LONDON TOWN TALK.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4827, 11 September 1876, Page 3

LONDON TOWN TALK.

(From the Argus, correspondent.)

I am in great: hopes, that'the "general news" from Constantinople will have at least this good effect,-that it will cause people who believe in,the civilisation of barbarians to give up their too charitable opinions'. ' It has been long the custom among what are ; called "clever" and " superior " people to entertain this paradox, and, the effect of it has been most mischievous. It is not only that foolish persons who have had money to lose have been then- converts and suffered for it, but they have fostered a general belief that, the world is not much better for education, ; Christianity, or any; other civilising influence, and that human nature is just where it was 2000 years ago. <■.■-;-. Now that Abdul Aziz has become Abdul as. isn't so very suddenly—" more scissored against than scissoring," ■ as has'been wittily observed—and that the three chief Ministers of his successor have all been shot at the council board, it will perhaps be understood that things are managed if not at all events differently, in despotic countries than at Home. It is, of course, ■ found convenient to say that the last threefold catastrophe'was solelythe result of: "private pique," butif Mr. Disraeli and Lord Carnarvon were killed by a "double barrel" in Downing-street, and Mr. Ward Hunt dangerously wounded by a third shot, depend upon it there would be a considerable excitement, even if the motive for such a deed were proved to be solely "personal." Then, again, although there is an occasional scandal against some members of our Royal Family, the," 52 boat loads of young women',',, that accompanied 'Abdul into Ms-brief jretire-" ment were surely what Artemus'Ward,calls "a circumstance" something rather!outi of, the common way. I' can remember, when the newspapers informed; us that none of these habits were now indulged in ■ in Turkey; and that the Sultan, took great credit to himself for confining himself to a single spouse. As a matter of fact, however, it is more difficult to keep the Imperial harem supplied than it used to be, because since Russia has annexed Circassia the sale of the far-famed belles of that country—not so much perhaps in. the interests of morality" as to annoy the Turk —has been prohibited. Moreover, the domestic guardians of the ladies are not so easily procurable, and have to be paid at a very high rate. The present " Kislar Aga," or chief of the eunuchs, has an income of £SOOO la-year —the price we pay for a bishop; while the " mussails" or conversation-tellers, who bear the Sultan's commands to the seraglio—enjoy a more luxurious life than our own best talkers and diuers-out. Altogether the 700 ladies who were the "one wife" .of Abdul Aziz had 500 attendants, and consumed an income of half a million, chiefly in amusements and finery. Whether the late Sultan contrived, notwithstanding these considerable personal expenses, to, hoard vast sums of money is not certain, but the result of " squeezing" the queen-mother—it is reported that she also is dead, probably squeezed to death who appears to have done her best to ruin her son, both by influence and example, has "been satisfactory, and for one thing, the Crown jewels have come to light. Matters under the new rigime can hardly be worse than they have been, and although one has no high expectations of a ruler who has needed a pistol barrel close to his ear to persuade him to ascend the throne, he will be " Murad the Unlucky" indeed, if he is not an improvement on his predecessor. To a Gallic source society in London is indebted for the rumor that the Empress Eugenie is about to marry again. Her choice is a certain Lord Dutlan (a peer unknown to your correspondent, even by name), who will endow her on her marriage day with " five millions of pounds." The Bonapartist newspapers aro furious at this report, which they affect to consider as sacrilegious. " The attitude" of the Empress, they say, ought to protect her from Buch audacious scandals. Nothing of this, however, is to be gathered from the photographs of her Imperial Majest*-, and with those alone I am acquainted. Difficult as it may be to write history with impartiality, how sad it would be were there no histories, but only such conflicting reports of things as are to be read in the pages of newspapers. In the Rappel, for example, of last week, I read respecting the late George Sand that "future generations will find in her works a world as real as that which

Bur¥oun,ds~them;;' that she rhasTspwnTTa seed"! of great ..and. noble 1 "thoughts -that will; prove a glorious' 'harvest for ages' - ;; | and that in, her death' we have; lost: one of the greatest benefactors of the hjnman race. L'Univers on the other hand, observes 1' this woman is dead, so.we yrill beUevenothing to har* disadvantage' .except that .she has misused every talent committed ,tb her trust, and been the foe ! bf religion and morality.' A few, village stories will be all that willberemembered of her-after a year or twjb." The Ultramontane Papists, can never forget; that' .George jSand coquetted with:; their ' religion;, : and j finally abandoned, it; and it'is true that she Wrote some boqks that were something'.woijsb than " unconventional." '' But; I fancy the', general prejudice has been 'excited* against' her nibre from her having ,at one : time.; adopted the male costume'than anything,she ever wrote. .Her. genius, was . .unquestionable, and ' her aspirations, if vague' and' quixotic, i were, generous and ioble. I remember Mrs. Bar-rett-Browning 'writing, of' her. at what may be considered' her most' '"unconventional" period, as ".'a true'and noble woman under the mud."'"' The* "old stagers" '.among our novelists will' take comfort from the fact that this extraordinary, writer ' contributed :aboijt 50stories to"the Revue des DeuxMondes alone, and wrote as well and as freshly in her 70th' year as in her 27th. She exchanged her real name (Dudevaht). for. the nom de'plume of George Sand on the occasion of her publishing' her first .novel (which she wrote in. connection with Jules Sandean,'wW was accustomed to drop the second syllable of his, name when signing his articles) 'and retained it to' the last.' In her case these little' facts'are r noteworthy; but the' interest of such matters (some people require to be told), is'•' confined ■to the j great masters''ofthe pen. ' ''; ' "V . '' ;! '