The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-23 00:00:00

Yoabn iforrtpabni.

tWe deem it right to state that we do not at all timed
Uliatity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Travellers up and down the Thames have often
- gazed with mingled feelings upon the grim
battlements of the Tower of London. They have
looked with awe upon the little archway, known as
the Traitor's Gate, for the tradition is that if
a State prisoner once passed in under its gloomy
porta!s, he never came out alive. All around him—
whether upon the river or on the land aide, where the
city lay—sounds might he heard telling of the presence
of a busy population; but the unhappy captive, who
had:scone in at the Traitors' Gate was either immured
during the remainder of his days in one of the Tower
dungeon's, or put to a violent death on the adjoining
hill. From time to time discoveries are made in the
sombie-looking fortress which carry the mind back
centuries at a bound; and recently there have been
found what are believed to belle remains of Margaret
Pole; .Countess -of Salisbury, whom Henry VIII.
caused to be beheaded in 154 L An even more inter-
esting discovery was that of the remains of Anne
Boleyn, one of the most prominent of the victims of
the monarch "of strong passions and a savage mind."
It is difficult to imagine such a silent sepulchre as the
Tower vaults' in the very heart of the busiest city in
the world. Built by William the Conqueror to menace
and overawe the citizens, although its walls could
tell many a tale of tyranny and oppression, it yet
never represented the abuses which made the Bastille
so hateful in the sight of the pecple of Paris, and the
destruction of which was the first step to Revolution.
No one in Landon cries out for the levelling of the
Tower ballium and gateway, bastion and drawbridge,
scarp and portcullis—for these point a moral as well
am adorn a tale. The moral is that an intelligent
population may secure political rights, enjoy social
freedom, and exercise religious liberty without a resort
to violence. The tale which they tell is one
of contrast between feudal despotism, and an age of
commercial prosperity between the time when the
Tower guns were real terrors, and the present day,
when the eity lying in the shadow of their frown is
crowded with peaceful traffic, and the forest of masts
in the river speaks of a trade which extends to the
uttermost parts of the earth.
One of the most attractive papers read at the meet-
ing of the British Association at Brighton was that
describing an imaginary city of the future, to be called
Hygiea. It was to be constructed on model principles,
with open squares, and parks, and recreation grounds,
the streets regularly laid out, the houses detached,
with an abundance of fresh air circulating between each,
an utter absence) of close and confined alleys, no
drunkenness amoegit the people, who were all to be
industrious, sober, and contented. The description of
such a city was looked upon more as a phantom of
the imagination than as being likely to be
realised beneath the clouds; and in its entirety
no doubt the ideal will take a long time to
realise. An attempt is, however, to be made towards
an approach to this model city. A society has been
formed with this object, and has bought an estate of
over 500 acres on which to try the experiment. The
houses are to have the kitchens on the top storey, the
bedrooms on the ground floor, water is to be laid on to
every floor, and the walls will be covered with glass
tiles, which can be easily washed, and therefore would
never harbour infection. These are the arrangements
recommended by Dr. Richardson, and which he in-
tends to carry out in a house which he proposes to

The annual services at the mausoleum of the Prince
Consort at Frogmore are eminently suggestive of the
flight of time since the 14th of December, 1861, when
the great bell of St. Paul's, tolling forth at midnight,
announced to the citizens of London that the hus-
band of the Queen had been gathered to his fathers,
and that the Sovereign of these realms was a widow.
It was on a Saturday; the Prince had died at a few
minutes before eleven o'clock at night, at Windsor
Castle, and in another hour the big bell of the metro
politan cathedral, which is never rung except at the
death of a member of the Royal family, was sending
forth its mournful notes over the sleeping city. Only
nine months before it had tolled at the death of the
Duchess of Kent, the Queen's mother, previously to
which it had been silent for four-and-twenty years—
from the death of King William the Fourth, in 1837.
Its sonorous voice has not been heard in the metropolis
since the Prince Consort's death, and, as half a genera
tion has passed away since that time, vast
numbers would not now recognize its funereal
tones. Deeper than the bell which sends forth
the hours from the south-western tower of
St. Paul's, more sombre than the clangour of Big Ben
of Westminster, its warning tongue, echoing far and
%dile throughout the quiet capital, produces an impres-
elen not easily forgotten. Drowning the tinkle of he
clocks in the numerous city steeples, it awakens many
a peaceful slumberer to the contemplation of the tran-
sitory nature of all earthly things, for he listens not
to the merry sound of a joyous peal, not to a song of-
welcome to the arrival of a new life, but to a wail of
sorrow over the departed, a wail whoee echoes linger
in the air the livelong night, and only disappears with ,
the gradual advance of the morning, when street and
mart are once more busy with the industry c men
and teeming with traffic.

It is a curious fact that the date fixed for the
meeting of Parliament is the same as that selected
this year—the Bth of February. It is only
within the past seven or eight years that the custom
has arisen of summoning Parliament so late as the
second week in February, for when Lord Palmerston
was Prime Minister, the Legislature was invariably
called together in January, and I have known the day
fixed for the 24th of that month. That, as compared
with the practice of late years, made a difference of at
least a fortnight—a time which enabled Ministers to
get many of their bills into blue water before the
Easter Recess. There will now be no more Cabinet
Councils until about the third week in January, when
tbe finishing touches will be given to the Government
measures. The fact of there being no Cabinet Councils
Just now shows that very great latitude must have
been allowed to our representatives at the Constanti•
nople Conference, for although th(y must necessarily
communicate with the F9reign Secretary at times,
there must be many a point of discussion at the council
table in which they are compelled to act upon their
own discretion.

It has often been remarked how, at Christmas, the
great daily papers fall off in those topics of the day
which at other periods of the year command so much
Interest and attention. In some respects the national
life seems to stand still; in a political sense it certainly
doe?. For several days both before and after Christmas
public men cease to give the world the benefit
of their views on public affairs; the heading, "Parlia-
ment out of Session," disappears from the columns
of our jsurnals ; no politics are stirring, either in town
or country; and even rumours of war cease to attract
the notice which they would excite at any other time.
By one Common consent the world's affairs are allowed
to remain in abeyance for a little while, as each house-
hold endeavours to be a ha spy little world to itself.
Thus it is upon the land; while far away upon the sea
wherever the furls of the British flag are flung out
upon the breeze, Christmas time is celebrated with a
goodwill all the more heartily enjoyed because those
who take part in it, although their barrels, may "walk
the waters like a thing of life," form but a mere speck
upon the great ccean waste of immensity.
• Charles Dickens, in the exercise of his marvellous
powers as a writer, and ex.ending over more than a
generation, never wearied of enforcsvg the lesson that
Christmastide was pre-eminently a period for the exer-
cise of charity, benevolence. compaesion, and philan-
thropy. In all ages of our civilization, and in every
chriatian land, the season has been one in which peace
and goodwill ought to prevail. In our own times the
Journals of the day open their columns to earnest
appeals in support of all the charities of the season.
These flowers of winter are in full blossom at such a
time, and make a wonderful show fcr those who can
see their beauty and scent their fragrance. Like
that "Glastonbury thorn" borne over the sea, accord-
ing to tradition, by Joseph of Arimathea, and
planted on the far-famed Weary Al] Hill, from which
the tourist or traveller can gain a view of the ruins of
what was once the fame and glory of far-fafned
Avalon, and the place of interment of the renowned
King Arthur, our charities are in blossom when un
genial winter has caused all other flowers to cease
to bloom. It is recorded that when the Star of
Bethlehem rose over the world at Chriatraus, the
magi brought with them gifts, gold, frankincense and
myrrh. Many beautiful allegories have been founded
upsn thee gifts brought by the wise men to that
4tern city. Take for instance the first mentioned of
these—gol It is that which can be transmuted into
food and fuel, into all things which can be enjoyed and
turned into coats and garments. Money answers to
things in the material world, and for this reason gold
Is the first of our Christmas offerings. Then comes
frankincense, the emblem of joy. Christmas is the
xeason of merry-making, and Co make others happy is
itself happiness to say generous heart. The young
especially have a fund of joy at such a true.
The romp and the round game, the coekiror's
tricks and the harkqu'n's sword of lath, which
knocks down castles and puts little Jack Horner
into hie own Christmas pie—there is a wonder-
ful amount of happiness for little people in all
these things. But what of myrrh? What does that
symbolfse, and why should it be introduced into re-
itembrances of Christmas? For myrrh is the emblem
of sorrow; and the obvious lesson intended to be taught
was that it is nut enough to give gold for the relief of
want, or frankincensewherewith to gladden the hearts
of the young. We must complete our Christmas gifts

by bringing sympathy and consolation to the aged and
the desolate. The economy of nature and the work of
the vast universe roll on, whether at Christmas or at
Midsummer; and ru those waning days there is many
a hearth cheerless because the light of a life has gone
out—many a household in which the thought involun-
tarily crosses the mind—" Oh ! for a touch of -the
vanished hand, and a sound of the voice tha.; is
still " All do not want our gold, or all our frankin-
cense ; the one is for the poor, and the other for the
young. Then foe the aged and the unhappy, we may
bring out t.i weet spice of tender, cornpa,ssionate
fellow feeling. There is encther light in which
Christmas, as .an institution, has come to be regarded
with interest by great numbers of our countrym,n. It
calls into existence an immense amount of additional
labour. It is not all sentiment which clusters round
about the season. Food for the mind as well as for
the body has come to be an important attendant of
Christmas. The period has its special literature, and
every succeeding Christmas sees an increasing effort to
supply the means for reading of a kind most acceptable
when people are in the most genial mood for mental
pleasure. This may well be looked upon as a
healthy and salutary development of the intellectual
habits of the present generation. So long as the
literature is of the right kind, it must have beneficial
effects; and no one can look over the names of the
hanimerable books both for young and old, which are
circulated at Christmastide, without feeling that an
eduoating and elevating influence is thus set to work
which undoubtedly does prOduce a good effect upon the
morals and manners of thousands.