ENGLISH GOSSIP.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 114, 16 May 1877, Page 4

ENGLISH GOSSIP.

The Londoa correspondent of thd Obristeburch Press writes as follows! by the Sues mail :— Her Majesty the .QaSoit seems at last inolioed tore-renter; v society, . and, apparently, by way. of) getting herself op to the mark, paid a; long visit to the Zoological Gardens the day be fore yesterday. A new fashion 'has recently sprung ap at balls, and (isema t6 have taken a fast bold oo '.society.. What -are called ■** singing quadrilles" are got up ait nearly all balls given now. The danoers, wbo have .previous!^ rehearsed their parts together, sing nursery rhymes while, they go through the mazy figures oi tbe dance. Now it is an admitted fact tbat •n Englishman does not excel as a .J .adrille dancer. Everyone recollects the remark of tbat well-known wit wbo Said that English people when they danced always looked as if tbey were .hired to do it, and were doubtful of being paid. I should like to hear what he would gay conld he witness e "singing quadrille." I know of no spectacle more idiotic than that of a middle-aged gentleman going stolidly through a quadrille singing " Ba-a, Ba-a, Black Sheep," and yet this is the sort of thing that is to be seen and heard in nearly every ball-room in Londoa now. To a right-minded man it is as depressing as some of our comic papers.

There is dismay and indignation throughout the British army, from H.R.H. the Commander-in Chief down to tbe latest joined sub-lien tenant. Esprit de corps, that sentiment to which every member of a regiment clings, and Which in the field and in quarters has been a powerful lever for raising ths reputation of the British army in peace and war, is in jeopardy. A committee oa army re-organisation has recomfriended that regiments should be amalgamated into what it calls " territorial brigades," and tbe numbers by which they have been hitherto known to fame dispensed with." Thus, to cite at random a .few cases, the 42nd, or the * Forty rtwaV* as every Scotchman calls them .with a glow of pride; the *Qld Die-hard's," as the 57th were known throughout the service; and ihe 87th Irish Fusileers, or the "Eagle Catchers" as they were oalled from the number of standards tbey captured from the French, will be all mere traditions of the past y if the recommendation be adopted. Every regiment has its cherished memories, and in tbe hour of need an allusiou to its past glories bas often aoted like magic on a regiment. Onoe in the Crimea the 57th Regiment, hard pressed and fighting against fearful odds, wavered and were on the point of retiring. " 57th, remember Albuerai" rung out the voice of the commanding officer clear and distinct amid the din of battle. The effect was instantaneous. With a cheer tbe men, who. tbe moment before had been faltering, followed tbeir gallant leader and carried all before them. Not one of those men had fought at Albuera, but they all knew how tbe 57th had covered themselves with glory there, and the mere name was more to them than a reinforcement of another whole regiment would have been. That is wbat Esprit de corps means. And this is what the would-be reformers of the British army would abolish. I went the round of the military clubs last week, and I do not recollect ever seeing the back of the British officer so thoroughly 4 « up " as it now is on this projected change. I have aeen him robbed of hia miserable pay ; I bave seen bim tbe bewildered victim of senseless and ambiguous circulars, but oil such inflictions he has borne with equanimity compared with the feeling of indignation and resentment with which be views tbis attempt to deprive him of that cherished sentiment, pride in his regiment, If the recommendation of the committee is carried out the Duke of Cambridge declares he will resign his post as commander-in-chief, and I have little doubt that his example will be extensively followed by hia subordinates.

Esprit de corps — : as in this case it Bay aiso be termed — of another clbss of society is now receiving a rude shock, and tbis time the injured bave not my .sympathy. I allude to the butchers. There is consternation in tbe bosom of the British butcher now, and he trembles and turns as pa'e as a botcher can as he deciphers in the handwriting on tbe wall the following terrible sentence: — "Prime meat at 7d a pound." Tbe enemy who is doing him this mischief ia the American meat importer. The consignments to this country of Amerioan beef and mutton increase in quantity daily, and we are constantly assured that there are " lots more where this comes from." In oue day last week the quantity of Amerioan meat landed at Liverpool amounted to 4485 quarters of beef and 430 carcases of sheep. The meat is of first rate quality, so good in fact that at first it was brought up by onr own butchers, aod sold in the market as English beef, at English prices of course.