LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1466, 28 October 1878, Page 2

LONDON LETTER.

[fbom oue own coeeespondent.] London, September 12.

Politics are nowhere. The excitement which pre,vailed duriog the summer entirely died away with the closing of Parliament, the day after I posted my last letter to you, and since then Loudon has been taking its pleasure, not naming led, however, with a. very considerable degree of sadness. Foreign affairs have ceased to cause us sn T emotion, whatever. It is true that “ Punch” draws a picture of the r rime Minister reclining on the desk of a yacht, and tells him that the wind is still in the East ;_aud so it is ; what little gusts there a o of interesting foreign, news, but they do not affect our sails. We read with the utmost complacency of the troubles which the luckless Austrians an* having with the Bosnians, and may smile to think that if Eng and h is obtained “ peace with honor,” as is the cant political phrase of the day, neither Austria nor Tuikiy has obtained yet either the one or the other. That small but influential section amongst us which is interested in Egyptian finance ia mightily pleased with the unexpected turn which affairs have taken. ’! he tne event about which the great bulk of the community still feels a keen interest is our colonisation of Cyprus. The clover‘‘specials’* who were sent there by the principal daily news capers have already done exceedingly well, and ;-ent home some charming lelteis, The effect of these may be seen in the shop windows. We read ooe clay that Cyprus furnished an abundance, nay, even a superfluity, of magmficmt fruit, and forthwith the large Spanish water melons that had been slow of sale had their freshest sides turned round, and were t icketed ns import a tioas frojn our new possession, Already cq

of the most popular of the magazines which instruct the ladies in the latest movements of fashion has engraved for them the picture of a tall English girl dressed in a Cypriote costume. “ Whai’s in a name ? That ■which they call a Cypriote by any other name wou'd look as neat, and there is certainly nothing at all of the Eist. rn type about it. I should not wonder at my tailor when 1 pay him a visit, offering to array me in a pair of ! arnaka browsers and a Nikosia waistcoat. I am still more certain that before Christmas arrives I shall have circulars from some enterpiismg caterers ohering to suppy mo with Cyprus wine, for there’s nothing too impudent to be attempted in that way of tra'e. It is not a little singular that at such a time the mrney market should have un ergon e a little convulsion, the effects of which have not yet died away. The Bank of England rate of discount has not only gone up to more than double what it was all the summer long, but bay hardened in a remarkable degree, so that even the best paper can hardly be negotiated below the official rate, while for a. more hazardous class a very much higher discount has to be allowed This has had its effects in all classes of investments. Fortunately, the tenders for the municipality of Dunedin Five per cent, Consolidated Loan for £220,100 had been sent in before the greatest rise, and when they were opened it was found, that the amount app'ied for was £396,7- : '0. I learn that those tenders at and above £95 3s have received allotments in full, and those of £95 2s 6d above three four ha. We learn, too, of a contemnlated loan of three mi lions for .New Sou + h Wales and this has had some effect on all colonial Government securities, but particularly on the New Zealand and Australian scrips. Even railway stock has not escaped unhurt, although the leading Sines were never obtaining better receipts on the whole, not having to pay less for expenses. The shares of the gas companies remain firm, though Londoners have been mightily interested in a very successful and prolonged experiment in street illumination by means of electric light. Outside one of the theatres in the Strand are hung some lamps of French invention. For two or three hundred yards you walk as in a moonlightof extraordinary brightness, but we are yet a long way off having it brought into domestic use. . The English people have certainly been enjoymg themselves for some weeks past. if the present fine weather, which has succeeded an unusually stormy August, should .continue they will be able to continue the pursur. of pleasure for some weeks to come, for with a great many persons any time up to the end of October is available for a trip. Scientific people tell us that after the heat and drought of July we need to go to the seaside to acquire that ozone which abounds on the beach, never travels inward as far as the metropolis. On tbe other hand, people with more humour than science suggest that if we are to continue to have during our holiday period such terrific storms of lightning and rain as prevai'ed during the lai-t week of .August, it would be better to stay at home to be ozonised. For my part, lam indifferent to the arguments of either side. When I begin my holiday ramble I simply pursue amusement, and not being a malado imagined™. I take life pretty much as it comes, and I find it agrees with me, whether there is any ozone in it or not. As 1 walk along the shore, or plunge into the sea, I find other people equally unmindful of serious warnings -and medical guides, with the same, happy result. But xhere are some things one cannot forget, and one of the malt' rs which up to a few days ag • pre ented itself to my mmd, was the fact that I had to wite y m this letter, and I wondered where was the mater al to come from- But even if I had not thought of yon, New Zealand would have - res nted itself to me uninvited, for ac I s metered along the Grind P 'rado at St Leonards, a few da)s ago, fate pre-sen e l you to me. A toy asked me to buy a local pap r, of whi'di he had a number of copies jtp sell A penny transferred one of them to my hand, and as 1 glanced over it to see how affairs were going in East • ns* ex, 1 found printed in it a lengthy exirmt from a letter written by Mr H Brett, the Mayor or Auckland, who is nephew of the proprietor of the “ t. Leonard’s Gazette.’ , °P ea visit Hastings next y ear, and. if he should happen to r ad these lines ho may take the wo r d of a stranger that he wib. end that .own and i s sister S . L-ma’d’a grt ably improved since he left England, and that they form a holi day resort second only to one on the long C'a't of Sussex. At Hastings, too, and at Biighton, a day or two afterwards, I saw the Australian cricketers, who, of course, were more than a match for any team that Sussex could produce against them at this time of the veir, and they won with remarkable ease. Bat although the play was rather one sided, it brought together an enormous concourse of cricket admirers, who loudly cheered our visitors. As I have already remarked, a few days ago I was wondering whether I be able to find sufficient topics to write a varied, af not very interesting, letter. The whole fraternity of the lawyers are away ; an exceptional dullness has come even over the Police Courts, and the “ silly season ” seemed to have come upon us more severely and at an earlier period than usual. All the responsible editors and sub-editors of the newspapers quit London when Parliament is prorogued, and leave their duties to be performed by deputiea, who seemed. to bo having a very dull time of it. Of course each paper started acme pet topic on which it expected correspondence to flow into it, for however stupid the subject, there are always plenty of people ready to write letters to the paper on it. When I tell you that the nwst inviting looking lot of correspondence was on the question whether the Bishops showed sufficient hospitality to their inferior clergy, together with a lament that the Archbishops did not now invito rectors to eat sumptuous dinners o il gold plates, you may judge to what a pass things had come. But we were roused from our listlessness and idleness by the occurrence of some of exceptional dreadfulness, and one of which will be long remembered in every parish of the metropolis. To le continued.