The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-09
GOSSIP FROM LONDON. Interest in Americans and the Dunbar n India-Manx Law
 the Isle of ManThe Driving of Queen of the Begans
BY HENRY pEvEREAux.
oNDoN, November s.-Although plac
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1 places for them. These sat in the seats until those who had sent for them came, and the custom prevailed until 1766, when ] the system now in force was adopted:-
 "A footman used to be sent only to take l places and keep them by the simple but effectual plan of sitting on them till his masters and mistresses arrived. Such l a practice would now be considered an i intolerable nuisance; but people in those l days were much less particular, and ap- pear to have thought nothing of sitting for an act or two cheew by 1owl with hunky or, worse, with vagabond picked up in the street." An allusion to the GUS 1 tom occurs in Fieldings Miss Lucy Tn Town" act l., sc. 2: and Pepys, in his Diary" occasionally mentions having hired a boy in the streets to occupy seat for him.
 Mir Bafour is to be cordially congrat- ulated on the new appointments at West minister Abbey. Dr. Armitage Robinson is a learned theologlan of worldwide rep utation. He has the advantage of being young man, judged by the ordinary l standard of deans. It is probably an un- precedented thing that a Bishop of Lon l don and a Dean of Westminster should l both De under five and forty. Professor Beeching Is an accomplished scholar, an l attractive writer in more than one de- partment of literature, a profound stu cent of English poetry, and an eloquent l and interesting preacher. Canon Rawlin- l son was a very able man, and a thor l oughly sound and most industrious sehol- ar. He was the English historian of the ancient Eastern world, and his Herodo- l tus, published in 1858, is the standard 1 translation of that classic, and is enriched l by many valuable notes. He brought out number of important works between 1862 and 1893, and contributed to the
  lications, besides writing a great many biographical and historical articles, most of which were very successful. He was Camden professor of ancient history at Oxford for twenty-eight years. Canon Rawlinson was a prominent Don. at OK ford between 1S47 and 1S72 and he took an active part in the movement for Uni versity reform, and was constantly em- ployed as an examiner in the schools. in Greats, in Classical Moderations, and in Theology. He succeeded Dr. Mansel as Hampton lecturer in 1859, and was alto gether very prominent figure in Oxford life. Canon Rawlinson was more dis tingushed as scholar than as a divine. He was a very poor preacher, and never identified himself with any party in the Church. In 1872 MT. Gladstone appointed him to a stall in Canterbury Cathedral, as a recognition of his great learning and his good work at Oxford. In 1888 the
 
 became vacant. This benefice Is in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Can terbury and it was the fate of Canon Rawlinson to nominate the new ineum- bent. He excited general amazement and much scandal by presenting himself to the living which is worthsover G200O year, and a perfect sinecure. However, nobody could prevent the appointment, and Canon Rawlinson had both his stall and his benefice until his death.
 A traveller returning from the continent the other day brought with him parcel containing a well-known edition of Vic tor Hugos works. On his stating the na- ture of the contents of the parcel to the customs officer at Newhaven, that func- tionary at once insisted on having 1t l opened He proceeded to examine the volume closely, and the matter was evi- dently considered so important that a second official came to his aid, and as- sisted him in looking through them. Af- ter they had been on the job some time. 1 the traveller asked If they understood French. Both at once admitted that they did not know word of the language Apparently the object of their investiga- | tion was to ascertain whether the books contained any matter calculated to injure the morals of a British subject if import ed into this country. It is highly charac- teristic of the methods of government de- partments that, having formed this be- nevolent intention of protecting public and private morality, it should entrust the censorship of foreign literature to a functionary who knows not a word of any language but his own.
 An hotel Is about the last place in which one would expect to find room turned Into a sepulchre-on the contrary, hotel proprietors are ordinarily most anx- ious not to have any corpse left on their premises a moment longer than neces- sary It is therefore, surprising to hear that for ten months past tile body of a young American lady has been kept un- buried in an hotel in the central district of Glasgow. The deceased was a niece of the proprietress of the hotel who, it is said, intends shortly to take the body to Amorica for interment The attention of the sanitary authorities was directed to the matter some time ago. but their re- quest for an immediate burial was met with the reply that the body was in a dramatically sealed coffin its presence in a room in the hotel did not constitute a nuisance under the Public Health Act, and nothing more was done. In a local paper it is stated that the authorities were powerless to take further action Is this so? There are very few people who would care to have a corpse in their house month after month, but the law ought at any rate to prevent the grati- fication of such a grusome taste by mak- ing burial Cor cremation) compulsory within a reasonable period.
 As you Americans have had some plays based on Manx laws presented to you by Wilson Barrett I am tempted to re- late an incident which occurred recently.