OUR LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1293, 11 May 1878, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[written specially fob the globe.j [from oitr own correspondent.] London, March 28. I cannot say that the mail which is to take this letter will bring you " good news from home." On the contrary, things in England are at their very gloomiest. For more than a month wc have been living in daily dread lest wo should be plunged in war. Trade is still very depressed, and we have just experienced a national disaster. I need not discourse on the grand game of diplomatic chess that is now being played between Lord Derby and Prince Gortschakoff, but it is not a little singular that the commercial people who have suffered severely from the vacillations of politics during this year are almost to a man condemning the Eussians. Even the weather has been sadly against trade. We seemed up to the middle of this month to be likely to enjoy an early spring. The trees began to bud and the dealers in both male and female apparel decked out their shop windows with light and gay colored goods. But last week there came with the equinox a sudden and violent change, and since then we have had a succession of gales, snowstorms, and severe frosts. The disaster of which I spoke a few lines above happened off the coast of the Isle of Wight during a snowstorm last Sunday afternoon. Her Majesty's ship Eurydice, which was making for Portsmouth, having brought home between three and four hundred trained young seamen who had been on a voyage to the West Indies before being finally drafted into the Eoyal Navy, was caught by a squall while she was under a great pressure os canvass, capsized and sank in a few seconds with all on board. Five only were rescued, and three of those died within an hour. The Queen, both Houses of Parliament and the nation at large are greatly deploring this awful loss of life. But amidst all this strife London has once again heard the voice of Sir Julius Vogel, who has been lecturing before the Royal Colonial Institute on the progress of New Zealand. A verv numerous audience listened attentively to a remarkably well-written paper, and Sir Julius has been fortunate enough to have his views criticised by some of the newspapers—a distinction which very rarely happens to those who read papers before semi-scientific or class meetings. Of course your .Agent-General stands in an exceptional position, and some of his arguments and statements were necessarily directed to an exposition and defence of his policy when he was in New Zealand. But even his most severe critics will admit that, after saying all they can against him, the " plain unvarnished tale" he had to tell of the progress of the colony was ono of surprising success, and the " Pall Mall Gazette," no mean authority, is of opinion that " if New Zealand should escape any severe depression for the next two or three years, there is good reason to believe that she will rapidly attain a prosperity in which her indebtedness, great as it is, will appear trifling." I hope such a happy state of things may come to pass. One of the most amusing telegraphic blunders I ever remember has been perpetrated here, at the expense of Sir Arthur Kennedy, the Governor of Queensland, who, it should be remarked, has bsen a widower for several years, I was surprised a few days ago that all the evening newspapers, and most of the morning ones, announced, in a Reuter's telegram from Brisbane,that "Lady Kennedy had given birth to twins—the first a son." A few days later the Reuter Telegraph Company had to beg the editors to publish an explanation by way of apology. I should tell you that, with a view to diminish the expense, almost, all these telegrams are sent in a very abbreviated form, which would convey almost nothing to an ordinary person, but is quite sufficient to inform the mind of an expert, who can dilate them into interesting paragraphs. So that when the company received its message announcing that " Kennedy twins, first son," it was supposed that the gentleman referred to had had two additions to his family, but on a doubt being expressed about the correctness of this, the company obtained a repetition, which showed that what was sent, and what was meant, was that Sir Arthur Kennedy would turn the first sod of a projected new line of railways. It is not always the fault of the telegraph clerks that these blunders occur. It is generally due to the wretched scrawl written by the sender. I frequently see long messages sent from Paris, bj clerks who do not understand English, yet their misreadings of good caligraphy are such that you can see them at a glance. Only two evenings ago I read a message of about a thousand words, telegraphed from Constantinople through Odessa, and over the Indian lines of wire, and yet there was scarcely a word misspelled. I had the good fortune a few days ago to be one of the invited witnesses to one of the most remarkable weddings within my not very limited experience. The bridegroom was the Earl of Rosebery, a promising young Scotch peer, just turaed flirty years of ago, who obtained a seat in the House of Lords about eight or nine years ago in succession to his grandfather. 1 heard his maiden speech in that august assembly, for which very clever effort lie obtained the rare distinction of a compliment from the thtn leader of Her Majesty's Government, Earl Granville. Since then lie has turned h's attention to horseracing, and his having bien more than ordinarily successful on tht turf has not improved 1 is political prospects. Of course he is a Presbyter, ftp, and in this country a diesenter. TJtt bride, Mies Hanß&h. de Rothschild, the

orphan daughter of one branch of that house whose fame is world-wide, is, or was, of the Hebrew faith, and underthese peculiar circumstances it was necessary that the marriage should be partly a civil one. So they went first at half-past nine in the morning, almost unattended, and not in their wedding costumes, to the office of a registrar of marriages, whence the very odd form of being civilly united was speedily gone through. Then this married couple parted. The bride went back in her carriage to her own splendid residence in Piccadilly, put on the very handsomest wedding dress I have seen this many a year, and drove to Christchurch May Fair to be married over again by a clergyman of the Church of England. Here the scene was one of tremendous magnificence, for the flower of the peerage had assembled to witness this part of the day's proceedings. The bride was given away by Lord Beaconsfield, who could not go to the wedding breakfast, as he had to attend a Cabinet Council. So at that feast the one toast, "The health of the newly-married couple," was proposed by the Prince of Wales, who is very intimate with the bridegroom. Other people besides the legitimate trading community seem to have thought they could do a good stroke of business by the Paris Exhibition, which is to be held this year, and about which the Prince of Wales has been very busy. The London police have this week captured three Frenchmen, who came to this country with a grand scheme to forge Bank of England £5 notes, but it is a long while since a spurious note has found its way into circulation. This conspiracy failed for the same reason that all modern attempts at forging bank notes have failed, viz., because the rogues had not in their conspiracy a clever engraver. They were therefore obliged to apply to tradesmen, and in this case they thought that by dividing their orders they would be enabled to procure all the materials they needed. They applied in the first place to a lithographer, and told him a cunningly devised story about wanting for a Paris firm a coupon, that should exactly resemble a £5 note, but without the cashier's signature. To show how extensive a scheme they had in view, I may mention that one of the prisoners, Achille Roi, who is a tailor, told the printer that ten thousand copies would be the first order, but eventually he would have to print a hundred thousand copies. This printer communicated with the police on the subject. Then the forgers went to a die sinker and ordered a block to be cut with the name of "F. May," the cashier to the Bank of England, a fae rimile of whose autograph is at the Bank itself, separately printed on every note that is issued. The tradesman took the order, but communicated with the Bank authorities, and very speedily the three confederates found themselves in the custody of the police, and on their way to the Mansion House. I am sure they will not see the Paiis Exhibition. I could almost bet heavily that they will not see la telle France again for very many years. Writing of forgeries reminds me that in the ordinary mercantile cases which have come to light of late very considerable ingenuity has been shown, and forgers of cheques seem now to have turned their attention to chemistry as a means of carrying out their frauds. There is a man now awaiting his trial in the city who has fraudulently altered many cheques, and obtained much larger sums of money than they were drawn for. When arrested, he was found to have in his possession two bottles of some chemicals, the names of which have been carefully kept secret. It was publicly demonstrated by the City analyst that the fluid in one bottle would entirely obliterate the ink writing oryi cheque, and by means of the other fluid the paper would be restored to its original condition before pen had touched it. This little seems to be known to more than one man, for only a few days before that case was discovered, there was presented to the Ministry of Finance in Paris a French bond which had been altered in a similar manner in respect to number and date, though the amount remained the same. It was one of a number of bonds that were stolen some months ago while in transit from London to Paris. Though an immense reward was offered for their restoration, this was the first which has been discovered, through the care of the French Government clerks, and probably the rest will now be consigned to the fire, for unless they can be very speedily put in circulation and renewed by the office which issued them, they will become out of date and valueless.

Some of our extra smart journalists hare been plunging themselves into very hot water, and I am afraid it will be made hotter still for them. The more respectable offender was the "Whitehall Review," a "society" journal, as the phrase goes, which was started two or three years ago by a very smart young gentleman who has contrived to spend a lot of somebody else's money, for in spite of all the puffing and self-laudation this paper, like most of its very modern class, has not paid its expenses. They all live <m sensationalism and lies. In one case the "Whitehall Review " went a little too far. Some time last summer Mr George Wood, an eccentric old gentleman who lived at Chelsea, was found dead in his bath with his throat cut. There was a Coroner's irquest on him, of course, and the jury fourd that he had committed suicide. The event passed almost unnoticed at the time, but when his will was proved some months afterwards, the "Whitehall Review" reverted to the matter, and published an article contending that the facts, " when submitted to the light of reason," showed that Mr Wood had been murdered. The principal ground on which it came to this conclusion was that in a singular will which he wrote himself with blue ink on a sheet of foolscap paper, Mr Wood left to his housekeeper, Mrs Thornton, a married woman, all the furniture, &c., in his house, and a legacy of a thousand pounds. Mr Thornton said tin's article charged his wife with adultery and murder, and prosecuted the publisher of the " Review" before a criminal tribunal. The defendant had the benefit of the able advocacy of Mr Serjeant Parry, but this did not avail against the merciless logic of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, by whose direction the jury found the defendant guilty. The case stands over for a few weeks to see what his editorial friends can do for him in the way of damages or apciogy.

The next case is a much more serious one for the parties concerned, who are the proprietor, publisher, and printer of a very much lower class periodical called the " Sporting Times," which formerly belonged to a man who had to suffer six months' imprisonment for a gross libel on one of the leaders of the turf. It then came into the possession of its present owner, Mr John Corlett, who is a Jew, though he bears a very Christian name, and he has gathered around him a number of people who pen the most atrocious stuff of the Paul Pry type. For some years he has printed libels concerning Mr Joseph Moses ]>vy, the senior proprietor of the "Daily Teletraph," amannotvery well known to the public, but one who rose from being a printer in a comparatively small way of business to be the owner of the best newspaper property in England, if not in the world. At length the personalities of the "Sporting Times" became beyond the power of endurance, even of Mr Levy, who instituted a criminal prosecution, and has bagged three birds with, one shot. At the preliminary enquiry before a magistrate, Mr Corl eft, who is the principal defendant —and Mr Levy's object must be to shut him up, for he cannot cire about imprisonirg the other two—had the meanness to set up a defence that he never saw the article in question, whereupon the prosecution retorted that it was not a single act, but long-continued abuse that was oompliined of. The ease of course goes for trial, and Mr Corlett will next month appear at the bar bsfore one of her Majesty's Judges. The "Daily Telegraph," which used to pet Mr Gladstone as its patron, has for a long time been the .nost ''onservative paper in London, and accordingly Mr Levy has retained the Tory Attorney -General to conduct his case.

The Rev. Mr Dodwell, who attempted to shcot the Master o' the Rolls, under circumstances which I mentio? ed in my )»st letter, has been brought to trial, and fortunately found himself face to face with a common tense Judge and a very merciful jury. Sir GK-orge Jesitl, the man he assailed, appeared as iiie pn.-.-ir»i vi'nrs , ih'-'Uuli le had declined to attend the inferior Court of pre. liminar? examination. He gave a very »ue« cinct account of the way in which i>cdweU

attacked him, and expressed a strong belief, from the sensation which he experienced for several hours, that the pißtol was loaded with something more than powder. At first the prisoner asserted that the weapon contained nothing else, but later on admitted that there was a bit of paper in it. In the result the jury came to the conclusion that the pistol did not contain any dangerous missile. This finding released the prisoner from the more serious charge, and then he was indicted for a common assault, when the jury acquitted him on the ground of insanity, and Mr Baron Huddleston ordered his detention in a Lunatic Asylum. Throughout the trial it was apparent that bis mind had given way, and it was stated that for several years he had harboured some extraordinary delusions. A subscription is now being raised for the benefit of his wife and family. Madame Rachel, whose fraud on Mrs Pearce, the wife of a stockbroker, I also mentioned in my last, has not yet had her trial the learned counsel to whom her defence has been entrusted requiring further time to find out what excuse they can make for her. Meanwhile, the ex-convict, and would-be " Arabian Perfumer to the Queen," remains in gaol at her own request, for she cannot find anyone who will become bail for her.