NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 559, 3 April 1876, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

LONDON LETTER. (From a correspondent of the Press,) London, Jan. 21, 1876. Public conjecture is busy with the prospects of the coming session, and the Parliamentary campaign promises to open briskly. The Conservatives profess themselves as strong as ever, while on the other the Liberals seem inclined to work more vigorously and more in unison than they have done since their overthrow just two years ago. In the slave circular and Merchants’ Shipping blunders the Government have afforded their opponents a chance which the latter are not likely to let slip. As regards the third element in the House, the Home Rulers, the Government have little to fear. First thrown over by the Liberal party, and now with a split in their own camp concerning their leadership—some being for Mr Butt, others for Mr Mitchell Henry—they are infinitely weaker than during the last session. The mover and seconder of the Address to the Crown, which is simply one of formal thanks for the information communicated in the Royal Message, have been selected according to established precedent— i.e., a county member for the mover and a boroi gh representative for the seconder. The session, so far as it relates to the despatch of private business, has already commenced with the sittings of the examiners of petitions for private Bills. The original fugitive slave circular, which was withdrawn under the pressure of popular execration, has been replaced by a second one, which though deficient of some of the most obnoxious provisions of its predecessor, is still highly objectionable, inasmuch as it limits the right of refuge to fugitive slaves in such a manner as practically to destroy it altogether. Great demonstrations are being organised throughout the country to protest against the action of the Government, and I do not think that this second attempt to recognise slavery as an institution to be treated within international polity will be any more successful than the first. The country simply won’t have it. We are fast working ourselves up to as fervid a state of indignation over this second circular as we did over the first, and, if in the meantime it is not withdrawn, a monster meeting, at which deputations from all parts of the United Kingdom, and numerous influential members of Parliament, will be present, is to be held in the metropolis on the 14th of next month. The papers continue to _ report daily most voluminously on the Prince of Wales’ progress through India, and though the general results of his visit are watched with interest by the public, the gorgeous details are becoming decidedly monotonous. A silly outcry, headed here and there by men of position and influence, has been raised against the Prince indulging in the sport of “pig-sticking,” and at some meetings his conduct in so doing has been denounced as a disgrace to the British Grown, and calculated to lower him in the eyes of the natives. Now I happen to know a little of pig-sticking, rnd the Prince’s success at this sport must have had the very opposite effect on the natives. There is nothing they admire more than skill in horsemanship, and pig-sticking requires a firm seat, a light hand, a quick eye, coolness, and pluck ; and all these admirable qualities the Prince has show himself possessed of in a high degree. To spear a couple of wild boars on the first essay at the sport, as he did, is, I know from experience, a feat that any sportsman might be proud of; and surely proficiency in sport—and pigsticking pre-eminently deserves that honorable term—is not a contemptible faculty in our English Prince, The very people who have been jeering at these exploits would have been the first to point the finger of scorn at him and call him a “ feather-bed prince,” or a “pampered, effeminate sybarite,” had he not taken some part in the sports of the country he was visiting ; and bo it remembered that pig-sticking is to India what fox-hunting is to England. I do believe that many of the lower orders, and of even the educated classes, picture his Eoyal Highness creeping up to a fat panting pig on a bed of straw —such as they see at the cattle shows—and sticking him in the back when he is not looking, with a carving knife, amidst the cheers of his suite. The term applied to the sport is unfortunate. Had it been called “Wild boar-hunting” or “ Boar spearing,” possibly we might not have heard so much about the matter. These detractors will have a new charge to bring against the Prince, for he evidently means on his return home to encourage horse-racing more openly than he has hitherto done. His racing colors appear for the first time in the new volume of the Racing Calendar. They are, I may tell you en passant , purple body with gold braid, scarlet sleeves, and black velvet cap with gold fringe. Their very gorgeoueness will doubtless furnish an additional count in the indictment against him. I have dwelt on the above subject at greater length perhaps than comes within the province of a letter of this description, but I have done so out of a love of fair play which I think your readers will appreciate. With many people our future King can do nothing right. I do not mean to say he is immaculate, but he is often most unjustly assailed. Even the recent resignation of the Viceroy of India has been laid at his door, whereas as a matter of fact Lord Northbrook, long before the Prince went to India, acquainted the Government with his intention of resigning his post before another hot season on account of bad health. The appointment of Lord Lytton to be bis successor created some surprise, but be is on all sides admitted to be eminently fitted for the post. He has just returned to this country from Lisbon, where he has been our Ambassador, and will'shortly leave for the Bast. The Viceroyalty of India is the most splendid appointment at the disposal of the Crown. It is held for five years with a salary of £30,000 per annum, and with almost absolute sway over two hundred millions of human beings. The new Viceroy is a son of the celebrated novelist, Bulwer Lytton. . We have received pressing invitations from the other side of the Atlantic to the Exhibition which is to be held at Philadelphia to celebrate the centennial anniver- ! sary of American independence, and in i response there is little doubt that our great ; Atlantic steamship companies will plan extensive excursions to the United States on

a monetary scale which will admit of large numbers of the middle and even working classes being present. The trip will in all probability be a thirty days one —ten days out, ten days there, and ten days back. The Philadelphia Exhibition is to be about double the size of our own in Hyde Park a quarter of a century ago, and amongst other attractions a rifle tournament is to be held. Besides the match between Great Britain and America, there is to be a contest for the championship of the world, in which selected teams of eight men from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, Austria, and other countries are to compete, The distances are to be 800, 900, and 1000 yards, and the prize, besides the honor and glory of the thing, is to be a magnificent trophy presented by the citizens of the United States. The conclusion of the invitation received by our Rifle Association from the president and secretary of the New York National Kifle Association is as follows :—“lt is our intention to make the American rifle tournament of 1876 one of groat interest to all who participate in it, and we take much pride in being the medium of conveying to your countrymen the earnest wish of the American people to meet yon on that interesting occasion.” The selection of our three teams is being made, and though each member will have to defray his own expenses, there is no difficulty in making up the number from the crack shots of the three kingdoms. There is a strike against the piecework system amongst the workmen in the iron trade, which, commencing at Erith, shows symptoms of spreading all over the kingdom, and may lead to disastrous consequences, both as regards employers and employed. The former are determined to vindicate the principle of piecework, while the men on strike, assisted by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, seem equally determined to resist it. The struggle will most likely be a protracted one. The resources of the society are great, and a poll of its 44,174 members—97 of whom foim a branch in New Zealand—to take their votes for and against a levy of 6d per member in aid of the men on strike, is being actively prosecuted and responded to almost unanimously. This will yield upwards of £llOO, and if necessary the general council has power to make in the same way a levy of half a crown, or even five shillings, per member, which latter would realise more than £II,OOO. Before the sum total of the levy can be collected, however, a considerable time must elapse, as besides the branch I have mentioned in New Zealand, the society has branches in almost all the civilised countries of the world. At the Erith ironworks the employers certainly seem to have right on their side. They are able to show by their books that work now takes 30 per cent more time to execute than it did four or five years ago, and that having accepted contracts based on the estimates of work actually performed at that period, they have been heavy losers. They are also able to prove that the men, when employed on piecework, earn from 20 to 30 per cent more than day wages, though working only ordinary hours. An extract from the books of the firm at Erith show that during the last three years £12,453 has been paid for piecework, while the amount the men would have received, if paid at their day-work rates for the time they were actually engaged on the work in question would have been £8746. These tactics on the part of the workmen will not improve the labor market, and if persisted in to any great length will seriously imperil our iron trade with other countries. As it is, it seems to be leaving us ; the statistics obtained from the official records of the Sheffield Consulate show that what was once a leading branch of the local trade with the United States—the Bessemer steel rails —is now a thing of the past. Not a single ton of steel rails has been sent from Sheffield to the States for nine months. In the first three quarters of 1873 the total declared value of steel rails exported from Sheffield to the States was £356,180. The last quarter of 1874 the value fell to £1156! In the first quarter of last year the value was £2301, and since then the trade has completely collapsed. An important addition to the sights and recreations of the metropolis will be made tomorrow in the opening of the Royal Aquarium Summer and Winter Garden. The building, which is close to Westminster Abbey, is imposing in size and appearance, and comprises within its walls an enormous aquarium, a library, reading room, fine art gallery, concert hall, theatre, restaurants, modelled partly on the French, partly on the English principle, and of course a skating rink. Without this last it would indeed be incomplete in the eyes of our young people. The opening ceremony to morrow will be performed by the Duke of Edinburgh, and the company assembling to witness it will form, as the Court Journal will probably call it, “the most brilliant and fashionable reunion of the year.” The list of subscribers to the new venture includes all the leading names in the world of rank, wealth, fashion, science, and art ; and the undertaking should prove a successful one. In addition to the attractions enumerated above, there is to be an annual distribution of the Royal Aquarium Art Union, in which the owners of season tickets will be entitled to participate. Three thousand pounds are to be distributed in prizes, of which the first will be one thousand. Flower shows are also to be held, at which prizes amounting to two thousand five hundred pounds will be given away, and there are to be concerts every afternoon and evening. There is every chance of an enormous public patronage. A new form of entertainment, known as “ Spelling Bees,” has been imported from America, and seems to find much favor amongst us. The following is a description of a Spelling Bee on a large scale, which took place at Holloway a few evenings ago, and will give you an idea of the modus operandi. Six prizes were offered for competition, the first being a complete set of Charles Dickens’s works. The competitors, numbering sixty, eighteen ladies, and the rest gentlemen, sat on the platform, with the “ interrogator” in their midst. The body of the hall was occupied by a dense gudience, who paid two shillings each to enter, and manifested the liveliest interest in the proceedings. Webster’s dictionary was to be the reference in cases of disputed orthography, and one mistake on the part of a competitor compelled his or her retirement from the contest. The words to be spelled were put by the interrogator in a loud tone of voice, and the answers were received by the audience with cheers or laughter as the occasion demand. One by one the ranks were thinned until only six were left to take the six prizes, when it was agreed that the first to fail should take the sixth prize, the next the fifth, and so on, the longest in taking the first prize. These Spelling Bees | are now becoming universal. f ,