NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1928, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

COURT SECRETS REVEALED. GREVILLE DIARIES AGAIN. LONDON. Oct. 29. A hook which seems likely to he the •sensation of the publishing season is to he issued by Messrs Heineman (hv arrangement with and permission of Messrs Longmans, Green and Co. on November 17.

This is no less than a selective edition of Greville’s memoirs, containing about inru',oo words, which were formerly suppressed owing to the extreme c.H'enee they would inevitably have caused in Court and high social circles. Even as they were origin,illy published in eight volumes between IX7I and 18X7 the memoirs created an immense sensation and scandal. Charles Greville was ( lerk to the Privy Council from 1821 to 1869, and the diaries which lie kept are liili of revelations often far from discreet, about the inside history of political and social events, and about the personalities of the leading figures of the day. Queen Victoria was furious. In a letter, written when the first volumes appeared, she denounced tire dieadl'ttl indiscretion and disgracefully had taste of Mr Reeve in publishing Mr C. Greville’s scurrilous journal, without eliminating what is verv offensive and most disloyal towards the Sovereigns he served, and the Sovereigns and Princes whose hospitality and even intimacy he enjoyed! . of George IV. he speaks in such shocking language; really language not lit for any gentleman to use of any other gentleman, or human being, still less of his Sovereign.”

S(' A NDA LOUS IN FOB MAT lON

But in the memoirs as published it would seem that there were some 1,100 suppressions, amounting to more than 400 pages of typescript. Tt is these that are now given to the world. They ore understood to contain a mass of curious and sometimes scandalous information and to throw a considerable amount of now light upon- the innei Tiistorv of the peroid. It is believed, for instance, that further details are given about the strange ease ol Lady Flora Hastings, which brought much odium on the Court in 1839.

Greville, who was related through his lather to the Earl of Warwick and through his mother to the Duke ol Portland, knew everybody in society and was the recipient of endless confi(leiices and gossip. He describes George IN', with Lady Conygliam at Brighton. William IN' struggling against the greed of Ilia children .and Queen Victoria quarrelling, in turn with the Duke ol Wellington. Sir Robert Peel, and Lord Palmerston.

lie deals with the light over 1' roe Trade, Catholic Emancipation, and the Reform Bill, and he gives graphic descriptions of his first ride in a railway train and of one of the first i pernlious under <• ldorol'orm ever performed. His picture of the cholera outbreak of the 'thirties is gruesome in its clmpience Every side of life finds, indeed, its alert recorder in Greville.

In Ills pages are to he met. on tin n intimate lerins, royal personages

statesmen, soldiers, racing men. society luminaries, beautiful women, ai lists, legal liguics, peers, hisle ps, tu tois am! authors. They pass in a motley procession before Greville's observant, worldly, but not unkindly gaze, and In IV rentes vividly for the reader the varied improssioits they lelt upon him. The suppressed pasasges ol his diaries, which are now at last to see ilir light, are 'it is i oniideiil ly helieiedt as valuable on account ol their information as they are entertaining on nr. omit of their indiscretions. 'j |,|. story of how they have come ! • lie published is itself a romance. 4wo wars ago Mr Gabriel Wells, the New York dealer in ram hooks, had the luck tn buy a manuscript ol Greville - Diaries in England, lie speedily perceived that the manuscript was complete and contained hundreds ot pages that were not in the edition published by Messrs Longmans, Green. The value 111 the " find " he imagined when tt is stated that hitherto the * uly (oniplete manuscript was supposed to lie carefully locked away.

H1SII<) 1 * A!! 1! ESTEI). RERUN. Nov. 21. Till- Roman Catholic Bishop of Minsk White Kusshi) has lieen arrested on r trumped-up charge o! espionage, to punishment lor which is death. Last Wednesday two young men. who asserted that they were Poles and were in groat distress, tame to the Bishop’s house ;tt Minsk and asked let* a night s sh dter. They were received with great kindness.

Tn the middle of the night agents o! the O.C.P.U. (secret terrorist, police) which now takes the place ol the ( helot, arrived, setirched the belongings of the two strangers and declared that they had found compromising documents.

The Bishop, who realised too kite that Ins guests were actually agents of the 0.G.R.F.. was accused of being their accomplice and was taken to prison. A brilliant polish that lasts longer is obtained with liquid “Tan-01. Gives a dry, glossy surface. Easily applied, and economical.—-Advt. Children with worms restored good health bv Wade’s Worm Figs. Safe, pleasant and reliable.—Advt. The best polish for floors, linoleums, and furniture is “ Tan-01.” Easy ‘■o apply, and gives a longer shine. Does not smear. All grocers.—Advt.