OUR LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5367, 10 June 1878, Page 3

OUR LONDON LETTER.

London, 25th April.

The alternations of hope and depression in regard to the Eastern Question which have for months kept public opinion in a state of agitation such as I cannot, remember, have apparently settled down to-day into an utter imbroglio. This morning we learn that both Prince Gortohakoff and Prince Bismark have been suddenly taken seriously ill—that the, Russian Chancellor is supposed to have typhus fever, while the great. German is laid low by the shingles, and will be utterly unable to attend to any business for ten days. At this moment of horrible suspense ten day s are equal to an ordinary age. The , position is in every way serious. , Russian army and British : fleet confront each other at Constantinople, like Lord Chatham and Sir Richard' Strahan, and for the last three weeks Prince Bismarck has been trying to discover a means of inducing them to withdraw to a safe distance. Every day that is lost tends to make the mob of Constantinople masters of the situation, and a telegram in yesterday's Daily News shows- that .their condition -is truly alarming. The Softas, hardly heard of for now nearly two years, are coming to the front again;, there is much talk of a plot against the Sultan, and of a popular cry for the recall of Midbat, It is certain- at all events that if there were a popular rising in Stamhoul, such as accompanied the fall of Abdul Aziz, and if it were, not promptly suppressed by the military, who might, on the contrary, join it, the Russians would at once close on the city and the Bosphorus, and we should be at war before weave aware of it, for no doubt Admiral Hornby has orders to keep the way from the jEgean to the Black Sea open at all hazards. ’

Though Jlie Russian and the Prussian Premiers sicken, Lord Beaoousfield looks exceedingly lively. As an outward and visible proof of the entire concord between him and his new Foreign Secretary, he has just been to Hatheld for the Easter holidays. There, amid the trees under one of which Elizabeth heard that she was Queen of England, and strolling where the footsteps of Burleigh: often fell, what strange, reflections,may have occurred to him; not the least strange being the fact that perhaps the bitterest enemy he ever had, through a great part of his career, was his host, the Marquis of Salisbury ; that is, Lord Robert Cecil that was. But now all that is forgotten, or ought to be. Lord Beaoousfield rules a. united Cabinet, of which no one is more devoted to him than the Foreign Secretary, As I have said, he looks exceedingly lively. A fortnight ago I passed him in Parliament- street, slowly strolling westward from, an early sitting of the House of Lords. He was dressed with somewhat of the variegated splendor of his youth, sobered down, of course, but still suggestive, of a certain studied harmony: of tints. His ringlets and tuft shone. Hia complexion had a swarthy glow , about it; He walked, leaning on a friend’s arm, as one who carries the weight of an empire, but, on the whole, carries it with ease. I am told he takes infinite personal pains with all the details of the Eastern Question—has his eye on all the departments at once—and sees.and writes letters, to the principal Ambassadors himself continually. One of the reports as to his personal activity at present is, that not merely is the bringing of -an Indian army corps to the Mediteranean his own original idea, but that, its selection, regiment by regiment, each from a different presidency, so that all Hindostan should be represented in it, is his doing. , It is like the idea of an oriental brain. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach gives great satisfaction at the Colonial Office. Ho has a clear head, spares no pains to inform himself, and goes straight to the point. The Victorian deputation which waited upon him lately to complain of Sir George Bowen’s conduct in the crisis at Melbourne, was received with-the greatest possible politeness, but was also by no means, as they would have wished, made the medium of a strong hint to the colony that if the people of Victoria wished to have their Constitution reformed the Colonial Office would have.no.objection to help them. ■ As it is quite certain that whenever that Constitution is reformed, it will not be with a view to strengthen the Council, some of the gentlemen attending the deputation would have been as well pleased if they had not gone to Downingstreet at all. In the preparations made for the defence of the Empire in the event of war the colonies are not neglected. There is a, very able Service; Committee sitting at the Horse Guards on the subject, and I believe it has been decided this week to strengthen, the Pacific squadron considerably, among Other vessels the Triumph; a 6000-ton ironclad, with U powerful guns, being under orders for your waters. . i Everything promises well for the Paris Exhibition, which the French Government and the Prince of Wales, at all events, are sparing no pains to make a great success. ' The Prince works, as President of the British Commission, with a degree of energy and zeal worthy, to put it properly, of his. father's son. Moreover, he isvery fond of Paris/and Paris is very: fond of him. I hear New Zealand will cut but a poor figure among the/ colonies,, ..A ;Melbourne friend wrote to mo that she is nearly nowhere in the way of exhibits) Victoria comes out particularly strong in trophies, gold, wine, ahd wool. ■ Mr.' Casey, the President of its Royal Commission, gives a great banqbet this week, in' acknowledgment or the reception he has experienced from the French Government and Commissioners., Professor Liversidge, the New South Wales Commissioner, has been here for a • short time, but returned to town a week since. ' Hr. Purvis Russell,, who ; represents New Zealand, is at Paris, hut I believe Mt. Larn'ach has not yet arrived in England. . ’ Town is as usual empty at this season, and for a longer holiday than usual. The House of Lords rose for a month, the House of Commons for three - weeks, and fashion is taking the April showers, which this year are deluges, with ’ what good'humor it may on- the ifresh fields and pastures new of a particularly forward spring. Everything promises this .year, that rarest of periods in England, a year of natural weather. We have hmL dust enough in March to ransom all the kings left in Europe, and much wind, as; for one example, thesad tale of the Eurydice avouches.) In April wo had in one day two inches of rain, a whole month’s allowance, and wa have had two sharp thunderstorms. The French ; have a -proverb, that when it thunders in Aprilit is time to get the barrels ready—meaning- that it will; be a great vintage year; and a great vintage- year means all sorts of good crops. ‘Sad to think of the “redrain" that may bo making the-next harvest grow in Roumelia ! : ■ ;