Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

15 articles on this Page

■r O "W IT TALK.

News
Cite
Share

■r O "W IT TALK. BY CUE LONDON COREESPOXDENT. Our readers urlU understand, that we do not hold ourselves responsible for our able correspondcntf s opinions. DEATH continues to be busy with notabilities Charles Pearson, the City solicitor, and the Earl of Ellesmere have both died since my last letter- Charles Pearson in his sixty-eighth year, after a lousy, chequered life. He was a man of genial manners and remarkable talents. He was educated as an attorney, and had good prospects but when at full man's estate gave way to dissipation to such an extent that he reduced himself almost to destitution, was without credit, money, clothes, character, and separated from his accomplished wife. But he was not without friends and strong resolu- tions. He did reform he did recover himself, and, with characteristic eccentricity, celebrated his reunion with his admirable wife by sending out wedding cards. From that time he maintained and improved his position, although he never at- tained anything like the public place that a man of higher ambition and more prudence with even inferior talents would have done. He early became the faithful, zealous, and obedient servant of the Corporation of London, and the corpora- tion and the citizens were not ungrateful. They gave him one good berth after another, and per- mitted him, in some respects, extraordinary liberties. Yet there was always something piti- ful in seeing the obsequiousness of this gifted but :needy man to people, his inferiors in every- thing except their talent for accumulating pounds, shillings, and pence. They allowed him, while City solicitor, to become M.P. for Lambeth, in order that he might develop in the House of Commons his ingenious theory for the reformation of criminals-a theory be lectured into notice. They allowed him to be mixed up with the Central Gas Company, and make out of it, in an odd sort of way, a good many thousand pounds. They backed him up heartily in his promo- tion of the Underground Railway, and allowed themselves to be talked and lectured into a very great job for the benefit of Charley Pearson, but also a very fortunate and useful work for the metropolis and for England. That the Corporation of London should go into partnership or take shares in a Railway Company was contrary to all sound precedents, but there were excellent reasons for the exception. The irregular course alone made safe the execution of an undertaking, which was not only in the highest degree useful to the public, .but a means of making unsaleable corporation property valuable. These considerations, it is to be presumed, covered the oddity, to say the least, of the City Solicitor receiving a heavy payment, present and future, for his services as promoter. Charles Pearson had in him the making of a first-rate deplo- matist or a great lawyer, if he had not belonged to the inferior branch of the profession. Had he been as prudent as the late James Wilson, or the present Robert Lowe or Samuel Laing, he might have forced his way into tlio Cabinet. But, like Thomas Wakley and the present Daniel Whittle Harvey, he compounded for an income abilities and powers of oratory that would have made some men the most envied and respected of alder- men. The Earl of Ellesmere was only remarkable as '1. the amiable representative of a great and wealthy family, which has used its wealth nobly for at least three generations. An anecdote, characteristic of the Premier's decision and vigour, came to my knowledge the other day. A deputation waited upon Lord Palmerston to ask his good offices with our ambas- sador at Turin, to obtain acces3 to the wounded hero Garibaldi for the English surgeon Par- tridge. Before the spokesman had finished his statement, his lordship had written out a message to Sir James Hudson, and reading it, said, I will send this off, this telegram, immediately." So saying he rang the bell, and it was done. What a contrast to the many who never dare accept any responsibility they can by any means avoid! The Thames Embankment on the north side has been commenced in earnest, and the same commissioners have also reported in favour of an embankment from the south side of Westminster. bridge to Battersea-park, leaving the slice between Blackfriars and the city until there is more money or more public spirit available for such a purpose. Z. Z.

OUTLINES OF THE WEEK. *

EXTRAORDINARY DESCENT OF A…

EXTRAORDINARY METEOR.

THE CONDITION OF GARIBALDI.

THE ARREST OF COUNT ZAMOYSKL

rxsrf&i vti DEFALCATION BY…

IMPORTANT STATEMENT OF THE…

THE WRECK OF 1HE GOLDEN GATE…

ITALY

THE ITALIAN NOTE ON GARIBALDI'S…

PRUSSIA.

- :,- AMERICA.

[No title]

Advertising