FROM AFFLUENCE TO MISERY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2947, 26 July 1878, Page 2

FROM AFFLUENCE TO MISERY.

History repeats itself, and sometimes in a melancholy fashion. You may be familiar with the story "which tells how Eichard Cromwell, son of the great Pro* teeter, many years after he had resigned his uneasy seat to make way for the restoration of that worthless house of Stuart, whom later the_ English people were glad enough to' banish finally, came up to, town from the country, and, like all provincials; set to. work to " do" those city sightß which the Londoner, as a rule, never beholds from the day of his birth to that of his death, simply because he can go at any time. Among other places Richard Cromwell visited the Houses of Parliament, and perhaps lingered somewhat thoughtfully gazing at the once familiar scene before him. " Have you ever been here before sir? " patronizingly asked the official, who was conducting him over the place. " Not since I sat in that chair," quietly answered the venerable stranger, pointing as he spoke to the throne. This anecdote has found a parallel, though a far sadder ..one, ia a London Police Court, for the present day. A woman of wretched appearance and degraded life was charged with stealing" a watch and chain from the person of a gentleman residing in the suburb of Hampstead. I call him a gentleman because at the end of the case he certainly behaved like one. A policeman found this precious pair early one morning very drunk sitting on a door-step in the city; The constable beheld the woman in the act of abstracting the prosecutor's watch and chain, with which she speedily made off. He pursued and captured her. On being brought up to the Mansion House -for examination it leaked out that she had once held a good position in society, had been in affluent circumstances, and was niece to Alderman Johnson, now dead, but who in the year 1845 had been Lord Mayor. On being asked whethrr shr? had ever been at the Mansion House before, she replied not since 1845, when she was present at a ball given by her uncle, on which occasion she had been dressed kfy white satin. Poor creature, she was now in rags. The Alderman sitting on the bench sentenced her to twenty-one days' imprisonment with hard labor; bat here the prosecutor put in his word, declaring that he considered he had been quite as bad as the prisoner, and earnestly entreating for a remission of the harsh sentence, adding that it was just, possible he might have given her the watch and chain to take care of (which she represented to have been the case), as he was quite too drunk at the time to remember what actually happened. The Alderman listened to the plea, and the woman was dismissed. Not quite such a dignified story as that of Kichard Cromwell. — London correspondent S. F. Chronicle.