The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-23 00:00:00

TOWN TALK.

(From the Western Mail of Saturday.)

• LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING.
Fora brief interval, it seemed to me like the old days,
here, iu London. The Royal banner fluttered from the
flagstaff of Buckingham Palace. Her Idajesty, not by proxy,
but in her own royal person, held a drawing-room in
St. James's Palace. Her Majesty with some degree of
slate ceremonial opened a public building in the metro-
P°l44. An April shower in May laid the dust upon the
occasion, instead of the lumbering old water carts of the
ceintnissionere, and therefore everybody, as a matter of
course, said to everybody else (quite gravely), "blot Queen's
Weather!" in homage to that traditional figment which for
Years has implied that the clerk of the weather is
the most obsequious ceurtier in the land. Yellow gravel
sprinkled up St. James's-street, the Horse Guards in attend-
ance, the mounted and unmounted police of Colonel Hen-
derson marshalling the way, parti-coloured bunting dis-
played here and there from the windows of Piccadilly, re-
called for one brief interval the time when her Majesty's
lieges in the metropolis were in habit of repeatedly, and not,
" "vs, very exceptionally, indeed, the Sovereign herself
Passing to and fro in their midst. As it was, the Queen's
gracious appearance the other afternoon to inaugurate the
new and really noble home at last provided for itself by the
Loudon University iu Burlington-gardens, was as rapid, I had
almost said as fugitive, as well could be. With a curious
Want of pre-arrangement as to whether the leading personages
Were to be in full dress (full fig, as it is profanely called), or
bl ordinary costume, there was, at least, the added charm of
variety_ a Prime Minister in a great coat, an ex-Premier in
the
livery-like Windsor uniform, the Lord Chancellor and
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, each in his glitter*
gorgeous,
golden robe of office. The Queen came, looked,
listened to a loyal address, blandly intoned by the Colonial
DSecretary' who was officially there as Chancellor of the
.
Diversity, the palatial house of which was being inangu-
rated, replied silently by handing a gracious answer back in
'LS-, by way of acknowledgment, pronounced the building
48 opened in those silvery accents of most cl ar and most
refined articulation that we have all heard too seldom here in
London
realised that her Majesty was there when - she was gone.
the Royal Family it was a busy wee s altogether. Scarcely
h`;'
dinthe Sovereign herself opened the London University
,:1 thegs, when the Princess Louise assisted at the opening
lunar Temple Hall, the reconstruction of which (not
ass% too soon) had only just then been completed ; Prin e
aristian being inducted into the gown of a benches', as a
fblhatk of honorary distinction, to the evident amusement of
6 Young Princess. Hardly was this little celebration over,
with its courtly ceremonials, when the Heir Apparent pre-
alicled over.. the Theatrical Fund dinner in the capacity of
chairman. So that, altogether, in the fresh bloom of the
kay u
season, London, for once, cannot regard itself as ne-
glected by the Court. osi sic scraper !
tßeyond expectation, there does really appear to be a pros-
eet of the proceedings of the CEcutnenical Council being
ought to a conclusion about midsummer.
th The literary expectation of the hour that awakened by
a announcement that, during this present season, there is
at fast t
o, be published Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer's eagerly-
hes4,B,l for "Life of Lord Palmerston." Those who are
14'ltar with the great diplomatist's last brilliant work,
~,Band ucihed to his illustrious brother, Lord Lytton, look for-
te Sir Henry's biography of his friend Lord Palmer-
f „It with the greatest eagerness, and, I will add, with the
attest confidence..
We artistic—unhappily, I can't say expectation, but I
th;rate, say longing—desire and wish at heart is
thr's, that the Royal Academy could for once break
pianligh its rules by electing Holman Hunt as B.A. (in
Chico of the late Daniel Maclise) by acclamation, if only the
issf Y'lline would, just for once, in this purely exceptional
he• ur,ce, break through their own hitherto inflexible regula-
t
Pn„h Newsvenders', or. rather, at the Newspaper Press
tf.-"`, Dinner the other evening—where, with Mr W
rig Smith, the member for Westminster, in the chair, the
man for once was certainly in the right place—a good
of -:1:4 amusement was caused by the allusion made in one
herse more facetious speeches of the night to the fact of
l
0, up?, being seated there, "cheek by jowl," Monsignors
the `-' (Popularly identified with the Monsignors Catesby of
of :11-Premier's new novel of "Lothair") and that arch-foe
40,8 tuonsignore's whole order, the senior member for
men Warwickshire. Mr. Newdegate, in spite of the amuse-
milt caused by this little incidental reference, replied with
ken:e°rning gravity to the toast of the "House of Coin-
„
tXtr
rant, avagant as it sounds, and as of course it is for that
kittend if regarded in its full significance, the aspiration
aaire by Mr. Disraeli's last hero, the patrician million-
Lothair, for the extinction of pauperism, practical
sery4nth-ropists hardly yet realise to themselves how
to ‘,7111,11ch may be done (if one only sets the right way
°r4) towards the effecting of its steady, rapid, and
this eltl
appreciable diminution. " Proof " positive of
1) ~,e4'e Y. e
Defers me es t write, in lees than a dozen small
first of Printed, matter, setting forth, in the shape of a
kohtseP°lt, the results of but very little more than one
a,far ' s labour (from the 14th of February to the 31st of
ehn:;11,',1870) of the Paddington Committee for Organising
one ;.‘able Relief and Repressing Mendicity. I turn to
flea ltigle Page of this First Report, page 3, and I there
en,--that in compliance with a request from the Paddington
j47\oilittee for Organising Charitable Relief and Repress-
tleteetrldfcitY, Colonel Henderson placed five plain-clothes
Petine:vBB en duty in that district in addition to the five
~reuila.ntlY on duty there—with what results, think you? brief ;with results no less surprising than these within the
this interval of one fortnight I During the first week of
en tl4Pecial service, that is during the week ending
thhitilia 27th of February, 36 mendicants were arrested!
°f al the next week, the week ending on the 6th
kg 1, 4.tch—seven ! The committee, observe, work-
aae -4).t on one side only, but on both sides equally
refte3ainaultaneously—with one hand, as it were,
°sty dent mendicity, with the other lifting up the
kiillttlestitute, granting relief in kind with careful discri-
k)llb :11' apportioning bread and coal and dinner and
obtaining admission to hospitals, affording
kinds of for emigration, procuring employment for all
4oge, ,urlfortunate people out of work, mechanics, mos-
labourers, porters, domestic servants, charwomen,
tfht 4c:4°114211i and so forth. A committee, surely, after
t°rel‘Soi,th°t
WarwickshireDavenportA committee that
junior member
4 do that must, by
a mina
!
keynote of its first report, strike a thrill
of
°Wee °ll the heart-strings of the Marquis of
Sprin
als g seems hardly to have commenced when we are
1'4444" the midst of sweltering heats like those of
ow%
,„ er• The difficulty of the climate is that one hardly
twhesh;veu after long experience, how to have at it—
tor sr ten
CI •
t• he clothe oneself like an Esquimaux, or to go in
'kusera:°B4-brimmed Panama hat of the tropics, jean
I),,,tc'eUrebi:ll(l a light jacket made of that seemingly un-
e aterial nowadays, nankeen. Our only plan
• 53,.
riisl." be for the fashionable frequenters of that
ty th the,,,, g round Hyde Park to take changes of raiment'
tBnrely7,_°ll, setting out for that heart-wearying crawl (it
he oft Merest absurdity to speak of it as a drive) in
some s n halting, frequently dead-locked, procession. By
alterh eb
4rraugement the monotonous insipidity of the
e
• hNth b Fh tbe very pleasantly varied, the requirements
va:11, age bi,eing consulted at the same time. - Veiled by the
,„i7'lati,o44'llels during the period of disrobing for these
Zght ,he of the toilette, as many varieties of costume
kettea Cret a single airing as in all the transformation
Lo°,ll_,day. i;x11?g-Isight, or in all the burlesques of Easter
i -"Ma h wring this last fortnight the atmosphere of
ate'lloos3e 48 been one while in temperature like that of an
tllllll3l-st:e1111 another like the radiating room of the
4:44a-skillet 11111IMUMS. I have alternately longed for
knit:4llted infers (with the pile inwards) of the well-
tnik of th. 11481i.an traveller, and for the winnowing pun-
tele 80 raueLildlan bungalow. No wonder Englishmen
cr force
o'if about the veather. It gives them—by the
surPrise—reason to do so everlastingly.
ft, Thande
Aa„,.,
-oiei -4011 a,Ken ~..uur Kinnaird, M.P., will lay the
thh eatie '°ll6 of
rrew h with the new asylum at Hornsey Rise, in
Th • the Aged Pilgrims' Friend Society, to-
-4 e t
r Ys, e
to-
road' tottaider 41Lall Board of Works will, in a few
Nio which . sue
for losarn b, Opening of the Thames Embankment
their etas of th Probable will take place prior to the
k ueeel.
auto Board, about the first week in August,
litomil recess.
ktoi;4'og-tat "1' Council
.was held on Saturday in
re W. ieet,,,* The•miters present werethe
II arid h.* kxladst Right
hi 'Pon th °Il, the Lord Chancellor, Earl De
theth'e sse Earl of Kimberley, the Right Hon.
ti,,lPt 4, rt. V,. c_-C4arl of Clarendon, Earl Granville, the
ton Isis's the txcniwell, the Duke of Argyll, the Chan-
ebiTt ftleoluer, the Right Hon. Hugh Childers,
on'll the RiZl • Goschen, the Marquis of Harting-
arrivltistesz 6"'
14°11.
C. Fortescue.
41) W 4r
SRA T
13 .c)115 ate
that rfora on.—s
n a mae tdurtday
he (Jamilla steamer, which
14-Itth -alarand Eouvnesdsel
Amnigheritfcrao,mbeLloinvginerpogotlo,
eq;94 pS? Cargo otr°l7l the West Indies to Glasgow,
sit by by lad nigh, molasses and sugar, was run down
kr4a Re44Zea6el toUullur:g a dense fog off the Wexford
jai caro)
,from Liverpool to Melbsturne
the 7" aa,4o ,huly wine
Passengers. The crew of the
%est.' %Bei. here w to launch the boats when the •
the
Crew
to The
WateerfrO w_t3 not the
team slightest chance of saving
X S Company's steamer