The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-10 00:00:00

Oar Foga grirrtspotent,

tWe deem it right to stste that we do not at all times
sleutify ourselves with our Corresl,ondent's opioions.J

The hearty manner in which the intelligence of the
betrothal of Princess Beatrice has been received by
the press and people of this country shows that there
is no diminution of attachment or of loyalty to the
occupants of that high position whom the Poet-
Laureate has described as living in the fierce light
which beats upon the Throne. The marriage of the
Queen's youngest child, who has been her Majesty's
constant companion during the three and twenty
years of her widowhood, is an event of more than
ordinary interest. Between the wedding of her
Majesty's eldest daughter, and the anncunced engage-
ment of her youngest, a period has elapsed
representing very nearly the passing away of a
g,eieration of men. The Princess Royal was
led to the altar on the 25th January, 1858, well-
nigh twenty-seven years ago. At that time her
baby sister, the bride-expectant of to-day, was an
infant only a few months old. The Prince Consort
gave his daughter away, and the Duchess of Kent was
present at the ceremony. It took place in the Chapel
Royal at St. James's Palace, for in those old and far-
off days the Court lived in London. The Crown
Prince of Prussia, the bridegroom on that occasion, is
now heir to the most powerful monarchy on the Con-
tinent, judged from a military point of view.
Prussia was then a third-rate Power, while the
Emperor Napoleon was known as "the arbiter of
Europe." It is now nearly half a generation ago that
the French Empire disappeared amid the catastrophe
of Sedan, and twelve years have now passed since the
once powerful Sovereign himself was laid at rest at
Chislehurst, dying an exile in the land wi.ich had
raised a volunteer army to resist a possible invasion
from the forces under his command.

It is interesting to note that Princess Beatrice is a
connecting link between the family of Queen Victoria
and that of her -Majesty's grandfather, George 111.
in a remarkable way. The old King was blessed with
a very long family, numbering altogether fifteen chil-
dren. The eldest of these was born on the 12th
August, 1762, and the youngest died on the 30th
April, 1857. "The children of the-Crown," as Charles
James Fox was accustomed to describe them, there-
fore lived and moved in three generations, and
through a period of five years shert of a
century. Princess Beatrice was born on the
14th April, 1857, and the Queen's "Aunt
Gloucester" as her Majesty was accustomed to
describe her, died on the 30th of the same month.
The time in which both these youngest children
lived—of the old King and the young Queen-- was
only a little over a fortnight, but' there it was.
Carrying this still further, and remembering that
George 111. was born in 1738, and that in 1885 Queen
Victoria still rules over the British Empire, it is seen
that nearly a century and a half separates the two
dates. The Queen herself lived in the reign of her
grandfather a few months. She was born on the 24th
May, 1819, and the King died on the 29th January,
1820.

Princess Beatrice will, of course, have the same
portion as has been granted by Parliament to the
younger daughters of the Queen. The case of the
Princess Royal was regarded as exceptional, and on
the motion of Lord Palmerston, who was Prime
Minister at the time, a dowry of £40,000 was voted,
with an annuity of £BOOO. But in the respective
cases of Princess Alice in 1862, Princess Helena in
1866, and Princess Louise in 1871, the dowry was
£30,000 and the annuity was .-C6OOO. The positions
of neither of these princesses required the expendi-
ture which surrounded that of tho Princess Royal;
indeed the published memoirs of the Princess Alice
show the ducal home at Darmstadt to have been one
such as no middle-class wife in England need
envy. These allowances have always been
moved by the Premier for the time being—Lord
Palmerston in the instances of the Princess Royal
and Princess Alice, and Mr. Gladstone in those of
Princesses Helena and Louise. The right hon.
gentleman will in all probability move that for the
Princess Beatrice in the coming session. It was not
always that Parliament granted Royal applications as
a matter of course. In the latter years of the reign
of George 111. more than one of these was refused.
'The truth is," shrewdly remarked the old Duchess
of Gloucester, "there are too many of us." And the
extravagances of the Prince Regent had so disgusted
successive Parliaments that at length it occasionally
happened that the House of Commons resolved that
the penurious old king should himself provide for his
younger children.
With the first few days of January there are very
often mutual congratulations that we have left
behind us the dark days, nor are these groundless so
far as London is concerned. There is an ingenious
arrangement at Greenwich for registering the number
of hours of bright sunshine during the week, and in
the last seven days of the old year these amounted to
two. But it seems that the residents in the metro-
polis should be thankful for the smallest of boos,
inasmuch as they were twice as well off for light as
those at Viscount Hampden's seat at Glynde, near
Lewes, where there was only one hour of sunshine
throughout the entire week. The calendar tells us
that the 21st of December is the shortest day, but
really the 20th was one minute shorter, so far as the
rising and setting of the sun were concerned. It may
also be noted that on the 31st December the sun rose
three minutes later than on the 21st, but it set seven
minutes later, there being thus a gain of four
minutes on the ten days. The shortest day at Green-
wich was from 8.6 a.m. to 3.50 p.m. The longest day
was the 20th June, when the sun rose at 3.44 a.m.
and set at 8.18 p.m. It will thus be seen that in the
six months the conditions of light, so far as the rising
and setting of the sun are concerned, are within a few
minutes reversed. In the summer it is broad day-
light at four in the morning; in the winter it is dark
in the afternoon at the same hour.

Looking at the prominent part played by John j
Wycliffe as one of the earliest of the Reformers, it
seems somewhat strange that more notice was not
taken of the five hundredth anniversary of his
death, which took place on the 31st December, 1384.
Wycliffe may be said to have lived in the dark
ages of English history. Of course, for war and
conquest the reign of Edward 111., in the great erpart
of which Wycliffe disseminated his teachings, was one
of glory and of triumph; and the sturdy Reformers
met with little sympathy from those who rejoiced at
the victories of Cressy and Poietiers. Standing
nearJy opposite the Houses of Parliament on the
crowded Surrey shore of the Thames is an historic
structure which brings back memories of the struggles
of the early pioneers of religious light and truth.
This is Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lollards Tower sup-
plying in every stone a record of the sufferings of
those who braved these for the cause which they be-
lieved to be right. Incongruous enough seem the asso-
ciations of the Lollards Tower with the roar and

bustle of the London of to-day. Lambeth Palace

occupies a position on the south side of the river mid-
way between those taken up on the other side of the
stream by the Palace of the Legislature, and Millbank
Penitentiary. On the one hand is a sumptuous pile
devoted to the making of the laws, and on the other
is a massive castellated building devoted to the
Punishment of crime. That great barred and
bastioned prison is constantly full of convicted
desperadoes, and could the Lollards of old reinhabit
for only a short time their ancient tower and glance
across at Millbank with a knowledge of its inmates,
they might arrive at the conclusion that five centuries
of religious teaching have not produced the effect its
early professors hoped for as a result of their cruel
persecutions.
The news of Mr. Gladstone's indisposition which
spread through the country on Saturday morning
must have set many persons thinking of the con-
tingencies which were possible could the right hon.
gentleman not remain at the head of public affairs. It
is not every man who, at 75 years of age, has either
the strength or the inclination to bear upon his
shoulders the burden of a mighty Empire. Lord
Palmerston, to be sure was Prime Minister at 81, but
the closing period of his life was less anxious than
that which just now forms the outlook of Mr. Glad-
stone and his colleagues. For years before he died
Lord Palmerston would have nothing to do with
Parliamentary Reform, whereas last session Mr.
Gladstone bore the brunt of the Franchise Bill,
will have the principal share of the work in settling
the details of redistribution. Prime Ministers of
England have, however, for many years lived to an
8421 rile-ea age. I have already mentioned Lord
.I'ati..erstoli. Lord Beaconsfield went out of office at
I.'e lame age as that now reached by his dis-
-I""guighea rival. while Earl Russell was 74 when he

and

left the service of the Queen as First Lord of the
ury.

Treasi

There appears to be little doubt that the explosion
on the Underground Railway on Friday evening was
the result of another attempt on the part of the
dynamite plotters; and a most unsatisfactory feature
'.)f these outrages is the impossibility of tracing the
perpetrators. For eighteen months now London has
been intermittently alarmed and exasperated by the
carryin gout of atrocities which would disgrace the tribes
of the Hottentots or the 13osjesmans, but nothing can
be discovered concerning the scoundrels who plan
and execute these enormities. The explosion at London-
bridge on the 13th December was followed by an offer
on the part of the Corporation of £5OOO reward for
such information as would lead to the conviction of
the offenders. Nothing has been heard as to any
result of this offer, and as no Government reward
would exceed nOO or £3OO, no surprise need be ex-
pressed at the hesitation of the Home Office in not
corning forward, seeing the futility of the vast bait
lit Act out by the authorities of the City of London.