OUR LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1630, 12 May 1879, Page 3

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[Specially Written for the Globe.] London, March 27.

The great domestic event or the month has been a wedding in the Royal family—the marriage of the Queen’s third son, the Duke of Connaught, with the Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia, causing such festivities as have not been seen for many years at Windsor Castle, and greatly to the delight of “ the inhabitants of the Royal borough,” as they pompously like to call themselves. Of course this was no quiet affair, although it took place in the early days of Lent, as many Royal marriages do, greatly to the horror of the increasing number of persons who profess ( and some of whom practice, an extreme type of austerity and Ritualism. But Lent did not prevent any member of the German reigning family from coming to London, Our own Princess Royal, who, by the way, I hear is likely soon to be a grandmother —eheu fugaoesl— and her husband were very heartily welcomed by the English people, and I should not have wondered at seeing their old father, the Kaiser William himself, only that the old Emperor had a few days before fallen down in his palace, and so could not venture outside Berlin, Heaps of people flocked down to Queensborough to see the arrival of the bride, with her father and mother, in Her Majesty’s own yacht, and although all the Royal party had been sea-sick during their night voyage, two hours in still water, and a sunshiny morning, quickly restored them, and when the Princess stepped on shore, and was kissed by her affianced husband, the heartiest of British cheers greeted the new daughter of England. But a still more flattering demonstration awaited her at Windsor on the wedding day. Hero the Princess was surrounded by every glittering attraction of rank, orders and decorations, and was nearly dazzled by the infinite variety of bejewelled Court drees. The Princess of Wales, looked lovely, though somewhat matronly—as becomes the mother of two big boys in the Navy—in an oriental pearl-colored brocade. The bride, amidst all the splendour and enthusiasm which surrounded her, was at heart a woman. Although the cynosure of every eye, her composure was something wonderful, and though she had to wear a white satin train five yards in length, she was evidently quite as much at her ease as if she had been walking alone on the Castle terrace in one of the short-skirted “ fishwife ” dresses that are all the rage this spring in London. The list of wedding presents that this royal couple have had is something marvellous and seems like pages of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment road through a large magnifying glass. At the wedding breakfast, the Queen herself proposed the health of the bride and bridegroom, who shortly afterwards departed in an open carriage for Claremont to begin their honevmoon. As they passed from beneath the royal porch, a tremendous shower of rice was Hung after them. Old slippers used at one time to be thought the emblem of good luck, and I wonder what became of one that I once stowed away under the cushion of a carriage in which I rode on a similar occasion. But, now-a-days, rice is all the go, and a newly-married couple must expect to have to )>ass through something very like a shower of hail.

I was accidentally the witness of a very different kind of wedding that took place a few Sundays ago at one of the old churches in n quite lane in tire city, where the arrival of a carriage with a bridal party is a very rare event. The bride and bridegroom in this case were two guid homely people, and both were deaf and dumb. They hud “lived and loved together,” first at a school and afterwards in one of the too few institutions that are pro vided in London for the care of such distressed people. Amongst the persons who accompanied them was a gentleman connected with the house in which they had been roared.

and as the minister of the church read the marriage service, he translated it to them h> signs, and in the same way repeated their responses and vows. They signed the n gisfer and departed, evidently very happy, But all deaf and dumb people aro not so good, I might say so Arcadian, as that couple whom I saw married, A male “deaf mute,"

as such people are called is in custody on a charge of one of the most artful descriptions ef fraud that have ever been invented. The opening for trickery in this case was afforded by the practice of a good many people who anonymously send money, generally Bank of England notes, to the managers of charitable md or other public institutions with a request that the receipt of the same shall bo acknowledged by means of an advertisement in a daily newspaper, where as you will see by a reference to any file of a London journal, such advertisements are as conspicuous as they are frequent. Weil these receipts caught (he eye of Skirving Thompson, who forthwith saw in them a profitable field for a swindling operation. He is nearly of middle age, but Ido not know how for the past thirty-eight years he has managed to earn his living. For some short time he lias been in the habit of frequenting a news room in Ludgato Circus where he spent several hours a day in perusing the newspapers and writing the letters by which ho carried on his frauds. Not only could he road, but he must be able to write a good hand writing, for had there been anything illiterate he coiild not have been so successful. One of h-fl dupes was Mrs Gladstone, the wife of the ex-Brenner 5 . flhe established a convalescent home at Woodford, a few miles from London, and for its support she recently made an appeal to the charitable public, who of course litierally responded in the usual anonymous manner. One donation of five pounds she acknowledged in the newspapers, and the Very hekt day she received a letter requesting the return of the donation, a demand with which she complied in the most unsuspecting manner: But My Thompson also attempted a more daring imposition on a Me Arthur Mills, M.P. for Exeter, who is one o" the treasurers of a fund that is being raised for the relief of those shareholders of the West of England Bank who have fallen into iistress through its failure and the consequent stoppage of their income from dividends. Towards this fund he received a donation of £SO until an accountant had inquired into the solvency of the firm. Mr Mills knew that Mr Gibbs .was not in n-ed of £SO, from Mr H. H. Gibbs, a gentleman whom he well know. The next day there came to hr private residence in Hyde Park Gardens a letter signed “J, 9. Mackie,” in which the writer described himself as a partner of Mr Gibbs, who demanded the return of the £SO, and took no notice of the application, which was speedily followed by a second in threatening terras, and it was not. until then that Mr Mills thought of communicating with the police. In the meantime Thompson had been taken into custody at the instance of Mr Williams, the secretary to the National Kefuge for Homeless Children, to whom he had applied for a return of £2O under a precisely similar pretence. Before the magistrate ho pleaded for mercy, and said he was awakened to the sense of the awful position he was in. He was sent for trial, and in spite of his afflictions I hope he will get a long term of imprisonment, for ho has robbed those who were much worse off than himself.

These are by no means the only instances of fraud that I could mention, and the longcontinued dullness of trade, which has prevented many impecunious people from getting a living by selling goods that they have obtained on credit, seemS to hate sharpened their wits, and set them to work on other, and in some cases very profit able fields. Two gentlemen have started what they called the British Association for the Facilitating of Commerce. One of the promoters of this concern is a law student, who at one time had a small account at the London and Westminster Bank, but at the beginning of this year had only 17s 9d to his credit. His colleague is a man who has been expelled from the Stock Exchange. On the strength of the banking account they drew cheques for one another, and then passed them, Thsy had obtained some capital furniture for a city office, in which the police could.only find a number of prospectuses ; but on , inquiries being rMae it was ascertained that (here vfere plenty of dupes who were ready to charge the prisoners with defrauding them. At the West End of London a more artful and elaborate system of fraud than either of the foregoing has been carried cn by a middleaged man, who gives the name of Vernon Montgomery, and has passed himself off sometimes as a baronet and sometimes as a viscount. His confederate was a girl of twenty years of age, styling herself Ethel Vivian, who seems to have led anything but a respectable life, although she tried to pass herself off as a friendless orphan, who had successfully resisted the many temptations to which she had been exposed since she came to London. This precious pair had inserted advertisements in all the leading newspapers in the shape of heart-touching appeals from E. V. to V, H. “I entreat you,’'she said, “to help me in this time of deepest trial. 111, and friendless, I can look to no one but you for assistance. By the .memory of the past I implore your aid, or I know not what I shall do. My last shilling is expended on this advertisement. Remember me at this season of happiness and reunion,” for these advertisements appeared about Christmas and New Year time. A great number of persons who could not have imagined themselves to bo the “ V. H.” to whom the advertisement is addressed answered it and sent her money. Unfortunately for her she consented to meet a young man in the city, and ho offered to help her to get employment. But Miss Ethel Vivian did not want honest work, and made various excuses, until this young gentleman began to suspect her, and after putting the police on her track had the courage to appear before the magistrate as one of the principal witnesses against her. It came out in the course of his cross examination that he made notes of their conversation, but his records were in the Japanese language, which is, I think, about the oddest thing I ever heard of in the way of diaries. It is proverbially an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and “ the chill blast of January” which has withered the whilom grand project for the establishment of a Grand National Opera House, is likely to do a great deal of good for the much more feasible and greatly more wanted scheme for the establishment of a colonial museum in a conspicuous position in London. I may mention that when there was a difference between Mr Mapleson and the proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre, as to the terms on which his lease of that house for the opera season in the summer should be renewed, and before there appeared to be any prospect of the reopening of Her Majesty’s Theatre, which was then and had been for some years only an empty carcase, some people subscribed a largo fund for the purchase of a site at the Westminster end of the Thames embankment, and almost opposite the doors of the Houses of Parliament. For a short time the idea flourished. An enormous sum of money was literally sunk in making the foundations, which had to be very massive, and at this stage the late Mr Gye, fearing that Mr Mapleson might become a too successful rival, fired a succession of shots in the shape of letters, which very soon demolished the project. The hoarded site has now remained for several years an object of pity and disgust, and in the House of Commons the chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works lias been several times urged to put in force the enormous powers of that Corporation to bring about a better state of things. During the present month it was announced that the several colonial agents who are located in London had united in a scheme to purchase the site and what is on it, with a view to the erection of a colonial museum, and though the declaration was stated to be premature there can be no doubt that this praiseworthy design will shortly bo carried out. I understand it is only a question of money, and I feel sure that the New Zealand Government will gladly subscribe their portion towards this undertaking. Although Drury lane Theatre is shut’up owing to the bankruptcy of its proprietor, Covent Garden is flourishing, and Mr Gye, the son of the late director of the Ro}* Italian opera has just issued a prospectus of the forthcoming lyrical season in much more

rib (lest forms than his father us-’d to employ, At (lie other and newest large house, Her Majesty's, we have had a comparatively snort hiT vcqy prosperous season of opera in English, a taste for which has been revived ‘hfoOgh the j and painstaking efforts of Afr Curl Rosa, the husband of that fine pin per Madame Parepn, whose untimely death vos such a loss to the musical world. English opera - , howeter, does not fill one, so to speak, in a largo theatre, as do the more majestic productions of (he Italian and German composers, and hence I have heard some expressions of disappointment on the part of visitors, but the majority have bees' abundantly satisfied, for they have heard many charming little operas that no one but Mr R 'sa would have had the courage 1© put on the stage in London. Little Lady Gooch seems to have made it up with her husband. At all events, after having caused a great public scandal, and spent a great deal of money in law proceed ir;gs, she has resolved not to proceed wilh her petition of divorce, and a deed is beirg prepared to settle further terms between her and Sir Francis, who denied the charges she brought against him, The case stands , over until some future day, when all that tht President of the Divorce Court will he asked to do is to give his Him! saociion to what the respective counsel have agreed Upon, and allow thorn to withdraw the matter.

The Q.uoen has gone to Italy for a shorl time, and I hope that before her Majesty re tur e wo shall have bettor weather than prevailed when she loft these shores. According to the makers Of almanacs Spring began last Friday, and two da}» before the vernal equinox we had a real summer afternoon. Our gardens began to look gay with the brilliant colors of the spring (lowers, and the little bits of brightness were especially welcome to the eyes of dwellers in this city, whore for five months we have had scarcely anything else than the region of a Russian winter. Suddenly the whole face of nature changed ; for days severe easterly Wind prevailed, drying up everything and killing all our buds At length, on the • morning .When the Queen left Windsor Castle, there was' another.heavy fall of snow, and I am afraid her Majesty must have spent six very unpleasant hours on the passage from Portsmouth to Cherboury. Yesterday she spent in Paris, where she was visited by the new President of the French Republic, to whom she paid the usual formal return visit. This week will bring to a close the fifth month of our winter, the long duration, and severity of which have not only been very telling Upon our bodily constitutions, hut have also very much' interfered! wth a privioudy crippled trade. We have had a remarkable case of an innocent man being wrongfully convicted, and only pardoned after suffering a long term of penal servitude. Those who can describe themselves as “constant readers” of this column will recollect that a few days before Charles Peace, the burglar and murderer was hung, last month, he confessed to having shot a policeman In Whallcy range, near Manchester. For the murder of that very policeman three brothers, named Habicrn- who yrere in the employ of a Mr Peakin, in the village of Ohorlton, not far off, were anCJted and tried. Two of them were acquitted, but (he third and youngest, William Habron, was found guilty and sentenced to death. There was, however, a doubt at the time, and the Home Secretary advised the Queen to reprieve the man; and commute his sentence to one of penal servitude for life. When this confession by Pearce was brought to his notice, Mr Cross at once appointed a sot t of informal Royal Commission to investigate further circumstances of the case. It seems that the whqde question turned on the weight of three bullets which had, been extracted from the bodies of three different men, two of whom Peace undoubtedly shot. The Question whether the third was a similar bullet turned on the matter of size, and the difference at the most could only have been the five-hundreth part of an inch, for not detecting which any gunmaker may surely be excused. The result was that Peace’s confession was found to be corroborated in so many particulars that Mr Cross obtained the Q,ueen’a pardon for young Wm, Halbon, who was then working as a convict in the quarries at Portland, a punish - mer fc the severity of which no pen can adequately describe. The law gives him no compensa tion, but our Home Secretary is both a just man and a very humane one, and ho has promised to do something fo? this victim of circumstantial evidence. The greatest amount of public sympathy has bean evokod for this young man, whoso conviction caused his father’s death.