The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2319, 21 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following paragraphs are extracted from tho Loudon society papers and other journals.]

The Queen has a great dislike to being committed to engagements far in advance, aud therefore no public intimation has yet been made of any special Court movements during the Jubilee year ; but I have reason to believe that her Majesty's trip to Birmingham the week after next will be followed later in tho season by visits to Manchester, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and it is possible that the Queen may also pass a day at Bradford. It is practically settled that her Majesty will visit Portsmouth in July, for the purpose of laying the foundation- , stone of a new church at Kiugston. I understand that the Queen will pay a visit to the Crystal Palace about the end of June. The date of the Jubilee celebration has been postponed from Monday, June 20, till the following day, in order to suit the Court plans. This is a most inconvenient change for working people of all sorts and conditions. The Drawing-rootn on Friday was remarkable both for pretty dresses and pretty faces, and certainly formed an appropriate and encouraging l beginning for the Court festivities of the Jubilee. The carriages, however, were, as a rule, very poor, and reminded one uupleasantly of the prevailing depression, and even Rustem Pasha's new emblazoned panels, rich liveries, and cocked hats failed to relieve the generaldinginess. The JudgeAdvocate came in a wonderful robe adorned, with tags and tassels ; Mr AshmeadBartlett appeared as an offioer of Militia ; Mrs Algy Mills looked very beautiful in pink; the Duchess of Leeds, wearing a magnificent diamond tiara, presented her daughter Lady Alice Osborne ; and Lady Lovelace, in Louis XVI. brocade, presented Lady Margaret Jenkins in celadon yellow. Lady Randolph Churchill in "dahlia," Lady Claud Hamilton in white, Lady Charles Beresford in heliotrope, Lady Curzon in sang ge bceuf, and Lady Hood in gold and white, all excited as much attention amongst the ladies as the phenomenal diversity of uniform worn by the Lords of the Admirality, or the sad accident which happened to the attiro of Lord Advocate, did amongst the gentlemen. Mrs Colville and Mrs Boscawen were undoubtedly, tho belles of the youthful brides. The Queen looked vory well, but sho retired at a quarter to four, and tho Princess of Wales in gray and silvor) took her placo during the rest of tho ceremony. To the great regret of all Irish sportsmen (and I may add sportswomen too), the Prince and Princess of Wales have found it necessary to abandon their projected visit to Ireland during the Punchestown week, which had been made the pivot of many pleasant arrangements. The Prince of Wales had a sale last week at Dorchester of property belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, when some of the land realised upwards of £1000 per acre. The Bishop of Peterborough is drawing immense congregations to hear the Lenten addresses which he delivers iu the nave of his Cathedral on Sunday afternoons. It appears to be quite true that Miss Finney Fortescue is going to be married in June to Mr Mayer, her manager. Rather a come down this ; but it is said to be a marriage of affection. It seems as if the Prince-Imperial Watkins scandal is not to be allowed to rest. A firm of private inquiry agents are advertising for persons possessing direct information respecting the late Prince and the young Englishwoman. I hear that during the late earthquake scare, at a certain town on the Riviera, a lady, whose beautiful golden hair had excited the admiration of all beholders, rushed from her room into the garden, all "tattered and shorn," her fright being so great that she had neglected to don her tresses. The success of the issue of the Hotchkiss shares is, I understand, phenomenal. The lists, which are now made up completely, show a gross application for about £25,000,000 of stock. The ordinary shares have been applied for over forty times, and more than £3,000,000 of debentures have been asked for. The Gladstone tree has been mysteriously restored to sorrowing Newnham, and Miss Gladstone has dispensed with the services of the detective. It is suspected that the "disappearance" was, after all, a protest from some Conserva tive Newnhamites against the action of the Vice-Principal in the matter of the recent visit of the ex-Premier. A Devonshire paper reports "a regular cock-fight" at Ilfracombe, "the stakes being £100 a side." The affair was witnessed by thirty or forty persons, "who attended by private invitation," and the fight, " a very severe one," lasted for three-quarters of an hour, the bird proving successful which had been provided by " the Ilfracombe gentleman." I should like to know what the Devon county police are about when they permit such scandalous breaches of the law to pass unnoticed. It is said that the idea of reducing the price of the Times to a penny is once more on the tapis. There are a very great number of persona who pin their faith to the famous newspaper, believing that it gives more solid news than all the other dailies put together, but who are debarred from indulging their fancy by the prohibitive threepence. For their benefit, I veuture to quote one little sentence from the first scene of the first act of Dryden's Amphitryon : —" We shall know more when the Thunderer comes down." They should find hope in this apparently prophetic utterance. Some weeks ago there appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper an account of an "intervfew " with Mrs Langtry, in which that lady was supposed to have expressed herself somewhat strongly on the subject of " English Society." The report was copied into many London papers, aud commented on severely in several. I now have Mrs Langtry's authority to say that tho " interview" never took place, aud that she never said the things imputed to her to anyone ; in fact, to use her own words, " the account was not a real one, and I cannot even imagine who the author of it could have been." The Corporation of London have no intention whatever of denying tho expenditure of money in combatting Sir William Harcourt's attacic on their privileges, as might possibly be inferred from Sir R. N. Fowler's speech on Tues-.j day. They will rely on their right to devote their funds (which, by the way, are not derived from the ratepayers) to any purpose they think fit, and notably to their own defence. When Mr Gladstone became a freeman did ho believe that the expenses of tho entertainment in his honour came out of the private pockets of the Common Councilruen or the Corporation funds? Surely not the former. Lady Salisbury's first political reception on Wednesday evening was a distinct success. Lady Hayter looked very well in pale gray, and so did Lady Howe (who brought both her daughters) in pink, and Lady Delawarr in blue. Lady Augustus Hervey (in black) came with her sister-in-law Lady Mary; "Britannia," majestic as ever, was robed in puce; and Colonel Milne-Home's pretty daughter, dressed in white (one of the most charming debutants of Friday afternoon), waa the object of general admiration. Lady Salisbury, in primrose brocades received her friends with courtly affability, and her spirits rose perceptibly as Me carefully noted the strong contingent of Unionist Liberals which leavened the Tory mass.

A number of excellent stories have bean told regarding the share boom of the Guinness and Allaopp companies. Here te a new one. The members of a certain firm, including partners, book-keepers, clerks, and even the office-boy, applied for shares in one of the above companies. Th« applications .were dated from the private addresses of the varipug • men.

These severally described themselves as "gentlemen," "merchants," and so on, but the office-boy was at a loss to say what lie was. At last, remembering that when the clerks worked late he had to go out and get supplies of tea and bread-and-butter for them, he described himself as a "refreshment contractor." Out of the bevy of partners and clerks, the office boy was the only one who got shares allotted to him. The new Chief Secretary to tho LordLieutenant of Ireland is a remarkable mau. Still in a political, and senatorial sense very young,.he has steadily made his way in a very short number of years from a position of what we may be 'per-mit-ted to call Parliamentary obscurity to some of the highest offices of State. Seven years ago Mr A. J. Balfour was an almost unknown young man. He was indeed Lord Salisbury's nephew and Lord Salisbury's secretary ; he had been to the BerliuConference, aud he had written a Defence of Philosophic Doubt," but to all intents aud purposes he was noboby in the House of Commons The Bradlaugh difficulty proved to be his opportunity, for the Bradlaugh difficulty led Lord Randolph Churchill to form the famous " Fourth Party," of which Mr Balfour was one of the most illustrious lieutenants. There was a diverting scene in the House of Lords on Friday night, of which no account appeared in the next morning's papers. At the close of the sitting, Lord Denman spoke for about ten minutes in opposition to the Law of Evidence Amendment Bill. At the close of his remarks, Lord Denman, raising his voiceand waving his arm in an excited way, exclaimed : — " Noble lords may sneer at me, and do their best to snub me, but it is too much when they make a practice of contemptuously turning their backs upon me whenever I rise to speak, and I feel greatly inclined to apply the end of my boot to the neare.-t part of their persons." It would be a delicious spectacle to see the enraged Denman advancing upon Lord Salisbury and Lord Halsbury, with the dire purpose of there and then carrying out his threat.