Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

12 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

#ttr fatten CorrespondentI

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

#ttr fatten Correspondent •V- deem it rieht to state that we do !lot at all times ourselves with our Correspondentsopinions. J It was a good many that the Royal A gri. cultural Society pitched it, tent near and it is likely to be a long while before it comes again. Speoial efforts, extending over the best part of twelve months, had been put forth to make this 8how a great eucceas. The Prince of Wales was elected President for the year the exhibition waa to be visited by the Queen a splendid pme Hat^ was got together; the Lord Mayor took np the matter »d onened a fund at the Mansion House to cover the expenses; an accessible and appropriate site was secured; and an international character was given to the whole affair. With all these favourable surroundings, only one condition was required to make the Show the greatest success in the Society's annals. Fine weather was indispensable, and fine weather might certainly be expected in the first week of July. As a matter of fact the Show has been comparatively ruined by the torrents of rain which fell day after day. The Queen was compelled to postpone her visit fully half a week on account of the terrible weather. The first shilling day fell 15,000 short cf the average attendance in great provincial centres of industry like Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Wolverhampton whilst the ground was little better than an enormous quagmire. The Society is dis- heartened at the result of so much effort; disappointed at the sum total of so much expectation. About this time we should be witnessing the very height of the London season. The papers ought to be writing of garden-parties and open-air jetes, of a House of Commons emptied by the desire of itsmem ™ ° amusement, of a Government wearied by the heat and of Society exhausted by the multiplicity of its numerous engagements. All the elements of one of the most fashionable years are round about ug enter- tainers ready to dispense their hospitality, the presence of the CWdie Francaise, the Royal Agricultural Show at Kilburn, a dulness in home politics releasing peers and commoners alike from too close an attention to business, and a cheapness in prices which acts as an encouragement to expenditure. The outward and visible signs of that commercial and agricultural depression, of which so much is heard, are not seen in the West-end of London. Yet the season baa been socially a failure. Everything has been spoilt by the rain, which prohibits garden parties, makes out-door gatherings impossible, saturates the pleasure-seeker wherever he may go, cripples trade, and threatens a bad harvest. There has been no such summer since that of 1860, no such wild moist winds laden with rain from the Atlantic, no such a lowering of spirits at a time when the days are at their longest and should be at their brightest. Meanwhile the Volunteers are preparing for their annual outing at Wimbledon. The camp opens on Monday the 14th inst., and the riflemen are in hopes that the clouds will have exhausted themselves before this great national competition comes on. Many a vicissitude have the marksmen experienced on this famed Surrey common in the way of weather. Sometimes, as in 1868, they have had to endure heat of an equatorial temperature, when people were falling dead from sunstroke in the streets of Lon. don. At other times, as in 1875, they have carried on their labours in the midst of a rain- fall which has made the camp one of the most diamal places that it ever entered into the ima- gination of man to conceive. The tents have been inches deep in water, the volunteers themselves more than ankle-deep in mud. The Wimbledon prize meeting has now become a great national institution; and yet it does not seem so very long ago that the Laureate sent forth his stirring appeal of Riflemen, form It was in the summer of 1859 that the man- hood of England enrolled itself under the volunteer banner, just as the Emperor Napoleon had returned victorious from the Italian war. It is only a couple of decades ago but the mighty changes that have since taken place will fill many a volume of European history. The ceremonies observed in conveying the body 01 the Prince Imperial of France from South Africa to England, corresponded in a great degree with those which accompanied the remains of the First >i apoleon over the same sea nearly forty years ago. It was on the 9th of May, 1840, that Lord Palmerston, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, wrote to Earl Granville, the British Ambassador in Paris :—" Her Majesty's Government having taken into consideration the request made by the Government of France for permission to remove from St. Helena to France the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte, your excellency is in- structed to assure M. Thiers that her Majesty's Govern- ment will, with great pleasure, accede to this request." On the 30th November following the Belle Poult frigate, commanded by the Prince de Joinville, one of the sons of King Louis Philippe, arrived off Cher. bourg with the remains of the great Captain on board, and amid a demonstration of enthusiasm, it was taken to Paris, where it lies under the gilded dome of the Invalidea, the home of the old soldiers, answering in some respects to our Chelsea Hospital. It was the awakening of the Napoleonic fervour at this second funeral of the famous Emperor in the French capital, which is said by some writers to have been the cause of the ultimate fall of the Orleans Dynasty and the restoration of the Bonaparte f&mily to power in the es. tablishment of the Second Empire, which came to an end in 1870. As the death of the Prince Imperial is intimately associated with the war at the Cape, it may be useful to recall the fact that hostilities have now lasted exactly haif.a-year The British forces crossed the frontier stream of the Tugela on the 12th of January and ten days afterwards we experienced the terrible disaster of Isandula. In its catalogue of misfortunes, not the least of which was the slaying oi the Prince on Whit-Sunday, this war will long stand out conspicuous in our history. We got over the Afghan difficulty with very little trouble-the savage tribes in that mountain- ous region evidently being destitute of mUitary capa- city whatever may be their bravery. But the Zulus have manifested great skill in the defence of their ter. ritory, and their courage in attack has more than once been shown. They have exhibited quite as much craft as the Ashantees, who, in Sir Garnet Wolseley's campaign against them in the beginning of 1874, so well imitated the bugle calls of the English that it re- quired an experienced ear to detect their cease firing" when our troops were directing their rifles against them. It is gratifying to know that the memorial to the departed Prince is already a great success. The Prince of Wales and the Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway ate its joint-presidents, the Duke of Teck heads the list of its committee, which includes the names of many members of both Houses of Parliament. The demonstration of respect to the memory of Lord Lawrence, on the occasion of his funeral in West. minster Abbey on Saturday, was a striking testimony to the appreciation in which the services of this dis- tinguished administrator were held. One by one the great men who stood forth so conspicuously in the terrible days of the Indian Mutiny, are passing from na. Lord Canning, the Viceroy of that day, has been dead more than half a generation, so have Clyde and Outram Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Henry Havelock, and Sir Hugh Wheeler were long since called to their rest and now Sir John Lawrence himself has gone to join the vast army of the majority. In no fitter place could he lie than in our great national Walhalla, where we delight to honour the remaios of our eminent poets, our greatest heroes, our most accom- plished authors, our most profound philosophers, and our wisest statesmen. The grave of Lord Lawrence is close to those of Lord Clyde and Sir James Outram, who with him bore a share of that tremendous responsibility that fell upon our public men in India when the foundations of our Oriental empire were shaken amid the shock of the Sepoy mutiny. Some, like Havelock, who died within a few months, were soon removed from the scene of their labours and their anxiety but Lord Lawrence has been spared to the nation two-and-twenty years; and his funeral has shown how his unquestionably great public services were estimated. The conversion of disused churchyards into recrea. tion grounds has made much progress in London within the past few years. This has been 6 caf. more especially within the precincts of the city i se > where the removal of the resident population to the suburbs at night and also upon Sunday, has left many a church congTegationless, while its churchyard has too often fallen into desolation and decay. The hand of improvement has now reached St. Paul's itself, where the laying out of the gardens surrounding the metropolitan cathedral which for some time has been in progress under the supervision of the city architect is now nearly completed, thus giving the churchyard an appearance which strangely contrasts with its former condition. The whole of the plants selected for the gardens are ever. greens. At the north-eastern corner a massive granite fountain is ia course of erection. Our forefathers, in laying out great cities, were obviously guided more by considerations of the utilitarian than of the beautiful; otherwise we should never had such hideous structures as Newgate in the very heart of the capital, nor churchyards in our midst without the slightest attempt at ornament or relief. The last-mentioned defect is now being rapidly remedied; and Horsemonger- ane having gone, the day of doom for Newgate ought not to be far distant. Six years ago the Shah of Persia came over here to learn something of western civilization, and a meeting has now been held in London for the purpose of form- ing a society which shall spread amongst na little of the civilization of the East. While Penia could learn a great deal from us, it seems that we, in turn, can derive a great deal of good from a knowledge of the arts, literature, and folk-lore of Japan. A wonderful country is Japan, and marvellously clever are its people. The specimens of Japanese art which come over to this country certainly cannot be surpassed here, while Japanese students enter themselves at our public schools and universities and carry off prizes in the faces of their English competitors. Like China, Japan was strictly exclusive until, at the cannon's mouth, it was made to open its ports and its commerce to the enterprise of Europe and the United States. The subjects of Queen Victoria and of the Tycoon alike reap the benefit of this and although the Royal Asiatic Society has hitherto included within its operations Japan as well as India and China, there are so many features of interest in the art and litera- ture of the first-mentioned country, that it is in con- templation to form a separate institution, so as to bring its products more immediately before the EDg- lish people.

THE AGRICULTURAL SHOW ATj…

A FRENCH FUiTE IN LONDON.

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DEATH OF THE COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE.

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THE FUNERAL OF LORD LAWRENCE.…

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ANGLO-INDIANS AT THE FDBBBAIi.

THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WITH…

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