NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1763, 14 October 1879, Page 4

NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

[feom the press correspondent.]

LONDON, August 29.

This is the particular time of the year •when London is supposed to be empty, but, to judge from the condition of the streets during the daytimo, but more particularly from the crowded Btate of such places of amusoment as are open at r.ight, a stranger would not miss any appreciable portion of the population. Nevertheless a good many people are away, but they are drawn from and to so many localities, that in any particular one they are not missed, except, perhaps, at such ■pots as Westminster Hall or the Exchange. The ordinary commercial tranoactions of life are going on much the same as usual, but there is little or nothing doing in the political world, those whose business it is to provide for us in this line being mostly away at the seasido or on the moors, where there are at present few good-sized grouse to shoot, in consequence of the inclement summer we have suffered. Indeed, we may be said not to have had any summer at all this year, for after a brief interval of comparative fine, but certainly not sultry weather, another aeries of Atlantic storms has burst upon us during the last ten days, spreading dullness amongst the visitors to our watering places and consternation amongst the farmors, who had looked forward to and hoped for two or three weeks of fine weather at this season to enable them to gather their sadly attenuated crops ; but for some days past they have experienced a_ strong aouth-westerly gale, which has laid their corn low, and floods of rain, which have so soaked it that but little of it will ever go to market in good condition. Indeed to some of our most fashionable resorts the inclement weather has been ruinous. A very large proportion of those who can afford to spend some weeks away from London or the large provincial towns, have betaken themselves across the stormy channel, and braved the perils of •sea sickness in order to spend a short time in the more favored provinces of Normandy and Brittany, where I hear they have been having ■a better time of it than those who have only ventured to look at the sea from the English coast, or at most have ventured to swim in it thirty or forty yards from their native soil. Most of those who have remained at home have flocked to the southern and southwestern counties, and all along the eastern and north-eastern counties they are having a very dull time of it. Indeed I have been told within a week past that at Harrogate, which is usually so crowded with people at this time of the year, there are not enough visitors altogether to fill one of the good hotels. Truly this will be a year to be long remembered in England, and will be a landmark, or perhaps I should more correctly Bay, a watermark in our meteorological records.

Aa to politics, as I said before, there are none. The Queen's speech, with which Parliament was closed the day after I last wrote to you, is already part of a remote history, the recollection of which only a few professional agitators will care to preserve. _ In spite of some threatening appearances it is to be hoped that we are not on the eve of any great outpouring of the vials of political wrath, such as have distinguished the Parliamentary resources of the past three of four years. Such few speeches as have been delivered by members of the House of Commons since the doors of St. Stephen's were closed are due rather to the desire to take the time of the general election by the forelock than to any conviction of the necessity for political harangues. Some people, however, seem as if they could never let an opportunity slip for blowing their own trumpets. One of these is Mr Mundella, who found it necessary to make a long speech to his constituents at Sheffield only three days after the end of the session. But then he may fairly be excused, for whenever the dissolution of the present Parliament takes place—and I may remark, in passing, that just now the chances are held to be that there will be another and a seventh session Sheffield will witness a severe electoral struggle, and no one should be blamed for making his house as secure as possible. Indeed, what little political activity is observable just now is entirely on the Liberal side, for the next one to take up the weak chorus of denunciation of the present administration was Mr E. J. Beed, who is to forsake Pembroke in order to fight a more severe battle at Cardiff. But Mr Seed is not a politician, though the ex-chief constructer of the Admiralty is the representative of a scientific class whose views ought to find an able exponent in the House of Commons. At Chester Mr Gladstone has made a long speech in support of the candidature of the Hon. Beilby Lawley, who is to endeavour to wrest one seat from the Conservatives by ejecting the popular Mr Baikes; but I do not think he will succeed in the attempt. Mr Gladstone, of course, made a strong speech respecting the conduct of affairs by the present Government, and Mr Cross, the Home Secretary, being next day at an agricultural dinner in a town not far off, •was sorely tempted to make a reply to the right hoc gentleman, but politics are for the most part forbidden at agricultural dinners, and Mr Gladstone's speech has therefore, up to the present time, gone unanswered, a condition in which it may well be allowed to remain. The only other man of mark who is spending his holiday-time in working for the benefit of his party, if not of himself, is Mr Goschen, who is to be pitied. You will have gathered from a very recent letter that, Liberal thongh he is, I have a high opinion of Mr Goschen, who, after having represented the City of London for sixteen years, and been selected by Mr Gladstone .to fill some of the most important posts in his Government, is driven to a remote constituency, because his views on the question of the county franchise are not so advanced as the bulk of his party could desire. Neither are those of Mr Lowe, but that right hon. gentleman represents a university, which cares rather more for intellectual culture than for the enfranchisement of the agricultural laborer. The city of London, however, has of late years become so Conservative that the mangers of the Liberal party have come to the conclusion that tbey can only secure the minority seat, leaving the other three to their opponents, and Mr Goschen personally feels that he would be risking the loss of even this one-fourth of the representation if he were to offer himself for re-election. It is not difficult to foresee the results. By the influence of a Whig landowner, Mr Goschen will probably obtain a seat for the obscure little borough of Bipon, while his place in the city of London, if it be won at all by a follower of Lord Hartington and Mr Gladstone, will be gained by some Badical who has not a tenth of Mr Goschen's worth, but who is ready to swallow the impossible and unattainable shibboleths which it pleases the wire-pullers of the minority to call their programme ! The mention of the name of Mr Gladstone reminds me that I must not omit to tell you that the right hon. gentleman, who will in November nexi complete his seventieth year, has just been present at a gathering of men of his own age, but whom an adverse fate had collected together in a metropolitan workhouse. It seemed good to Mr Skoines, one of the guardians of the poor of St.Pancras, that all the inmatesof that workhouse who were at or about the age of three score and ten should be entertained at a substantial dinner. Age was the only qualification, yet as many as 600 were found in that one parish poorhouse who were eligible to partake. Mr Gladstone was invited to be present at this novel gathering. Solely on account of the near approach of his seventieth birthday did he consent to attend, and after he had eaten of the same fare he addressed his remarkable audience in a strain of the highest eloquence. The entire novelty of the whole proceedings evidently filled him with curiosity, and when once you excite Mr Gladstone's imagination, where can you stop it! This speech, whioh only lasted about fifteen minutes, was a marvellous specimen of oratory even for Mr Gladstone, and while it produced a wonderful effect on those to whom it was personally addressed, it has been read outside with a livelier satisfaction than haa been caused by any utterance of his for a long time past. Business, however, is business, and although all those who can afford to do so are making holiday, some of us have to attend to our duties, for at no time can financial matters be neglected. Amongst city matters of interest in New Zealand I may mention that the tenders for the city of Wellington six per cent, improvements loan of £IOO,OOO have been opened at the Bnnfc of New Zealand. The total amount tendered or was £361,200, at prices ranging from the minimum of £lO3 to £lO7 2a 6d. Tenders at and above £lO4 1».

received allotment in fall, and those at £lOl about 33 per cent, of the amount applied for. The latest advices received by telegraph from South Africa show that the war against the Zulus is not quite so near its termination as it was thought to be when we first received the news of Lord Chelmsford's great victory at Ulundi. I have said in a previous letter that most people jumped too hastily to the conclusion that that would end the struggle, and what we have since heard confirms the opinion I then expressed that Cetewayo's power i« not broken and that he may at any moment call his forces together and show further fight. Although we are constantly receiving the submissions of small numbers of Zulus who are glad to get into the English camp to save themselves from starvation or perhaps a more speedy fate at the hands of some of the more patriotic of their fellow countrymen, the subjugation of the more northern part of Zululand has not yet been attempted, and probably never will be. Hostilities to a greater or less extent will be continued for some time, and it is now thought probablo that the war will not be at an end until this time next year, by which time it is hoped Cetewayo and his troops will have been starved out. Meanwhile, Lord Chelmsford had nothing to do with the direction of affairs, and since last I wrote he haß returned home and received the usual reward of a victorious soldier, being gazetted a K.C.B. In reference to this subject I may also mention that Lieutenant Carey, who accompanied the late Prince Imperial on that fatal expedition in which the royal youth lost his life, has also arrived in England, and, as was oxpected, has received an intimation that the evidence did not substantiate the formal charges which it was necessary to bring against him at the court-martial. He has therefore been released from his arrest, and after a short holiday will re-join the depot of his regiment. As regards Continental matters, the most interesting affair during this holiday time is the visit of the King of Spain to that fashionable though unpleasant watering place, Arcachon, famous for its oysters, to meet the Austrian young Archduchess, Marie Christina, for whom, after a very brief wooing, he will make a formal proposal of marriage, in order to meet the wishes of his Ministers rather than from any desire on his own part to enter upon marriage a second time. Indeed, King Alfonso seems to be the most unfortunate member of an uufortunate family. Indeed, the one event of his life which seems to have prospered with him was his coming to the throne of his native land, and even this may prove to be not so unalloyed a blessing as his subjects have during the last two or three years permitted it to be. Only eighteen months have elapsed since, with every hope for the future, he espoused the lovelylyoung Princess Mercedes, whose Bad death about five months later will still be fresh in the recollection of many of my readers. His mourning for her had not ceased when the customary year had come to an end, but hia Ministers pressed on him the necessity of a second and speedy marriage, they having, it seems, some undefined notion that if the present state of affairs lasted much longer a revival would be afforded to the hopes of the Carlist partisans. So they have found an Austrian princess who will be his second wife, and already we hear she has pleased that small but influential portion of the Spanish public who have seen her, by her evident devotion to the Roman Catholic faith. King Alfonso is said to be looking gloomy, although on such a journey, and well he may bo. He lost his favorite sister, and badly hurt one of bis arms just before he set out on this journey. And he is only twenty-one years of age. Although, in truth, so many years in Spain are equal to at least thirty in England or New Zealand. At the very eve of the prorogation of Parliament, Mr Cross made what many people will regard as one of the most important announcements of the session, and one which will do the Ministry an immense amount of good amongst the voters in the several boroughs which are comprised in this capital, viz., that the Government intend at last to deal with the London water companies. During the reeess Mr Cross will frame for the consideration of Ministers when they resume their cabinet councils after their holiday a scheme for this purpose, and it is believed that their deliberations will result in the handing over of the properties of the several companies who now supply the various districts to a body of controllers similar to that excellent tribunal known as the Railway Commission. Indeed there is not a man in the House of Commons better fitted for dealing with and settling this matter than Mr Cross, who at tbe outset has startled the shareholders in the interested companies by the explicit, though somewhat bluntly made declaration that the Government will not recognise prospective claims, but that if they should resolve to buy up the shares they will take them at the price which they were worth at last midsummer. Had not this been said, every company would at once have set to work to screw up the assessments to the very highest pitch, and during the last three or four years they have had considerable practice at increasing the receipts without incurring any extra expenditure. The Metropolitan Board of Works has signally failed in its attempts to deal with this question, and it will greatly redound to the credit of Lord Beaconsfield's Government if it should be able to settle this amongst other important public matters.