LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1419, 2 September 1878, Page 3

LONDON LETTER.

-WBITTBIT SPECIALLY VOB THE GI.OBB. London, July 18. Since last I wrote to you we have had a month of the moat glorious summer weather, and have passed through auch a month of political excitement as is scarcely remembered by the present generation. The telegraph will hare informed you of the great game of political chess which has been played at Borlin, but no printed description could convey an adequate idea of the intense anxiety with which every moVo in this contest'has been watched by people or all classes at home. However, all is over, and the day before yesterday something like fifty thousand people assembled between the Charing Cross terminus and the Foreign Office at Downing street fc'o shout theiv hearty wejeomo to tho £rime ilinister and his Foreign Secretary qn their arrival in London. In truth, Lord Beaconelield has eclipsed himself, and from the time he stepped out of his carriage early last month until he stepped into it again on Tuesday afternoon his daily life has been more like (hat of a popular monarch, than a

successful politician. Even when he landed from the boat at Dover a bevy of little girls ) dressed in the Kentish Tory colors, strewod with flowers his) path from the landing stage to the railway platform. Just at the time I shall drop this letter into the box at tho PostOffice tho noble Earl will be again in his place in Parliament preparod to give tho promised account of his exploits. He will have a grand audience. It may be, however, more interesting to you to know that this week the proprietors of the Union Bank of Australia havo celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the existence of that corporation. Sir Charles Mills, who presided as usual, had the gratifying task of announcing that they could still pay a dividend of 16 per cent., as they have done for many years past, besides which somo dividend would be paid on the shares lately issued. The liabilities of the Bank now exceed ten millions sterling, but the latest accounts the managers have received from the southern colonies lead them to believe that Ihey will be able at least to maintain tho present high position of tho Bank. We have just become acquainted with the facts of a very pretty little romance which began on your side of the globe. An Irish girl of "sweet seventeen" left the parental home near Dublin last year and emigrated to Yueensland, where she obtained a situation as barmaid. Her mother, however, found out whero she had fled to and wrote to her, begging her to come home. The mother, too, was fond and |foolish enough to send to the girl a sum of money, enough to pay her passage home. The girl did not wish to go back again so soon, so she spent the money in buying a quantity of male clothing, and having donned tho jacket and trousers, obtained an engagement as second steward on board one of the steamers running between Newcastle and Sydney. Having enjoyed herself in this way for some two or three months she thought of coming back to this country, and accordingly applied to Captain Batch, of the ship Strathdon, belonging to the White Star Line. She represented herself as a runaway apprentice from another vessel, and he agreed to allow her to work her passage home. The ship left Sydney, and for about six weeks all on board were delighted with tho conduct of their new young friend, who was found to be one of the most pleasant tenants that had ever occupied a berth in tho forecastle of the Strathdon, and one who could do her share of the ship's work exceedingly well. Suddenly, however, an accident raised a suspicion as to her sex, and on Captain Batch sending [for her to his cabin she owned that she was not what she had represented herself to be. The gallant mariner thereupon withdrew her from all communication jjflbh the rest of the crew, procured for hfr some female clothing, and placed her in a separate apartment. She remained virtually as a passenger until the Strathdon arrived in the Thames, when, with a view to satisfy Messrs George Thompson and Co., his owners, Captain Batch took his young friend before Mr Lushington, the magistrate at the Thames Police Court, as he wished her to make a legal declaration as to the circumstances under which she came on board his ship. It was, however, found that this was not necessary, and the owners the samo afternoon resolved to send their female " middy" home to her parents in Ireland. We have a distinguished visitor from New Zealand staying with U 3 just now, I mean your Primate, who is one of a great concourse of Bishops attending the Pan-Anglican Synod now being held in Lambeth Palace. This is a great gathering of clerics, but outside their profession not the least interest is felt in their proceedings. What more concerns the public, and especially tho female portion of it, who are vastly taken by a title and a long name, is that the list of Sunday preachers at our churches contains a wonderfully large proportion of these colonial prelates. Occasionally these Bishops have other duties to perform, as for instance your Primate was the chief priest at a wedding in St. Stephen's Church, South Kensington. He married a young lady who lives in that fashionable quarter to the son of a Wiltshire baronet. Socially Bishops are a very useful order of beings. The greatest social scandal wo have had this year has boen the trial of the petition presented by the Earl of Aylesford for a divorce from his wife. I have given some particulars about this matter in two of my former letters, but the case came on for trial very suddenly at the beginning of this month, and quite as suddenly collapsed, for after the revelations which were made as to the life of the young Earl himself, his counsel felt it was quito hopeless to present him to the court in the character of an injured husband. Neither the Countess of Aylesford, nor her paramour the Marquis of Blandford, appeared in court; no counsel was there to represent them, nor did they offer any defence to the petition. Why ? Because the whole affair was a collusion between the three principal parties arranged for the purpose of procuring a dissolution of the marriage tie which both Earl and Counteßs felt to be irksome to them. It may be asked what social position do these people occupy ? Well, Lord Aylesford, the husband, is a nobleman not thirty years of age. He has never been remarkable for anything except a debauched dissipated life. He married, before he became an Earl, Miss Edith Williams, whose father was a Colonel in the Guards, and a rich man, for he was the principal partner in an old established private country bank. The Countess's brother is also a Colonel in the Guards, and like the Earl is a personal friend and intime of the Prince of Wales. Not many days ago, being one of a boating party on the upper Thames, fate and a lock keeper brought my boat by the side of a remarkably pretty steam launch, in which I observed the Prince and Colonel Williams and a small select party of ladies and gentlemen, but the Princess of Wales was not one of them. The Earl and Countess did not lead a very happy married life. They have had two children, both daughters, but love and babies were not suited to their tastes any more than weak tea or brown bread and butter. However, there was no open display of anything unpleasant. ' The Countess did what she pleased, and the Earl followed tlie bent of his own inclinations. His life during that portion of the year which is called " tho London season," was not a remarkably good one. Ho is an hereditary legislator, but it is almost superfluous to say that he never a< • tended the debates in the House of Lords, even when there were any, which is not a frequent occurrence. The Eastern Question to him was represented by places in which vice abounded, and where he could play the Sultan in grand stylo. When ho had dined at an hour when unfashionable London is thinking of taking its supper and going to bed, Lord Aylesford found himself daily confronted with the question which the clever author of the " Ingoldby Legends" put into the mouth of Lord Tomnoddy—" What may a nobleman find to do : j " For a part of the way the parallel is complete. Liko his prototype, whom Barham invented, Lord Aylesford " Stept into his cab, Dark riflo green, with a lining of drab ; Through street and through square, Hiß high-trotting mare, Like one of Ducrow's, goes pawing the air. Adown Piccadilly and Waterloo place," until 'its noble owner reached tho Alhambra, a theatre with a very shady reputation] us regards tho character of tho ladies who take part in the most gorgeouo ballets London has ever witnessed. Thonce 'his lord»bip would go to Cremorne Gardens, a place which is now shut up and is built upon, but which was for many years the chosen resort of nil the fashionable vice of tho metropolis. Here lie would share in all those amusements which a popular playwright hr.ej successfully presented on the otago of tho Criterion Theatre in a pjepo entitled " The Pink Dominos," and having made up h\n mind who should bo his Sultana, he would betake, himself to a favorite kiosque close by —and send for her. " Brulant de mille (lammes II jeta son mouehoir," • as M.M. Meilhac and Haliivy put it. Then came the visit of the Prince of Wales to

India, and Lord Aylesford was one of the party. The world knows the round of brilliant spectacles and festivities that were provided for tho amusement of those to whom any European amusements must by comparison have appeared feeble. Suddenly Lord Aylesford returned from India. Until this month he would have had us believe that ho was the most innocent of deceived husbands, but when he came back to London, whatever may have been tho liaison between the Countess and tho Marquis of Blandfordit was pointed out by her ladyship's legal adviser that proof was not complete, and so to put themselves within the requirements of the Divorce Court it was arranged, planned, contrived, between these two specimens of the nobility of England that the one should publicly take the other's wife to Paris and openly live with her there in order to afford basis for a petition. I have not yet told you who this moral Marquis of Blandford is. Ho is a young man, tho oldest son of a Duke who bears tho honored and historic name of Malrborough. The father is a man who bears tho most unblemished character, at all events as regards morals, and is a friend of bishops and persons of the most blameless life. The Marquis had been trained up to be a thorough Church and State man and had made several successful appearances at public meetings as a defender and supporter of tho Church of England. Ho married according to his rank. His wife is one of the several handsomo daughters of the ducal house of Abercorn. All his prospects havo now been utterly thrown away, for he is deeply stamped with the indelible disgrace of having been a party to a most infamous crime, which not alone disgraces himsolf but tarnishes the reputation of tho class to which he belongs. Of course when tho Attorney-General appeared on behalf of the Queen's Proctor and intervened in the case to Iprcvent the Court granting a decree of divorce and showed the extent to which he knew of the disgraceful transactions, Lord Aylesford's counsel, and he retained several of tho best men at the bar, were obliged to take their noble client out of Court and tell him he had better withdraw his petition. Of course he told them to do so ; the case collapsed and so prevented any further revelations. There was, however, a good deal more behind. Another young gentleman of like tastes has got himself into a very pretty mess. I refer to Sir Capel Fitzgerald, an Irish baronet, who was married at nineteen years of age, a father before ho was twenty, and at twenty-five a prisoner on a serious charge of felony. He became acquainted with a Mrs Stevens, whose considerable establishment in Westbourne Park villas is maintained at the expense of some one who is not Mrs Stevens's husband. After indulging in dissipation from time to time Sir Capel proposed that Mrs Stevens should accompany him to Paris for a week. She was nothing loth, and for a few days they visited the Exhibition, they ate the nicest of little dinners, and indulged in all the luxuries which Paris affords to those who seek them. Another of Mrs Stevens's admirers had provided her with a very handsome suite of diamond ornaments, and as they sat over their last dinner in Paris Sir Capel persuaded her that it would be better to place them in her jewel case, and put it in his portmanteau, as robberies on the continental railways are not infrequent when wealthy travellers are numerous.[She unsuspectingly took his advice, but her case of diamond jewellery was no sooner in Sir Capel's trunk than it was out again and went into his coat pocket to the office of some English bankers in Paris, who advanced him sixty guineas on the articles. Sir Capel and his companion returned to her villa, where it was speedily discovered that the jewel box was empty. He immediately levanted, and from a distance wrote to her beseeching her forgiveness, swearing how much he loved her, and calling her his " darling Emmie," when in fact her real name was Susan. The original provider of the diamonds soon found out that they were missing, and he offered a reward of twenty pounds, a bait which led an active policeman to walk into an hotel at Surbiton, and with a remark like Mr Stanley made to Dr Livingstone. "Sir Capel Fitzgerald, I believe?" landed his fish securely. Unfortunately this is not tho only charge against him, for his description had been previously printed in the " Police Gasette," and this led to his arrest. llecently quite a large number of husbands have appeared in our law courts as defendants to actions which have been brought by some of the tribe of shopkeepers who minister to the vanity of the fair sex, whose passion for elaborate dress, always naturally great, is growing with alarming rapidity. The latest example of this kind is Lord Dorchester, a nobleman who is now considerably over sixty years of age, but whose name may be remembered by somo of those who have read the history of the Crimean war, whero he greatly distinguished himself. His case, however, differs from many others that have preceded it, inasmuch as it exhibits strong symptoms of that meanness of disposition which sometimes aocompanies a title of nobility. Three or four years ago he took his wife to Paris, where Lady Dorchester purchased a number of fine lace veils, pocket-handkerchiefs, and such goods, for which she did not offer to pay. The price was certainly high, but not unreasonably so, and would compare very favorably for what most people spend on articles dc Paris when they visit the French capital. An invoice of tho goods was sent, but no notice was taken of it and when, after a long interval,the London agent of the Paris tradesman applied for payment. L or d said he wad accustomed to haye. threi or four years' credit, but he offered to pay if ten per cent, was deducted from the bill. This was declined, and then he refused to pay at all, and declared that the charges were exorbitant. Thereupon an action was brought, and, not satisfied with instructing his advocate to maintain that an attempt had been made to fleece him, he wont into the box and produced a number of the worn-out articles, to try and persuade the jury that they were not worth the money. The Judge, the genial Justice Mellor, laughed outright at this artifice, and asked thenoblo lord where his wife was. Tho lady had been sent out of town, so that she might bo safely out of the reach of cross-examination, which must havo proved damaging. Of course the jury at once gave the plaintiff a verdict for the sum that had been owing t.o him so long, and then the came down on the defendant and, his pounsel for the oharaoter of tho defence they had set up. Lord Dorchester must have been very uncomfortable for the rest of that day. There are a few interesting theatrical items that ought to be noticed. In the first place, Mr Gye, the director of the Eoyal Italian Opora, has been the defendant in another action, but has come off victoriously. The plaintiff was Mademoiselle Marimon, who mado her debut at his house about four years ago, but is this season playing at tho rival opera house in the Haymarket. She is a Frenchwoman with a rtemarkably flexible vo'ce, but, to my" thinking, nothing of an i actirbss. A great fuss was mado about her when she came out, and a 3 nobody know precisely where she came from, she was claimed by several countries. I know one man, who is generally well informed, and he declared that he knew her father, a tradesman named Marmion in Dublin. He was wrong, for though Bhe sings Italian on the stage, she can only talk French off it. Of course, she had an extravagant salary paid to her, as it is the fashion to pay (Sonne nowadays, but this did not pi* vent her from trying to obtain #2O a' month ' more, and she carried her case into Court, where she had tho disadvantage of speaking to the jury through an interpreter. Mr Gye, of course, needed no such assistance, and after hearing a plain businesslike statement from him, the Judge said it was clear that Mdlle. was mistaken, and the jury at onv.e iound a verdict against her. My Grye has beon successful, too, in a far more difficult undertaking. * He has found a hew prima donna, who seems likely to bo th? successor of Qrisi and Titans in the moßt difficult parts oj tha r.ioder,! opera. Like Titens, chc made her first appearance in London in tho character of Lucrezia Borgia. I did not go that night, having been too often deceived by others who had been loudly praised ; but I went the second night, when she also played Lucrezia. This charming opera of Uonizett'a happens to bo tho first I

ever heard on the Italian stage, and I am old enough to recollect Grisi and Mario singing in it. I was much pleased with tho new singer, Madlle. Cepeda, and I was more than pleased with Signor Gayarre, a new Spanish tenor, whose voice and style are splendid. It is a pity that such tenors do not last as long as they used to do. Then we havo to lament the death of the greatest of English light comedians—Charles Mathews, who was nearly seventy-five years of age, but retained all his vivacity and nearly all his vigor up to almost the moment of his death. Only three weeks before that event he was in London, and presided at the Saturday evening dinner of the Savage Club, which is much frequented by litorary and theatrical people. He mado a capital chairman, was full of humor, and all who wero there declare that they spent one of tho jolliest of evenings. The next week Mr Mathews went down to tho North of England to fulfil an engagement. At Stockport ho was attacked with bronchitis —I told you in my last what inclement weather we had been having—and was removed to Manchester, whore his wife and her son, who has adopted his stop-father's name, joined him. They remained with him to the last, though that was not long. For a time he was unconscious, but shortly before his death he rallied and sent messages to many of his friends in London. They never saw him more, but a large number of them attended his funeral in Kensal Green Cemetery.