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dUB LONDON- CORRESPONENT.…

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dUB LONDON- CORRESPONENT. The absolute sighs of immediately impend- ing Christmas, always to be observed in London with the incoming of December, are just now apparent upon all hands. We are upon the eve of "Cattle-show week, which is an emphatic testimony that Christmas is y-comen in," to slightly vary the phrase of the old English poet; and the shop-windows in every part of the metropolis are beginning to tell the same tale. Christmas cards and Christmas toys are already abundant, and it will not be long before they are supplemented by C'iriatmas geese and Christmas joints. For I every sign indicates that there is no diminution in the popular desire to keep "the festive season in full honour. The sending of Christ- mas cards, for instance, which many at one time thought would be no more than a passing fashion, has become an established institution which the passing of years serves to strengthen rather than to shake. On the face of it, this should be good for the stationers, but these may ^int out that it has virtually destroyed the Valentine season, though the latter held within it the seeds of decay that would have secured ita gradual destruction in this prosaic age, even if Christmas cards had not been invented. As it is, the devotion of the English mind to the idea of keeping up the wholesome and hearty traditions of Christmas has much to be said in its favour and in these times only a very few cynics and confirmed grumblers raise their voice even as high as a whisper against it. Considerable interest has been displayed in London in regard to the astonishing develop- ments of the Dreyfus case, and this has been especially to be noted in diplomatic circles and at the military clubs. This is not the place to discuss the guilt or innocence of the caged prisoner of the appropriately-named He r, du Diable," or the rights or wrongs of the system of nations surreptitiously purchasing the secret information belonging to the defensive services of another. But it is interesting to note that every nation, through its secret service agents, tacitly sanctions the practice, and that that will account for the fact that the indignation displayed whenever there is such an exposure as in respect to Dreyfus is directed not against the practice but against the practitioner. Our own authorities know perfectly well that con- stant endeavours are being made, and some- times with success, by the agents of foreign Powers to obtain information from our dock- yards and arsenals but they are equally aware that some very important secreta concerning those very Powers have come into our posses- sion by monetary means. The story is circum- stantially told in diplomatic quarters that the plans of one of the most jealously-guarded fortresses in Europe were sold not long since to an Englishman holding an official position, which it was thought desirable promptly to change; and, although there is often a sordid side to this kind of romance, it possesses the elements of romance after all. Probably the point about the London Sehool Board election which has most struck those outside the metropolis is the comparative small- ness of the vote. That would not have been the case, however, if many voters had had the determination of one lady who wished to exercise the franchise. Being a ratepayer, she applied for her ballot paper in the usual way; but the presiding officer at the polling booth, finding what appeared to be a masculine name upon the list, declined to recognise her claim. MI suppose that if I had come in male attire no question would have been raised"; and the cheerful answer was, "None at all." Where- upon the lady hurried home, donned male attire-it being a dark evening—and returned to the booth. The officer this time saw that she was in grim earnest, but he advised her to go back at once and change her clothes, which she did, but, so resolved was she to poll that, having re-assumed her own dress, she went back with some birth certificates and other documents, proved her claim, and voted after all. If the same spirit which aotuated this very courageous lady had inspired the ratepayers generally, the presiding officers would not have had to complain, as most of them did, that they had not enough work on the polling day to keep them employed. St. Paul's Cathedral has this year witnessed one of the most striking pageants in its history, when the Queen offered up thanks before it on the completion of her sixty years of sovereignty; and this week it has had another brilliant and impressive scene on the occasion of the great Masonic service held on the occa- sion of the bicentenary of its opening in its present form. Tradition has it that Sir Christopher Wren was the Master of a Lodge of Freemasons which assembled at a hostelry in St. Paul's Church- yard, and this gave occasion for the special character of this week's service, the idea of which may be attributed to Dr. Sinclair, the Archdeacon of London, who is himself a Mason. When the Cathedral itself was opened two cen- turies since, the special service- was in celebra- tion of the Peace of Ryswick; but the times were then so troublous that the King, William of Orange, who had originally intended being preaent,lfelt constrained to forego the idea rather than afford the slightest pretext for tumult. It may be taken as certain that one of the measures to be introduced in the House of Commons next Session will be a Pistols Bill. If it come from a private member, its chances of passing are virtually nil, but there seems some reason to believe that. the Home Office is becoming so impressed by the gravity of the question that the Government will take it up. The principal danger that arises from the present free sale of pistols is that a deadly weapon can be sold at so cheap a rate that boys ean become easily possessed of them. The consequence has been that several fatalities have recently occurred in London alone because of the reckless handling of pistols by boys. It is a case of "How oft the means to do ill deeds, Makes ill deeds done;" and even more serious results are likely to follow now that it is known that a great number of pistols, made in Ger- many, are on offer in this country at eighteen- pence each. They are declared to be remark- able weapons for their price," and proof of this appears to be afforded by the fact that a girl, shot by one of them, lies in a Birmingham hos- prtal ni a critical condition. Even the most Ardent believer in the freedom of the subject is hardly likely to challenge the assertion that effective eighteenpenny revolvers are a danger te the lieges. ° The widening of Parliament-street, which, after a hundred postponements and disap- pointments, has at length been commenced, will open up the way from Whitehall to West- minster in a fashion that will be all impressive as useful. Sir Charles Barry had such a widen- ing in his mind when he designed the Houses of Parliament, one of the unexecuted portions of his plan, indeed, being the erection of a splendid Gothic arch at the end of the broadened Par- liament-street, so as to make a handsome and effective entrance. St. Margaret s, the histomc Church of the House of Commons, will when the improvement is completed, be for the first time in modern years effectively seen from Whitehall, nestling under the shadow ofne glorious old Abbey, and the Abbey itself will be displayed to finer advantage, if possible, than ever before. And this is only one of the great street improvements now being proceeded with in the most famous portions of London, the other being in Fleet-street, where a much- needed commencement has been made in the work of broadening the thoroughfare. A number of other houses are scheduled for destruction in the spring, and the widening is ultimately to be carried to the City boundary at the site of old Temple Bar: -and every user of Fleet-street will exclaim, The sootier the better," for the continual blocks in its traffic •re steadlTy becomiBg more and more over- whelming* f The tradition that, when news in the dead Mason is slack, the public journals always fail back upon the gigantic gooseberry "as a lit subject for insertion, is well-nigh exploded by this time; but one may be forgiven for men- tioning the fact that owing to the continued mildness of the, weather, wild strawberries are rfow being gathered in various parts of both England -and Ireland. London, as far as ciin be ascertained, has not shared m this growth, though the weather lb the metropolis has more than once of late suggested early summer rbther than impending winter. This has had the decided drawback, however, of encouraging the fog fiend; and upon some recent days the black darkness which has hung over the capital lice a pall has been very trying to bear. It is always at such times that the Londoner heaves a. sigh, and wonders whether the time will ever cbme for the fog to be abolished. There are not so many believers in the practicability of this as there once were; but in some way the desired end may yet be achieved. R.

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