Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-09-07
From Our Regular Correspondent
Our European Letter.
LONDON, Eng, August 2S. 1881

Our European Letter.
LONDON. Eng, August %, 1881.
The lords have still on their hands some
weighty considerations. for many Of the
conditions OF the land bill have been to
the peers questions of political life or
death. 1t has been, in fact, one of the
keenest political struggles we have hadfor
many years. 1t was very different affair
with the lords as compared with the com
mons. The former had all to lose and
nothing to gain if they endorsed the bill
as sent up by Mr.. Gladstone. After
knocking it about until its parents in the
house of commons could hardly have
recognized their offspring, it came back
home to be nursed and restored TO nearly
its original condition. and back il went on
Friday to the upper house. 1t is only
possible rs yet TO speculate what will the
final results of a session which has been
almost entirely absorbed by this elaborate
and perplexing bill; but something in the
shape of compromise is inevitable, AMI
there will be new legislation for Ireland
before long. 1t is quite impossible to sup
pose that the present session will solve all
the difficulties which have been accumula-
ting for so many years.
wonder whether the English fashion
of bank holiday will ever be grounded in
America. The institution is a grand, good
thing for the hardest working classes.
either at manual or mental labor, who
four times year on week days are able
to defy the mandate of the eager capitalist,
and with the law at their backs refuse to
come 10 the office or shop; hut hear the
same complaints from employers that one
hears on the continent after fete days.
Men come back to work (if they come at
ally with the remnants of u holiday spree
on them and the outing does them more
harm than good. To the tourist and the
housekeeper hank holiday is terrible
infection The former roams through the
deserted streets looking modify at the
long changeless vision OF shutters up and
doors locked, and experiences that strange,
poignant sence of desolation which one
feels in walking through the business
quarter of n great city during Sundays
quiet. The holiday makers crowd TO the
railway stations and the boat piers on the
Thames, but they make no great show OF
gayety nor of numerousness about the
streets, so the latter are dreary indeed.
AS to the housekeeper, her annoyance is
dreadful. 1t is easy enough to lay in
stores of groceries and such standard
things for an almost indefinite period but
meat-or, as they insist upon calling it in
this country, butchers meats sub
stance that will not remain sound fol
many hours without the preventative o
ice, and the familiar American ice-ches
or refrigerator is seldom seen here. The
consequence is short commons for two Of
three long days, and sometimes four days
when it happens that an extra holiday
like Christmas finds itself in juxtapositioI
with bank holiday, the Saturday hal
holiday and Sunday.
1t is very unfortunate that the com
mencement of every autumn tourist season
should be signalized by fatal railway &C
cidents. August appears to be a particu
larly fatal month, and this year is NJ
exception to the melancholy rule. Already
there have been a number of railwa,
disasters, boilers bursting. collisions, etc.
resulting in the Blackburn case in the
loss of five lives, and injuries to fifty
Colonel Tolland opened the board of trade
inquiry at Blackburn railway station or
Thusuay, but at present little new light i,
thrown upon the cause of the accident, i
accident it can be called. II is Il shameful
thing to record, amidst the horror ant
confusion caused by this collision, tina
wretches could be found base and heart
less enough to plumber the sufferers
yet such was the fact. One lady lost ;
valuable gold watch, another a ring
Oilers lost less important articles. The
unfortunate owner Of the ring died short
ly afterwards.
A friend of mine who was at the Prince
of Wales garden party tells me that thu
king IF the Sandwich Islands seemed very
much taken with the bevy of beauty
presented to his view, and was in turf
himself the object of much attention. Il
is aid that the object of his majesty
visit is to induce suitable settlers to vlsi
his dominions. Great advantages are of
tered 10 young Europeans who will tax,
up their abode in the islands and MARI,
wives of the Papuan races. A liberia
grant of land. authority in the district il
which they settle, and a high position IL
court are included in the inducements.
AUGUST.