The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-07-07 00:00:00

Our fonbzu CorrtspoOtnt.

We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
kentify ourselves with our Correspondent's 3pinions.]

It is singular to note the steadiness which during
the past year and a half has characterised the balance
of political parties in the House of Commons. Seats
have been gained and lost, but there has been a set-off
in each case, and the number of supporters of the
reapective party chiefs in the Lower House is exactly
where it stood at the end of 1881. This is a remark.
able result, looking at the freqriency of bye-elections.
For instance last year there were twenty-three, the
Liberals winning Liverpool and the Conservatives
securing an advantage at Salisbury. During the first
half of this year sixteen elections have taken place,
and while the Liberals gain a seat at Hastings, the
Conservatives had previously won one at South-
ampton. For eighteen months to pass in this way is
an experience without parallel in the history of recent
Parliaments.

Meanwhile it is to be noted that the life of the pre-
sent Parliament is gradually ebbing away. It will
have turned the corner of its existence at the end of
the present session, even supposing it to run its full
term, which few Parliaments do. The next Bessiou
will be its fifth, and none run more than seven. Only
twice within the past half century has the seventh
session been reached, and on neither occasion were
there seven fall sessions. The present Parliament met
on the 29th of April, 1880, and the prorogation took
place on the 7th September following. That was a
short session, but this was compensated for in 1881,
when both Houses met on the 6th January, and sepa-
rated en the 28th August.
The conservative instincts of the English people—
using the word in its literal and not in its political
sense—have been a fruitful theme of remark at diffe-
rent times. Most of us remember the terrible severity
of the winter in the beginning of 1881, when a
sheep was roasted on the ice in the upper reaches
of the Thames, and the river below bridge was
covered with floes borne up and downe by the tide,
and testifying to the Arctic nature of the temperature.
That was the time of the great snow storm, which
swept this kingdom frcm the Orkneys to the Land's
End, and the snow was piled in billo;.--,ks in the streets
of our large towns. Parliament was then sitting,
and the visitor to the strangers' gallery of the House
of Lords, a=.3 be looked down upon the Lord Chancellor,
might have envied that high functionary, as he sat
on the warm woolsack—comfortably wrapped in his
robes, and with his full-bottomed wig., he was the
best protected from the cold in the Assembly. Six
months waned away, and these islands seemed to have
passed from the frigid into the torrid zone. There
was a temperature of 98 in the shade, a heat never
registered before in this country. Parliament was
still sitting, and the stranger in the House of Lords
would have seen the Keeper of the Queen's Conscience
habited precisely the same in the sweltering heat as
in the bitter cold. There is no elasticity in the regula-
tions affecting the Chancellor's attire adapting it to
the manifold fluctuations of our climate.
These thoughts have been suggested by the great
heat which characterised the end of June, and on
the 29th of that month caused a review at Aldershot
to be postponed. But the improved weather of
the present summer as compared with last and
with many of its predecessors, is undoubtedly a
great blessing to the farmers. Last year, it will be
remembered, July was marked by a low temperature
and by cloudy skies. The heat was sufficient to
ripen the corn but indifferently, for there is no
ripening power in the sun when the thermometer
stands at less than sixty degrees. On the 29th June
Vie temperature in London was 84 in the shade,
and although London feels the extremes of hest and
cold, as much or perhaps more than any other place
In the Kingdom, there is no doubt that the heat of
that day did an enormous amount of good over the
wide-spreading agricultural districts of our land. July
this year, happily for the prospects of the farmer,
came in favourably. So far as London was concerned,
a more delightful summer day has seldom been wit-
nessed. The reports from the agricultural districts
are much more favourable than in some recent years;
and altogether after a long period of depression pros-
pects in country and in town would appear to indicate
the dawn of a better day.

It has frequently been remarked that the House of
Lords is a chamber for show, and the Commons for
business. In the Lords the reporters are placed at
some distance from the front benches, and this, with
the defective acoustic properties of the House, renders
hearing at all times difficult and often impossible. In
the Commons, as the press gallery is directly over the
Speaker's chair, it commands the Treasury and the
fetr:altftriyantt. ankle; atilec:rp: very favourably
notice that in some opening sentences of Mr. Glad.
stone's observations, it is not easy to catch what he says.
This is particularly so at question time, when more
especially upon matters relating to foreign policy the
words of the Prime Minister of England are tele-
graphed in a few minutes to all the capitals of Europe.
At one time his voice was heard with ease in every
corner of the chamber in which he has had a seat for
fifty years. Now the right hon. gentleman often talks
in a conversational tone across the table as though he
were holding confidential communication with Sir
Stafford Northcote or Sir Richard Cross, the repressn-
tatives of the journals meanwhile asking each other in
grave and earnest tones what the Premier is saying.
The death of Mr. William Spottiswoode, the Presi-
dent of the Royal Society, swiftly followed that of Sir
Edward Sabine, who had held the office some years
previously. To these two distinguished men, who
died within twenty-four hours of each other, life
seemed to have been meted out rather unevenly.
Sir Edward Sabine enjoyed an existence of more
than a whole generation of men beyond the term
allotted to Mr. SpoC,iswoode, dying at ninety-four
as compared with fifty-nine, the age of his successor.
Mr. Spottiswoode has so recently and so prominently
been before the world as a man of science that his
fellow savants at once signed a memorial to Dean
Bradley for the interment to toke place in Westminster
Abbey; and the custodian of that venerable fabric
had no hesitation in complying with the request that
the remains of so eminent a man should rest with
those af many another philosopher in a building
hallowed to the memories of so many illustrious Eng-
lishmen.

The London season is drawing to a close when we
approach the middle of July, but while it lasts there
is no doubt that the popularity of the drawing-room
meeting continues. This has become a favourite form
of assisting many a good work. Instead of engaging
Willis's Rooms or Exeter Hall, the promoters of a
charity or of a religious or philanthropic organisation
are enabled to secure the assistance of a nobleman
who places his drawing-room at their disposal
for the holding of the annual meeting, admission
being by ticket. For instance, at the Duke of West,
minster's town residence in Park-lane, three or four
of these gatherings in a week are often held, and
as these take place in the magnificent Rubens room,
they are very well worth attending, more especially
as the Duke often extends an invitation at the close
of the proceedings for the visitors to go over the house,
and inspect one of the completeat collection of articles
of vertu which has been got together in London.

Speaking of the season is a reminder also of the
approach of Goodwood, which very soon follows the
Newmarket July meeting. The time has been when
an important debate in the House of Lords has been
postponed for a week because it, should not interfere
with the enjoyment of Goodwood by the peers. This
was in 1871, when the Army Purchase Bill stood over
so that the Duke of Richmond might entertain at
Goodwood House the distinguished company which is
always invited there to spend the race week. Goodwood
finishes up the glories of the season, which, fortunately
for the representatives of rank and fashion, has this
year been favoured with much better weather than in
recent times. Rank and fashion do not wait as a body
for Parliament to rise, for Parliament may sit into
September for aught the uninitiated know to the con-
trary, by which time the days materially shorten,
and the nights become chilly, more especially to
those who take excursions upon the sea.
Punctually to the day the welcome returns for the
year as well as for the quarter ending the 30th June,
were issued on Saturday evening. The net increase on
the twelve months, as compared with that of 1882, ex-
ceeded three millions and three quarters sterling, while
the increase upon the three months was £820,000.
With bright sunshine over the land to gladden the
heart of the farmer, and an augmenting amount of
natioe,/ receipts into the Exchequer, the hopes for
the future of the country's prosperity, rest upon
a better foundation than they have done for some
years past.

MR. GLADSTONE ON THE COUNTY
FRANCHISE,

A few days ago a molution in favour of an assimila-
tion of the i,nronzli and county franchise, passed at a
Liberal meeting at Yeovil, was forwarded to Mr.
Gladstone, who has replied in the following terms t—
" 10, Downing-atreeet, Whitehall, June. 28, 1883.
Sir,—Mr. Gladstone desires me to acknowledge the
receipt of the resolution which you did him the honour
of forwarding to him on the 25th inst., and to say that
he hopes that the question of the county franchise will
be dealt with by the present Parliament .--I am, Sir,
your obedient servant, G. W. SPRNCER, LITTELTON."

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