OUR LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1028, 11 October 1877, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[Specially Written for the Globe ] London, August 23. Although I am dating this letter from London, I candidly confess that since last I ■wrote I have not seen much of the metropolis, having spent a good portion of the past mouth in visiting the various beautiful watering places that stud the coast line of Sussex and Hampshire, seeking in the pleasant breezes from the English Channel, together with daily dips in “the briny,” a restoration of those powers which will become a little enfeebled, even in the best constitution —and mine, thank God, is a good one —by eleven months’ imprisonment in the heart of Loudon. I am now near the western boundary of Sussex, and much as I love the streets of London with their wonderful phantasmagoria of life, I find it vastly pleasant at this season of the year, when everybody leaves “ town ” who is blessed with sufficient money and to spare, to stand in such a spot as this, where I can see the Isle of Wight, with Osborne, the Queen’s beautiful retreat, on the one han 1, and the lights of Brighton, that London by the sea, on the other. The chief business that drew me back temporarily to London was the marriage of

the I ady Mayoress in St. Paul’s Cathedral That was an event that could not be missed, followed as it was by an invitation to a magnificent wedding breakfast in the Egyptian Hall at the Mansion House. Our pre' sent Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas White, is a widower, but his eldest daughter, Ada Louisa, has made a first-rate Lady Mayoress* although it is very rarely indeed that a single young lady is called upon to fulfil the duties of such an onerous position, for I queoti- n whether the lady who presides at the Mansion House has not a harder task of it during her year of office than the chief city magistrate himself. Well, Miss Ada W 7 hite was sought in marriage by a young city gentleman, Mr Cecil Price, and the match being in every way a suitable one, the young lady’s father resolved to make the annals of his Mayoralty famous by a marriage at the Mansion House. Then came the important question where was the marriage to take place, for the church of the parish in which the Lord Mayor’s official residence is situate lies in a small street where no display at all could be made. The young lady herself wished to be married in -t. Paul’s Cathedral. Such an e v ent, however, as a wedding had not taken place in thai. famous pile f *r about a century and a half, and it w*s felt to be doubtful whether the authorities could be pe snaded to allow the ceremony to be solemnised there Female blandishment did it, nevertheless. Archbishops and bishops are as frequent guests at the grand city dinners as Prime Ministers and < hancellors of the Exchequer, and after a little “ wo king the ora'de,” everything was duly arranged in accordance with the wishes of the bride elect. The weather, h<-waver, to some extent spoiled what was intended to have been a grand pageant, for the appointed morning t irned out miserably wet. There w; 8 «n immense assemblage in the Cathedral and the wedding was the prettiest th'ng of that kind I have seen since the lastro>al marriage at Windsor. After the religi- us part of the day some hundreds of us went to tue Mansion H use where the most luscious of wedding breakfasts was served to us, and we all had a taste of a monster wedding cake—-the largest I have eve'-seen. Ataa appropriate time the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had taken a principal part in “ lying the knot,” proposed the health of the newly-married couple, but not in a very happy style, for Dr Tait is a Scotchman as well as an ecclesiastic, and nature has n> t favored him with the knack of making a pretty little spee h, as our veteran Premier or Loid Granville can do. 1 have had two opportunities of knowing how diffi ult it is for the most audacious of |i-ridegrooms to say anything in reply, so that 1 could well appreciate the style of Mr Price’s words. Then away for the honeymoon! But Mrs Price is coming back to administer affairs until her father’s successor appears, and Sir Thomas becomes one of the “aldermen who have passed the chair.” Another tale of love and courtship which has just been told t > the public, has not had so pleasant an ending, for instead of the Corydon and Ihillis plighting their troth at the altar, their story was spoken before a police magistrate. The prosecutrix was Miss Slade, the niece and adopted daughter of an admiral of that name, a fascinating girl who moved in the best circles of society and bus been brought up amongst “the upper ten.” Sojourning at Constantinople some year or two ago she became acquainted with a Greek named Theodorides, one of th se queer foreign gentlemen who seem to have nothing to do in this world, and to earn a handsome living by doing it. All foreigners seem to think that every English girl whom they meet abroad is an heiress, and Theodorides, being then as now, very much in want of some English gold, assidi oua’y paid court to Miss Slade, but quite without the knowledge of her friends. A large number , of letters passed between the parties, but there the matter ended, and the billing and cooing was put an end to by Miss Made’s return to London. Theodorides followed her hither, and located himself at one of the most fashionable and expensive hotels. After a little while he resumed his letterwriting to Miss Slade, but not this time in an affectionate tone, for he wanted money. She would not give him any, and he then had recourse to the assistance of an Italian friend, one Gorlero, and between them they arranged a nice little plot. Gorlero assumed to seize for debt a box belonging to Theodorides. In this box were Miss Slade’s letters, and the two foreigners wrote to the young lady, telling her that unless she at once paid Gorlero some seven or eight hundred pounds which Thoderides owed him, he would make copies of her letters and send them to her uncle and other friends. Miss Slade had not the money. Though she had been indiscreet in her dealings with Theodorides, she was not without some moral courage, so she told the whole story to some of her ma'e relatives, and Messrs Theodoades and Gorlero were speedily entrapped by the police. They aie now awaiting their trial, which has b en postponed for a few weeks, in order that Theodorides’s counsel may have time to procure witnesses from Constantinople to prove the respectability of his client. The evidence, however, is far too strong to let him escape. Before this letter reaches its destination these two scoundrels will bo dressed in convict clothes. They wall most probably get a very heavy punishment, for it seems that when the police took the box from Gorlero’a lodgings it was found to coot da letters from other young ladies be id s Miss Slade. They have not yet been able to find out how many have been the dupes of Theodorides, but it is clear that Miss Slade was not the only one on whom he cast his deceptive lure. You must not, however, suppose that every foreigner who courts an English woman has evil intentions, for we have at this very time sojourning in London for a lew weeks a foreigner, and a man eminent in his own country, who has married an English _ wife, and, though he himself is not a Christian, has behaved a good deal better towards her than many Christum men do towards their wives, inasmuch as he has most faithfully carried out all his pre-nuptial promises. This man is Abd-er-Salem, the Grand Sheriff of Morocco, who about five or six years ago was married to an English girl at our consulate in Tangier. On the part of a certain section of Christians at homo there w as a howd of indignation that a representative ol the English Government had taken part in such an affair, and if my memory serves me rightly, some questions were put in Parliament about it. But the storm blew over, and now the Sheriffa has come to London with her two little Mohammedan eons. Their

maternal grandfather, a gentleman occupying an official position in London, is very pleased with them, and delighted to make the acquaintance of bis son-in-law, though they can only exchange a few words in French. On his way to this country the Sheriff passed through Paris, and was received by Marshal MaoMahon. lie could not be lionised here because he only arrived as everybody of importance was going away. At this very dull season of the year, ns far as news goes, the newspapers are making a capital tiling out of the charge against the three detectives which I mentioned in my last letter. As regards two of them the case seems to have been pretty well made out, but as the evidence proceeded the magistrate offered to accept bail for the third, who when first arrested made a piteous appeal to be released on finding sureties. A most remarkable history of fraud has been narrated by William Kurr, the convict who was the principal one of the gang who swindled the Countess de Goncourt out of her ten thousand pounds. He was taken to Bow street Police Court day by day manacled and dressed in the clothes of the convict prison. He is a sharp, intelligent young man, tlie son of a baker in London. He began life as a railway clerk, but soon took to betting and thence to swindling—no great step in England—and from the nge of fifteen or sixteen he lias principally lived by fraud. For several days be stood in the witness box for hours at a time, and after telling his main story to Mr Poland, the counsel who appears on behalf of the Treasury to prosecute, he stood unabashed against the very severe cross-examination of the barristers who appear to defend the several prisoners. In his evidence he laid bare the hitherto concealed fact s as to his connection with and influence over the detective police. He has incriminated many others besides the three in custody, but. everybody against whom lie has spoken a word has hastened to deny the charge with an expedition that looks very much as if conscious guilt expected something to be revealed against it. His appearance in the witness box has been the most remarkable thing I recollect in a court of Justice since William Roupcll, who was once a member of Parliament, was brought up out of a convict prison to give evidence also in a magnificent case of fraud. He has attracted several influential visitors to the bench of the little police court in Bow street ; amongst others who came to hear the last part of his evidence was the King of Denmark, who has come to this country on a brief visit to his royal relatives at Marlborough House. When Kurr had finished his wonderful story he was carefully removed from the court that he might neit her see nor be seen by his fellow convict, the young Jew, Harry Benson, who is also under a sentence of fifteen years’ penal servitude for his share in the fraud on the French Countess. His evidence, which is intended to corroborate that of Kurr, has only just begun, but it is evident that the Government is in possession of a very great amount of evidence, documentary as well as personal, against two of the detectives. The solicitor, who is also charged with being in the conspiracy, will certainly escape; he does not seem to have done anything extraordinary, and of com-se his counsel will raise every barrier that professional ingenuity can devise. But the revelations that have been made are so serious that the Home Secretary has found it necessary to appoint four gentlemen to inquire into the constitution and conduct of the detective force. They will probably learn some remarkable things that have been well known to everybody but those who are set in authority. The Government have also taken up the prosecution instituted against the ex-chairman and secretary of a building society. Extraordinary revelations of fraud have also been brought to light in this matter, but I think it very doubtful whether after all the malefactors may not escape, and the prosecution seems to think so also, for civil proceedings as well as criminal have been commenced. I must not close this letter without mentioning that since last I wrote the shareholders of the National Bank of New Zealand have held their fifth annual meeting. Mr Charles Magniac, their chairman, presented a report which showed a net profit equal to a dividend of 6 per cent, per annum. The business of the Bank, he said, was steadily and satisfactorily increasing, and their prospects were very encouraging.