The San Francisco call., 1896-05-31


for which it has obtained solid majority
in Parliament. Most of the genuine Lib
erals are against it, because, under the
guise OF large reform, it really comedies
suffrage to only about 100 900 more citizens
and gives the Conservatives chance to
treat the suffrage as thing now settled
for generation. On the other hand the
extreme Tories resent even this concession
to popular demands. In the House while
the Junker party and the Clericals tight
the trouble from one point of view, the
Radicals and Socialists resist 1t from
another, and the majority for it is made
up of moderate men of both parties.
Although Prince Henry OF Prussi has
waived his resentment against his impe-
rial brother to the extent OF representing
the German empire at the Moscow festlyl-
ties, he is said to be resolute in his deter
mination not to return to official and court
life at Berlin. He has bought fine rural
chateau in Lorraine, almost on the French
border and intends to reside there all the
year round as country gentlemen. There
is a report in fashionable circles here that
he has taken, or intends to take, a London
house also and that he will make the Eng
lish metropolis his town resort during the
season, but this would be a rather more
overt act of hostility to the Kaiser than
the gentle Prince Henry seems capable OF.
It is known, however, that one of the
principal grounds of quarrel between the
brothers was Henry's disgust at the stupid
anti English demonstrations which the
crowd of favorites who now have vii,
liam's ear continually urge upon him.
1t is treated as an established fact that
the ex-Empress Eugene has gone over
into the Orleanist camp. Of course she
always regarded the late "Plon Plon" with
open and bitter animosity, and it was
hardly to be expected that she would cher
ish warm personal affection for his son !;
but after all she did recognize Prince Vic
tor as her own sons heir, and made him
an allowance of $4,000 per year, which
she still continues to paw. Under these
circumstances her abandonment of the
Bonapartist cause naturally creates feel
ing. Her own explanation is that she de-
sires to spend her old age peacefully in
France, and that the republic will not
allow her to do this if she is closely identi-
fed with the am bitions of the Napoleonic
pretender. This does not explain why she
has suddenly become an open patroness of
perialists, like Emile Olivier and Paul
Cassagnac, permit themselves publicly to
remark that her genius for intrigue and
egotistic treachery was the ruin of the
Second Empire, and that the Napoleonic
idea has never had a mora persistent and
mischievous enemy than this Spanish ad-
ventures, whom it picked out of shady
obscurity and hoisted on to the first throne
OF Europe.
London census, taken last March, turns
out to involve a certain amount of disap-
pointment. 1t seems that the ratio of in
crease during the decade of 1SS1-91 has not
been quite maintained in the subsequent
five years.
The discrepancy between estimate and
reality for the latter period is a. 500. The
truth is, however, that London is now
overhowing at greater rate than ever into
the outer ring of suburbs, which are not
yet counted as part of the metropolis for
county council purposes. If the whole ur-
ban district under the control of the
Metropolitan administration were consid-
cred the population would be now about
G, ,300,0 ,000
A quaint peculiarity of English journa-
lism was exhibited the other day when
Professor Max Muller delivered a really
important lecture on "The: Condolences
Between the Scriptural and Secular Lore
of.Asia'' before the Royal Society here, and
no London paper printed more than the
baldest summary of it,
An incident of general interest came at
the close, when the present Lord Chan
cellor, Lord Halsbury, little pork-faced
creature who is said 70 be an able lawyer.
but who looks like Du Maurrier's Sir
Gorgius Midas, and whose use of his Judi
cial and ecclesiastical patronage would
give Platt points in political jobbery, rose
to move vote of thanks to the lecturer,
and incidentally to defend Christianity
from attacks which he supposed DR.. Muller
had made on it. He revealed such comic
| ignorance of the whole subject that DIR.
| Muller easily made hash of him in reply,
and scored point after point, amid yelIs OF
delight from the audience. The London
dailies contained only blind allusion to
the fact that something of this sort oc-
Cured, but all the good provincial papers
like the MANCHESTER Guardian, the Brad
! ford Observer and twenty others had long,
almost verbatim, telegraph reports of the
whole thing.
| Swinb9rne's new Arthurian poem,
"Balen, IRIS not treated here as heighten-
ing his reputation. There is much praise
for the craftsmanship with which he sur
mounted the obstacle of rhymes in fours,
! but this is felt after all to be mental gym
nastics rather than poetry.
Private letters from Paris reveal great
interest in Zola's fortune at the adjourned
election In the academy. The date of the
next balloting is not specified, but the in
terim will be filled with jealous work by
| both parties. At Thursdays inconclusive
meeting, where eight ballots were taken,
Zola once reached fourteen votes, which
was within three of the needful number
In full gathering he will need twenty,
and the question how he is to get them
occupies the Partisan mind to the exclu-
sion of the income tax, the Russian alli-
ance and everything else. The clerical
and aristocratic elements in the academy
will fight against Zola's admission tooth
and nail, but his Rome" following on
his 'Lourdes. while accounting for their