The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2218, 25 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following paragraph* are extracted from the London society;, papers and other journals.] • ''' Miss Cleveland, the accomplished sister of the President of the Uuited States, has just finished a novel entitled " ExRex and Kex." in which she relates he experience of Washington society. " At the conclusion of the CrawfordDilke divorce case, Mr Crawford and Captain For&tcr met outside, and there would have heen a collision had it not been for the intervention of Mr Crawfords friends. At last week's meeting of the committeo of the Worcester Infirmary, it was announced that a friend of the institution, who desired that his name should not transpire, he intimated his intention of 'giving it a donation of £5,000. ' One ship alone brought 40,000 carcases of muttun from the Falkland Islands last, week. ' They were of the best Canterbury typo^fleshy, without too much fat, They averaged from sixty to seventy pounds each, and were sold at 5d per pound. Probably the greater part [of this food has, been retailed at la per pound as prime English mutton. , An estate in the county of Tyrone was sold in Dublin a few days ago in the Land Judge's Court for £1600, which, not many ' years since, wai valued at £17,000. Mr Gladstone's legislation and policy have depreciated the value of Irish land to an utterly .ruinous extent, and halve also driven an immense amount of capital from that " melancholy, island." 1 The Indian artisans ,are determined to eclipse thVShah of ' Persia as , nanjatprs of their European experiences. Their ac« Count of their arrival and reception, is .already' published 'b'y" the enterprising editor of r tHe ! Darussaltanat Calcutta, , who has printed a' copy of his paper In I gold, which the 1 Empress-Queen has been pleased to accept. Lord and Lady Salisbury will not go to Dieppe this year, but intend to reside ! at Hatfield-house during the nex£ few months. ' Lord Salisbury is by no means in strong healtbj and lam sorry to hear that he 'has not derived much benefit from his visit to Royat,' and but for the exigencies of official 'duty lie would have proceeded to Germany for a course of the >'Honiburg waters., t , r, f A charming diversion *rom the ordinary course of things was seen on the visit' of the 1 Colonials, to Bel voiv Castle, on Wednesday last. The Duke of Rutland's hounds met the visitors half a mile from the castle, escorting the ( visitors up the hill to the castle itself. The huntsman and whips in their' pink necured much ■ notice from Uvb Indian visitors, and they seemled delighted ,with, this novel addition to their reception. The Dean of Manchester raises a querulous whine in the Guardian against the Liberal Unionists, and does, not envy them in their, ••reflections, "-upon the present situation!, Dr. Oakley, whose morbid activity both with pen and tongue is scarcely calculated to increase tho prestige of his ' office, may be excused a' little soreness, since it. is no secret that he was to have been Mr, Gladstone's first bishop, and now that his patron has j quitted Downing-street his chances of a mitre are extremely remote. Lord Cholmondeley has found the abortive attempt to sell Houghton an expensive business^ The cost of adver- j tising and of printing voluminous illustrated descriptions was over £2,000, and the amount realised by the sale of two or three minute fragments of the property scarcely exceeded £4,000. It is a safe prediction that Hougliton will long await a purchase?'. ( The condition of the land market is worse than ever, and the number of large residential estates which have been sold during the last five years could certainly be told on the fingers of one' hand. , > Notwithstanding the Prince of Wales' refusal to go out to Australia next year, efforts are still being made by the Government and representatives in this country of South Australia and the other colonies to induce his Royal Highness to reconsider his decision, and to visit Australia some time during the Jubilee Exhibition iv Adelaide in 1887- The Prince, however,, is believed to hold the opinion that his absence from England during the jubilee year of her Majesty's reign would be the cause of a good deal of inconvenience at home, and there is consequently not much likelihood of him accepting these invitations. Of the famous garden of Sayes Court, near Deptford, which, in ' the reign of Charles 11, extended to upwards of 100 acres, less than seven acres now remain, tho rest having been built over, to the preat , profit of its owner, Mr Evelyn, M.P., has ju^t presented an acre and ahalf to, the public as a recreation-ground, and hie has charged his estate with the expense of maintaining it. It was at Sayes; Court that Peter the Great resided when: he, was working in Deptford dockyard, and there is a graphic description in Evelyn's diary of his diwgnst and distress when he disco rered the horrid manner in which his beloved gardens had been treated by the barbarian from Muscovy. The Ministers who were strongest for immediate resignation- were Lord Granville and Lord Spencer, who are sick to death of the whole business; and Lord Roseberry and Mr Morley, who have a prudent wish not to compromise their future careers. Mr Gladstone was by no means ardent for surrender, and at the Cabinet dinner he seemed to attach much importance to a fantastical letter he had received from one of the most active of the Parnellite Radicals, in which he was earnestly implored not to think of resigning', as it he could only manage to hold on for a few months the writer and his friends \vfould undertake to make it impossible for the Conservatives and Unionists to, govern the country. This, however, is a " malignant" game that would soon be stopped. I believe that Mr Gladstone has privately but strongly urged Mr Parnell and his party not to resort to a policy of obstruction. The retiring Prime Minister, who is always clever at finding ingenious explanations for his own failures, at* tributes the unpopularity of Home Rule to the obstruction pursued in the 1880 Parliament. No doubt the action of the Irish party in that Parliament did a good deal to disgust the country ; and if they again adopted a similar course it would help to increase and intensify the hostility to Home Rule. To attempt to destroy the power of the House of Commons is about the last way to secure the good-will of the people of England. Mr Parnell has, I believe, given a conditional promise to be a good boy, but he wiJl not blind himself as to what he will do if there should be a Coercion Bill. Sir George Trevelyan is a man who ought to be in Parliament, but I hope he may remain out of the House of Commons for some little time, in order that he may have leisure to complete his delightful work on Charles James • Fox, the first volume of which is one of the most important, valuable, and entertaining historical works of the last twenty years. He has shown himself to be equal to his famous uncle on that uncle's favourite ground, and it is a pity that such extensive knowledge and such literary aptitude of the best kind should be wasted on political life. Forty years hence people will be speaking of Sir George Trevelyan as they now speak of Lord Macaulay, regretting that he should have given up so much to party of what was meant for mankind. To the borough of Dudley belongs the unenviable distinction of having polled the largest number of illiterate voters of any English constituency at the general election of IS£5. No toss than 1,473 of the " free and independents " who exercised the franchise last November in that borough were unable to understand their ballot paper sufficiently well to make a cross on it for the candidate of their choice. There is no other English constituency in which so large a proportion of illiterates was found, Tfye Central

Division of Hackney occupies an unique position. Out of the 5,689 votes who went to the poll not one was an illiterate, In faot, in all threej divisions of Hackney there \ were only 23 illiterate voters amongst the 18,000 who exercised the franchise. In the Norwood Division of Lambeth there were only five illiterate," and six in Eaat'Marylebone. The representative of a New York paper who interviewed Mr Goschen at Portland -place was a lucky man. Mr v Goscben has ts strong objection- to be interviewed, and it will be readily understood that in this case he carefully refrained from imparting any very definite information. It is noteworthy, however, that he said the laud question is at the bottom of the whole agitation in Ireland, and that h,e told the reporter that he saw insuperable obstacle to a settlement of the ,land questfon in a manner just both to the landlords and tenants, "if such a settlement was undertaken by a .Government? which the Parnellites knew they could not upset, and which had a decided majority of the English people behind it." As these conditions can now be fulfilled, perhaps the settlement may be effeoted. Mr, Gordon Bennett "is not to be allowed to remain the unchallenged owner of the finest steam yacht afloat for Ion?. ,His latest rival in, this direction is Mr W. K. Vanderbilt, who- has commissioned a well-known English nautioal designer, Mr St. Glair Byrne, to prepare plans for a yacht which shall in size And beauty «nd luxuriance of filings beattbe existing record. The hull i« to be of steel, and : its lines are to be laid down with a special regard to the swift sailing and steaming of the completed yacht. As to the fittings, they; are to be far more magniftcienfc than those on board the yacht of the proprietor of, the New York' Herald. The description of Mr Vanderbiit's yacht is almost bewildering in its detail, and what with ebony, satin woqd, marble, gilt mouldings, carvings, fountains, statues, aviaries, ■winging gardens, &c, the new craft will most assuredly, to use an expressive Americanism, make all rival yacht owners " tit up." The cost will be as much over £100,000 as it may be found necessary to make it. . \