Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1881-10-22 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

LONDON CORRESPONDENCE.  TAB intelligence of the arrest of Mr. Parnell was a perfect god-send to the news boys in London. It enabled them to sell extraordinary quantities of the evening papers and afternoon editions of the morning papers. They seemed to force a sale by the excited way in which they went shouting along the streets. A considerable time had elapsed since anything sensational had given them so good a chance, and accordingly they resolved to snake the most of the startling news from Ireland. The general satisfaction which was felt that the Government had at last resolved to paralyse the action of the Irish Land League by knocking it on tualeapilez trAuctedarrneostdowtt good news to everybody except the Irish Parnellites in the metropolis, and the members of those ultra-Radical associations that always sympathise with seditious  and revolutionary movements. It was a singular stroke of good fortune which enabled the Prime Minister to make an authoritative announcement of Parmn arrest when he was thanking the Mayor and Corporation for the distinguished honour which they conferred upon him last week. The enthusiastic cheering that greeted his words indicated the existence of a general feeling that the right blow had been struck at the right time and place. The headquarters of the obnoxious League are in Dublin; Mr. Parnell was arrested in Dublin, and the subsequent arrests, resembling blow after blow straight from the shoulder, have also taken place in the same city. The effect throughout Ireland must be all the greater that the capital has been, in the first instance, the scene of the energetic action of the Government. It is rather amusing to notice how some newspapers, with an overweening idea of their own importance, take credit to themselves for having been the counsellers of the Executive in this matter. For example the Observer, of the 9th inst., says: "The advice we tendered, which was that of common sense, common prudence, and common justice, has been at last acted upon, and Mr. Parnell is, we are glad to know, an inmate of Kilmainham Gaol." But the Government did not really require Irish advice. It did not take much penetration to read between the lines in Mr. Gladstone's banquet speech at Leeds, and to see that he at least had made up his mind that the Land Act was not to be prevented, by the terroristic efforts of the no-rent champions, from having a full trial. When men were called upon by the Prime Minister, irrespective of the political views, to support the Government in asserting the supremacy of law and order, it was pretty evident that decisive action might be expected soon with the design of crushing the Land League, which has sought to carry out its ends by illegal and revolting practices. In a Liverpool newspaper, which is usually well informed, the announcement is made that Mr. Gladstone is to visit Lord Derby at Knowsley in the course of the present month, and that, in certain political circles, considerable importance is attached to the contemplated visit, which is associated with Lord Derby's probable entrance into the Cabinet. It may perhaps be regarded as possessing some significance, in connection with this announcement, that Mr. Gladstone, in one of his Leeds speeches, made special reference to his lordship as a Liberal statesman. Unless he accepts a post in a Liberal Cabinet, Lord Derby will never give the impression of having severed himself from the party of which his illustrious father, 'the Rupert of debate," was so distinguished an ornament. One of the most extraordinary features of the terrific gale, as experienced in London on the 14th inst., was the effect it had in literally blowing away the Thames. The force of the wind drove the river down before it in huddled and frothing waves, and at low water above Blackfriars Bridge the curious spectacle was presented of what seemed only a narrow and shallow stream running down the middle of the river bed. Between Blackfriars and the Temple stairs, where a margin of many yards was clear of water, people walked in the bed of the river, seeking for treasure - trove, and numerous curious "finds," especially in the matter of bunches of keys, are stated to have been made. As the pockets of suicides and persons accidentally drowned must get emptied by the action of the water it would not be surprising if, when the bed was left bare, as on this occasion, articles of some value were found sticking in the mud. Lamentation has been caused by the destine. tion in the parks and in the suburbs of trees, remarkable for their age, size, and beauty, which were familiar objects in the landscape. An empty space in some scene, where the eye used to dwell delightedly on the grand green spread of a venerable tree, affects one pathetically like the vacant chair in which a revered relative, now dead and gone, was accustomed to sit. The landscape seems poorer for their disappearance. Kensington-gardens, famous for magnificent old trees, have fared quite as badly as the Castle slopes, rising from I the Home-park to the North-terrace at Windsor, where irreparable injury is stated to have been done to some of the choice trees, including a much-admired noble chesnut and a splendid mountain ash between the George the Fourth Tower and the library. Within the metropolis itself also trees have been mutilated or uprooted in such exposed situations as the Victoria and Albert Embankments. Fault has been found because larger and maturer trees were not planted in these situations, in order that they might sooner afford a comfortable shade to promenaders: but if this had been the case many more would have succumbed to the fury of the gale. D. G.