OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5274, 19 February 1878, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(from odb own correspondent.) London, January 3. Since I last wrote to you. we have passed through a period of agitating rumors and gloomy apprehension. Indeed, until this verymorning, the opinion, becoming more and more prevalent, was that England was again drifting into war. A remarkable concurrence of cumstanees seemed to justify this conclusion. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that Mr. Theodore Martin’s third volume of th ■ l.ife of the Prince Consort” was edited without some view to its effect on the present stite of foreign affairs. The visit of the Queen to Hughenden, the early summoning of Parliament, were taken as signs that the Premier intended some great stroke of policy in winch the support of the Crown was assured to him Cabinet meetings, preceded or followed by visits of Lord Beaconsfielcl to Windsor went on through Christmas week. At last came (he announcement that the Sultan had invited the English Government to address the Cziron his behalf respecting terms of peace, and that her Majesty's Government • had assented. Then the public mind became seriously anxious and the money market much disturbed. In writing on the state of the money market, yesterday afternoon, The Times says —“The extreme uncertainty which is foit regarding the future course of political affairs causes greater stagnation than ever in all branches of business.” Turn from tlie city editor to a leader in the same number. It treats a very pacific speech, made by the Secretary of State for the Colonies yesterday, as “ finally deciding the position assumed by this country,” and as pronouncing that Bug-laud's going to war would be insanity. The general effect produced by Lord Carnarvon’s speech is as if a July sun had suddenly broken through the fog of the season. For the last month the prevailing rumor in town was, that of all the members of the Cabinet Lord Carnarvon was the mo*fc convinced of the inevitable necessity of war, and the most urgent in regard to due prep nation for it. I confess I had my doubts, knowing the close alliance and almost solidarity of opinion and action which has for so many yeais united him and Lord Salisbury. That any member of the Government should at this moment, when gloomy anticipations were at their worst, speak in terms so clear and confident, has taken the whole public completely by surprise, and, as the Cabinet has been meeting from day to day almost lately, it is clear that it is not merely the Colonial Minister’s isolated opinion. -Yet it must be said it is difficult to reconcile, not so much the matter as the tone of the language of the different members of the Government one with the other. The speech of Lord John Manners, for example, to which I drew your attention in my last letter, breathes a totally different spirit to that which is now bringing good cheer into the Stock Exchange, and making men grumble in the military clubs. Shall we have still another chord struck upon when Parliament meets ?

London is a little more lively than it has beeu for the last three or four months, but can hardly be said to have yet assumed the full form of the season of fashion aud politics ; still the clubs are fuller, there is more movement iu the West End streets, the great mansions are being furbished up, aud there is much bustle hi the public offices. It is said it will be a very brilliant season— that the Queen in particular proposes to take a more leading part in social life than she has done for many years. As to politics, it must necessarily be a session of unusual moment. The early date of its summons sufficiently suggests that. But I can very well imagine, after the effect of Lord Carnarvon’s speech has been fully apprehended by the country, that the 1158 noble lords and honorable gentlemen who constitute the two. Houses of Parliament will be moved to ask somewhat peremptorily, “ What have we been brought here three weeks before the proper time for ? ” The early summons of Parliament only received two interpretations—one that Government had adopted a new aud very serious line of policy, and required material aid as well as moral support from the two Houses; the other that Government having no policy iu particular wanted to geten rapport with Parliament in order to ascertain the mind of the country. Lord Carnarvon’s speech would seem to dispose of both these suppositions. Yet on the day before yesterday, arrangements were in progress for a great debate on the address in opposition to Lord Derby’s supposed Eastern policy, and Mr. Gladstone had, it was said, already submitted its terms to Lord Granville and Lord Hartiugton. Apart from foreign politics, there really seems to be no very important business to be brought before Parliament. The revenue returns to the end of the year show plainly enough that it will be as much as the Chancellor of the Exchequer can do to avoid announcing a deficit, aud that the year is not one to justify any bold financial legislation, though too probably a little extra burden must ba laid on those who pay income tax. The only measure that can be really called great upon which the Government are said to have been much engaged during the recess, is one for establishing a better system of local administration than we at present possess. Some attention has in this connection been given to the system of district boards aud local government geuerally in existence in the colonies. As to the state of parties, if there be no broad difference between both sides on foreign affairs, as we are at this moment led to presume, always assuming that Lord Carnarvon speaks the mind of the Government, the Ministry must go through the session,easily enough. Of late the tendency, endorsed by such signs as the declared adhesion of the Duke of Sutherland, has been to au increase o£ their already overwhelming strength. The French governmental crisis pas-cd off in almost a moment, when it was supposed to be at its very worst, and has beeu succeeded by a state of complete calm. How long it may last, who dare venture to predict ? M. Dufaure was the Marshal’s Minister before in 1876, and found it impossible to hold office against the party then led by M. Gambstta. Several of the new Ministers are men of high, character and eminent ability. M. Say possesses the hereditary skill of his family iu questions of finance and political economy, and General Borel is understood to be au excellent army administrator. But the appointment that has naturally attracted most attention here is that of Mr. Waddington to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Waddington was a Rugby boy when Lord Darby was there, aud was at Cambridge also at the same time with him and with Mr. Childers. Never having particularly occupied himself with foreign affairs, it is difficult to conceive any reason to appoint him to succeed Duo Decazes, except as a means of aiding to bring about a good understanding with England ; and there is no doubt that while France is taking an exceedingly guarded line iu all that relates to Eastern affairs, there is a great tendency to rapprochement, if not to a renewal of the old entente, cordiale between Downing-street aud the Quai d'Orsay. Certain articles in the Journal des Dehats (of which M. Say is a part owner), and iu the Conslitntionnd, written in this sense, have attracted considerable attention here. Sir Garnet Wolseley’s paper in the “Nineteenth Century” shows what an enormous power the French army has again quietly grown into during the six years of civic turmoil that has elapsed since the cud of the war. A country that can put 1,800,000 men into the field may be excused for beginning to consider itself a Great Power again. Some of the minor winter exhibitions of the present season are singularly successful. Among them is one which has the twofold attraction of being au American artists’ work (and we ought to be thoroughly glad of anything which brings America well to the front iu matters artistic) aud of dealing with the animal world. It will be in the future one of the renowned features of our era that we shall have come iu it to a truer knowledge and a better understanding of the “brute world;” and that, while our time has been disgraced by the unspeakably horrible cruelties of so-called science, on the other hand, men and women have applied themselves to the comprehension and the love of the beautiful creatures which have beeu givcu over to our rule aud responsibility. On every side this feeling, this awakening taste, is spreading, and Mr. Kemyss’ animal

group*, no"- - on viuw in Argylu-street, furnish an instance of its extent :mil force, Tlie exhibition consists of a number of groups in clay and marble, xvhich are unequalled for truth of detail and picturesqueness of treatment, Mr. Kemv has studied hi* subjects in the primeval forests of his native continent, xvith the taste of an artist and the knowledge of a naturalist. In ordinary technical skill, so far as onr knowledge goe-, only Basve, the French sculptor, surpasses him. Mr. Kemyss adds perfect svrnpathy with his subjects ; he has lived in the wild woods with the wild creatures until he has gained a perfect knowledge of their nature and their •ways. Deer, panthers, serpents, coyotes, ravens, buffaloes, opossums, jackals, squirrels, monkeys, and many other forest creatures, are represented in these fine groups, which are utterly unlike the famous “Keinecke Fuchs ” series, in either intention or execution. They have no satirical, humorous, or allegorical meaning ; they represent the animals as animals, deUched "altogether from human sympathies or the moral idea, and they are wonderfully original, stril.iog, and clever. The ebso anatomical sfudy which is evident in each of these verv remarkable groups, while it must strike the least instructed, is only to he appreciated hv those who have done something of the same kind themselves. It has been well observed by a competent critic, that Mr. Kemyss’ animal groups are finer than Basye's in one respect, that of individuality. The French sculptor shows another type to absolute parfretion ; his lions, tigers, panthers, wolves, cats, and serpents are wonderfully accurate and life-like, but they are the lions, the tigers, the panthers, &c., whereas the American artist has modelled portraits, not types ; these creatures who play and struggle, who pounce and grasp, and pat and paw each other in the marble, have sat for their portraits in the forest and the desert, all unconscious, and this is peculiarly observable in the wolf and panther groups. The exhibition is very popular ; the public are becoming buyers; and Mr. Kemyss is receiving more commissions than he can hope to execute under a long time. He is a very constant worker, and is said to be at present engaged upon an illustration of the song, “Did yon ever catch a weasel asleep?” A wonderful group is called “ Coyote and Raven it represents those creatures quarrelling over the carcase of a buffalo, and the -kill . with which the cognate points of the beast and bird of prey respectively are brought out is truly astonishing. One of the finest groups, “ Panther and Deer,” has been purchased by Mr. Winans, a well-known connoisseur, for five hundred pounds. In the Dudley Gallery, which is not otherwise very noticeable we have a very humorous and beautiful painting by Mr. Marks, whose partiality for the stork almost equals that of the famous Danish story-teller Hans Christian Andersen. The painting is merely called “ Storks,” and forms a panel. The birds, exquisitely painted, each feather a study in itself, are full of the pretentious and pedantic dignity which renders them so funny and impressive, the Doctor Panrdoss of the world of birds. Studies of birds have become of late very popular, and the feathered creatures are introduced ind aw-ing-room decoration in every kind of way. The swallow, which a few years ago was to be seen on all fancy articles, is once more “ flying south’’ in bracelets, earrings, brooches, fancy stationery, and on desks, card case*, and cigar cases, while the newest fashion for chimneypiece lights is a couple of majestic owls, the hidden lamp shining through their yellow eyes. The Christmas annuals for 1877 are of no very special merit. They are much more numerous than formerly, several magazines and newspapers having published Christmas numbers for the first time on this occasion, and they have had a prodigious sale ; but the quality does not keep pace with the quantity. The most noticeable are two stories by Messrs. Rice and Besant, respectively entitled “ Shepherds All and Maidens Fair,” which is the Christmas number of “All the Year Round;” and “ Such a Good Man,” which is a Christmas story written for Messrs. Sampson, Low, Son, and Co. The former is a very good story indeed, one which excels in picturesqueness and ingenuity any story of the kind which has appeared for a long time; and the latter is a clever production, in which the joint authors make their practical knowledge of business useful to the working out of their fiction in a very striking and effective manner. Another weekly journal is to be added this week to the hebdomadal multitude. It is to be called “ The Week,” and is said to have a large capital at its back, and to be directed mainly against the financial advice-gratis policy of the weekly journals which command eo much attention at present among the upper classes. There is no literary news, or announcement of importance.