The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-04 00:00:00

Our Yonbon 6ortesponbori.

two deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The House of Commons reassembles on Monday,
after a long Easter recess, while the Lords will have a
week more than the representatives of the people in
wnich to recruit their energies. A lunar month in the
Upper House, and nearly three weeks in the Lower,
is a vacation of such length as has not been enjoyed
for many years; and it may be hoped that the necessity
for it will not again occur in Parliament being sum-
moned so early for the discussioa of foreign affairs. In
the Commons it is the invariable rule to put down
Committee of Supply on the first night of meeting
after a holiday, for the members have a feeling of
lassitude about them which militates against much
criticism, and the Government nets its votes
without the trouble with which it frequently has
to contend in mid-session. The order list
regulating the business of the House is prepared by
the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, whose post
is generally regarded as being the most important
outside the ranks of the Cabinet. Next to him comes
the Parliamentary Secretary, or, to use a shorter
word, the whips." The origin of the last-mentioned
term is not very clear. A whip is an instrument of
flagellation; whereas the Parliamentary Secretary to
the Treasury, whatever party may be in power, is the
embodiment of tact and courtesy. Times have been
when a majority of a single vote has saved or has over-
thrown an administration; and a Whip would never
forgive himself if he thought a brusqueness of manner
on his part had alienated the vote of the member who
had turned the scale, and driven his party from
power, perhaps to languish in what is sailed the
"cold shade of opposition" for years to come.
The name of Prince Gortschakoff is one which has
long been famlus throughout Europe as the Chancellor
of the Russian Empire, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and the right hand man of the Czar. Auto-
cratic as is the Muscovite Government, and without
parliamentary institutions or constitutional guarantees
such as the people of this country exacted centuries
ago, the Emperor of Russia must have competent ser-
vants in the departments of state, and these are, as a
rule, men of surpassing ability. Prince Gortschakoff
is one of them. He is an old man now, for he is four
score—twenty years older than his Imperial master.
The Russians compare him to our own Lord
Palmerston, who at eighty years of age was
still guiding the destinies of the empire, but
was hale and hearty, although he had the burden
of a great kingdom upon his shoulders. The Prince's
despatches have not always commanded the approval
of the English people; but, looking at his public
career as a whole, it has been one of moderation. At
the time of the Crimean War, he was the Russian
Ambassador at Vienna, and it was greatly due to his
influence with the present Czar that peace was made
when it was. For nearly twenty years he has held the
Chancellorship of the vast northern Empire, and
daring tihe recent critical period he is credited with
having kept in salutary check the aspirations of the
war patty in St. Petersburg, who have been clamour-
ing for hostilities with England with barbaric
ardour. Therefore, when a few days ago it was
announced that Prince Gortschakoff was seriously
ill, many of our public men looked grave. The
snapping of the thread of life at such a crisis
might have been followed by momentous conse-
quences. Those who remember the last war with
Russia will recollect a general of the same name who
commanded the Muscovite armies in Sebastopol dur-
ing the siege. After the repulse of the allies at the
Redan and the Malakhoff on the 18th June, 1855, he
issued a flaming proclamation calling upon his soldiers
to drive their enemies into the Black Sea as chaff is
blown away by the wind. Less than three months

afterwards he had a different story t') tell. He was
compelled to inform his master that in consequence of
the "infernal fire" rained down upon the devoted
city by the combined armies he had been obliged to
evacuate it, and thus ended an eleven months' bom-
bardment which had cost thousands of valuable lives.
Her Majesty has, through the Commander-in-Chief,
gracefully recognised the readiness displayed by the
Reserve forces in responding to the call made upon

them. Many of these men have had to leave good
situations, and there is no doubt that in some cases
the sacrifice has been a heavy one. Yet the reports
from the various military centres throughout the

kingdom respecting the way in which the men have
rejoined the colours in all directions have given
great satisfaction to the military authorities. That
the wen belonging to the first-class army reserve
would not b 3 returned as defaulters in any large
number, was very generally anticipated. An ex-
periment was made in 1876, when the Second and
Fifth Army corps were mobilised, and the result
shewed that the men would present themselves
when necessity required. But the Militia reserve was,

until now, an altogether untried force. The men
composing it had never served in the regular army;

yet, although perhaps originally bounty and extra pay
might have had some effect in inducing them to join
the ranks, they have generally stuck to their engage-
ments now that the country has demanded their
services. Let it be clearly proved that a grave
emergency has arisen, and the British people know no
distinction of party or of religion. They stand like a
wall for their common country, for their own, their
native land.

No city known to modern civilization can be said to
present so great a variety and combination of aspects
as the capital of the British Empire. Paris, Vienna,
and Berlin each has its characteristics, but it is im-
possible to tell the distinctive feature of the aggregate
mass of houses that goes by the name of London.
Although a concentrated world, it can scarcely be said
to be a colossal uniformity, for human individuality
and existence appear under every form and in all
conceivable moods, at every stage, and in the most
thorough contrast. Older than many a cathedral
city, around whose towers the shadows of the past
still cling, the spirit of modern times is constantly
asserting itself; and right opposite the old PAlace of
Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey, in Fleet-street,

the capacio is pile of the new Law Courts is now
gradually rising. The associations of bygone ages,
which linger round the ancient gateways and secluded
cl-Asters of the Temple, are but a few yards removed
from the rushing traffic of the Strand. London, in
short, although a place of contradictions and anomalies
which meet you at every turn, contains one of the
healthiest populations in the world. Although so
vast in size to-day, it was for long time very slow in
growth. Roman London, with its walla two miles in
circumference, had its boundaries well marked out by
five great gates, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Crippregate,
Aldersgate, and Ludgate. It had then an area of
about 500 acres. Then ame Saxon and Norman
London, and the additions successively made during
the reigns of the Plantagenets, the Tudors, and the
Stuarts. But for centuries its progress in size was
not a rapid one; and as lately as; the days of Queen
Elizabeth Spitalfields and Final- nry were archery-
grounds, Moorfields was a marsh, and St. Giles's,
Cripplegate, was the church of a little hamlet beyond
the walls. St. Giles-in-the-Fields was a desolate
village; from Charing Cross and the Haymarket were
hedge-girt roads leading into a rural solitude. In
the reign of James I. London contained about
200,000 inhabitants. Behold it now! Take your
stand upon the Monument, or high up in the golden
cross of St. Paul's Cathedral on one of those splendid
summer mornings so many of which are now in store
for us. Down, down, below you, outspread like a
gigantic map, is a community whose magnitude has
been unequalled in this world's long and chequered
story. The sun is shining upon the river which, cut-
ting tl,e giant city into two parts, winds slowly
through it like a tangled skein. The multitude of
ships upon its surface seem motionless, so great is the
height at which the spectator stands above them. The
busy crowds in the streets are like so many clusters of
ants. The vehicular traffic which in being poured
across the bridges presents the appearance of a fixed
and unbroken line. The sound which reaches the
on-looker is deadened by the intervening distance,
but, strangely enough, there is commingled with the
subdued hum, the melody of church bells rising from
many a steeple, and, ascending high in air seem to tell
of the world towards which they float away, and of
the life which is far removed from "the reach of these
inferior things."
Numerous and happy are the associations of the
let of May. It is the traditional beginning of summer'
when the sun shines genially upon the land, and when
we have left behind us the days of storm and the
nights of tempest which has marked the winter which
has now been left behind for ever. May, within the
memory of the past generation, has lost much of its
former reputation, for it has often been attended with
bitterly cold and parching east winds which have
stripped the blossoms from the trees, and black-
ened the tender shrubs as though a blight had
passed over them. The First of May, 185.1: was
i
selected for the opening of our own Exhibition n
Hyde Park; and now, seven-and-twenty years after-
wards, the date is an equal favourite with the people
of Paris for a similar ceremony. In one respect there
is a great contrast between the last Paris Exhibition .
and the present. Then the Emperor Napoleon occu-
pied the Palace of a long line of French -kings, and
entertained at the Tuileries the leading sovereigns of
Europe. The Czar, the Sultan, and the King of
Prussia were amongst the Imperial guests. Less than
four years afterwards the King of Prussia Wal again
in Paris—this time as a conqueror, while his former
guest was a prisoner of war. "The world's glory
pabaeth away," according to an old I,roverb, and it

was never more thoroughly exemplified than in this
extraordinary change of fortune.
Visitors to London during the season which begins
with the opening of May, seldom go back without
seeing "the Academy." For three months there is

open to the public at Burlington House, Piccadilly,
or to as many of the public who like to pay the
moderate fee of a shilling, the newest and bEst pro-
ductions of our greatest artists. The Royal Academy
exhibits on an average 1,500 fresh pictures every year;
but 6,000 to 7,000 are generally sent in, conse-
quently there must be a large proportion of dis-
appointments. There are many trials for those who
have to struggle will the world, but perhaps as great
as any is that of the artist who, having devoted
months and in some instances years to the painting of
a picture which he hopes to bring him money end
reputation, finds it in the list of the rejected. A
rival exhibition, on the ground of want of judgment or
the existence of prejudice on the part of the Hanging
Committee, is out of the question; for artists are men
of sensitive temperament, and do not care for the
results of their labours to be in the ranks of rejected
addresses. As to the display in the Academy itself,
the quarter of the year during which it is open is not
sufficient for many art critics thoroughly to examine
and to comprehend its excellence. They go there day
after day, and delight in the form of superiority in
which the human intellect is here presented. Others,
who care for none of these things, but hold it to be
essential that they should "do" the Exhibition,
scamper through it in an hour or two, and never give
it a second thought.