VICE AND VENTRILOQUISM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 117, 30 May 1881, Page 4

VICE AND VENTRILOQUISM.

" The Two Voices " ia the name if one of Mr Tennyson's beat-known poems. The two voices, however, which are deecribed by the Poet Laureate are of a very different kind from the two voices wbibb, appear to have been heard ia conversation io various English hotels lately, and which gave occasion to an accusation at Bow-street. We are speaking of the case of a young man charged with obtaining fraudulent possession of watcbe?, riogs, and other ornaments from a jewellei's shop. The case has not indeed been tried, but the young man seems to have made a full acknowledgment of his various offences. . The plan was ingenious, but not original or capable of prolonged aucceae. A jeweller was. applied to on behalf o f A lady who wanted to make a choice f rom several watches, rings, and otl c* vluable articles. An assistant of. the jeweller accompuniel tbo young man who oarae on this mission back; to t; c ho'el, in order to let the lady make her choice and please her facoy. The lady was, perhaps, in bed, or for eooae other, reason could not appear in the outer room, and her emissary: ,-went into the, inner room. The jeweller's assistant presently heard two voice* discoursing as to the choice of artic'es. Tfen the emissary came oat and said -that the lady had made a cbr ice 'of certain articles which be relair eJ in the inner room. He went back to make arrangements about pay men', leaving, .the jawel'fr'a assistant still in the outer room. Time went by. and the voices were heard no mire. The emissiry did not come .01 1 from the , inner eanotuary, and the jeweller's assutant ended by growing impitieot, gbin^ to the inner room and fiadin? that it wrb as empty as that which the Prince of Breffni, in Moore's ballad, entered after ■ " its loving tenant had fled." There w^s apparently no lady in the case. The two voices were seemingly but the ingenious reproduction of one yoioe, and the watches sod riqgswerq gone.

land sales, The permanence of the latter item depends very much upon emigration, and is not after all a net addition, for it necessitates a considerable expenditure upon means of communication in 6omo shape, so that the interest and dividends payable upon their debts, &c,,'absorb nearly half the revenue. Queensland possesses, of course, •' natural resources," as no doubt most of the investors in Queensland stock or bonds have been diligently informed, but from the state of the exports it "would not appear as if they were being developed in a ratio at all eqiial to the increase of the population ; and it would seem, therefore, to behove English capitalists to look after their present investments, and not encourage the colony in further extravagance by investing too easily in its promises. Dean Stanley lately preached one of his broad Church sermons at Westminster Abbey for the benefit of the Borough-road students on the power of words. Being the anniversary day of the murder of Thomas a'Becket, he told the following pretty little story : — " There is only one circumstance that occurs to me — I would rather say one legend — attached to the name of Thomas a'Becket which can in any way be made edifying and instructive to the present generation, and this, I think, would be instructive even to you whom I see before me. There was a story that his father, Gilbert Becket, had been a crusader in the Holy Land, and that he there formed aa attachment to a Saracen lady, who contrived his escape from prison. She followed him at a long interval, and it is said that she only knew two words in any other language than her own. One -was ' London,' and the other was ' Gilbert.' She travelled through the different countries of Europe, repeatiug first of all this one word 'London,' which at last brought her to the shores of England. When she came to the outskirts of London she betook herself, to the other word and repeated ( Gil-; bert," and going from street to streetj and still repeating the word ' Gilbert,'; she at last came to the house where! Gilbert Becket lived. He recognised ■ her, he took her to his home, and they became the parents of the famous Thomas." A journal for idiots has been started atj - Dresden. There are several such journals in London, but they are known »» society •I apers -^JPrintetiti Register. > ;