The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1882-02-04 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

OUR LONDON LETTER.  LONDON, Thursday. Garbling in stocks and shares has brought about another financial crisis and collapse. France is the country that will suffer most, and that ought to suffer most, by the suspensiqn of the Union Generale, the " Cathoric Bank," as its enemies called it, but monetary operations are now so complicated that an extensive failure involves distress in more lands than the one in which it occurs. A month ago the 500 franc shares (of which only one-fourth was paid-up) of the Union Generale were worth more than 8,000 francs ; now it is probable that they are not only worthless, but will involve a heavy liability upon the holder for the amount not paid. Our bank rate has advanced in consequence of the drain of gold to Paris, and there is a prospect of a further advance. The time has been compared to that of the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Scheme, but however mad some modern projects may be we have none before us so palpably absurd as those for making butter from beech trees, for making deal boards from sawdust, for an insurance against divorces, and other ingenious speculations for which companies were projected or formed in the year of grace 1720. It is a strange thing, however, that while such care is taken of the morals of the poor that they are not allowed to raffle a watch in a publichouse for the aid of a widow, or make a trifling bet in the street on a horse race, gambling of the simplest and most unequivocal kind is allowed on the Stock Exchange, and is thought a fit profession for honourable men. ***  The tune of "Harvey Duff" seems to have .the same effect upon an Irish policeman as.a red rag upon a bull. It may be very wrong to whistle it, but a fractured skull is rather a heavy penalty to pay. I thought it was very severe when a boy was imprisoned for whistling this obnoxious air, but what can one say when a little girl, only eight years old, has her skull fractured by a too-zealous officer for committing the offence—if it be an offence? At the time of writing the child was not expected to live, and the constable who is said to have struck the blow was in Limerick Gaol. These very officious policemen might be recommended to studying the example of their worthy predecessors. Dogberry and Verges, and learn to moderate their ardour. i***  " The evil that men do lives after them." The effects of Lefroy's crime have extended even to the unfortunate woman with whom he lodged while hiding in Stepney. Her lodgers left her, and she had to remove from her house. The solicitor's clerk who gave the information leading to Lefroy's arrest has kept the whole of the blood money, and Mrs. Bickers has therefore had no share of the £2OO reward. Under these circumstances the Home Secretary has granted her the sum of 220. *** Mr. Gaitean wants the American people to give him money in order that he may further contest his ease me if they had not had enough of it already. The execution of the murderer is fixed for the 80th June, and thus there is a probability that his tongue will not be gagged for five more weary months. Like their climate the customs of our cousins across the water seem to jump to extremes. If in the Western States a man steals a horse they hang him "at dight." If he shoots a president his trial drags on for weeks, and he is kept for months after being condemned to death. • •  The trial of Dr. Lamson for poisoning his brother-in-law at Wimbledon has been postponed to the next session. Speaking without reference to this ease, the crime of poisoning is a horrible one; it is the most insidious and cowardly way of taking life that could be devised. Our fopfathers, who hung men for petty larcenies, and who had very little perception of the sacredness of human life, nevertheless showed their abhorrence of this form of crime by a special punishment. By an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Henry