WHAT THE “WORLD” SAYS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5274, 19 February 1878, Page 3

WHAT THE “WORLD” SAYS.

It is not generally known that his Royal Highness Prince Leopold still keeps his rooms at Christchurch, Oxford, where his name is of course inscribed upon the oak, more studenHum. I hear, under all reservation, that the Prince, whose health is considerably improved, will shortly qualify as a true citizen of the republic of ti tters. The marriage of the Duke of Norfolk is remarkable for two “ signs of the times.” I’irst, that it has been the signal fora general meeting of nearly atf the leading 'Homan Catholic families in Great Britain ; and, secondly, that

the new Duchess is, like her aunt, Lady Victoria Kinvan, a pervert, or, if it so please you, a convert, and not born of the ancient faith. Lord Dufferin, the popular Governor-General of Canada, terminates his regency of the far West next spring l , A renewal of his rule would he hailed with delight by our cousins on the other side of the water, and, therefore, I trust the Government, before disposing of the appointment, will sound Lord Dufferin as to his willingness to continue in office. Society in Somerset is sadly scandalised. Not many miles from Glastonbury, the home of an ex-captain of her Majesty’s land forces is desolated by bis absence. A nurse of prepossessing appearance is also missing ; and the gallant ex-captain's lady, whilom a a fair maid of Kent, and her three children, have been received by a gallant admiral in the neighborhood. On his disappearance the impressionable husband sent a letter to his wife by a railway statiomnaster avowing his desertion. The rmna .tic history of the st'»ny-hearted husband and the head nurse of his family will be told before Sir James Kannen. The Oxford University Commission has left several legacies of discomfort ; above all, an uneasy expectation of what is to come next, which is eminently disturbing to the serene atmosphere of the ancient University, fellowships, when advertised for election, are only to be held during the discretion and continuance of the said commission, ’ There was even the doubt whether the “old man of the sea,” with which Oxford, Sinbad-tike, has been saddled, would allow the University to have its Pro* fessor of Moral Philosophy without some protest. Several ingenious speakers have dilated on their favorite hobbies before the commission, Professor Thorold Kogersbeing especially to the fore, and the evidence collected must be of a particularly heterogeneous and even contradictory type. The faith of those who wait for some large divine event, to which the whole process moves, must be getting severely tried. Still it behoves me to assert that my faith is large in Time and Lord Selborne. As it has been alleged that Viscount Fitzgibboa has returned from Siberia, I have gleaned the following particulars from an authentic source. Siberian convicts are allowed every three months to write to their friends and relatives. Penal servitude does not imply that they are to be kept in prison during the whole of the period to which they are sentenced. After a certain time they are set free, and allowed to live in the villages. Any one after a few years could make his existence known, not only through the medium of the travellers, merchants, American.”’, and Englishmen who continuously pass through the country, but also thn -ugh the intermediary of the numerous Jews, who swarm Siberia, where they almost monopolise commerce. They are ever willing to make a geschaft and transmit a letter. Hide an Englishman in the remotest wilds of Siberia, and in a few months you will ht-ar in London where he is, provided the prisoner be rich. It is as well not to be a poor married subaltern in a regiment so often “ shifted ” as the 4th ; for moving is not cheap, and since July that luckless regiment has had plenty of experience thereof. In July they were brought to Aldershot from Ireland, and kept “ under canvas ” until the middle of October. Then they were put into the East Infantry Barracks ; but hardly were they “ settled in ” than orders came to turn out in twenty-four hours, for the 41st regiment were (Leaven only knows why !) to occupy their comfortable quarters. The poor 4th had to migrate to the North Camp huts, and the discomfort of married officers who had taken houses in the South Camp may be imagined. Many cannot underlet their houses, and have three or four miles to go each day to parade. Some few have got rid of theirs ; and now, to the horror of all, comes a rumor that this luckless regiment is again to be taken back to their barracks in the Pouth Camp. Truly the “powers that be” are peculiar in their ways, but certainly not bland, though perhaps somewhat childlike.

The mental condition of the Earl of Mayo having been discussed at length by the two journals “of society,” I may perhaps be pardoned for touching upon a subject which, under other circumstances, I should have considered sacred from journalistic comment. X am empowered to state, on the best authority, that so far from Lord Mayo having been entrapped or kidnapped, as preposterous rumor would fain have us believe, his having been placed in retreat in Jersey was of his own free will and accord. In the asylum where he has been recently staying, he has had the constant services of his own private physician, as well as those of the officers of the establishment; and his state, even now, is such that on his return to England—an event of the next few days—it has been found impracticable to arrange a passage for him in one of the ordinary boats, and a special steamer has therefore been chartered for his use. It is only a sense of the cruel wrong done to estimable individuals already overburdened with affliction, that has induced me to break silence on the subject. The Eev. Net-ill Sherbrooke, a popular preacher and a widower (his deceased wife being nie Lady Alice Curzon, daughter of the late Lord Howe), is about to marry the Hon. Lilias Cairns, eldest daughter of the Lord Chancellor.