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oup, LONDON CORRESPONDENT. Tho Easter of 1896 will be remembered for a long period by many a pleasure seeking Londoner as an extremely dull season. Even the period that was dry proved dreary, while that which Wis damp was dismal to the last degree. It is always at such a time that the suggestion is to bo heard that it is too oarly in the year to take a holiday, and that every really sensible person would wait at leafrt until Whitsuntide. That is all very well when the Easter is dull and damp, but when, as some- times is the case, the weather is springlike and balmy, what more pleasant than a break in the continuity of one's work, and the enjoying I of a few days either in the country or by the aula- of the soa." After the dark days- of winter, there comes an added keenness of joy in hearing the birds once more among the trees, and watching the foliage as it gives fresh beauty to the hedge- rows and those of us who have London constantly for a home can best appreciate these innocent and natural joys. Those, therefore, who growl whenever the Easter weather is not to their liking, and who vow that never again will they venture out of town before Whitsuntide, may be taken to 3peak only for themselves and in a moment ot spleen for the majority of those who have the chance of securing a breath of fresh air outside London at the first great holiday season of the year will, of a certainty, hope for better weather next spring, and will take that chance whether their hope is realised or whether they are once more doomed to meteorological disappoint- ment. As the War Office is this year giving greater attention to the wants and wishes of the Volunteer Force, the Easter manteuvres of our citizen soldiers have attracted more note than usual from the experts. In these days, the metropolitan volunteers do not concentrate at Brighton or Dover or on Dunstable Downs on the Easter Monday for a sham fight and a march-past. They spread themselves in de- tachments over a large tract of country, and spread their tactical movements over several days. At this Easter, for instance, the head- quarters of the South London Brigade were at Shorncliffe Camp, where the Civil Service, the 5th and 9th Middlesex, and the Cyclist Corps were quartered, the Queen's Westminster, the Artists, the South Middlesex, and the West London being at Folkestone, the London Scottish at Hythe, and the Honourable Artillery Company at Sandgate. While these various corps were thus concentrated, nearly live thousand men of the Surrey Brigade were assembled at Eastbourne, three camps of metropolitan volunteer Engineers were at Brighton, the City of London Artillery were at Sheerness, and the West London Volunteer Infantry Brigade were concentrated at Win- chester. No one having any acquaintance with military training will doubt that this process is far more effective than the old one, the best test of which is the great improvement that has taken place in the handling of our volunteers within the past score of years. So far as the average user of the telephone is concerned, no difference has been experienced by him this week, because the Government, as represented by the Post Office, has taken possession of all the telephone trunk wires of the United Kingdom; but the step is one of much significance that may ultimately have important results. The Post Office, it need hardly be said, does not intend to work at once the whole of the trunk lines, for its operations will for the present be con- fined to those in the southern part of England. The remainder, however, will be taken up by degrees, until the whole trunk system is worked by the Post Office by means of its own staff, a consummation which should do something to make telephony at once more cheap and more accessible than it has ever been before. Seeing how willing the English people are to welcome anything in the nature of im- proved communication, it has been a standing puzzle why telephony has so lagged in this country. One answer is that the Government, owing to its possession of the telegraphic monopoly, has seriously hampered the develop- ment of the telephone; but now the two interests are being more closely worked toge- ther. that reason can no longer be considered to exist. In journalistic calculation, the silly season," when all kinds of social problems are being discussed at great length in the corre- spondence columns of the newspapers, does not set in until after Parliament has risen in the early autumn. But this year there has been a kind of advance skirmish, in the shape of the starting at Easter of a correspondence directed against morning street noises in London. The original, protest was against the cries of itinerant hawkers, but this was speedily fol- lowed by even more energetic objurgations against church bells, mechanical pianos and Btreet organs, muffin bells, milk-carts, and shoutings outside shops. It is not necessary to wish London, in point of quietude, to resemble a city of the dead, to sympathise with much of this combined protest. Not all of us are as full of nerves as poor John Leech, who was driven to his death by the perpetual persecu- tion of barrel organs but even more robust natures occasionally suffer torture from the hideous variety of street noises with which the capital abounds. Owing to the fact that Mr. Justice Charles was prevented from taking his seat on the bench through illness, and that the election petitions have kept some other judges away from the usual business of the courts, it is admitted at the Bar that the Jaw term which has just come to an end, was probably one of the worst in legal annals, so far as the disposal of the ordinary business of the Queen's Bench Division was concerned. An agitation has accordingly been set on foot to secure the appointment of an additional judge in that iivision, but the reasons given will not impress outsiders as much as they seem to, do those at the bar. The illness of Mr.j Justice Charles may be hoped not to last! for over, and the election petitions are virtually over and probably, if all the judges of more 1 than fifteen years service on the Bench were to retire on their full pension, as they are en- titled to do, their younger, fresher, and more; vigorous successors would make shorter work of the cause list than is efiected by these veterans. A good timo is promised in the not remote future for the Thames anglers, as there are now two re-stocking associations at work, which may! be considered certain to do much service, to the river. Lord Inverurie, is the President of the new Thames Re-stocking; Association, which has just placed a thousand! fine roach in the Thames between Teddington Lock and the Water Gallery at Hampton Court. This is in addition to what the Thames Angling Preservation Society has done, that having ]ust contributed to the Thames a thousand ltchen trout and two thousand roach, as well as a number of other fish. The heart o every lover of the angle should rejoice at this intelligence, as the introduction of such new Thames cannot fail of good' effect. ames angler has not always got an easy time of it, and it may be wondered whether he condemns the more heartily the practices of the steam-launches at one period of the year or the ravages of the floods at another. But, as a rule, he is possessed of the patience which is the distinguishing virtue of all true disciples of Izaak Walton; and, armed with this and strengthened by the knowledge that the fish in the river are being protected and added to, he can go on his philosophic way rejoicing. The time of year has now arrived when the —— prospeqts ot the cricket season are an ^apropos subject for conversation and 5t ^pleasantto know that, m the opinion of experts, it is likely to prove a more than usually interesting ?ne: ,m> ?. C0Urse, will greatly be accounted for by the Visit 0 £ tho ninth Australian team le and, as an eleveu has not coma from the Anti- podes for three years, its performance will be keenly awaited. It is necessary to re- niember t at, m view of the pressure of fixturé1 caused by the Australian tour, the committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club has agree that, during the present season, six out-and-homo matches shall be sufficient to qualify for the county championship instead of eight, as was the case a twelvemonth since. Interest will largely centre upon the question of whether Surrey will retain the position at the head ot the counties it has held during tho past two years, but it will be handicapped by the loss of Maurice Read. R.

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THE NILE EXPEDITION.

NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS.

THE STEVEDORE AND THE SNAKE.

THE EDUCATION BILL

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---" IsEWS NOTES. -

- THE NEW SNOWDON RAILWAY.

THE MATABELE RISING.

:1 EASTER VOLUNTEERING.

A BRITISH VESSEL LOOTED.

MUTINY ON AN ENGLISH SHIP.

A HIDEOUS FASHION.

BRITISH VESSEL f ATTACK ED…

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SINGULAR FATALITY NEA.R -,-ILKESTON.

RAILWAY COLLISION AT v HATFIELD.''.

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MOKE LIGHT.

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