The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2239, 13 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following' paragraphs are exfcr&oted from tto London society papers* and Other journal*.] . \ Tiiß Queen has been so much occupied with Bulgarian affairs, in which she takes the moatjntense interest, and the impend-, ing departure for India of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, who leave Balmoral this week for Buckingham Palace, that there have not been any excursions yet, and Her Majescy has done nothing except to go one afternoon to the chalet in Ballochbuie Forest for afternoon tea. The priate wire at Balmoral was busy all last week, as the Queen was incessantly telegraphing to London to Lord Salisbury and Lord Iddesleigh j and messages were also despatched to thy Gennm Emperor anl the Czir, and several to the Grand Dake of Hosso at Darmstadt, and to lMnce Alexander of Hes*e and Priuce Louis of Bittenberg at Jugenheim. Sir Henry Ponsonby postponed his departure from BUmoral in consequence of the press of business. The Queen stopped her carriage, when she visited Craigmillar Castle from Edinburgh the other day, opposite the splendid plane-tree which is famous from its having been planted by Queen Mary, and she obtained a sapling grown from its seed, which was presented to her at D.ilkeith Palace by the son of Colonel Borthwick, the Chief Constable of Midlothian, together with a painting of the tree. The sapling was taken by her Majesty to Balmoral ; and since her interest in the tree haa transpired the gardener at Craigmillar has received many hundreds of letters from all parts of the country from persons desirous of obtaining seedlings from Queen Mary's tree. I believe that on the Commission regarded judicial rents in Ireland ib is inteu ing to place two or three well-known English and Scotch ngriculturists. Mr. Gladstone doe.s not intend to return to Parliament during the present Session, unless some unforeseen contigency should arise. Lord Acton, with whom Mr. Gladstone fo staying in Bavaria, is a R )tnan C itholic and was created a peer by Mr Gladstone in 1569. A property in South Lincolnshire was offered for sale at Boston last week, which was bought in 1830 for £11,000, and for which £16,000 was refined about ten ye.ir3 ago. The highest bil now made was £4,800 I Miss Braddon is staying at Bideford. Tlv r«j is, of course, a supposition that the scene of her nexl novel will be laid in the locility of Westward Ho or Clovelly, but her principal object is to enjoy the benefit of ,a change of air. Sir Michael Hick3-Beach evidently anticipates a lengthened.teim of employment in Ireland, as he is going to let Williamstrip paik, his family place in Gloucestershire, tor three year?. Williamstrip is a very fine house, and the park is one ol tho most picturesque in the county. The sporting on the estate, too, is exceedingly good. Few old fogeys cm have read without sonr) degree of schoolboy emotion this obi tuiry record :—": — " On the 17th Aug., •it Meeth, North Devon, the Rev Edward Lempiiere, foi sixty-two years vie ir of t!ie parish, son of the late RiV. John Lempriere, D. D., aged eighty-five." How nuny scholastic poems and academical pictures owe their b^ing to th« gooi old doefcor'sfumous classical dictionary ! Baron Rothschild, who had started fjr a tour through the Highlands, was tele-<f!-uphe.l for to Locbawo on Friday afternoon, in conspquence of tho al.irminsr illness of hi* mother. He left D il.-nally by the cveuing 1 train for Glasgow, and proceeded at once to London by a special train, which he had ordered by telegraph to be in waiting-, leaving 1 Glasgow a few minutes before midnight. There were only three carriages, and the speed was to be sixty miles an hour. The papers describe tho feat of Major Hill, who, having hooked a salmon while fishing in the Wyf, stuck to it for twelve hours, and then iucoutiucutly 10-.t it, as "unprecedented." This is wrong 1 , for two years iigo an angler, who was fi-hing 1 for trout in the river Doon, hooked a salmon at cl 1 yen in the morning', and diJ. not , succeed in landiug it "till within a fow minutes of midnight. Hh " record is quite as jjood as Major Hill's in point of time, and he did not loso his fish, to n\y nothing of the fact he had only a small trout-hook.

Tjik Govern men b of India being economically disposed, has beou selling proppvfcy captured dining the campaign in Upper Burinah, and intends to apply the proceeds to reducing the expcn-es of the expedition. A large number of valuable ;u tides of loot, not disposed of at Mundalay, have been put up to aivtion at Ciloutta. Another still more v.iluable portion, such as jpwelb and jewelled article*, havo been sent, by order of the Secretary of St ite, to London, where they are exp?ctcd to fetch a higher price.

Mr SicktokVs affectation and mannerism are becoming intolerable. LTis gestures and p mses— even the n.od'ilations of his voice -are as carefully studied as hi-* ppiifram*. But thii> i-» not the worst. Mr S' xton has acquired the habit of smiling — and a m r ist inane smile it is — in anticipation of his own witticisms. When the lion, gentleman thinks that he i-> £oin«; to sny something good he co'nea to a hall, then ho begins to laugh, and when his face is covered with a glin ho condescends to tell the House what it is that huh #ive"n him so much amusement. Most of his hits and epigrams on Friday fell very lilt, but it is an immense advautage to h.ive a disciplined band ready to laugh, at or cheer whatever you say. The eightyfour P.miellites had strict orders to laugh uproariously at all Mr Sexton's jokes, and they did their best to carry out their instructions. Clergymen differ aa well as doctors. At a meeting of the clergy and laity of the Church cf England held on 16th inst. in Sydney, the Divorce Bill jprepared by Sir Alfred Stephen met with disapproval, as containing provisions at variance with the general interpretation of the Christian law as laid down in the New Testament, and as likely to impair the sense of t'tiL" sacrednoss of marriage, and to inflict serious injury on the domestic and social welfare of the community. The Piesbyterian Assembly, on the other hand, have passed a resolution approving of the bill, with the single exception of the psovision relating to aggravated assaults by a respondent.

Dkath of a veteran. — A correspondent informs us that Edward Munford, of 2 Fiiendly-place, New town, D^ptlonl, died on Friday morning ; and wishes it stated that the widow would bj grateful for any donation towards the expenses of his funeral. Miunford was in his 93th year ; and, we see by the Secretary of Chelsea hospital, served 24i years in the second battalion of the rifle brigade. He was '-unfit for further duty," ou the Bth August, 1837 ; and has thus received his pension — which, beginning at Is lid , was increased to Is 6d per day— for nearly half a century.

Are the bimet<Ulist<i in the habit of attending church ? They ought to Lave been at church on Sunday morning, and to havQ pondered long- and deep over the First Loascm. It was a very instructive onr. It showod that the depreciation of silver wai no new thing. In the de sciplkm of all the wondevfnl treasures of Kiniy Solomon, it ia recoided that .all K'ug Solomou'e drinking vessels were of gold, and of pure gold. "And all King Solomon's drinking vosels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold : none were of silver; it wai nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon." So that co hmg ago as the very height of the power of Israel silver was depreciated. By what ineiina did the wisest of Jewish kings meet the little account which silver hiid in hi* court? M unfitly ho was a Monometallic. Everything he had was of gold, twid he did not allow the lowpriced metal to circulate at his feasts. What h ive the bimeUlligts to say to this? — Couit -Journal,