The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1888-06-30 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

GOSSIP FROM "TRUTH.  A person who is thoroughly acquainted with the young Emperor tolls me that he is a true ;ranker," which, in English, means a truculent Tory Jingo. He is, however, a man of decided ability. and has a thoroughly practical knowledge of affairs of every kind. He is exceedingly headstrong and self-willed, and the one danger to peace is that, having never been in war, he may become inspired by a morbid craze to associate his name with some great military achievement. But there will be no change while Prince Bismarck lives. The Emperor William will never quarrel with Russia, for he likes that country and its people and methods of government. and his personal relations with the Czar are most friendly. The old Emperor was untiring for a year before his death in exhorting his grandson never to enter upon a war with , Russia.  The crowd at Potsdam actually cheered the young Emperor when he was following his ' father's coffin to the grave. A Royal funeral is always a miserable mockery. for there must inevitably be a large number of persons in the cortege who. although arrayed in all the trappings of woe, are nevertheless as merry as grigs in reality. A few years ego, on the day of the funeral of one of the most prominent members of the English Royal family, the coffin was lying in state in a chamber hung with black ; but a distinguished foreigner, who entered to deposit an Imperial wreath was scandalised to find two well-known noblemen standing at its foot in animated conversation and laughing heartily. A formerly prominent member of the household was once appointed to remain in attendance on the coffin of a deceased member of the Royal family on the day before the funeral. Ile was supposed to sit on one side, apparently absorbed in grief, but a person who entered hurriedly found him lounging in an easy chair, which he bed dragged in from the next room, %Rh a pile of newspapers and &French novel, and his feet resting on one end of the stand on which the coffin was placed.  A gentleman, who is in a position to speak with authority on matters of prison discipline, writes to me that "Jackson. the man who murdered the warder, was no more to blame than the prison officials," the reason being that by the prison rules no prisoner is eligible for employment about a prison until be has worked out at least three—my correspondent is not certain but what it is six—months of his sentence. Jackson had only been in gaol a couple of months when he was employed in the manner which gave him the opportunity of murdering the warder. I can't say that I agree with my correspondent that this breach of prison rules is as bad as a murder, or that the murder was no worse than a breach of prison rules. But the rule is evidently a good one--Jackson, has pointed that moral plainly enough—and somebody should be punished for the breach of it.  No more outrageous sentence ever brought disgrace upon an unpaid bench than one passed a few days ago at Longton, in Staffordshire, upon a youth named Whitfield. Whitfield had been released from Stafford Gaol on Friday morning. The probability is that he was a wretched outcast from home or friends. At any rate, on the Friday night he was found sleeping in the stables of aMr Bradbury. ,For this act I of vagrancy" he was arraigned st Longton and sentenced to three months' imprisonment with bard labour. The pair of Draconic Dogberrys who perpetrated this atrocity were Messrs W. Webberley and A. Edwards. It is such men as these who keep our gaols full, and manufacture habitual criminals. In a properly governed country they would he dismissed from their mite ,without more ado.  - sleeping his " act  governed I