The Northern Guardian. — 1893-05-24 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

LONDON GOSSIP.  Most of the old established London theatres are in a bad way. An unprecedented number for the time of the year are closed, and those open are doing but a very moderate business. The exceptionally fine and warm spring is thought to account for this depression in matters theatrical, and probably, to a large extent, the theory is a correct one. But other causes have certainly also operated to bring about the result. For one thing, the paucity of really good plays, which has been so marked of late, has undouotedly had a good deal to do with the poor receipts at the theatres, and then the reckless multiplication of theatres in recent years must have had disastrous effects in certain quarters. To whatever it may be attiputed, the unremunerative character of the season is unmistakeable, and to all appearances it is likely to be permanent.  Mr T. P. O'Connor, at the Nationalist meeting on Monday, devoted much attention to the hissing of Mr Gladstone at the Imperial Institute, but he altogether omitted to state the conspicuous part he played in that, as he terms it, "historical incident." According to the account of those who accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour through the building, the hostile ebullitions were provoked, if not entirely caused, by that gentleman's action. There was no demonstration of any kind until he jumped on a chair and, in stentorian tones, celled for "three cheers for the Grand Old Man." The invitation was responded to by some of the bystanders, and immediately, as WM almost to be expected, there was a counter demonstration. It was ill-advised, and, to a certain extent, ill-mannerly on the part of the Unionist guests to resent the homage paid to the Premier by his friends, but there was nothing in the affair to justify the ridiculous fuss that is being made about it in Separatist quarters.  A rumour is current in Church circles. says a London correspondent, to the effect that a clergyman formerly among the most popular of London preachers has joined the Unitarians. The fact would occasion no surprise.  —oo0— The report, just published, on the "Administration de la justice criininelle " in France and in Algeria, shows that the bachelors and spinsters who commit suicide are relatively much more numerous than the married men and women, both with and without children, who have resource to self-murder—who go mad, therefore. But are the framers of the report justified in concluding from this that celibacy is, more than the married state, conducive to madness? Are they not transposing the cause and the effect? Might it not with equal fairness be argued that the tendency to go mentally wrong operates against marriage?  --000 Much criticism has been excited in India by the action of the Ministry in sending out Mr Grundy, of the Factory Inspectors' Department, 'to report on the condition of factory labour in that country. Within the past few years two Commissions have sat in India and made an exhaustive investigation into the circumstances under which factory work is conducted there, and it is contended that to despatch now an English inspector who knows nothing of the country, to travel over much the same ground, is a sheer waste of money. The cost of Mr Grundy's mission, it is anticipated, will be charged to Indian revenues, and that fact does not place the action of the Government in a more favourable light in the eyes of their Indian critics.