If we are rapidly sliding down the hill to bankruptcy, as the Fiscal Reformers would have us believe, there are certainly no signs of it in the London shops. Turkeys are unusually dear this season, but they find a ready sale nevertheless and the toy shops and other places where Christmas presents are sold. have been daily thronged with people, who seem to have plenty of money to spend. Pan: tommies and Christmas entertain mon will not, of course, be in full swing till to-morrow night, when Drury Lane opens with "Humpty Dumpty." which of course is to eclipse all its predecessors in splendour and fun; but the suburban houses, of which there are now about thirty, are nearly all playing pantomime and most of them gave their initial performances last night. Among the West End. theatres, old Drury again has a monopoly of pantomime; but quite a! number of houses are presenting Christmas plays for children of all ages. Among! the most promising of these is "The! Cherry Girl," a musical fairy piece presented by Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Hicks—
Then there are "Little Hans Andersen at the Adelphi; "Alice through the Looking Glass" at the New Theatre "Water Babies" every afternoon, and "the Cricket on the Hearth" every evening at the Garrick; and " Snowdrop and the Seven Little Men," preceded by Brer Foxand Brer Rabbit," at the Court. The mere titles of these pieces are sufficient to show how largely the great masters of story-writing for children are now drawn upon for Christmas entertainments. Pantomime—perhapsnevera highly refined species of entertainment—has been further vulgarised of late years by the pro-dominance of the music-hall element; and parents who believe in combining a little cultivation with the amusement of the children find that they can get it without any strain of the "goody-goody" in these Christmas plays.
Ludlow.
Another of the little batch of by-elections was decided yesterday, when Mr. Rowland Hunt, a nephew of the'late Mr. George Ward Hunt (some time Chancellor of the Exchequer and subsequently First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Beaconsfield's administration), was retumned as Unionist member for the Ludlow Division of Shropshire by a majority of 970, It is a result which both sides profess to find highly satisfactory. Mr. Rowland Hunt is an uncompromising supporter of the fiscal policy of Mr. Chamberlain, and the tariff reformers therefore hail his return for an agricultural constituency as a triumph for their cause. On the other hand, the Liberals and Freetraders can point to the fact that the Unionist majority has been reduced from nearly 4,000 in 1892—a year of Liberal reaction—to less than 1,000 now. That is of course an enormous overturn of votes; but against it must be sot the fact that nobody could have expected to carry the electors with himvas did the Into Mr. Jasper More, who was returned as a Liberal in 1885 by a majority of 569, and asa Liberal Unionist—gonerally unopposed—at every subsequent election to the time of his death, Josephus I."
Mr. Chamberlain doubtless reckons the result as a victory, as the "Times" does on his behalf. " His Majesty Josephus I," as his opponents call him since he appointed a " Royal" Commission, is having a little rest now, having finished his provineial campaign and having no further meetings to address until he speaks in the Guildhall on the 19th of January, a mecting which is to he followed thirteen days later by the Duke of Devonshire's guthering in the same historic hall. His Commission—the "Forty Thieves," as Mr. Winston Churchill has dubbed them—are to hold their first meeting on the 15th of January. The "Standatd," by the way, views the appointment of this Commission with more intense disfavor than any of the Radical journals. Tt describes it as an "attempt to supplant and override the regular Government of the country." "However it may be deemed expedient to explain it away," the "Standard" adds, "the announcement was a travesty of a Royal Commission, an_ ostentatious attempt to assume those duties and powers which, in a legitimate sense, can only be delegated by the Sovereign, on the advice of his responsible ministers. The affair is indecorous, irregular and disrespectful to the Sovereign; and those gentlemen who consent to serve on this so-called ' Commission' would do well to bear in mind that they are concerned in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.