LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 752, 16 November 1876, Page 3

LONDON LETTER.

(From a correspondent of the Press.) LONDON, ttepb-mber 29th, 1878. The feelings or horror and indignation excited by the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria have risen in intensity to a point never in my recollection reached by any previous popular excitement. There is scarcely a town throughout England where a meeting has not been held to denounce the perpetrators of these brutalities, and our Government for its alleged supineness in the matter. The Ministry comes in for a general round of abuse. Lords Beaconsfield and Derby are at the present moment the two best abused men in England. The latter a short time ago enjoyed the confidence of all political parties. The most bigoted Liberal even would admit that there was one true and able Englishman in the Conservative camp, and that was Lord Derby. But now both Conservatives and Liberals assail him with abuse and ridicule, and term him “ the donothing statesman.” When the present crises is past, and people have regained a little of the cool judgment which has certainly left them at present, they will return to their allegiance, and will own—at all events in their hearts, if not publicly—that they have wronged the man who in his quiet way is now doing more for English interests, Bnglish honour, and English humanity than the statesmen who are now the idols of the mob and cheered to the echo. Lord Derby by his wise counsel and dignified attitude is now, and has been for months, doing more to preserve the general peace of Europe, and to evils of the existing war, than any other European statesman. But for the man, whom the mob orators and the mobs have dubbed the do-nothing Minister, we would have been in all human probability ere now plunged into horrors which would come nearer our hearts and our homes than the sufferings of the unfortunate Bulgarians. Lord Derby has saved us from a bloody war, and he has done so without sacrificing our honor or our money, which cannot be said of certain statesmen who have of late years averted the horrors of war from England. I trust your readers will not think that I altogether find fault with the present enthusiasm of the nation, which with almost one voice has raised a cry of horror and indignation. God forbid that I should be so cold-blooded. An unselfish sympathy with the oppressed does honor to any country, and in no country are these feelings so easily quickened as in England, But enthusiasm in a good cause is sometimes as blinding as excitement in a bad one. There are some people who so lose their heads in a row that they are unable to distinguish friends from foes, and belabor both indiscriminately. In this way poor Disraeli and Derby are catchit as hot as if they were Bashi-bazouks. The instant dismissal of these two Ministers, the immediate expulsion of the Turks from Europe, the recall of the British Ambassador at Constantinople, the assembly of Parliament, are the usual demands made at these meetings. I do not think there is any chance of one of them being complied with. It is very easy to be a diplomatist in a pot-house, in the smoking room of a club, at a dinner table, or at a meeting where public feeling is with you ; but transferred to its normal regions diplomacy is not so very easy. The less you knoW about it the easier it seems “ What would you do, sir “ Do, sir ; why the simplest thing in the world—kick the Turks out of Europe, that’s what I’d do, sir.” This is the sort of thing one hears everywhere. Such a thing as turning the Turks out of Europe might possibly be done ; but it is not the simplest thing in the world just yet. I recollect a short time ago being at the Crystal Palace on a shilling day ; one of the attractions was a chess tournament between German and Bnglish professors of the game, to behold which an extra charge of sixpence was demanded. Two youths, redolent of Britieh-grown tobacco —not to be too hard upon them by talking of cabbage leaves—stood by me, looking on at the game with feelings of contempt strongly marked on their expressive and somewhat pimply countenances. I think the word “ tournament ’’ must have somehow induced them to part with their sixpences, under the impression that the professors would bang each other about in some way, and were accordingly disgusted at the quiet nature of the proceedings. “ Blessed if I see anythink in it, do you, ’Arry?” said one, “Nor me, either,” responded ’Arry; “one chap, he moves a bit of ivory, and t’other bloke, he moves another. Any two bloomin’ fools could do that 1" A vast proportion of my countrymen, who are looking at the political chess board, on which Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, and Servia, are so many squares, are at the present moment talking like ’Arry and his friend. Mr Gladstone, in a pamphlet he has published on the subject, has done a great deal to intensify the hostility towards the Government. He is once more “the people’s William.” As some hundreds of thousands of his pamphlets have been sold at the rather high price of one shilling and sixpence fapiece, the Right Honorable gentleman must have netted several thousand pounds by humanity, and it is hoped that he <i -will come down ” proportionately “ handsome ” in his subscription for the alleviation of those sufferings, which, while bringing desolation and misery to so many, have at all all events brought a small fortune to him. The proprietors of those papers, the Daily News and the Daily Telegraph , should also recollect a similar train of reasoning, and be open-handed in proportion. The Bulgarian horrors have run up the circulation of each of these papers to considerably over 200,000 copies a day. I fear, however, they will not take this view of their charitable liabilities. I may here remark that the subscriptions are hardly commensurate with the talk. The Mansion House relief fund in aid of the sufferers amounts to £7OOO ; a handsome sum, no doubt, but after the “ great cry ’’ it is in reality but “ little wool.” Had it been possib e to eliminate from this now mighty movement such elements as party spirit, journalistic enterprise, and disappointed greed, there would have remained simply half a dozen articles and letters in the papers, a subscription list at the Mansion Souse, and nothing more. Were I to make this remark at one ofjthese indignation meetings, what would remain of me might be enclosed in this letter without any risk of incurring additional postage. I have made the remark in the smoking room of a club, and that was sailing as close to Lynch law as I care to go. In the midst of all the wild talk and excitement, it is gratifying to see that there are, at all events, two men of position, not belonging to the Ministry, who are keeping their heads. These two are the Marquis of Hartington, the leader of the Opposition, to whom the temptation making political

capital out of the question was greatest, and Cardinal Manning. This Roman Catholic prelate has set our clergy, from the Arch bishop of Canterbury downwards, a lesson in temperance and common sense which they would do well to follow. In reply to an invitation to attend one of these meetings, the Cardinal said he was “ unable to see the benefit of holding public meetings which propose no definite policy aad that he could “see no policy in any movement which may convert the war in Servia into a European conflict." A woman of whose noble and kind nature there can be no doubt has done honor to her sex by courageously speaking out the words of calm wisdom at a time when leading statesmen and eminent divines seem to have “ gone clean off their heads." I allude to Baroness Burdett-Coutts. I cannot refrain from quoting a few sentences from a letter, in which she declines an invitation to be present at a demonstration at Exeter Hall, under the presidency of Professor Fawcett, M.P. “I feel," she writes, “ it would be unjust and somewhat impolitic to harbor any idea that our Government, holding office under our Most Gracious Sovereign, is a whit more indifferent to these sufferings than any other class of her Majesty’s subjects. The nearest and dearest interests of our country may often impose reticence on its Government, especially when an ally is (in the throes of an internal convulsion, and untimely declaration of feeling and policy during the Parliamentary recess may be as unsafe as it is unusual. I have faith enough in my countrymen generally, to believe that the Queen’s Ministers are not very unlike them, and share the feelings common to Englishmen, whatever may be required by State exigencies I am a pretty fair historian, and the page of history, alas, does not teach that the execrable deeds perpetrated by the BashiBazouks are wholly unmatched in warfare or by cruelties legally inflicted upon a dominated people, even in our generation. Nor are there wanting amongst ourselves instances of assault, so brutal and dastardly, that we have need to be careful in speaking of the ferocious and licentious acta of a wild soldiery as unparalleled. ... I earnestly pray that in the measures taken to alleviate distress, we may be calmly led, and not increase rather than diminish, the distress of nations, by urging on the Government an amount of interference better calculated perhaps to light than to extinguish a firebrand—a firebrand which may pass far beyond Europe, or might even reach our own dear shores.”

I see by the World newspaper that Christchurch now boasts of a skating rink. The World mentions the fact, and proceeds to make a joke about Lord Macaulay’s terribly hackneyed New Zealander standing on Westminster bridge on wheels. Ido not pretend for one moment to think that a letter of mine some time ago, in which I painted in glowing colors the delight of a skating rink, and advised you to start one, has influenced Christchurch in the undertaking; but I do hope that the following words of advice I give you on the subject will have some influence—Don’t over do it. Take warning by us here at home. London in particular, and the country in general is over rinked. Many a rink which, a few short months ago, resounded to bands of music, the skirr of the wheels, the laughter and buzz of happy social intercourse, is now a howling wilder ness of desolation, and an owner of rink shares now looks nearly as blue as a Turkish bondholder. Many reasons are adduced to account for the sudden decay of a fashion which but a short time ago sent the whole country wildly careering on wheels, Some say that dislocation, and compound fracture were not found conducive to health and spirits; others, that the mothers complained that the incidental exigencies of the pastime, such as the male boot suddenly obtruding itself into the female pocket, or a wild struggle on the asphalte, did not bring the men to the point as they (the mothers) had been led to believe would be the case, and consequently look upon rinks as delusions and snares. There is no doubt about it, the men have been shamefully supine and backward. I myself saw a young lady at Brighton day after day, week after week, drag a young man about the asphalte, fall upon him, sit upon, stamp upon him, and yet that frigid young man has the cool impudence to walk about single and unengaged. The above reasons may certainly have had something to say to to the decline, and I may almost add fall, of the rinking empire ; but the main cause is that we have overdone the thing. At first large fortunes were made by skating rinks with Monte-Christo-like rapidity, and every one wanted to do likewise. The consequence is we have now nearly as many rinks as Tinkers.

Lilly white’s All-England team of cricketers left Southampton for the antipodes on the 21st instant, The following is the plan of of their route: —Adelaide (where they are due on the 18th November), Hobart Town and Launceston are to be visited before Christmas, and Geelong, Ballarat, New Zealand, subsequently. Altogether they calculate upon playing about twentyfive matches during the trip, and the great contest will be on the 26th December at Melbourne. This team is the fourth that has visited the antipodes, and is a very formidable one, especially in the bowling element. It consists of the following cricketing celebrities:—James Lilly - white (captain), and,H. Charlwood, Sussex ; H. Jupp, B. Pooley, and Southerton, of Surrey; Alfred Shaw and Selby, of Nottingham ; and Hill, Emmett, A. Greenwood, Dlyett, and Armitage, of Yorkshire. Ido not wish to “ establish a funk,” but the team is considered the strongest in bowling that has ever left our shores. It numbers no less than seven “cracks,” the very cream of English bowlers. Each man is to receive £3OO, a first class passage out and home, a share in two benefit matches, and a twelfth part of 28 per cent of the net profits arising from the speculation. They are expected to return to England about the mindle of May next.