes of which the elder children arc often the mainstay ; altogether, as far as we have gone, the nation has no reason to repent having handed over the reins of government to a conservative administration.

. Never did the English climate more fully establish its character for treachery than on Whit Monday. The morning broke fair with every promise of a fine day, and as the haze lifted the sun shone forth from an unclouded sky. An inveterate stay-at-home indeed, he or she who could have resisted the weather’s bright invitation to spend the day in the open air; and by road, rail, and river, working London emptied itself into the surrounding country. Then the day suddenly changed, and a terrific thunder storm, accompanied by torrents of rain, burst on pic-nio parties, boating excursionists, and cricketers. Several people were struck by lightning, and two men were killed. It was the severest storm which has visited the metropolis and its neighbourhood for many years. It’s an ill wind, however, that blows no good. The storm lasted the whole afternoon, and the drenched and draggled holi-day-makers spent their time and their money in the public-houses. The harvest reaped by the publicans must have been enormous. All this resulted in rather heavy charge sheets the next morning at the different Police Courts, and the colds and coughs will probably swell the mortality returns of the metropolis. Those who patronised the sheltered places of amusement fared better. No less than 20,000 people visited the “ Zoo,” 17,000 the Crystal Palace, 10,000 the International Exhibition, and 17,000 the Brighton Aquarium, which last place is a favored resort of the Cockney.

In response to an invitation from the Socicte Havraise do Toi, about 120 British Volunteers have spent a festive holiday among the good people of Havre. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which our citizen soldiers have been received, and if they only believe one-half of what they have been told about themselves, they will be conceited for the remainder of their lives, The Frenchmen told them that if there was anything in the world dear to their hearts, it was a British Volunteer ; and they told the Frenchmen that the one thing of all that they admired and loved as a son of La Belle France; then they embraced, and enacted a ceremony entitled the “ Punch d’honneur.” At the targets, our volunteers were not very brilliant, but whether their want of success lay in the potency of the previous evening’s punch d'konneur, or in the extraordinary skill of their antagonists, I am not in a position to state. One rather interesting match was shot between them and some officers of the French army, not so much as a trial of skill between marksmen,as with the view of comparing the merits of the chassepot and the snider. The result established beyond doubt the very marked superiority of the latter. The snider is a splendid weapon, and the French officers were loud in its praises. The HcaryMartini, however, after a lengthened trial of some years in certain of our regiments, is considered to be still better, and is forthwith to be served out to our infantry in place of the snider. The lock out in the eastern counties—with the exception of Lincolnshire, where farmers and laborers have at, last come to an understanding—continues without any signs of cither side abating its terms one jot. Matters are beginning to look serious for the country. The wheat and corn are in danger of being choked by the tares and weeds which have sprung up and are overtopping the young shoots in the absence of hands to hoe. Mr Arch has been worked oil his legs, and unless he takes the rest he so much needs, the labourers will altogether lose his services as their best advocate.

To-day the racing commences at Epsom, and to-morrow will be London’s great carnival, the Derby. I am sorry the mail does not go out a day later to enable me to give some particulars of the great race, as an Englishman, no matter how far he may be from the scene of the contest, or how devoid of spurting proclivities he may be,‘feels an interest in the Derby winner and likes to hear how it was won. The lot. this year are not particularly good. The “ Field ” says there is not a first-class sound horse amongst the entries. The three first favorites are Conronnc de For Atlantic, and George Frederick, Atlantic who won the Two Thousand was first favorite yesterday, but I see he has gone

back a place in the betting, For the Oaks the knowing ones are unanimous in spotting Miss Toto as the winner.

In the evening of the eventful morrow the Lord Mayor of Loudon, ever on the look out for an excuse for dispensing hospitality, gives a banquet at the Mansion House to his brother Mayors throughout the United Kingdom. IDS English and nine Irish Mayors, and thirty-1 wo Scotch Provosts have accepted. Hitherto my gastronomic flights of fancy have never soared higher than an Alderman’s feast. But a Mayor’s feast ! what visions of green turtle fat, loving cups, double chins, and capacious waistcoats, do the words conjure up. What a menu floats before my eyes ! I feel I cannot do justice to the subject, and will leave the rest to your imagination. Your last loan of one million and a half was disposed of privately last week by the the Crown Agents. The Hon Saul Samuel, Postmaster-General, New South Wales, who came to this country to negotiate the mail service via San Francisco, has been made a Companion of the Older of St Michael and St George. Lieut.Colonel Harrington of the New Zealand Militia was present at the levee held yesterday by the Prince of Wales, on behalf of her Majesty.