Morning journal and courier., 1886-02-06

| next month, and the Queen has promised to grace the proceedings with her presence. Peo- ! pie thought that to celebrate such an event ! the composer ought to be invited to conduct his great work in person. But this could not be done without Mrs. WeIdon's sanction and harrister wrote to this lady proposing that M. Gounod should come and per sonally conduct the performance, and pray ing that she would allow him to do so with out taking any steps under the judgment ob tained by her against him. But it appears that Mrs. Weldon is not at all anxious to see the great maestro again except in the hands of the police and she feels very indignant. In answer to the barrister's letter she wrote: ''I am astonished at your impotence. Ger tainly not. I will not allow M. Gounod to set foot on English soil. If he dare to do SO I will have him immediately arrested" Her Majesty, who, it is said, is great admirer of Gounod, will regret for the time that she is a constitutional monarch, and that she cannot make a stand against her terrible female sub ject Unless she relents M. Gounod will not come. Mrs. Weldon, I believe, has been often badly treated, and she is now taking her innings. She is, as you see, no respecter of persons and getting perhaps trif1e incon- venient
 Editor Stead, of the Pail Mall Gazette,
 was released from Holloway jail on Monday
 last, and was welcomed back to liberty by a crowded and enthusiastic meeting in Exeter
 Hall on the same evening. One of the many admirable sides of the English character is complete forgetfulness and forgiveness for past offences when they have been paid for. At the time of Editor Stead's trial nearly the whole of the London press abused him
 and considered the verdict just one. Some
 papers went so far as to say it was not se-
 were enough. Now the papers have come round and the Daily News, which was very
 bitter against the famous itor of the Pail Mall Gazette, and sharply snubbed the idea tlotI IoI had T 4l.. of the criminal law amendment bill, now says: "Mr. Stead is an enthusiast, and en-
 thusiasts have ever affronted the wisdom of the worldly wise. But whether enthusiasts or the worldly wise have done more good since the first year of the Christian era his tory will tell. The evil that Mr. Stead wrought was, we trust of a transitory char acter The good he accomplished will live after him in the enactment of the criminal law amendment bill." If the Daily News and the other papers who pitched so hard and unmercifully into Mir. Stead at the time of his revelations and prosecution had been willing to acknowledge his good motives Mr Stead would not have been sent to iail for there is no doubt that the indignation exci- ted in "good society,"" which hurled down the head of MT. Stead, had something to do with the severity of his sentence
 What eccentricities there are in the com mon law justice of England, to be sure! Mr. Stead comes out of jail after undergoing l term of three months imprisonment simul- taneously with the relegation of man to prison for one month, without hard labor,
 for an abominable assault upon a little girl
 of the age of ten. The sentence upon this
 wretch forms scathing satire upon that of
 MT. Stead. The same Daily News, comment
 ing upon the fact, exelaims: ''That Mr.
 Stead made grievous mistakes no one can
 doubt. That the particular course he pur-
 sued to reach his most desirable ends was
 conducive to evil effect upon public morals
 is also unquestioned. But when we have a
 man sent to prison for a month without hard
 labor for brutal assault upon a child, and
 another man allotted three months impris-
 onment for au endeavor, however misguided
 in some of it's processes, to protect young
 children from such assaults. we may we'll
 stand aghast." This is the humor of justice
 l should add that the man who was charged
 with the criminal assault stated for his de-
 fense ''that he was known to Alderman Sir
 William McArthur." This impressive fact
 scarcely explains such shocking instance of
 judicial injustice.
 English music hall proprietors, through
 the character of the entertainments they pro
 vide and the ''patriotic" songs they offer to
 the public, are thought to be utterly desti-
 tute of any sense of humor. However, the
 Blackpool impresario who allowed copy right song to be performed at his hall, and
 then disclaimed liability on the ground that
 the composition was indecent and immor-
 sl, !" is clearly person of sportive and hu-
 morous turn of mind. The song in question
 was entitled ''Im Going to Reform Some
 Day." a sentiment in which the immortality
 does not lie on the surface, but it is the chief
 art of the music hall singer to drag in a
 double meaning, which tends itself to that
 end as well another. The hu1nor of this
 worthy managers plea lies in the supposition
 that cop right is voided by immortality. This
 puts me strongly in mind of the man who
 stole spoons in a restaurant, and having dis
 covered they were not silver went back and
 abused the proprietor.
 Another humorous story, though mixed
 with tragedy, comes from Brittany A
 husband and wife finding themselves, with
 their three young children, on the brink of
 starvation, agreed that death by drowning
 was preferable to death by hunger, and con
 sequently determined to end their miseries
 by jumping into the sea. The man took two
 of the children by the hands, the woman
 carried the third, and they waded down sloplng beach to meet the incoming tide. The woman was struck by a wave, swooned but the man lost heart at the last moment and rushed back to the shore-s'for assist ance," he pleads, but I should rather sug- gest probably persuading himself that it was his duty to survive them in order to have them buried in consecrated ground and pray for the repose of their souls. The poor man, on whom fate has vented it's direst mal- ice, was arrested, examined and is now awaiting his trial As it is no crime to wit ness a case of suicide without doing ones best to rescue the person in danger, I do not see what can be done to this prudent father. MAX O'RELL