GOSSIP FROM LONDON.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 912, 28 May 1877, Page 3

GOSSIP FROM LONDON.

[Specially Written for the Globe ] London, April 5.

We have just got over the iirst of our great national holidays for this year—Eastertide—and to-day are settling down to work and business for the summer, which all engaged in trade are hopiDg will bring them a busier time than they have had for some months passt. As I write these lines our House ot Commons is assembling for the second of the three periods of work into which its session is generally divided; but the Lords, who, having much less to talk about, always manage to take a little more relaxation, will not meet until this letter is far on its way to you. The " season," in fact, is in full swing, and the fashion able part of the metropolis shows scarcely any sign of that dullness which pervades almost every other quarter, and ia loudly complained of in all the manufacturing districts. When the last mail from New Zealand reached here a few mornings ago, all iuterested in the colony were astonished to learn that your Government had borrowed half a million of money from the Bank of New South Wales, and that, too, for a period of two years. Remembering that only a few weeks before, Sir Julius Vogel, your Agent-General here, had made a rather emphatic statement in reference to loans, the holders of New Zealand debentures were naturally somewhat alarmed. Their anxiety to know something more in reference to this loan found expression in a letter which Mr C. A. Pritchard wrote to the Times (and which was published in their money article). Of course this drew a reply from Sir Julius, who denied having said, as was generally believed, that your Government did not intend to borrow any more money during the present year. He fcl back on the defence that they did not intend to negotiate any further loans in London, during this year. So the matter stands at present, but Sir Julius Vogel's explanation is not deemed satisfactory by colonists here, who regard this loan as against the spirit, if not against the actual letter, of his former declaration. They notice, too, that the Agent-General has nothing to say in defence of the utter want of economy displayed in borrowing from a neighbouring settlement where money usually commands a very high rate of interest. Your Government, they think, would have done better to have thrown overboard their agent's declaration, and have boldly borrowed the money in London where it could have been obtained on very much easier terms. Landholders here used to complain that they could not get 3 per cent, out of their estates, but there is au

immense amount of capital in England that is not earning even that small amount of interest.

Amongst those who have been compelled to spend their Easter in London is the Prince of Wales, and I am sorry to say that a sudden attack of illDess prevented him from leaving town. It had been announced that his Royal Highness was going with the Princess to the Mediterranean, intending duriog a brief holiday of live or six weeks to visit their royal relatives in Malta and Greece. The arrangements for such jonrneys have hitherto been always carried out with such remarkable punctuality that I oudon was startled at hearing that the Prince's departure had been delayed for a day, and then next day that it had been still further postponed. At the same time a rumor about his "indisposition" was circulated, but dreading the effect this might have on the popular mind, aud still more on the fashionable circles of the metropolis the authorities at Marlborough House hushed the nutter up as much as possible, and begged the conductors of the newspapers to say no more about it than they could help. His medical attendants printed a learned version of their own as to his malady, and made light of it. The Priuce, however, is in a more serious state than the bulk of the public here believe He is not able to leave the house, if indeed he is not even still more secluded, and last evening the Princess started for the Continentjwithout him. While writing about the Royal family I may mention a circumstance that wiU be interesting to many —that the Queen, who has seemed in very good health during the short time she lias spent in London this season, will probably not have to live any very great time longer before attaining the honours of great-grandmother. 'I he Princess Royal of England was married when only a few weeks over seventeen years of age, and her eldest daughter, the Princess Charlotte of Prussia, who will be seventeen years old in July next, has already been betrothed to one of the most popular of the German princes, his hereditary Highness of Saxe Meiningen, who was twenty-six years old on the day of the betrothal, a ceremony which will be speedily followed by marriage. The event will cause considerable exci'ement in Berlin, and, as it so deeply affects the English Court, wdl not pass unnoticed here. As a rule, marriages in our Royal family take place at an early age, the only prominent exception being that of the Princess Beatrice, who will complete her twentieth year in a few days, aud is not yet " engaged," but remains her mother's constant companion. There is considerable excitement now in the senior rank of our military officers, owing to the recent death of Sir John Poster Fitzgerald, the only one of the three Field Marshals of England who could be called a purely professional man, the others being the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. By this reduction of the number there is opened a fine prospect of advancement, and in the military clubs it ia anticipated that on the next celebration of the Queen's Birthday at least two of our most distinguished officers will be raised to the highest and most coveted positions in the British army. That privileged body of persons, the " renters" of Drury Lane 'theatre, have just experienced a shocking blow. For some years they have had the great advantage of free admission to the finest theatre in London during the opera season, but in consequence of a dispute about the terms on which his tenancy should be renewed, Mr Mapleson has gone, with his splendid body of singers and a magnificent band, to Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket, which is now being fitted up with the utmost haste. Since it was rebuilt some years ago no sound of music has been heard within its walls, except the hymns which Mr Sankey sang while he and Mr Moody held services there for a few weeks. In consequence of this unexpected removal the shares of Drury Lane have had a large and sudden drop in value, though it is rarely that one can be bought A new terror has been added to the punishment of those confined in our metropolitan prisons. The alarm created in the public mind by an outbreak of fire at the Old Bailey (where one of the courts used for the trial of prisoners was seriously damaged) had scarcely subsided before a much larger fire occurred in the prison at Coldbath Fields. By this latter conflagration the whole of the north of London was illuminated for two hours one Saturday nb'ht, during the time when the streets are most crowded. The official version of the matter of course says that there was no danger to the prisoners, but although none of them suffered auy bodily injury, it is almost impossible to conceive the awful horror they must have experienced at finding themselves locked up in cells where in, had the lire gone but a very little further, they stood a good chance of being roasted alive in what would resJly have proved to be separate ovens. For a couple of hours, if not for longer, all the unfortunate malefactors must have had to endure an agonising suspense. There has not been very much of interest lately in the proceedings of our police courts, and, as the Judges have been on circuit in the provinces, where the business for the most part has been of the tamest description, our law courts have been shut up. Some of the criminal trials in the country have displayed most revolting features of brutality. In Berkshire, within sight of Windsor Castle, in fine weather, two mere lads, one twenty and the other seventeen years of age, murdered a police inspector and a constable during a poaching affray, and both were hanged. All four Were intimately known to each other, and one of the convicts, in his confession, mentioned that his victim made to him a touching appeal—"Oh, don't kill a fellow, Bill." At Leeds, two days ago, a horrible event happened, which would have caused a riot in the days of public executions. A man was to be hung, but when the bolt was drawn the rope broke, and the doomed man fell through the trap-floor to the grouud below and struggled to his feet ! All present were horrified, including the executioner, who had to search for another rope, with which the man was hanged, but even then so clumsily that his death struggle lasted for rive minutes.