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Our fottton totsganknt. I

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Our fottton totsganknt. [We deem it right to state that we do not at all times identify ourselves with our correspondent's opinions, j After her Majesty's long seclusion it is cheering to see several indications of her intention gradually to mingle once more with her people as was her wont. On two occasions recently the Queen has appeared in public, and although both ceremonies were intimately connected with the memory of the late Prince Consort, still the re-appearance of the Sovereign was on both occasions hailed with joy for the fact alone. The Sultan and the Viceroy, too, are both to be received by her Majesty; she would have been present at the Hyde Park review but for the death of her first cousin, the Emperor Maximilian, and will still be present at the postponed review; and it is scarcely likely that the London season will entirely pass away without some other occasion for the Queen's public re- appearance. It is announced, moreover, that she will next year hold drawing-rooms in person, and that she desires this fact to be publicly known. All this is encouraging, for, though no important State duty has ever been neglected by the Queen, still the public always regard her Majesty's frequent appearance in public as one of the duties of her exalted position. Fhe arrival of the Viceroy, and the expected arrival of the Sultan, have had the effect of making the Lon- aon season more gay than it would otherwise have been, while the probable continuance of the Parlia- mentary Session for the full term at least has also had its effect in the same direction. As far as my observation extends London tradesmen do not now grumble so much as they did at an earlier portion of the season, and I much doubt whether, on the whole, they have any occasion to grumble at all. The parks and the more fashionable streets, the innumerable parties, and the festivities present and to come do not bear out the assertion that London is having a dull season. But perhaps the trading classes who are not so immediately connected with the fashionable minority have some reason to complain of a continued dulness of trade. We have not yet, in fact, recovered from the effects of the late panic, but a gradual improve- ment in business operations seems to be setting in. We are looking forward with pleasure to the visit of the Belgian volunteers, who are coming over here some 2,.500 strong. All sorts of honours are to be paid them. They are to be invited to Windsor to a banquet, though, of course, not all at once; they are to be banquetized at Guildhall; Miss Burdett Coutts has promised to entertain them all at Highgate they are to have a grand ball and concert given to them at the Agricultural Hall, and numerous theatres and gardens are to be thrown open to them. Funds for their hearty and hospitable reception have been largely subscribed, and we shall be just in the humour to receive them well, in memory of the cordial welcome they gave to our volunteers last year. The intelligence of the sad death of the Emperor Maximilian has caused a profound impression here (resulting by the bye in great disappointment at the review being postponed), and the news from Paris shows that it has had the same effect there. The State dinner to the Sultan, the State performance at the opera, the grand ball at the Tuileries, and the civic fête at the Hotel de Ville— all postponed. The execution of the unfortunate Emperor is a common topic of conversation here. The prevailing opinions seem to be that France ought never to have undertaken the expedition that the English Government should have given their moral and material support to the new empire that the French troops ought not to have been withdrawn that France should have de- clined submission to the United States and that the Emperor Maximilian should have left the country with the French army. Mingled with these opinions there is a universal sorrow for the fate of an amiable, kind- hearted, brave, but perhaps too ambitious man, the victim of lawless fury and foreign intervention. Taken in conjunction with the extremely pacific speech of the Emperor of the French on distributing the prizes at the Palace of Industry, an official notifi- cation in the Moniteur is worth reference. An imperial decree orders the abandonment of twenty-nine fortified positions and works in France. This may not be much in itself, but as an indication of imperial policy it is encouraging. The Emperor of the French has now for some time maintained a peaceful attitude towards other nations, and almost every action and every utterance of his shows that he desires to live in peace with all men. The progress which the Reform Bill has made of late is rather remarkable, considering what immense changes have been effected in it. It is Paddy's old gun, with a new lock, stock, and barrel. The House of Commons is giving a finishing touch to it, and soon the question will be, how will the Lords receive it? It is positively rather difficult to believe that they will pass it in its present shape. Had Mr. Lowe's motion for the cumulative vote, for instance, been proposed in the House of Lords instead of the Commons, it would probably have met with a very different fate. But that, with more or less modification, their Lordships will pass the bill is generally believed. As the horrible revelations relative to trade outrages in Sheffield have recently been added to, and the public mind still further shocked, it is consoling to find that the trades' unionists generally continue to re- pudiate the slightest sympathy with the Sheffield outrages. Intimidation now and then is perpetrated, and now and then a sample of such cases comes before the police magistrate; but, happily, there is no warrant for saddling trades' unionism as a whole with the crimes of a few of its members. The tailors' strike, for instance, has passed over without any outrage beyond some petty cases of intimidation. The trades' unionists should bear in mind that after the Sheffield revelations, all such cases are likely to be ex- ggerated and misrepresented by the enemies of the working classes, and it would be well, there- fore, that trades' unions should do what they have not yet had the courage to do decide that every one guilty of intimidation shall ipso facto cea3e to be a member of any trade society. Trades Unionism has now much to combat against, and nothing would raise it in public estimation more than such a decisive step as this. Reverting to the tailors' strike it may be added, that as so many journey- men have now found themselves out of employment, emigration among the sartorial fraternity is becoming rather common. May they get good wages where they are going may no masters' combination annoy them may no Trade's Union afflict them! The Royal Dramatic College FStes at the Crystal Palace next Saturday and Monday will doubtless be as attractive as ever, and it ia equally undoubted that a considerable revenue will result from them. It is not pleasant, therefore, to hear that great complaints are made of the management of the institution. Very probably these complaints are exaggerated, but it seems to be the fate of nearly all artistic benevolent associations that a great deal of money should be spent in doing very little. I have just been reading that "London swarms with mad dogs." It is proverbially difficult to prove a negative, but if this assertion be a fact it is rather funny that I have not seen one out of the swarm. I read some time ago, too, that the whitebait dinners at Greenwich were marred by the bodies of dead dogs floating past the open windows. Both statements are about equally true, and both are auspiciously conflict- ing. The simple truth is that the dog-tax is working extremely well. At first it resulted in numbers of wretched animals being turned adrift, and probably in an extra demand on the tender cares lavished on the canine race at the home for lost and starving dogs; but these wretched outcasts have either gone the way of all flesh, or have found homes somewhere. True, we have still dogs enough and to spare, but it is very rare to find doggy distressed either in mind, body, or estate. A very pleasing characteristic of the lovely weather we are now having is the Sunday-school and ragged- school treats," and frequently the treat to poor, pale- faced, feeble children, who have not the advantage of going to any school at all. London parks are pretty oases in a desert of brick and stone, but there are thousands of poor, dirty, neglected children who never have been even in a London park, and tens of thou- sands who have never been in the country. Sad as this fact is it is nevertheless true. All honour then to those who take pleasure in giving pleasure to the Arabs of this arid desert London who act on the large-hearted aphorism of Dr. Dwight, that he who makes a little child happy for half an hour is a fellow- worker with God

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