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LONDON CORRESPONDENCE.

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LONDON CORRESPONDENCE. THE late rowdy demonstration in Hyde-park, which ended in a collision between the rival peace and war fictions, has been followed by a period of comparative quiescence so far as pablic meetings are concerned. The Her her t- Bradlaagh party indeed, oa acoonnt o? their meeting having been broken up before the reso- lutions were put, had it ia contemplation, it was averred, to try their fortune in the tield another time; bat ic is to be hoved that they will think abouj nothing of the kind, as a second demonstration might: lead to a regular pitched battle, with returns of killed and wounded appearing in the papers next day. Judging from the particulars subsequently made known, it is pretty clear that the reporters for the press who were present in Hyde-park on Sunday week must only have had a dim notion of what wa3 going on or of what actually occurred. It was Lieutenant Araait, R.N., honorary secre- tary to the National League, and champion of the war party, who first gave any clear accountof what became of Mr. Auberon Herbert when the poai- tion he and his party occupied was stormed. The reporters enly said he had disappeared; but Lieutenant Armit afterwards, in a letter to the papers, supplied the information that it was through the strenuous exertions of a member cf the league the unfortunate gentleman was saved from a ducking in the Serpentine. This circum- stance eerved to show the extreme lengt hs to which rowdyism can be carried in times of oxoite- ment; and how undesirable it is to hold demon- strations of a kind which can have little effect, one way or another, upon the public opinion that guides both Parliament and the Government. Residents in the vicinity of Hyde park, and people who resort thither for relaxation and fresh air, have also good reason to protest, as some of them have since done, against its being made the ssene of noisy disturbances, especi- ally on a Sunday afternoon, when it ought to be invested with its most peaceful and attractive aspect. One gentleman — who resides at Prince's-gate, and who described himself as having as little sympathy with the rowdies who opposed Mr. Herbert as with those who supported him-made his protest in the name of order and decency, and drew quite a lamentable picture of the spectacle that presented itself when the combatants had cleared off-the grass over a wide stretch of the park trodden into mud, trees torn and broken, and the spring flowers along Park-lane, which are the annual delight of thousands, ruthlessly cut to pieces. Another protester, looking at the matter from a purely personal point of view, was forced to complain loudly of his beds of hya- cinths and tulips, which he had carefully nursed all the winter through, being trampled down and many of them irretrievably mined. But de- monstrators of the blatant class care for none of these things. Mr. Alfred Tennyson, who contributed a sonnet -in which he called March the roaring moon of violets and daffodils "-to the first Dumber of the Nineteenth Century, appears again in the anniversary number of that vigorous publication, this time as the author of "A Ballad of the Fleet," which is written in his best vein, and has in it a fine martial swing and roll. There is, per- haps, some significance in the fact of this ballad oomiag out just at the time when the movements of the British fleet in Turkish waters are attracting so much attention. It may be remembered that Mr. Tennyson's stirring war lyric, beginning with the line" Riflemen, riflemen, riflemen! form!" -written at the time when there were suspicions that the Emperor Napoleon meant to attempt to carry out the invasion of England, which was one of his uncle's ambitious but frustrated sohemes- had a powerful effect in giving an impetus to the volunteer movement that has now provided the country with a splendid army of defence, falling little short of 200,000 men. All who have by heart the" Charge of the Light Brigade" hardly need to be told that the laureate, when his patriotic ardour is roused, is the most martial poet that has appeared in our midst since the death of Thomas Campbell. In Tennyson's "Ballad of the Fleet" there are some fine lines, describing the heaving, swinging, and lashing of a storm at sea, that are masterpieces in the difficult art of adapt- ing sound to sense in which be is acknowledged to exoel. The same week that saw the advent of this last martial ballad of the laureate's also witnessed the marriage of his youngest son, Mr. Lionel Tenny- son, to Miss Eleanor Locker, daughterof Mr. Frede- rick and the late Lady Charlotte Locker, in West- minster Aboey. Oddly enough, on the very day preceding the marriage, there appeared in the Liverpool Daily Albion a contradiction, purporting to have been received from Mr. Lionel Tenny- son, of the alleged forthcoming marriage, accompanied by the remarkable addendum that he and Miss Eleanor Looker were quite strangers to each other I The Liverpool paper had evidently been imposed upon by some one personating Mr. Lionel Tennyson, and its conductors must have felt rather foolish when the ceremony was duly ohronicled asjiaving taken place next day. This incident was about on a par with what seemed semi official denials that Mr. Lowther, late Under Secretary for the Colonies, had been appointed to the Chief Secre- taryship of Ireland when, lo and behold! the appointment was actually made and accepted after all. If the Home Secretary, in the memorable speech he made a few weeks ago, put the matter in a somewhat unparliamentary form when he alleged there was "a lying spirit abroad," he might, at all events, have been perfectly justi- fied in saying that there is a very inventive spirit abroad and aotive in these days. So much so indeed has this become the case, especially with respect to important items of intelli- gence appearing In the evening papers or later editions of the morning papers, that sensible people now wait patiently for authentic confirmation of startling news before it is accepted as true. A good many were inoredulous at first about the announcements that Lord Napier of Magdala had been appointed Commander-in- Chief of a British expeditionary force, and Sir Garnet Wolseley his chief of the staff; but they saw reason to believe at last that it was perfectly true, and only one opinion seemed to prevail that, if this country were to be called upon to fight at all, no better appointments could have been made. For a portion of the expeditionary force (consisting, it is said, of two corps cpQrmee of 80,000 men eaoh) the Observer has hit upon some work by suggesting that, as a precautionary measure, without any declaration of war against Russia being required, it should take up a posi- tion on the Isthmus of Suez by way of keeping open our water highway to India, which is a more sensible thing than keeping open the Dar- danelles. Last summer the same paper made a similar suggestion, and it oommends itself to oommonsense, if an expeditionary force is ever to exist anywhere except on paper. D. G.

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FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.

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A NEW METAl* :

THE SILVER BILL PASSED.

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ENGLISH VISITORS A$SAN FRAN-…

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. THE EASTERN QUESTION.

!M Rl.lAMENTAliT LWELLIGE.V0E

LONDON MARKETS.

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