The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-28
GOSSIP FROM LONDON... Great Britain Looking the Enormous Bill That Has to
 Be Paid for Imperialism Lessons in Military Education
BY HENRY pEvEREAUx.

shoulders. and remarked that he was glad that he had not brought his daugh- ters with him to England
 King Leopold of Belgian. has endless irons in the fire, industrial, financial, African, Belgian. He seems unsuitable in his passion for gain through business speculations, and has shown great bold ness in combination with the shrewdest prudence Among the sovereigns of Eu- rope he has represented best the money making, matter-of-faet spirit of the nine teenth century, and Is worthy grandson of Louis Philippe, but without that mon areh's sensibilities.
 
 The time has come to sum up the the atrical season of 1901-1902. In the line of amusement as in everything else. Amer iea Is a factor. not to be set aside. Well four or five plays imported from America have met with various fortunes. Mir. Gil- lete's Sherlock Holmes has probably been the greatest success of the season. For this the attraction of Mir. Gilletes person. ality must in great measure account since 1t Is certain that the play, as piece of craftsmanship, was not worthy either of the author of The Hound of the Baskervilles or of the author of Secret Service. Of Ben Hur one need only re- cord that 1t took the public several months to realize that the chariot-race was much fore exciting on the posters than on the stage. Arizona, on the other hand, by MT. Augustus Ghomas, was fresh. humorous. and ingenious-an ex- cellent specimen of the best class of American popular, drama. Mademoiselle Mars, by MT. Paul Hester, and All on Ac- count of Eliza. by Mir. Leo Deitrichstefn. were wholly negligible problems.
 Northwood House, Isle of Wight, at which 10 lrf0o racantlU maid visit of an hours duration to the French Bene- dictine nuns, has been for upwards of a century the seat of the Ward family, lords of the manor of Cowes. It was built towards the end of the eighteenth cen tury by MT George Ward (popularly known as King Ward), the elder broth CT of Robbert Hummer Ward, author of the once famous Tremaine, whose early political career Is described by Lord Stan hope in his Life of Pitt. Northwood was considerably enlarged in 1880, and passed in 1S49. at the death of an uncle into the possession of "Idear' Ward, of Oxford Movement celebrity, whose theological preoecupations and distaste for the life of a landowner have been described by MT. Wilfred Ward in the life of his fath- CT. Northwood House has been with brief exceptions uninhabited for half century when the French Benedic- illnesses entered it in the present year.
 
 his letters as a very fine house, quite an Italian palazzo on a large scale, the drawing-room being one of the handsom- est rooms he ever saw, and splendidly gilt and decorated. The grounds are mag nificently laid out with the choicest ever greens, and have several good specimens of cork trees.
 How to make Irish vlceroys reside in Ireland is one of the problems that we have not yet solved. Lord Cadogan made the mistake at the very beginning of his viceregal reign" of posing as a noble English exile in Ireland At the same time he mitigated his exile by more ire quent and prolonged absences from Ire- land than any of his modern predecessors indulged themselves in. In the old days of universal jobbery and corruption, Ire land had viceroys who rarely, if ever, visited the country. A law was made in the latter part of the eighteenth century obliging the lord-lieutenant to reside in Ireland A re-enaction of the law might be necessary at the beginning of the twentieth century, should example and not warning be taken from Lord Cado- gan's habit of spending little more than half of each year of his viceroyalty in Ireland So long as a viceroy rules, or rather reigns, at Dublin castle the duties of the office ought to be well fulfilled The most curious thing in connection with the viceregal office is the way in which many new viceroys stuitify themselves by retaining a clique of viceregal officials around them, whom from the very nature of their offices, it is desirable to change. Changes of viceroys matter little at Dub- lin castle while the power and patronage socially and otherwise as well, are in the hands of a clique. which has in some in- stances held possession for over a quar- ter of a century.