NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 849, 14 March 1877, Page 3

NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

LONDON GOSSIP.

(From a corresvondent of the Press.') London, January 19.

The miserably barren result of the European Conference at Constantinople, the news of which we have received this day, is in everyone’s mouth here. The whole proceeding, after having raised such great expectations, has turned out an utter failure. The Turks, after playing fast and loose with the Powers, and reducing the thing to a farce, have rejected the proposition of the Plenipotentiaries as being injurious to the integrity, independence, and dignity of the Empire. All the representatives of the Powers are now leaving Constantinople. It is out of my province here to hazard any conjectures as to whether Ptuasia will accept the diplomatic defeat and march her army) which is impatiently fretting on the Turkish frontier back again into winter quarters. The question is, what shall we do now ? The correct reply to that is, I believe, nothing. I do not hear now nearly so much of preparations by land and sea as I did some time back, and I think that our statesmen are agreed that, though we have done our utmost to patch up the quarrel, we have really nothing to do with the fighting—for the present, that is to say. It is quite on the cards that there will be no fighting at all. Neither Russia nor Turkey is prepared ; the season is unfavorable to campaigning, and fighting is one of those things, which people like less the more they look at it. At all events, as I said before, I think we shall keep out of it. Parliament re-assembles on the Bth prox. The coming session will bring some important changes in the ranks of the Opposition. The Liberal house is divided against itself, and split up into two parties. It is said that Mr Gladstone will assume command of the more advanced section, and that Lord Hartington will continue to lead the main body of the Liberal party. The latter have determined, it ia aaid on good authority, to back up the Government in their action regarding the Eastern Question. Since the year 1853, memorable in oui annals for floods and the Duke of Wellington’s death, there have not been such inundations throughout the country as are nowmaking the opening of 1877 a period of most s: ricita disaster. It is hardly au exaggeration to say that during the last fortnight halt the country has been under water, Of late years we have suffered more from these watery visitations than formerly, and the evil eeems to be on the increase, Ike reason

lies in the superior system of drainage. For merly the rain soaked into the earth pretty nearly where it fell, but now it runs off the land quicker than it did, and then swells the adjacent rivers, which ovejflow their banks and inundate the low-lying district near. The localities in the neighborhood of the Thames have in this way suffered mos* severely, and the waters, which are now no greater respecters of crowned heads than they were in the days of Canute, hare assailed the very walls of Windsor Castle, where her Majesty is now residing. For miles round the royal borough nothing is to be seen of the country but the hedges and trees rising above a vast expanse of water. In the provinces, Lincolnshire, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, and Somersetshire seem to be most seriously afflicted by this plague of waters. In Lincoln the floods reached a point 14in higher than the memorable inundation of 1852, On many lines railway traffic has been suspended for days, the water rising so high as to extinguish the engine fires. F 'ur men were drowned two or *hree nights ago while rowing home to B irigwater over the turnpike road, which was submerged for several miles to a depth of six feet. The boat was swamped by the waves ! In London the damage to property is calamitous. Thousands of poor families are houseless and ruined. Subscriptions are being raised under the management of a committee at the Mansion House. The sum subscribed up to this day amounts to about £7OIO. Handsome as this sounds I fear it will be a mere drop of assistance in this ocean of distress. Simultaneously with this visitation inland, our seaboard, especially on the Southern coast, has been furiously assailed by the winds and the waves. The Admiralty Pier, at Dover, recently completed at an enormous cost, and built in the strongest fashion engineering skill could devise and execute, has beeu regularly crumpled up by the fury of the waves on New Year’s Day. The cost of repairing it is estimated at at least £30,000. At Brighton, where the winter season is in full swing, at Folkestone, at Eastbourne, the damage inflicted by the violence of the gales is unparalleled. At the last mentioned place the pier has been completely swept away. The old saying that when Christmas Day falls on a Monday a disastrous season ensues has been most unpleasantly verified. Religion has just been defiled by a most unseemly scandal in our Church, The Vicar of St James’, Hatcham, has for some time surpassed all his High Church reverend brethren in Ritualistic practices. In St James’ the service was conducted with all the Romanish accessories of incense, gorgeous vestments, acolytes, &c In his parish the vicar had many admirers, and at the same time many who strongly disapproved of his practices. At last Mr Tooth’s diocesan, be Bishop of Rochester, forbade these services. but Mr Tooth openly defied his Bishop and held the service with, if anything, a nearer approach to the Romish ritual. This led to a most disgraceful riot, in which the Church was besieged by a mob while the service was proceeding. A free fight—ensued, amidst cries of “No Popery,” until the arrival of a sufficient body of police to disperse the rioters. Mr Tooth was then sum moned to appear before the Ecclesiastical Oouit, over which Lord Penzance presides, buthe treated this court, as he had treated his bishop, with defiance. He now stands com raitted to prison for contempt. The reverend and contumacious gentleman, I hear, made some money in Australia as a sheep farmer before taking orders. Unfortunately, this case does not remain simply as the revolt of a single clergyman, It is a fire-brand which has set the animosity between the two parties of our church once more fiercely blazing, and it has also stirred afresh ithe old alarm about the increase of Roman Catholicism in the country, Apropos of Ibis last feeling, the following sta isacs are certainly not without some significance, On the Ist January, l ! 875, the number of public Roman Catholic churches and chapels in England, Scotland, and Wales was 1268 and the number of priests 19G6, On the Ist of January, 1876, the number of churches was 1291, and of priests 2024. On the let of January, there wore 1315 churches, and 2088 priests. In t!i« latter, are included one archbishop and thirteen bishops. From time to time, in my letters to you. I have animadverted in terms of virtuous indignation on the moral laxity of London society, Here is an instance of how the minds of our young women—l allude to those moving in what is termed by penuy-a-liners “ the highest circles ” —are poisoned by their familiarity with the spectacle H gilded vice, A young married lady, of good and influential family, pcegeesed of striking personal brought upinthonow abominable school of London society, has just dc.no credit to her education by running away from the husband to whom she had been married but very recently, The following is her letter to the man to whom a shoit lime previously she had moat solemnly vowed loye, honor s\pd obedience (I repress the names) : enough money to keep me, I am off to Paris to bo the queen of the demimonde. Good bye, old chap. Yours, .’’ Do not these coarse shameless words, written by a young woman, gently born and gently nurtured, speak volumes against the heartless, slangy, viciouscondition of the upper stratum of English society nowadays ? O tempom 1 O mores ! I am happy to hear on good authority that her Majesty intends next season to resume in some measure her former position as the actual loader of English society. It is a p;ty this duty bad not been recognise;! and performed sooner. Society V), certainly the worse for the vicarious leadership of the illustrious personage who in her Majesty’s absence naturally takes her place at its head, Dickens little thought, when ha depicted the old soldier who chyiatijned top children after the places of their nativity, that the example of his homely old character (in “ Bleak lie,use,” I think), would he followed by royalty. On this principle this old soldier had a child called- w Malta,” and now the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh have been graciously pleased to call their infant daughter who was born at Valetta last month after the island of her birth. “ Malta,” however, when applied to royalty, becomes “ Mclita.” Some of the papeis say that the Maltose are delighted with the compliment, flow easily pleased they must; be- They iw-d Motto be, 1 recollect, wheu i sojourned amongst them for many v/ou-y months about ten years ago, The Dub; p; Marl borough made his public entry into Dublin as Lord Lieutenant of 'lreland in iiuecessioii to the Duke of A her-

onto on the IOLh instant. Hid Gvp.ce occupies i tie rather trying position of immediately following in tun footsteps of an exceedingly popular mac, but be gives promise of being

equal to the occasion, and I think on the w bole “ Pat ” has been fortunate in the selec tion of his viceroy.

The rank and file of the British army becomes aristocratic. In my last I told you of young Viscount Maidstone, the eldest son of the Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, who would enlist into the “gunners,” and now it transpires that for some time th»Second Life Guards have boasted of ano ( her viscount in the ranks. The young nobleman in question is Lord Berehaven, a member of an Irish noble .family. He has just been promoted to the rank of corporal. An officer of the corps told me yesterday that he was one of the smartest young non-com-missioned officers they had. From the telegrams we have received it appears that our cricketing team are not exactly covering themselves with glory wherever they go. The news that they have been beaten by more than ouo eleven in the Antipodes has created much surprise amongst our sporting classes. Several enthusiastic cricketers to whom I have spoken insist that there must be some mistake in the telegrams regarding the numbers of the Australian sides, which have been reported as only eleven strong. Some of the sporting papers I see adopt this line also. [This conjecture, as our readers know, is correct. New South Wales and Victoria played Fifteen against the Eleven.] Talking of cricket, a movement has been started by the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Fitzhardinge, and the committee of the Marylebone Club, for the purpose of presenting a testimonial to Mr W. G. Grace, the great “leviathan” of English cricket. Richard Daft, the veteran Nottingham captain, has been presented with a service of pla< e and a purse of 500 sovereigns by his numerous admirers. Daft’s name has been closely associated with English cricket for about half a century. We have at last found an antagonist for the redoubtable American pedestrian Weston, who has been walking away from all our athletes with such ridiculous ease. An Irishman named O’Leary has been matched to walk against him for six consecutive days, for £SOO a side. The match is to come off in April, and will doubtless surpass in interest any previous event of the kind.

Subscriptions are invited by the Bank of New Zealand for £IOO,OOO 6 per cent debentures of the City of Christchurch Drainage Loan, being the first moiety of an authorised issue for £200,000 raised for the purpose of the drainage of Christchurch city and district. Sir Julius Vogel is, I hear, busily engaged in the duties of his newly entered upon office.

The first number of a new weekly penny journal, entitled “The Colonies,” has just been issued by Messrs Silver and Co, emigration agents of Cornhill. It contains a greatdeal of information concerning colonial affairs, and deserves as well as promises to be a success. It will be especially useful to intending emigrants from this country to our colonies.