TOPICS OF THE DAY. (FROM OUR SPECIAL. CORRESPONDENT.) London, July 19.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 400, 7 September 1889, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY. (FROM OUR SPECIAL. CORRESPONDENT.) London, July 19.

"JACK THE RIPPER" AT WORK AGAIN. Tiik Whitechapel niurdor season has commenced just a week surlier than ifc did last year. In writing to the polico to inform them that he proposed re-uming business on the old plan, "Jack the Ripper 1 ' was good enough to state this would be so, and in consequence YVhifcecbapel on Tuesday night simply bristled with constables. The scene of the new crime is regularly patrolled every few minutes, and there can be nodoubt the murderer wasinterruptedinhis bloody work by the return of the constable. When the latter blew his alarm whistle the man can't have been more than a few paces away from the murdered woman, and inBtantly every possible avenue of escape was blocked by constables a*id a strong cordon drawn round the entire district. Yet no suspicious person could bo discovered. The police confess themselves uttoily flabbergasted. Unless the criminal has wings, or is invisible, it seems impossible to account for his getting away.

THE SHAH IN THE PROVINCES. Lady Salisbury has solemnly vowed never again to entertain a barbarian or Eastern potentate. Tho trouble the Shah and his suite gave at Hatfield and the mischief they did is said to have been extraordinary. They were satisfied with nothing (I refer now to the great ofHcors of the suite), turned drawing-rooms into dormitories, and even wanted to sleep in the passages. This was bad enough. Fancy, however, the aristocratic Marchioness's di&gust when she discovered that a slim, pretty lad, to whom the Centre of the Universe showed special favour, was a Circassian girl whom His Majesty (in deference to English px-ejudices) had disguised in male attire. Before tho Shah left London he gave Sir John Bennett an order for i'3oo worth of watches. Mappin and Webb were ordered to send up some of their plated goods on appro\al to Buckingham l'alace, and despatched a large van-!o«d. All, however, Nasr-ed din selected was a small imitation silver dagger, value thirty shillings. Sbreebers, of Bond-street, were more fortunate. The Shah has given them the order for the supet b wedding present which he intends piesenting the Princess Louiseof Wales. At Birmingham the King of Kings was out of sorts, and broke nearly all the appointments made for him. He wouldn't speak to the Mayor, and not merely refused to be introduced to the Town Clerk, but requested that that functionary might be removed from his sight, as he dislikod the look of him.

THE NEW DUKE. The Queen had no thought of creating 1 Lord Fite, Duke of Inverness, till &ho read in the papers that she was going to do so. It then occurred to her the idea was u good one and should be acted on. At the same time Prihce Henry of Battenberg will (if Lord Salisbury's consent can be obtained) be created Duke of Kent, and Prince "Eddie" of Wales, Duke of Clarence, or Duke of Sus&ex. Lord Salisbury himself has also, on dif, been at last persuaded to accept strawberry leaves and overcome Alderman Whiteheads scruples and objections to taking a baionetcy. Several minor honours may be announced at the same time.

SHAH STORIES. On the night of the State Ball at Buckingham Palace, the Shah's attendants noticed that the " Centre of the Universe" had lost a diamond as big as a cob-nut from his shoulder-belt. Distracted beyond measure, the domestic? instituted a thorough search for the jewel, but fruitlessly. When the Shah woke in the morning he would have to be told, and then a high old time they'd all enjoy. Forbuwately, just before early breakfast an English lackey espied tho missing stone, and brought it to the chief of the Persian valets. " There," said he to the over-joyed fervitor, "is your Governor's big diamond. And you may tell him from me as its precious lucky for him none, of the gnesU laU night found it." Someone told the Shah Alt- Gladstone was about to celebrate hid golden wedding. " What's that?" asked Nasr-ed-din. It wa» explained that when a man haslived with one wife hfey years he in said to have celebrated his golden wedding. '• Ah," observed the King of Kings, evidently thinking of his harem at Teheran, "it is better to live with one wile for lifty years than with fifty whes for one year." In Birmingham the Shah spent £200 at O&ler's glass factory. I hear the incomparable jewel he gave the Prince of Wales has been va'ued at £5,000. His tour altogether will cost him over a million. The following jcu d' esprit has been perpetrated apropos of the Shah's practical joke on poor Colonel Millican :: — ■ The Shah the sleeper's paper seized, The clumsy Colonel with it tapping, And as he woke the monarch w heezed, " I've caught an English soldier napping."

A BROKEN ENGAGEMENT. Society had hardly dono congratulating the much-persecuted Miss Violet Lane-Fox on her engagement to Lord Burgersh, and the acquirement of a protector who could (if ever again it became requisite) effectually suppx*ess the too amorous Rowdon, than the following announcement took everyone's breath away :— " The marriagearrnnged between L"rd Burgersh and Miss Violet LaneFox will not take place." Lady Conyers and the fair Violet have left town, and Lord Burgersh declines to enlighten his friends as to the renson ot the rupture. This is just one of the sort of my&tei ios society loves. Ifcaff'ords opportunity for endles? ill natur.d surmises which crystallise in time to stories and are eventually related as facts. "Of course liowdon has something to do with the quarrel," is the general comment, but i should say "No." For one thing, he was in prison when the engagement was announced, and for all one Knows is thore still, so that ho can never even have heard of the match.

THE NEW TRAY. The " malapropisms " of the justly-es-teemed lady, who figures in "Punch" as Lady Gorgius Midas, but is really the wife of a wealthy colonial millionaire, are nearly as numerous as the late Mis Swan borough's. There's always some new yarn afloat about her. One of the latest relates how she reproved a new page before some visitors recently. " Price,"' said her ladyship, " how dare you enter my boodoir with a letter in yer 'and. 'Avn'b I told you frequent to bring in everything on a mliua.

POETIC VENGEANCE. When the late Edward Fitzgerald (whose memoirs and literary remains have just been published) penned a careless and flippant note in his privafco diary anenb Elizabeth Barrett Browning's decease, remarking that he " thanked God his friend's wife was dead because there would be no more • Aurora Leigh",' " the last thing he in all probability anticipated was that the observation would ever come under the bereaved husband's eyes. Unfortunately, through a blunder on the part of Fitzgerald's literary executor and editor, , it was not struck out of the portions

of the diary published, and of course some good-natured friend has sent a copy of the book (with the objectionable passage carefully marked) to Robert Browning. The poet seems to have been completely carried away with indignation and bitter fury. He adored Im wife, and that a man whom he called friond should have thanked God for her death must of course have seemed very torrible to him. He reeks, howover, a summary and lasting vengeance on the dead diarist in the painful and powerful verses addressed "To Edward Fitzgerald " which appear in this week's " Athemeum."