OUR LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 982, 18 August 1877, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[Specially Written for the Globe.] London, June IS. We have arrived at the height of the London season; we have proper June weather ; everything ought to be the gayest of the gay, but in spite of all encouragement even in the most fashionable circles and in quarters that one would suppose were the most free from care, there is an air of dullness and languor. The long depression of trade, which has caused a careworn expression on many faces in the city is gradually telling upon West End. and like most of the markets Belgravia and Mayfair are “quiet” and “moderate.” It may be that this condition of things is partly brought about by the state of public affairs both abroad and at home, for being old enough to recollect when the' late Emperor of Russia went to war with Turkey, I can safely say that there has never been one month since that date when there were so many exciting events as there have been since last I wrote. This is a good time for strangers to study the English character, and we have several “intelligent foreigners” visiting us just now. First and foremost the Emperor of Brazil is amongst us again, and astonishing, not to say worrying, everybody who has to receive him on his visits, by his habit of rising at an hour when the greater part of London is comfortably enjoying its first sleep. He thinks it quite late to be stirring at six o’clock a.m., and to judge from the number of places that he goes to in a day, his Majesty would seem to eclipse Sir Boyle Roche’s bird. Then we have General Ulysses Grant, exPresident of the United States, who has been received cordially enough, and has even been lionised to the extent of being presented with the freedom of the City of London. His presence there, however, has revived to some small degree differences of opinion which arose at the time of the American civil war, and although everything apparently goes on smoothly and swimmingly, below the surface there is a little cross current. Another representative American is also on a visit to this country. I allude to Mr William Lloyd Garrison, whose name has been known for half a century in connection with the anti-slavery agitation in the States. Of course he will not be made so much of as the General, but still he has a good many influential friends, and two mornings ago several of our most representative members of Parliament welcomed him at a breakfast they gave in his honour. This month coidd not pass away without some great disaster happening in some part of England, and in this instance fate has selected the fair city of Bath as the scene of one of the most distressing calamities ever witnessed. From Bath sprang the second largest of the many agricultural shows annually held in England during the summer, and this year it was resolved to hold the Bath exhibition in the city of its foundation. Thousands of the population are attracted to these shows, but that at Bath promised to be specially attractive. Accordingly on one of the days, when the price of admits-

sion was low, railway trains were well tilled. On leaving the station the excursionists were attracted by a placard informing them that the nearest way to the show yard was over a small suspension bridge that bad been thrown across the river Avon. “Into the valley of death Marched the six hundred” or a thousand of the excursionists. There was a halfpenny toll to pay—all at the other end. Somebody wanted change. The little gates were closed to prevent the escape of the people without paying. On came the people ; snap went every hold of the bridge, and down went the bridge and people into the river. Fortunately the loss of life has not exceeded nine or ten, but a large number of persons received dreadful injuries. The manufacturers of gossip, or, more correctly speaking, lies, have never been wider of the mark than when they told us, in the most public and brazen manner, that the Princess of Wales, Avho returned from a long holiday in Greece at the beginning of this month, intended at once to return to her father’s Court, being thoroughly disgusted at her husband’s ill conduct. No open notice was taken of the attack which the “ Weekly Dispatch,” or the “ Weekly Dustbin,” as it has been dubbed by one of the c r mic papers, made on the Prince, but the fact that such a diatribe could be printed without rebuke, or prosecution, as would have been the case not so very long ago, has produced an effect, even within the sanctum of Marlborough House, as I have the best means of knowing. The Prince of Wales took his own way of influencing public opinion. He rushed off to Paris, with all the eagerness of a bridegroom, to meet his wife on her arrival in the French capital, and ever since they have been together to every scene of gaiety and enjoyment. They had the cosiest of parties at Ascot races for a week, and it is especially noticed how much they have been making of late of their two handsome boys. Indeed, but for the constant presence of the youngsters with them, the Prince and Princess might have been taken for a newly-married couple, who were intent on winning the next Dunmow flitch. I know, however, from behind the scenes, that the Prince is very touchy .about the newspapers, and in this he is only like his mother, the Queen. For two or three weeks past public opinion has been much excited by Wo books, each intended to be very unlike the other, but, on the principle that ‘ 1 extremes meet,” becoming so much alike that, while one has been the subject of prosecution under our criminal law, the other has only escaped by a technical formality. The first of these books, was a small one, written nearly half a century ago by an obscure American quack. Its contents I cannot describe, except to say that they were of the most filthy and debasing kind. The book has lately been reprinted in England by Mr Bradlaugh, a man who has spent the greater part of his life in the dissemination of infidelity, and by Mrs Annie Besant, the wife of an English clergyman, who has left her husband’s home to join Bradlaugh in the “free thought” crusade. The book would have passed almost as unnoticed here as it has been elsewhere but for the ill-advised energy of a city policeman, w’ho commenced a prosecution under Lord Campbell's Act for the suppression of obscene publications. The trial was moved into the Court of Queen’s Bench, and the Solicitor General appeared before th ■ ' ord Justice of England to pi oseevit - jk Avas condemned by the jure, i j.y e' onerated the defendants fro. ... , oo- up, motive. Such a result is wholly. to the immense ability of Mrs Besant, Avho addressed to the jury two speeches, much finer than anything that is ordinarily heard from counsel at the bar. The other book to Avhich I have alluded is one privately printed and published by an association of ultra-ritualistic clergymen calling themselves “ The Society of the Holy Cross.” For some years past the practice of confession has been industriously urged by a small but untiring body of “ priests ” who though paid by the English Church arc very much more like the Romish communion. For their guidance in the confessional sonic expert in such matters has prepared a manual, a good part of Avhich may be described as the anatomy of the seventh commandment. A copy of this book Avas lent to a military officer of high repute. Ho is a thorough Protestant, and has no sacerdotal leanings. He exposed this corruption by means of a debate in the House of Lords, and since then the correspondence in the neAvspapcrs has been something enormous. Not more than a fourth of it is printed, and ,1 some of it, though smart and to the point, is too outspoken to bear the light. This book has been the literary sensation of the month and evidently avc have not heard the last of it. The legal year is draAving to a close and | the courts have not presented many inte- | resting features of late. The Probate Court has been occupied for several days in an inquiry as to the will of Mr Bethell Walrond, a Devonshire gentleman of considerable Avealth who might have lived a life to be envied, but chose to become a miserable recluse and to behave towards a charming wife and some children (Avho do not seem to have been more troublesome than the common rnn of families) in a way that raised considerable doubts as to his sanity. He was unquestionably to some extent out of his mind, though perhaps not so much as some of the persons Avho have letely been giving eA T ideuce before a select committee of the House of Commons ou the hews of lunacy. By these gentlemen some most startling revelations have been made, and it has been shown to bo quite possible for a citizen in this land of boasted liberty to be confined for years as a lunatic, because he suffers under some harmless delusion. Another social scandal which has caused a a great outpouring of public sympathy Avas caused by the fact that an English gentleman Avho once held a commission the army became so reduced by adverse circumstances that he and his Avife, daughter of a clergyman and a refined Avoman, Avere obliged to seek shelter in a Avorkhousc, Avhcre in a few days she Avas left a Avidow. A great outcry has been raised, and much indignation is felt at his having failed to obtain any help from a society Avhich AA’as especially to relieve such cases. This Charity Organisation Society drew nearly £IOOO from the public last year of which it spent £2739 in ‘ • organisation ” —that is to say salaries and expenses—and only £lO5 in “ charity,” of which £IOO Avssjaent to one district. This Society has long been knoAvn to be one of tlu biggest humbugs that Avas ever launched, and I hope the exposure it is now r beginning to receive will give it its quietus This case has occurred at a time Avhen public attention is again being directed to

the abuse of hospital charities, and the necessity of providing some public accommodation for the treatment of people who are comfortably Avell off. It is one of the grow® ing discomforts of London |that a man who has means cannot in the event of his serious illness, be nearly so Avell tended as one of the lower classes Avho immediately resort to a charitable institution. Only yesterday the Lord Mayor presided at a public meeting in the city, at which it was resolved to establish an association to provide hospitals for paying patients, and such a plan Avould bo as much approved by the doctors as those under their care. A hardened sinner of more than fifty years of age, the Eev Richard Watson, Avho Avas a church clergyman, has at last met with a righteous sentence. Twenty-two years ago he married the daughter of a country vicar. Nine years afterwards he seduced his wife’s sister and for the past ten or twelve years he has constantly been making demands upon her for money, to ensure his secrecy, for their misconduct seems only to have been known to themselves. Recently her mother died and then he made another and a larger demand upon her in terms which brought him within the criminal law, Then it Avas discovered that his sister-in-law had not been his only victim, but that he had treated several other young ladies in a similar way. Indeed he so systematically carried out his vile plan that he kept a written form of promise of marriage at some unknoAvn future date between him and his victim, and a blank copy of this Avas found in his desk as you Avould find a bill of exchange in a merchant’s office. A copy signed by the girl was shoAvn to Mr Justice Lush, Avho sent the prisoner to penal servitude for tAvelve years.