HOME GOSSIP FOR THE EVENING STAR.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1990, 21 May 1875, Page 2

HOME GOSSIP FOR THE EVENING STAR.

London, March 10, 1875.

, Sir Sterndale Bennet, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir 'Edward Smirke, and last Sir Arthur Helps, all gone from among us since my last letter. The first three had , run the full course of even the lengthened j term of life granted to our modern days, j but: therlast "was off at the com-; paratively early age of 57. Our whole | musionl world laments Sir Sterndale Bennet) as all the scientific world laments Sir Charles Lyell; Sir Edward Smirke, known only as an able lawyer and amiable man, will be, perhaps, as sincerely grieved for by his friends and relative*, and Sir Arthur Helps has royalty itself to mourn for him; but there we may stop ; for we are all becoming sick of that tendency of the present day to elevate men to a pinnacle of literary fame—or .indeed- any other fame—to which tkey are not fairly entitled. Why are we to be commanded to believe Mr Browning and Mr Swinburne the greatest poets who ever wrote.; or Mr Buskin the profoundest political economist, and most accomplished artist? Marry, three parts of all that Mr Browning has ever'"written are incomprehensible to all his readers, and two parts, at least, we would wager, are incomprehensible to himself; while as.to Mr Swinburne, if he chooses to make poetry the vehicle for indecent descriptions and impure ideas, then he must expect that all decently behaved and pure-minded readers will remain in ignorance of his genius and its claims. Mr Euskin holds the chair of Art at one of our Universities. Well, he's welcome to it, and the students are welcome to him ; but our artists, our real artists, have rejected hlmj as they have also lately rejected one of his pupils; they'll have neither of them. "Mr Tyrwhitt's book is the . worst, and Mr Buskin's the second worst,; ever written on art;'H so rsaysyan art] critic and an artist; yet Mr Euskin is an oracle; and now that Sir Arthur Helps is gone we are having pages— < we shall shortly-have , volumes—written to 'convince us. that he : too was an oracle. A; faithful servant of his royal mistressr—if so-we may call her —he certainly was, and a painstaking. The Queen will miss her Clerk of the -Council in his official capacity, and a sincere and zealous friend in their less business relations; but that posterity will .accept the author of " Bealmah," or even of " Friends in Council" as a very profound 6t original thinker, is to be questioned. Nay we have not accepted him, even in the present, as .such, notwithstanding all the efforts used to oblige us to do so. His books are good ; just as. good as might chave been -written by any well educated and accomplished gentleman, who had been accustomed from kis earliest years to the conversation of thinking people, and who had accustomed himself to put his own thoughts—whether in speaking or. writing—into intelligible and appropriate language: the,thoughts themselves are no more striking or profound than those we may hear every day from well educated and accomplished gentlemen. The" jewel robbery has been made a parliamentary question. It may be remembered that after the public had failed to r discover the person or persons who abstracted a case of valuable jewels belonging to Lord and Lady Dudley from the Paddington station of the Great Western Bailway last year, Lord Dudley put an advertisement in the papers to the effect that a considerable reward would be given and no questions asked if the the jewels were restored. This has been made the subject of a question by a member of the House of Commons, as to whether any one can without violation of the law compound a felony; which I has' led to questions from other members as to whether Lord Dudley's offer amounts to .the compounding of a felony, and there, has., been al-' , ready a good deal of talk on the' subject. Out of doors there has been a good deal of talk on the subject too, as indeed there also was at the time the advertisement appeared. It may be stated that- the circumstances of the >robbery : were somewhat peculiar. _A Waiting woman in Lady Dudley's service averredthat she placed the jewel case on the platform, and placed her foot on it, while .collecting some other parcels ; thatshe removed her foot for one moment, in .consequence of some unusual bustle near, her—which one might have thought would be a reason for not removing it — and that in that moment the jewel case was gone ; and that - she could not see anyone near her who seemed likely to have been the thief. Neither did anyone else on the platform perceive anyone in* any suspicious circumstances, either apparently trying to escape, or endeavouring to hide any article. Well, these being the facts stated at the magisterial inquiry, when - the advertisement alluded to' subsequently appeared there were those who hinted that Lord Dudley had a suspicion, or had received a hint that the capturers of the jewels were parties whom his Lordship would rather not be compelled to prosecute, and that he took that method of recovering his property without creating a scandal. We, who are not scandal mongers, may think ihis far fetched. We may, at least, think it quite as probable. that the robbery being a lonafide 'one, if we may say so, and the thieves, hona fide professional thieves, they yet —finding well known jewels hard to dispose of profitably—themselves gave his lordship a hint that they would return them to the owner provided no questions were asked. The talk in the House has been for the present put a stop to by the Home Secretary,. stating that the legality of the advertisement.is to be the subject of a question before a court of jUStice. -;■:; :, "■■.:■ " ■'- .• I'l-l^. ' V The irrepressible Mr Hampden has been at it again. Not satisfied with the couple 6f months he got on a former occasion for his defamation of' Mr Wallace, he has for some time past been sending, post cards to that gentleman, on which he has exhausted the vocabulary of scurrilous epithets; He has been now, therefore, sent to prison for' twelve months, and bound over to keep the .peace for a period of two years after that; Mr Hampden's only cause,, of offence against Mr Wallace is, as you are awarei because the latter gentleman was awarded by the umpires the stake of £500, laid on the fact as to whether the earth was flat or round; Mr Wallace being the round

man and Mr Hampden, in more senses . than one, the flat. Public attention has just been called by Mr Doyle, President of the "Local Government Board," to the exportation of our gutter children to Canada, a scheme undertaken some years ago by Miss Bye. A report of the condition of some of these children, and of the general working of the plan, has been furnished by the above mentioned gentleman; and, as any thoughtful person might have been expected to expect, the condition of a good many of these poor children has not been much improved by this exportation* No blame is thrown on" Miss Bye,in the report, for wilful neglect in any c*ie of the charges she undertook, still less is any charge made of her having undertaken the work with any "other object i than one purely philanthropic. _ It is ' merely the old story of undertaking too I much. It was impossible for her to exercise the supervision necessary; *neL_-^ so it came to pass that these poor .little - 1 British waifs were handed" over almost as completely slaves as negroes formerly 1 were in the Southern States,' to almost las completely irresponsible masters. It is , the subject of an article in The Times of this morning,' and every one is looking I anxiously for Miss; Bye's answer to Mr Doyle's statement, and the writer's I remarks thereon. * " "V j Moody and Sankey, the American ' revivalists, are among us. They were refused the Albert Hall for their meetings. Indeed, it is hard to see how it would be possible to hand them over the use of it just now in the midst of the season. There is a good story told of their Having obtained the use of the cricket ground in Kennington Oval from the trustees " just for the purpose of stretching their big tent to see how it wo«ld- answer;" but, immediately on having stretched their big tent/putting up placards to announce a meeting in it for that same .evening. This being more than the cricketers bargained for, they insisted upon Messrs Moody and Sankey striking tent at once, and the meeting did not take place. Speaking of the Albert Hall, there, was some question of its being used for the installation of the Prince of Wales as Grand Master of the Freemasons: in England, but two difficulties it seems present themselves. How are the. proprietors of boxes and stalls to be excluded from coming in to view the mysteries"; and how indeed is the building to be '5 tyltfd'' against any one who may choose to come in on payment of a shilling or more?