The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-03-12
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.

London Facts and Fancies. .-Ne,cS-
paper Praise of the Great american
Cook.-.Jdmcs Russell Lo,DeVs An
fointment TO The Court Of 81. James.
The Irish Distress.-Ihe Last of
tic Bonaportes.
LONDON, Eng, Feb. 28, 1880. 2
Another spell of hard weather, and
everybody grumbling-the hunters
because their horses arc eating their
heads off, the skaters bacause pater-
nal Government will not allow them
to drown themselves in the Serpentine,
and the rest of the people at the mon
strous cold. Sportsmen also complain
because, if this continues, the part
ridge will become rdra ar,s. In
Shropshire, where the thermometer
sank to 40 below freezing, hundreds
OF birds are lying dead in the fields.
Politicians, however, manage to keep
up their flow of mutual recrimination
and wallow in a warm flood of abusive
rhetoric. They are girding up their
loins for the forthcoming general elec-
ton, which | bear, was settled at the
last Cabinet Council to take place in
April next, as in June and new regis
tration comes into force, which, il is
supposed, will prove favorable to the
Liberals.
notice that the London weeklies
are Just now working themselves into
lather of flattery over that arrant old
humbug, Sam Ward. The last Junitv
FaIr contains full page colored car
toon of the old beau, and all the papers
vie with each other to say pleasant
things over the fact that he is going to
make London his permanent residence.
Probably no man in America, not even
Charley Delmonico, knew so much
about wines and cookery as Sam Ward.
This enabled him to impose upon the
Cabinet and Senatorial blockheads.
He could make them think that the vim
ordinaire he was giving them was the
finest of Burgundy and he could i'm.
pose his Hochheimer on them for the
finest Johnneaberger cabinet. A
change of label sometimes works
wonders.
"A better appointment than that of
James Russell Lowell as Minister to
England could aidly have been made,
and notice that the London press is
giving him very cordial welcome in
advance. The new minister is Just the
KIND or man to please the better class
OF Englishmen, being gifted with rare
talents, highly accomplished and re-
ilned and gentle manners. Mr.. Low
ell has long been known, on both sides
OF the Atlantic, as an able writer,
clever poet, and what may be called
literary philanthrophist ola high order.
Considering the number of hungry
politicians and place-seekers who con-
stantly bcsiege the White House for
appointments abroad, President HAYES
deserves great credit for filling the
posts of London and Madrid with such
hlgh-toncd men as Lowell and Fair
child, who, i'll all their official duties
and social Intercourse will do honor to
themselves and to their country.
In Ireland, as i'll India, one of the
greatest difficulties which will have to
be met when the period of severe pres
sure is over is the providing of the
people with seed for the next harvest.
Unless the poor cottiers now on the
verge of starvation have the means
provided of raising another crop, or are
removed elsewhere, we shall simply
have another and still more acutc spell
OF distress next year. In many dis
trlcts the landlords, partly from the OBJ
structions in the way of obtaining
loans, and partly from Indifference, are
not taking advantage of the opporiuni-
ties afforded by the government. Bet
ter organization, which does not mean
the institution of machinery for pau
perizallon, seems much needed. There
are men in England who have had en-
perience of distress and famine beside
which that now prevailing in Ireland
is trifling, and it would surely not be
| impossible to bring their knowledge to
bear with advantage on the present
state of affairs.
There is, | believe, no end to Britioh
snobism but in fact that the ex-Empress
Eugenia is to 90 to the Cape, 'accom-
panied by Sir Evelyn and Lady Wood,
and seven servants" the plummet
seems to have reached almost the bot
tom of it. Because lady has once
sat upon throne (attained by her
husband by ono of the greatest crimes
and frauds on records) the services
OF the most eminent officers of
the Britiah array are, it seems,
to be placed at her disposal. What as
tonlshes me even moro in this case, is
that Sir Evelyn should have accepted
such a position. ALPHA.