NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 659, 31 July 1876, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

OUR LONDON LETTER. {From, a correspondent of the Press.*) London, June 9 th, 1876. That perennial cloud in the east, known as the " Eastern question," is looking very lowering, but it has looked just a 3 black so often before and then blown away that I have no doubt it will disperse as heretofore, Our Foreign Minister, Lord Derby, pursues with regard to the question a manly and dignified policy, which commends itself to his countrymen and commands their confidence. The Mediterranean fleet has been considerably strengthened, Gibraltar and Malta have been armed with the heaviest and newestfcordinauce. In military) circles there was a report that 12,000 men were to be held in readiness to proceed at once to Malta. This has been and is still contemplated by the military authorities, but no decisive orders have as yet been given. This everlasting source of disquiet keeps all Europe armed to the teeth. Here is one of the little items connected with these " bloated armaments," necessitated by this ever recurring difficulty, which is enough to make the British tax-payer grind his teeth in impotent rage :—We have produced at Woolwich an 81-ton gun at a cost of £25,000. We now wish to transport this gun from the foundry at Woolwich to the great Gunnery School at Shoeburyness for further experiments. No contractor would undertake the transport for a sum less than £12,000. The Admiralty have come to the rescue and hope to do it for £7OOO. Every time the gun is fired twentyfive pounds sterling is blown from the muzzle. To read and hear all this is to think more than ever that " were subjects wise, war is a game kings should not play at." I am thankful to say that the controversy concerning Her Majesty's new title of Empress seems to have died a natural death. Though the Bill has passed she is no more Empress to us than she has ever been, or was ever intended to be by the framers of the J Bill. Some obscure town in Devonshire certainly, in a petition on some subject addressed Her Majesty as the " Empress Victoria," but these misguided individuals were at once put right by the comptroller of Her Majesty's household, who pointed out to them that there was no such person in the United Kingdom in connection with matters not relating to India. We are in the very height of the London season. The opera, the Row, and the academy seem to be the business of life here for the nonce. A picture of '" Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," painted by Gainsborough, is just now causing more sensation than I should think any work of art has ever before jcreated. On the 6th of May last it was bought by Messrs Agnew, art dealers, for the enormous sum of 10,100 guineas. It was not in the possession of Messrs Agnew for more than about a fortnight, when, in spite of bolts and bars, of policemen and night watchmen, a thief managed to effect an entrance into the gallery where the picture was hung, and after cutting the canvass from the stretcher, and rolling it up into a more convenient form for transport, escaped with his booty. A reward of £IOOO has been offered, but no traces whatever of the missing property have been obtained. In 1839 the same picture was sold for £SO to Mr Bentley, a picture restorer, who, in 1853, resold it for *J63 to Mr Wynn Ellis, a well known collector, who h?s recently died. It was at the sale of Mr Wynn Ellis's collection that Messrs Agnew made their brilliant but unfortunate purchase. The Challenger's voyage of scientific discovery has been brought to a most satisfactory conclusion. On the 27th ultimo she arrived at her old moorings at Sheerness, after an absence of exactly three years five months and twenty days, during which she has traversed a distance of 68,930 miles. Shehas crossed the Atlantic several times, and navigated the Pacific to and fro. An interesting abstract of her voyage is published, by which I see that she arrived at Wellington from Sydney on Sunday, June 28th, 1874, and left that port for Tongatabu on Tuesday, July 7th. She has brought home a magnificent collection of specimens, geological, mineralogical, zoological, and botanical, besides curiosities from every quarttr of the globe, and also a mass of information which will delight the hearts and engage the attention of the members of the Zoological, Geological, and Linmean societies for many a day. Some of the most interesting items of information she brings are those connected with the secrets she has compelled the sea to give up to her in the course of her wanderings. The amount of knowledge concerning the bed of the ocean, and] its inhabitants, obtained by "the Challenger, surpasses the collective results of all previous marine exploration. The deepest sea-sounding effected by her was off New Guinea, where the lead, weighing 4 cwt, reached bottom at the depth of 4450 fathoms, or about 26,700 ft. There is a theory that the greatest depth of the sea is equivalent to the height of the highest elevation above its level, and these soundings of the Challenger considerably strengthen this theory. Not many years ago it was considered a feat in deep-sea sounding to reach a mile or a mile and a half. The Challenger reached a depth of over five miles. Of a voyage so noteworthy it is worth preserving a few remembrances. The following are the principal non-scientific entries in the ship's log;—One seaman fell overboard while heaving the log, and was lost; another met with a similar mishap, and died from the effects of the shock, after having been brought onboard;by Lieutenant Carpenter, who has since received the Humane Society's medal for his gallant conduct. A boy was killed by a dredge rope carrying away. Professor Von Suhon, one of the scientific staff, died of erysipelas. One of the schoolmasters died from apoplexy, and another was killed by falling over a precipice at St Vincent. The carpenter and fifty-nine of the crew deserted at various places touched at. Previous to being paid off the ship was thrown open to the public for several days. On the same day that the Challenger arrived at Sheerness, it being also the anniversary of the departure of the Arctic expedition last year, the yacht Pandora, owned and commanded by the well known Arctic explorer Captain Allen Young, sailed from Portsmouth for the Arctic regions with despatches and letters for Captain Nares and his companions. The object of the Pandora, after depositing her mails in a cairn near the entrance to Smith's Sound, is to make the north-west passage by sea, a, |eat never_ yet accomplished, Captain Young himself in a former attempt having been nearer to attainment than any previous Arctic voyager,

Another noteworthy departure from Portsmouth on the same day was that of the ironclad Sultan, with the Duke of Edinburgh on board in command. His Royal Highness goes on a two years' cruise to the Mediterranean, during which time the Duchess of Edinburgh will remain in Russia There are all sorts of rumours afloat,'true or otherwise I know not, concerning the separation of the couple. Incompatibility of temper—elastic and convenient phrase—is believed to be at the bottom of it. Certainly they neither of them bear in their countenances evidences of very sweet dispositions. This is, of all the year, the season for sports and pastimes. Cricket, yachting, and racing are all in full swing. There was an additional element of interest given to the Derby this year by the fact of itß partaking more of an international character than usual. Prance and Hungary were represented respectively by Branconnier and the Mineral colt, or Kisber, as the latter was named on the very day of the race, after his birth-place near Peßth. Though both of these horses were of English parentage, had received nearly all their training for the race at Newmarket, and were ridden by English jockeys, yet they had been born and bred respectively in France and Hungary, and were regarded as the distinct representatives of those countries in the a race. Moreover they were foreign property: Branconnier belonged to Count de la Grange, a Frenchman, and Kisber to M. Baltazzi, a Hungarian. Unfortunately an accident to a colt, which a member of the New York Jockey Club had brought across the Atlantic to try his chance with our three-year-olds, deprived the race of an additional point of interest. The contest resulted in a triumph for one of the foreigners. Kisber, who was second favourite, and started at 7 to 2 against him, won by five lengths without being asked to gallop ; while Petrarch, who had won the Two Thousand Guineas ;in such magnificent form, and had been first favourite at 2 to 1, was nowhere. The second and third horses were Forerunner and Julius C<s3ar, both in the same stable. An objection, on the grounds of insufficient description, was lodged against the winner, but was at once rejected by the stewards of the Jockey Club as " frivolous." Kisber was ridden by Maidment, who piloted Cremorne to victory in 1872. This is the second consecutive year that the " blue ribband" of the English turf has been carried off by a Hungarian. Prince Batthyany, the owner of Galopin, the winner of last yeai's Derby, is a fellow-countryman of M. Baltazzi. The favourite rarely " pulls off "the Derby. Out of the ninety-seven times that it has been run, on thirtyfive occasions, or in a little more than one-third of the races only, has the first favorite proved successful. The House of Parliament adjourned, as usual, for the race day, but not until after a division, in which 118 members voted against an adjournment. The Prince of Wales was unable to attend at Epsom at all during the week, in consequence of a Blight indisposition. The "slight indisposition," lam told, is varicose veins. Again, in the Oaks, the foreignerg scored another victory. Camelia and Enguerrande, both owned by Frenchmen, ran a dead heat for the first place. The owners elected to divide the stakes, much to the disgust of the backers of Enguerrande, who wished to see the race run over again between the two, in which case it would have been a " moral " for Enguerrande. She is evidently the better stayer of the two, and had the course been two lengths longer she must have won, as Camelia was swaying about from side to side from sheer exhaustion. Next week the Ascot M;eting takes place, and some good racing is anticipated. Last year the Americans brought over a couple of teams to initiate us into their national game of "Base Ball," and now this year the Canadians, profiting by and improving on this example, have sent twelve Canadian gentlemen and twelve real live Iroquois Indians to Bhow us what a superior game to cricket is the one they call La Crosse, originally an Indian game, and now the national game of the Canadians. It is very simple indeed, and merely consists in the efforts of two sides to drive a small ball between opposite goals, placed about 120 yards apart, The implement in the hand of each player used for striking the ball is a hickory or ash stick about five feet long, and formed at the end like a large battledore or tennis-bat. The Iroquois Indians wear feathers in their heads, but considerable disappointment is felt at the absence of scalps from their belts. At the Kennington Oval a few days ago, after the La Crosse match was over, the Iroquois, after a speech from their chief in his native tongue, were good enough to give us a war dance, and I never beheld anything so mild, especially the " war whoop." La Crosse, played as it is now by the Canadian and Indians, draws large crowds of spectators, but the game cannot be compared to cricket, and the attempt to transplant it here will be as unsuccessful as the American effort last year to make us take to base-ball. We English know how to work, and we also know how to play. There is no out-door game in the world like cricket, and after that, for those who have sufficient money to go in for it, comes Polo. By the way, talking of Polo, the Emperor of Germany invited our cavalry officers to go over to Berlin to show his Uhlans and Hussars how to play. Three of our crack cavalry corps were getting up a couple of teams in response to the Emperor's invitation, but I have not heard as yet of their having started.