HOME GOSSIP FOR THE EVENING STAR.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2128, 29 October 1875, Page 3

HOME GOSSIP FOR THE EVENING STAR.

LONDON. August 25th, 1875. Parliament being tip, of course there is no one in London. I speak advisedly. I don't know whether I am in London myself. I positively don't; for when I walk out either no one sees me, or else looks at me with a scowl as though I had no sort of right to be here, so I get puzzled. Are those people who don't see me here themselves, or is it ODly a distorted vision which presents a sort of mirage of them ? Or am I actually not here and is it only my wraith which excites disgust and contempt in those who look on it ? I would really thank our friends the gpiritualists to solve this difficulty if they can, for at present I am like the little old woman whose costume .was so disfigured by the corporal that she was forced to exclaim, " This- is none of me." One person lately among us is not here- at all events, unless he has* come back since I began writing this letter. .

Captain Webb, when last heard of or seen, was, if not exactly iv n»id channel, »t least many miles from English land. He had been swimming for nine hours and a-half, and had, so it was stated, every prospect of success. . He, as you are aware, has engaged to swim from • England to France. without any appliance such,as thai used by Captain Boy ton in performing that feat. On his first trial he encountered roujjh weather which; obliged him to give up, but he started j from Dover for the second time yester- j day afternoon in such a flat calm that the lugger which accompanied him had to use her oar> in order to keep up with him, and the last report of the expedition is as stated above. We also know that there . are a great many pi pur learned people down in Bristol disporting themselves at British Association Meetings, in section ; ABor Cas the cawniay be; and a great many more down in the neighbourhood of Tewkesbury groping in "places of skulls,' 1 with the Arcnteologicai Associationj and not a few down in Brighton discussing all sorts of matters with the Social Science Congress. Then the Welsh Eistedfodd.commencesto-morrow, 10 doubtless even if we are in London we ought not to be here. The O'Connell Centenary is over and we are all alive and well, notwithstanding that the Pope's health was drunk before the Queen's, a precedence which does not appear to have given Her &lajesty much disquiet: indeed most sensible peopleprobably Her Majesty among them—were more concerned lest any one should be "drunk in another sense of the word," like the comic actor at tbe farewell supper to Mr Grummels. . Neither Her Majesty nor the Pope were or are certainly likely to be so on any occasion; and far be it from us to say that anyono at the O'Connell banquet was so, on this occasion ■ in question, although there were certainly some little episodes which were very— well, shall we say Irish. jOn the. whole every thing did pass off very well; and if the Mayor of Dublin did lose his temper, and if the other guests were more boisterous than they ought to have been, nothing came of it but a little loud talking, and a great deal of good feeling afterwards. The enthusiasm of one party who went from Cork to^assist at the celebration was carried to the extent of providing themselves with -tents for camping out, determined that want of acshould not prevent "^Kiein from being present. Apropos to 'this same point of Catholics drinking tho Pope's health before the Queen's, out of which some red-hot Protestants make such cap»4*J, some of these same red-hot Protestants were thrown into as " woeful a fidget as the "square hoods."". in Queen Mary's reign were supposed to be at the presence of " a commoner and a poet "among the full-blooded grandees of her Court; and by what think you? . It was reported that the Prince of Wales had shaken hands with Cardinal Man ning at a garden party. "The Prince of Wales was recognizing a foreign ecclesiastical title!" "Tho Prince of Wales had sanctioned precedence being given to a Cardinal as a Cardinal in Knglish society!" So went'the choruses: and ■" what are we coming to P" was tLe dismal reflection to our Protestant minds. ]Mow, if the Prince of Wales had met Cardinal Manning at a garden party, or any other party, w© may feel very certain he would have shaken .hands with him, the Prince never omitting any courtesy proper to bo shown by one gentleman to ♦another, and it might then have bee^open to us to inquire why the Prince of Wales should not shake hands with Cardinal Manning; aye, or with the High Priest of Buddhism cither, if. he irere so »n-

dined; or what possible recognition of, or deference to, ecclesiastical authority there can be in an ordinary shaite hands, we ignorant people having been always taught to believe that that consisted in "the kissing of toes " But the simple fact wasthat the Prince and the Cardinal never, met at said garden party at all, consequently had no opportunity of shaking hands ; so this storm in a teacup had no foundation.whatever. * " . Happily one act of Royalty lately r was of a nature to satisfy every one. The Queen's dismissal of Colonel Baker from tlieservije has given universal content.. How Colonel Baker, or any of his friends could have supposed he v would have been "permitted to refire,' 1 passes ordinary comprehension. " But. although every rational person ft H . ot-rtnin that his tender "of resignation .would not have been accepted at the Horse Guards, and that a Court Martial would have been demanded ; and though no one felt any doubt as to what tie result of such Court .Martial must be, no one seemed to contemplate the possibility of Her Majesty taking the matter into her own hands JS Tow that she has done so, however, everyone sees that it was just what she-out>ht to do.and every one is right; which is more than can be said for the numberless cases occurring in everyday life in which everybody's vision becomes so remarkably clear after someth ng has been done, which nobody but oao ever thought of. N- ou are, of course, aware that tins exercise of the ! Koyal prerogative is a more ignominious form of dismissal from the Army than even expulsion by sentence of a Court vlartial. It an ount.s. in fact, to sayinc " your conduct has been proved by other tribunals, nnl by general evidence, so flagrantly bad that, there is no necessity for a military inquiry." Yet, many people here at home are reaUy still in a haze con DPrning the import of dismissal by Her Majesty; and there were even some among us so ignorant of the rules of the service as to imagine th .t there would be no necessity for Court Martial, dismissal by the Queen, or acceptance of the culprit's — we may justly call it audacious offer of resignation, but that the sentence of a criminal court involved the loss of his commission. The terrihle accident .which occurred at the commencement of the Queen's journey North is still before the Coroner; and the evidence already brought forward on the inquest is as usual most conflicting The wreck of the Mistletoe, has been raised, and she was so completely cut through that she fell in halves on being brought to the surface. The unfortunate lady Miss Peel, who was drowned, and who was supposed to have been too timid to jump into the arms of one of the crew of the Alberta who tried to sav,e her. was found to have been unable to do so, her feet having been entangled in the signalhalyards. A great deal of sympathy is felt for the family of a deceased married sister of hers, to whom she. has acted as a second and a most devoted mother.